Siri vs. Housetraining Halp.

PWCorgi

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#1
So, for those of you who are not FB friends with me, here's the deal.

Siri is 18 months old, and will regularly poop in the house (whenever she can!), and infrequently urinate in the house. She is super sneaky about it, and only does it when we can't see her (if we are in the living room she goes to the bedroom, if we are in the bedroom she goes behind the chair in the living room).

Whenever we go outside she urinates immediately, but it routinely takes her 15+ minutes of walking around outside for her to poop. Sometimes multiple trips out of 15+ minutes each time. It is extremely easy to tell when she has to go, but it has to practically be falling out of her before she will concede to going. However, if she has to go and I bring her inside, she will immediately go and poop. Just doesn't seem to want to do it outside.

Previously we have done weeks of being super careful to watch her all the time, but as soon as we start giving her any freedom, she backslides and starts going in the house again.

We are really REALLY trying to make this work this time. Because holy hell are Ryan and I sick of it.

Right now she is on complete lockdown. Either she is in a crate, or on a 6 foot tether at all times. She won't go to the bathroom in the house on a tether.

We are planning to do this lockdown for at least a month to see if we can break the habit, but really I don't know where to go from there. How do I start giving her freedom back in a way that won't allow her to backslide?

And before anyone asks, she has been tested for a UTI. She had a really bad one many, many months ago, it was treated, and she has had multiple UA/cultures done since then, all of which have come back normal/no infection.

If you read this, you deserve a cookie. If you have help for me, well you deserve whatever the hell you want, but what you'll get is my eternal gratitude. :)
 

Fran101

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#2
For sneaky toy breed dogs, people I know from work have had similar problems (won't go on tether/leash inside, but when given freedom will sneak) and it honestly had to be done with..

-baby gates after the tether (keeping the dog in the same room as them so no sneaking was possible)
- EXTREMELY high value treats for outside bathrooms (I believe hot dogs and bully sticks were used and given at no other time)
- As for the pooping issue, perhaps a new outside potty area surface is in order...like maybe get some mulch for a kind of new area? And since walking with her is kind of a pain, maybe an outside tether and do some tough love and leave her out until she goes...

Oh and I would perhaps rent one of those Stanley steamers if you have carpet...or just go natures miracle crazy. Kind of start fresh kind of thing?

and ringing bell cat collars are very effective when it comes to catching sneaky dogs...the sound of a scampering dog up to no good is very distinctive when you put a little bell on it..
 

SpringerLover

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#3
#nothingelsetoadd.

I will take you out to dinner (and/or drinks?) if Siri doesn't have any accidents for a week, then for two weeks! YOU CAN DO IT!

I even took her out for Ryan yesterday, because he was following the rules of keeping her crated when he wasn't watching her.
 

PWCorgi

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#4
-baby gates after the tether (keeping the dog in the same room as them so no sneaking was possible)
This is kind of difficult with how my apartment is set up. I can either keep her in one half of the apartment or another with a baby get. Otherwise I can keep her in the same area with me if I steal my x-pen back from Megan and split my living room/dining room
- EXTREMELY high value treats for outside bathrooms (I believe hot dogs and bully sticks were used and given at no other time)
We do this, and I make a huge deal out of it. I essentially jackpot every time she goes outside, yay happy screechy voice, etc. like I would with a tiny puppy
- As for the pooping issue, perhaps a new outside potty area surface is in order...like maybe get some mulch for a kind of new area? And since walking with her is kind of a pain, maybe an outside tether and do some tough love and leave her out until she goes...
I live in an apartment, so surface isn't really something I can change, and I'm pretty sure I'd get in trouble for tethering her outside :p

Oh and I would perhaps rent one of those Stanley steamers if you have carpet...or just go natures miracle crazy. Kind of start fresh kind of thing?
We shampooed the carpets the day we started this :)

and ringing bell cat collars are very effective when it comes to catching sneaky dogs...the sound of a scampering dog up to no good is very distinctive when you put a little bell on it..
Thanks for the response!

Also, you're going to owe me dinner in 3 days then Megan!
 

SpringerLover

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#5
Also, you're going to owe me dinner in 3 days then Megan!
Deal!

And, you can have your xpen back at any time! I'm only hoarding two xpens, two large dog crates, two collapsible crates, and a cat crate in my studio apartment... I also have two baby gates at Tim's. Or something...
 

PWCorgi

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#6
I even took her out for Ryan yesterday, because he was following the rules of keeping her crated when he wasn't watching her.
He has been REALLY good!

And Siri has really done better than expected with the arrangement. I try to have her tethered as opposed to crated as much as possible. But I can't study and watch her, so she gets crated and I put on headphones to drown out her leaking. :p
 

PWCorgi

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#7
Deal!

