“… partially housetrained… but will eliminate in the house if it is excessively cold outside.” This is pretty much verbatim what we were told was on the record for Lulu when we adopted her from the Cleveland APL back in November. We had hoped for the best and treated her like she was learning housetraining for the first time. We had a few accidents during the first two weeks, which I read was to be expected as the dog adjusts to new surroundings. Here are the issues with housetraining my dog.
Issues With Housetraining
Lulu settled in and was really good until about mid-January. Then we had an accident. I blamed myself in part for letting her roam our living quarters unattended… for all of 20-minutes. We cut her some slack. Then it happened again. Different circumstances… I left her for 5-minutes while I put makeup on… we cut her a little more slack. Well now it’s happened four times since mid-January. Ugh!
Related blog posts:
• Meet Lulu
• The Time My Dog Ate Bread Dough
• Tips for Writing Pet Sitter Instructions
• How to Prepare Your Dog for a Race
We’ve read all the books. We watch Cesar Milan. We took her to obedience school. We practice exercise, discipline, affection. She gets regular breaks outside. She is rarely left unattended, and when she is, she is confined to a small area. But somehow we are not at 100% accuracy yet. I try to look at everything she does right, but it’s frustrating! I realize we’ve only had her since… November… since… it’s been cold out… but darn it, I don’t want another accident.
I’m sure many of you have been in this position before and can relate. Even an adult dog has to re-learn the ropes when entering a new home. An adult dog that got away with going inside when it’s cold out: even more the challenge. We are hoping to teach her to ring a bell when she has to go, which I think will help. Until then…
Issues With Housetraining
It’s just really hard to stay angry at this face.
Heather says
March 5, 2013 at 8:35 AMUgh, we still have accidents with our chihuahua when it’s cold out and he’s 2! I know how frustrating it can be – hang in there!
Katie O. says
March 5, 2013 at 10:23 AMOh no! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. You really can’t stay mad at that face though, she’s adorable!!!
Sarah S @RunningOnWords says
March 5, 2013 at 1:36 PMWe still have problems because of Delilah’s dominance and anxiety issues. It’s a pain. Also, the Bissell SpotBot is awesome for spot treatment!
Erik says
March 6, 2013 at 1:40 PMI like that ringing the bell idea. Good luck with it!
Crystal says
May 14, 2013 at 5:25 PMShe is totally adorable!!!! Looks like a Maltese mix maybe? Sometimes certain breeds are just harder to house train. Have you tried crate training her? That helped w/ my dog years ago.
I have an issue with Buffy “spite shitting” sometimes – like when we were having a party with my neighbor and toward the end of the night I brought Buffy home. She knew we were still having fun next door and decided to crap on the kitchen floor. Three times. Ugh! She has also had accidents when it’s super cold or there’s a ton of snow or if it’s been raining non-stop. She’s a diva!
We give her a treat every single time she goes outside to go potty. The previous owners did that and I don’t want to rock the boat. Good luck!
Holly says
May 14, 2013 at 6:05 PMShelter said Lhasa Apso Mix. Not sure on the mix part.
Buffy sounds a LOT like Lulu with the diva status. Lulu is partially crate-trained but we prefer to let her roam a bit. If she does 1 and 2 in the morning she is left uncrated. If she doesn’t we’ve been crating her to enforce no accidents. We have been doing treats too and BIG PRAISE for a job well done!
I can’t believe Buffy went 3x. Definitely spite poopin! That is what I would call a “ratchet pup.” LOL
Lisa says
May 17, 2013 at 12:28 PMI’m so living this right now. We’ve had our new Chi since February. He was over a year old when we got him, but his previous owners just placed pee pads everywhere. He’d never even had a collar/harness and leash on him. We confine him to a small space when we are away. He’ll go for weeks without an accident, then suddenly he can’t hold it for days at a time. But then he nuzzles the crook of my neck and I forget that this is the 15th time today I’ve mopped up pee. Good luck!
Holly says
May 17, 2013 at 9:46 PMI think it gets better over time but I definitely feel your pain! And it’s hard when it’s an adopted dog taught bad habits previously. We trained Lulu to ring a bell just recently when she has to go out and that has been helping although she still does not ring it quite loud enough. They say you have to be with the dog at all times (or crated) until you can 100% trust the dog not to go in the house so it kind of sucked but we really had to hunker down and be strict about watching her. I am hoping we get to a point eventually where she forgets going inside is even an option!