Hello,
I've got a unique and troubling problem with my dog and I was hoping you guys could give a novice some advice.
My fiancee has wanted a dog for the last four years that we have been together - and in July of this year I relented. It's not that I don't like dogs, it's that we already have two cats, live in a small flat and both work. In July my fiancee found herself in between jobs, so we got a female Yorkie-Pom and named her Abi.
Abi is adorable, but has proven very difficult to train. Perhaps it's us - as the owners our methods were well-intentioned but inconsistent.
Sabrina (my fiancee) got a new job and started two weeks ago - unfortunately Abi was not even six months old, and hadn't completed her house training.
At the moment, there's nobody in the house from 9:00am till 5:30pm at best (sometimes we leave earlier and come back later). We did not want to be cruel to Abi, but still don't trust her to stay good in a room by herself (not to mention we have two cats who get very agitated around her). Therefore, we've set up a hallway in the flat, closed it off with a baby gate, and put in it all that she would need - her crate which she finds comforting, a pillow, a couple of toys and her water bowl. Even though we don't want her to use it, just in case we put down a puppy training pad or two.
What usually greets my eyes when I come home (as I usually come home first) is this: Everything has been moved from its original location. Feces and urine in two or three spots around the hallway. And the training pads, lately, have been ripped to shreds.
This might be Abi's way of showing that she's not happy with being left alone (but on the rare occasions that I can come home at lunch, the situation's the same). She may just not be trained enough to know not to poo and pee here. As a younger puppy, she DID know to use the training pads, she just chooses not to now (or finds it's more fun to tear them apart). I make sure to clean up whatever she does using a special enzyme that completely removes the scent, to prevent her linking the spot to her pee.
We don't have the money for a dog walker to come by every day, nor do we know anybody well enough who is close enough, free enough and likes dogs enough to take care of her for us. Therefore we are stuck with what we have.
We've considered putting Abi in the crate for the entire 9-10 hours that we're out of the house - we're fairly certain that she can hold herself for over 12 hours if she wanted to. Is this an unnecessary and cruel solution? Does anybody have a better idea?
Until she learns, we can't go a single weekday without having to clean up Abi's messes inside the house.
PLEASE HELP! We need to have this taken care of ASAP.
Thanks,
WASSIM
I've got a unique and troubling problem with my dog and I was hoping you guys could give a novice some advice.
My fiancee has wanted a dog for the last four years that we have been together - and in July of this year I relented. It's not that I don't like dogs, it's that we already have two cats, live in a small flat and both work. In July my fiancee found herself in between jobs, so we got a female Yorkie-Pom and named her Abi.
Abi is adorable, but has proven very difficult to train. Perhaps it's us - as the owners our methods were well-intentioned but inconsistent.
Sabrina (my fiancee) got a new job and started two weeks ago - unfortunately Abi was not even six months old, and hadn't completed her house training.
At the moment, there's nobody in the house from 9:00am till 5:30pm at best (sometimes we leave earlier and come back later). We did not want to be cruel to Abi, but still don't trust her to stay good in a room by herself (not to mention we have two cats who get very agitated around her). Therefore, we've set up a hallway in the flat, closed it off with a baby gate, and put in it all that she would need - her crate which she finds comforting, a pillow, a couple of toys and her water bowl. Even though we don't want her to use it, just in case we put down a puppy training pad or two.
What usually greets my eyes when I come home (as I usually come home first) is this: Everything has been moved from its original location. Feces and urine in two or three spots around the hallway. And the training pads, lately, have been ripped to shreds.
This might be Abi's way of showing that she's not happy with being left alone (but on the rare occasions that I can come home at lunch, the situation's the same). She may just not be trained enough to know not to poo and pee here. As a younger puppy, she DID know to use the training pads, she just chooses not to now (or finds it's more fun to tear them apart). I make sure to clean up whatever she does using a special enzyme that completely removes the scent, to prevent her linking the spot to her pee.
We don't have the money for a dog walker to come by every day, nor do we know anybody well enough who is close enough, free enough and likes dogs enough to take care of her for us. Therefore we are stuck with what we have.
We've considered putting Abi in the crate for the entire 9-10 hours that we're out of the house - we're fairly certain that she can hold herself for over 12 hours if she wanted to. Is this an unnecessary and cruel solution? Does anybody have a better idea?
Until she learns, we can't go a single weekday without having to clean up Abi's messes inside the house.
PLEASE HELP! We need to have this taken care of ASAP.
Thanks,
WASSIM