And, you can have your xpen back at any time! I'm only hoarding two xpens, two large dog crates, two collapsible crates, and a cat crate in my studio apartment... I also have two baby gates at Tim's. Or something...
:rofl1::rofl1:

Well I don't need it now since it won't do much good when she is on a 6 foot tether.
 

SpringerLover

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#8
And Siri has really done better than expected with the arrangement. I try to have her tethered as opposed to crated as much as possible. But I can't study and watch her, so she gets crated and I put on headphones to drown out her leaking. :p
Bonus: this may improve her crate leaking too!!?!?! :lol-sign:
 

Southpaw

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#9
Cajun wasn't housebroken when we got her and basically going back to puppy square 1 worked out fine for her (going out way frequently, party for pottying outside, close supervision inside...), but even when I felt like she knew the drill, I still kept a close eye on her and didn't let her out of my sight. I'd call her room to room with me, technically she was "free" but I could see her and call her back if she started to wander, or catch any sign of her maybe thinking about going potty in the house.

Definitely by week 3 I was pretty confident with where we were at. But, I'm sure it was to my advantage that she didn't have a history of pottying in THIS house.

I think my point is that, I don't think you can go from tethering ---> freedom. Maybe some inbetween where she's not tethered and is "technically" free but you still keep a watchful eye on her and are able to prevent sneaking away, or worse case you catch her in the act of pooing and are able to interrupt and provide that feedback to her.

Does she poop on a schedule at all? Lol this helped with Cajun too, I pretty much knew there'd be a morning and lunchtime poop, and maybe an evening one. But anything between those times, we were safe!

This may or may not make sense, that's happens when I post while tired + sick :p
 

Slick

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#10
You live in an apartment right? Have you ever tried to let her go outside off leash?

I have discovered the Leo really does not like pooping on leash. It takes a loooong walk for him to go. If I take him home for the weekend to my parents (aka he gets to poop in the backyard), he wont go at all on leash for a day or two until he finally gives in. Luckily for me, he has never pooped inside, so I think for him, he doesn't see that as an option.

Lately, I have been letting him off-leash for a very brief period of time, just for him to poop, and he goes SOOOOO much faster. Where before he would take 10-15 minutes, he now goes within the minute.
I just take him to a small patch of grass that is a distance away from the street and mostly surrounded by all sides by apartments, so there are minimal distractions. I still keep an eagle eye out just in case (for instance, if he saw a cat he might try to go after it). But ever since I have started doing that, our mornings are so much more relaxed.

Maybe give that a try, if she is reliable off leash?
 

joce

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#11
With her not going till its practically out maybe there is an issue with her holding it till she can't anymore? My friend had a shelties years ago and had pain pooping because her hair had gotten into the poop once and it was a big mess. Always had problems after that and vet attributed it to her thinking that pain was going to happen again when she pooped. I can't remember if they fed pumpkin or anything or just kept a close eye on her.

I'm not much help though since blitz pooped in the house out of nowhere last weekend. I don't even think he squated, just kept going like "nothing's happening here, ignore that horrible smell". He had maybe two accidents in the house when he was younger. Dogs. Grrrr.
 

PWCorgi

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#12
I think my point is that, I don't think you can go from tethering ---> freedom. Maybe some inbetween where she's not tethered and is "technically" free but you still keep a watchful eye on her and are able to prevent sneaking away, or worse case you catch her in the act of pooing and are able to interrupt and provide that feedback to her.
I know that she will have to gradually earn more freedom back, and that's what I'm looking for, essentially, is what steps I can take to help that be gradual, so I don't screw it up :p

Does she poop on a schedule at all? Lol this helped with Cajun too, I pretty much knew there'd be a morning and lunchtime poop, and maybe an evening one. But anything between those times, we were safe!
Not really. Even when all her meals are at the same time, she doesn't have a condsistent schedule. MOST of the time she will go right away in the morning, though that doesn't seem to be true of this morning. MOST of the time she needs to go when someone gets home from work, but again, not every time.
You live in an apartment right? Have you ever tried to let her go outside off leash?

I have discovered the Leo really does not like pooping on leash. It takes a loooong walk for him to go. If I take him home for the weekend to my parents (aka he gets to poop in the backyard), he wont go at all on leash for a day or two until he finally gives in. Luckily for me, he has never pooped inside, so I think for him, he doesn't see that as an option.

Lately, I have been letting him off-leash for a very brief period of time, just for him to poop, and he goes SOOOOO much faster. Where before he would take 10-15 minutes, he now goes within the minute.
I just take him to a small patch of grass that is a distance away from the street and mostly surrounded by all sides by apartments, so there are minimal distractions. I still keep an eagle eye out just in case (for instance, if he saw a cat he might try to go after it). But ever since I have started doing that, our mornings are so much more relaxed.

