House Training Issue

[Jespah]

I can’t stop Jemma from peeing inside. The last few weeks of Riley’s life she was having accidents in the dining room on the carpet due to the prednisone. Jemma can smell this and has decided it’s okay to do the same. I have tried to get her in a routine of you pee when we go out. I work all day and have no one to walk them during the day – and I don’t want to start this, for cost and routine reasons.

I get up at 5:40 AM and take her out immediately on her own – she pees and poops and we come right back in.
At 6:30 AM I take the two of them out for a 40-minute walk, she’ll usually have a 2nd poop and pee, sometimes she’ll have 2 pees and then days like today, she won’t have a 2nd pee.
At 5:00PM I take them both out for a pee and poop and right back in – often she won’t pee – sometimes it’s because she’s done it inside and sometimes she’s just more interested in the rest of the world.
At 6:30 PM we go for a 45-minute walk – usually get a pee and a poop.
At 9:00 we go out for a pee and right back in.

I don’t have time in the morning to meander around until she pees, so days like today I have to take her in and let my carpet take its chances. I put toys all over the area where she pees to see if this will deter her. I emailed her breeder, her suggestion was basically keep her crated all day and night – I do not want to do this, she is 10 months old and I want her to be able to live freely in our home when I’m gone. This problem was the main thing I was concerned about in getting an older pup.

Help – I need a good carpet cleaner for dog urine and any suggestions for the pee-er????

[milles2]

Deb:

I hate the crate idea too. I found the X pen to be as good. The space is a bit larger. I think a new X pen, even the smaller height under 3 ft (my two don't jump it) is under $50. Same principle but I felt much better about the X pen for some reason.

Is there an area that isn't carpeted where you could x pen her?

Your new girl is a peer, Lulu is turning our to be 10 time the chewer Tucker was. And Tucker was a heck of a chewer!

A wayward school for girls? Boarding school?

[Jespah]

I have the option of keeping her in a seperate room that I actually have built a "cage" door on - she could be in there on a hardfloor surface. In fact when I first got her I put papers there and showed her she could pee there, if needed. She did occassionally, but then decided carpeting was far nicer. The dog trainer I go to suggested getting the paper up to stop her from going inside altogether. I could also block her in the kitchen, although it is small. Question is, will it teach her that she is to pee outside, when we go?

[darci]

I agree use either a crate or pen.

Also please dont think I am judging you or fussing at you, but did I read this right that they go 10 1/2 hours between potty breaks?
You may want to hire a dog walker or try to come up with a way for them to potty sometime during that day. But even if you have a walker come take them out I would still consider a crate or pen, when they are alone.

If there absolutley is no one or no way to give them a break during the day, I would consider a pen with possibly adding pee pee pads.

Also question, did you clean the carpet with enzyme cleaner ?
You need to get rid of all traces of the urine smell so they wont be attracted to that area again.

Good Luck to you and your carpet.

[Jespah]

Yes, they do go that long between breaks, it's the disadvantage of being a single dog-Mom- it's okay I know you're not being critical.

Both Riley and Rupert were trained and were able to do this - Rupe still is, that's why I feel that once Jemma gets the routine and her bladder is big enough, she should be fine. My concern with pee pads is that I am teaching her to pee inside rather than out.

I am looking for a good enzyme cleaner - it's gone past the point of treating patches and the whole area will need to be saturated to be effective. Has anyone here tried Urine-Erase?

[MissGambler'sMommy]

Jespah: Darci is right, you need to make sure that you are truly cleaning the carpet. It can be clean to you, by looks and smell, but unless the scent is gone by their standards, there is a real big bullseye on your carpet. As for solving your problem, may I suggest litterbox training? I know that others here may disagree, and that's OK, everyone has opinions and not everything works for everyone, but it does work for me, and for you, someone who is away for a lenghtly period, it may be a godsend. I stated in a post yesterday, that when I come home I come home to a dog that's relaxed, not a dog who needs a bath. Your dogs may really appreciate being able to go to the bathroom when they want and this could help you. At least look into it. I bought the really large crate for Miss Gambler and I keep a litterbox pan in the back and I use regular cat litter, not the dog litter they sell, it stinks. I also took plastic food mats and used a hole puncher and attached them to the crate on the sides around the litterbox. This works beautifully, and I am extremely relaxed when I'm away and Miss Gambler is extremely relaxed when I come home. I read a lot about this before I gave it a try when she was a puppy and now we are having absolutely no problem training our new puppy to do this. We travel with a crate so this method is also portable. Think about it.

[darci]

Petastic, You will have to saturate the area, not just spray on. You may even try using a black light to make sure you get all the areas.

I believe that they can be trained to use more than one area for potty. I dont much about the litter box, but it may be an option for you to explore.

I keep 1 pee pad down and it only gets used maybe once every 2 weeks for darci to use in the middle of the night, and thats with us taking her out before bed between 10:00-11:00 pm. Egan has never used it, he doesnt pay any attention to it.

[Jespah]

I appreciate the idea MGM, but my goal is to have Jemma learn that everytime we go out, she needs to pee. I have tried rewarding her with treats and lots of "Yay Jemma, good girl!!, etc." but even that seems not to interest her. I can handle giving her an option to pee inside for now until her bladder is larger - however, she has gone all day without peeing 75% of the time - it's the 25% that's killing me.

I have 5 cats who use a litter box already and living in an apartment doesn't leave me any room for a dog box. If we had a balcony, it might have been an option.

I know that the carpet must be completely rid of the smell with an enzyme cleaner that saturates the underpad and the wood floor under that - I was wondering if anyone had experience with a good product.

This is a tough one - the real issue is getting her to pee outside when we go.

[darci]

Petastic for cleaning the carpet, you may not have read my post yet.

[Jespah]

Opps, your post came up after mine Darci - haven't heard of Petastic, I'll see if it's available in Canada. I got the black light and was freaked when I saw that the whole carpet area was pretty much being used!

I think I'm going to try keeping her in the kitchen with a baby gate - she can jump the gate I built for Riley and Rupert - little monster and a pee pad - never tried them, but at this point I'll try anything.

[Jespah]

Petastic is called Nature's Miracle up here - I have used it before with the cats, so I'll get a gallon and spray in on with my carpet cleaner to saturate the whole area.

[MissGambler'sMommy]

Is this cleaner something that can be put in a steam cleaner? If so, then you could indeed easily clean the whole apartment, vs it being a pump spray bottle, which would be a pain. And aren't our babies stubborn???!!!??? Miss Gambler can hold it from Las Vegas to home, and man is she ever hot-footing it when we get there.