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pattypoo · **Impossible Pee Problem -** 12-02-2006, 12:45 AM

Hello everybody. I haven't had the chance to get on here much, last time was about 3 months ago. Sorry to only be here when I have a problem.
I am so jealous of the other owners that appear to only have sporadic pee problems with their dogs, ours (Patty) is pretty consistent.
She is 6 and a half months old. We live in Japan in a two story house, but we have no yard or garden, so during her "education" period, we have made a pen for her, which measures about 2 meters by 2 meters. Inside that area we have a smaller cage, and a crate which she likes to sleep in. Every square centimeter of that pen has been pottied on. The surface is a lino mat.
To compensate for her confined quarters she gets walked for between 30 to 50 minutes every morning and every night. She always does numbers 1 and 2 on her walks. We also allow her out regularly during the day to peruse the room we are in. Her meals have recently been cut to one feeding in the morning. She was being fed twice, but began to ignore her food, until she was affectively being fed only once anyway, hence we are now giving her food only once a day.
If any of the above sounds as though it is the wrong, please let me know.
The varied potty programmes have been:
*We tried the crate method, it didn't work...(a long story)
*We tried putting a potty-sheet in her preferred area, but she has three or four areas, and if we cover them all, she invents new ones!
*We tried the "catching her in the act" method of making a loud exclamations when she peed incorrectly ("Oh No!" "Patty!!! Noooooo!" etc.) making sure not to overdo it, as this tends to confuse the dog. And of course we combined it with the "praise" method, where she is rewarded for a good potty. We sometimes even gave her treats, but usually we just told her that she's a good girl.
Nothing worked!
She continued to mis-pee!
At about 5 and a half months of age she was spending the majority of her time in her pen, the peeing was so bad that we practically needed a camera or an alarm to indicate that "Patty has just Pottied" and it is now safe to let her out (also to clean the area of her pen that she had chosen to potty on, sometimes she would surprise us by actually using her potty sheet!). Every routine that she formed and we followed would suddenly become changed, without warning.
Then my wife had an idea: We put the potty sheet inside the smaller cage, with Patty, and we didn't let her out until she had pottied. It worked!!! For a time... After one week of this unusual approach it appeared as though she had gotten the message, and we stopped locking her in the cage with the potty. She continued to use the potty!!! We celebrated and allowed her greater periods of time to roam outside the pen. There were occassional accidents, which we always punished with a loud "No!" etc. and whenever she pottied correctly we praised her. But after a couple of weeks, old habits began to return... what is exasperating is the manner in which it happens. She'll jump on a bed, we tell her to get off and presto! A nice yellow stain and a quilt we can't wash! We'll be watching TV and "What's that noise?" There she is relieving herself, virtually at our feet! The last time it happened we yelled at her.... and she continued to pee!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I didn't want to pick her up because that would result in spraying the room, and it just continued to pour out of her, as though she'd been saving it up for that occassion especially. This was just a half hour after we'd given her a large cooked piece of fat from a roast beef, and we'd played with her alot also.
We don't understand what's going on!
We can't trust her, at this rate we'll have to keep her in the pen. Her habits are ruining our (soft) wood floor. This is a sad life for a dog in my opinion, so we are seriously considering handing Patty over to my wife's parents, who have a house and garden, where she can live happily and pee wherever her heart wishes. We don't really want to give her up though, she brings a lot of fun to our lives in spite of her problem.
Somebody please help!!!

	(#1 (permalink))
pattypoo Junior Member Status: Offline Posts: 6 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Japan	Impossible Pee Problem - 12-02-2006, 12:45 AM Hello everybody. I haven't had the chance to get on here much, last time was about 3 months ago. Sorry to only be here when I have a problem. I am so jealous of the other owners that appear to only have sporadic pee problems with their dogs, ours (Patty) is pretty consistent. She is 6 and a half months old. We live in Japan in a two story house, but we have no yard or garden, so during her "education" period, we have made a pen for her, which measures about 2 meters by 2 meters. Inside that area we have a smaller cage, and a crate which she likes to sleep in. Every square centimeter of that pen has been pottied on. The surface is a lino mat. To compensate for her confined quarters she gets walked for between 30 to 50 minutes every morning and every night. She always does numbers 1 and 2 on her walks. We also allow her out regularly during the day to peruse the room we are in. Her meals have recently been cut to one feeding in the morning. She was being fed twice, but began to ignore her food, until she was affectively being fed only once anyway, hence we are now giving her food only once a day. If any of the above sounds as though it is the wrong, please let me know. The varied potty programmes have been: We tried the crate method, it didn't work...(a long story) We tried putting a potty-sheet in her preferred area, but she has three or four areas, and if we cover them all, she invents new ones! *We tried the "catching her in the act" method of making a loud exclamations when she peed incorrectly ("Oh No!" "Patty!!! Noooooo!" etc.) making sure not to overdo it, as this tends to confuse the dog. And of course we combined it with the "praise" method, where she is rewarded for a good potty. We sometimes even gave her treats, but usually we just told her that she's a good girl. Nothing worked! She continued to mis-pee! At about 5 and a half months of age she was spending the majority of her time in her pen, the peeing was so bad that we practically needed a camera or an alarm to indicate that "Patty has just Pottied" and it is now safe to let her out (also to clean the area of her pen that she had chosen to potty on, sometimes she would surprise us by actually using her potty sheet!). Every routine that she formed and we followed would suddenly become changed, without warning. Then my wife had an idea: We put the potty sheet inside the smaller cage, with Patty, and we didn't let her out until she had pottied. It worked!!! For a time... After one week of this unusual approach it appeared as though she had gotten the message, and we stopped locking her in the cage with the potty. She continued to use the potty!!! We celebrated and allowed her greater periods of time to roam outside the pen. There were occassional accidents, which we always punished with a loud "No!" etc. and whenever she pottied correctly we praised her. But after a couple of weeks, old habits began to return... what is exasperating is the manner in which it happens. She'll jump on a bed, we tell her to get off and presto! A nice yellow stain and a quilt we can't wash! We'll be watching TV and "What's that noise?" There she is relieving herself, virtually at our feet! The last time it happened we yelled at her.... and she continued to pee!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I didn't want to pick her up because that would result in spraying the room, and it just continued to pour out of her, as though she'd been saving it up for that occassion especially. This was just a half hour after we'd given her a large cooked piece of fat from a roast beef, and we'd played with her alot also. We don't understand what's going on! We can't trust her, at this rate we'll have to keep her in the pen. Her habits are ruining our (soft) wood floor. This is a sad life for a dog in my opinion, so we are seriously considering handing Patty over to my wife's parents, who have a house and garden, where she can live happily and pee wherever her heart wishes. We don't really want to give her up though, she brings a lot of fun to our lives in spite of her problem. Somebody please help!!!