Maybe give that a try, if she is reliable off leash?
I can't really let her off-leash with the way my apartment is set up, but I may try her on a flexi so she has more run distance!

With her not going till its practically out maybe there is an issue with her holding it till she can't anymore? My friend had a shelties years ago and had pain pooping because her hair had gotten into the poop once and it was a big mess. Always had problems after that and vet attributed it to her thinking that pain was going to happen again when she pooped. I can't remember if they fed pumpkin or anything or just kept a close eye on her.

I'm not much help though since blitz pooped in the house out of nowhere last weekend. I don't even think he squated, just kept going like "nothing's happening here, ignore that horrible smell". He had maybe two accidents in the house when he was younger. Dogs. Grrrr.
I've thought about the potential for it hurting as well, the thing that throws that off for me is that she will so readily go inside. She doesn't seem to wait until the last minute if she's given the option to go inside. This is gross, so *graphic warning* or something, but she holds it so, so long that when she finally does go, sometimes the beginning of her BM is folded over on itself. So it is twice as wide as the rest of it, if that makes any sense? That could certainly be painful for her, but I have no idea how to get around that if she won't just poop!!
 
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#13
The nice thing about her is that she's little. So if she doesn't poop outside, you can just carry her around the house for 5-10 minutes, then go back out. And keep repeating until she poops outside, then let her have some freedom in the house (supervising of course, but at least off the tether and maybe some play or a training session if she considers that a reward).

It's a PITA, but IME it doesn't take that long for dogs to realize that pooping outside earns release from boring no-fun land.
 

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#14
Ugh. House training. I thought I had it all figured out until I got a Chihuahua. (A Chihuahua that wasn't ever fully house trained in her previous home.) Her nickname is shitmonster for a reason.

Each winter I see a back slide. Now that the weather is getting nicer luckily it seems like the problem is rectifying itself. She would poop in a carpeted corner in the basement. A few weeks ago I realized that the poo corner also had spots of urine. #$%^&. My husband razed me about being too obsessive about getting the dogs out many times a day. I think a good chunk of the accidents happened while I was out and it was him in charge of taking her out (which apparently didn't happen often enough). He's more on board now thankfully.

To address it I didn't do anything too special. I would put her in an x-pen during the day. I'm intimately familiar with her peeing & pooing habits and mentally kept track of how often and how much. If we were hanging around the house she was under direct supervision and as many doors as possible were closed. Trips outside were once every 1-2 hours. It was easier to re-house train her when I was in an apartment since leashed walks were mandatory. Now that I live in a house with a yard I get lazy and stick the dogs outside and trust that they take care of the rest. Don't be like me and get lazy. :p

I tell clients that freedom should only be granted if the dog has been successful for a month. If she poops inside on day 27, reset that 1-month counter and it's back to puppy prison.
 

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#15
I wonder if pulling the couch out (and not having a chair in that corner like now) would eliminate her from going back there? If it's not well hidden, she may not try?

And then I think a gate in the entry way would be do-able! Remind me and I'll get mine from Tim's!
 

k9krazee

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#16
I like springer's idea of moving the furniture. Having a different living room layout may help break the pattern.

And I like the long line/flexi/off leash suggestion. She won't go on a tether -- so if you're using one of the same "tethers" outside, maybe she's concerned or confused? Even though she's had leashed potty breaks her whole life lol

What if she ONLY got her ball after popping outside? I know you regulate ball time pretty strictly anyway but she only gets to play after she poops?

Just ideas!
 

SpringerLover

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#17
What if she ONLY got her ball after popping outside? I know you regulate ball time pretty strictly anyway but she only gets to play after she poops?

Just ideas!
I think the ball thing could be powerful! I wonder if taking her out behind the apartment on a flex/long linei, and then playing ball after she poops would make an impact on her? But you'd have to conceal it before you go outside, or she's not going to poop, right? Haha.
 
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#18
Matchstick up her butt. Every time she goes outside because right now and at her age, it is habit. Get her in that routine. Otherwise, I would also say to crate/tether. No free time loose at all until she is reliable for weeks.
 

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#20
What Sass said. I'd also not be waiting 15+ minutes for pooping as I'm mean.

All of my dogs from puppies have 5 mins to potty which then drops to about 2 as they get the idea. They are on leash, we go to a specific spot, I'm a post, and they have their set time. If there are no results, back inside (carried if need be) and crated for a period of time (10 mins for puppies, 30-60 mins for adults), then brought out to restart the pattern. Once they do go, all the good things happen: we go for a walk, we play, they get free run in the house, they get breakfast or dinner, etc. Nothing good happens until poop has been produced.

Aeri did some poop dawdling stuff, but now she will poop on cue or at least holds it for 12+ hours if she misses her chance, even while traveling. Flexis have been our friend for traveling since we have a fenced yard at home.
 

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