Help! re-potty training??

[Rachel]

Its been a long time since I have posted on here but I have been lurking... I'm at a total loss and have no idea what to do....

Sophie is almost 3 years old and we rescued her 8 months ago. We've been keeping her in an ex-pen while at work and if we’re only going to be gone a few hours or so she gets free range of the house. Well.... she has messed in the house a couple of times a while ago while we were away and we figured they were just accidents. It’s always very random, sometimes we'll be gone for 5 hours and she's an angel sometimes we're gone for 1 hour and she's had an accident (and this is after taking her out before leaving). So we started trying to re-potty train her by giving her treats when she went outside along with lots of praise.

She was doing great so we opened the ex-pen to allow her to roam half of the basement and she had no accidents! So last week we decided to leave her out in the house while we went to work. We closed rooms that she didn't need to be in and etc. Monday - Thursday were great! She was SOOOO GOOD! Then Friday came..... She decided to make a mess of the trash can, pee twice, and poop once... Then Sunday she pooped in the house (only gone for 2 hours)... The yesterday (Monday) we put him back in the basement, she peed and tore up a plastic bag and found a marker... That is probably some of my fault for leaving the bag on the ground but she has never torn stuff up before.

This only happens when we're away. She would never dare do anything in front of us or even while we were in the house. Since she has never been caught in the act I can not correct her for it... I do not think she is sick. I don't know if it’s a defiance thing or if she just doesn't know better. I hope that we are not going to have to keep her in the pen all the time. What am I supposed to do?

I'm just at my wits end with this and my husband is just plain fed up. I don't know what to do....


p.s. We do use NILF. We make her sit before going outside, before getting treats, attention, etc.

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Rachel~

If she's good in the ex-pen I would put her in it every time you leave. Even if you're going to only be gone a few minutes. Leave her interactive toys & something soft to lay on (unless she'll eat it). I understand you not wanting to keep her in the ex-pen forever but it doesn't sound like she's ready for freedom. As long as she gets plenty of mental & physical exercise out of the pen when you're home it's okay to 'crate' her while you are gone.

You might want to bring her to the vet to make sure she doesn't have anything going on with her health. You might also want to consider having someone come over mid day to give her a little walk & potty break.

I'm not sure if there's some SA going on here but if she is okay in her pen and doesn't soil it or try to break free she might actually feel more secure there while you're gone.

Its been a long time since I have posted on here but I have been lurking... I'm at a total loss and have no idea what to do....

Sophie is almost 3 years old and we rescued her 8 months ago. We've been keeping her in an ex-pen while at work and if we’re only going to be gone a few hours or so she gets free range of the house. Well.... she has messed in the house a couple of times a while ago while we were away and we figured they were just accidents. It’s always very random, sometimes we'll be gone for 5 hours and she's an angel sometimes we're gone for 1 hour and she's had an accident (and this is after taking her out before leaving). So we started trying to re-potty train her by giving her treats when she went outside along with lots of praise.

She was doing great so we opened the ex-pen to allow her to roam half of the basement and she had no accidents! So last week we decided to leave her out in the house while we went to work. We closed rooms that she didn't need to be in and etc. Monday - Thursday were great! She was SOOOO GOOD! Then Friday came..... She decided to make a mess of the trash can, pee twice, and poop once... Then Sunday she pooped in the house (only gone for 2 hours)... The yesterday (Monday) we put him back in the basement, she peed and tore up a plastic bag and found a marker... That is probably some of my fault for leaving the bag on the ground but she has never torn stuff up before.

This only happens when we're away. She would never dare do anything in front of us or even while we were in the house. Since she has never been caught in the act I can not correct her for it... I do not think she is sick. I don't know if it’s a defiance thing or if she just doesn't know better. I hope that we are not going to have to keep her in the pen all the time. What am I supposed to do?

I'm just at my wits end with this and my husband is just plain fed up. I don't know what to do....


p.s. We do use NILF. We make her sit before going outside, before getting treats, attention, etc.

[Rachel]

Actually thats part of the problem now too...

She used to love her pen (thats were she got her extra special, very yummy food in the morning) and would go right in with no problems. Well we went out of town for the weekend a few weeks ago and I had a friend watch her. She put her in the pen once or twice and claimed that she didn't really have a problem getting her into it. When we got back and go to leave for work the next morning Sophie absolutely refused to get in it. We had her food in it and some treats and she would not budge. So thats when we decided to open the pen and block off half of the basement. My friend claims that nothing tramatic happened to her while she was putting her in the crate.

Oh and the other thing is she refuses to chew on things while we're away. So if we leave her a stuffed kong, bone, or rawhide she will not touch it till we get home (its always been like this). So have a super special treat in the pen is not really an insentive for her.

[Rachel]

The other thing is that she has been fine for the last 7 months holding it until we got home...

We took her to the vet not too long ago and everything checked out fine but we did not have any tests run on her. Do you think she might be sick? What kind of illness could cause this?

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Rachel~

How does Sophie act when you're getting ready to leave? When you return home? How do you interact with her before you leave/when you get home?
Will Sophie hang out in another room by herself when you're home or does she prefer to be near you?

QUOTE=Rachel Passerini]Actually thats part of the problem now too...

She used to love her pen (thats were she got her extra special, very yummy food in the morning) and would go right in with no problems. Well we went out of town for the weekend a few weeks ago and I had a friend watch her. She put her in the pen once or twice and claimed that she didn't really have a problem getting her into it. When we got back and go to leave for work the next morning Sophie absolutely refused to get in it. We had her food in it and some treats and she would not budge. So thats when we decided to open the pen and block off half of the basement. My friend claims that nothing tramatic happened to her while she was putting her in the crate.

Oh and the other thing is she refuses to chew on things while we're away. So if we leave her a stuffed kong, bone, or rawhide she will not touch it till we get home (its always been like this). So have a super special treat in the pen is not really an insentive for her.[/QUOTE]

[Rachel]

Hi Rachel~

How does Sophie act when you're getting ready to leave? When you return home? How do you interact with her before you leave/when you get home?
Will Sophie hang out in another room by herself when you're home or does she prefer to be near you?


Sometimes she will get excited because she thinks she is coming with us, sometimes she sits quietly, if she's in the basememt every once in a while she will whine. We tell her bye and to be a good girl when we leave.

When we return home she is very very excited and her tail is going 90 mile a minute. We take her outside right away and then she will settle down after doing her business and coming back inside.

If we are home she is usually on the same floor as us. I'd say that most of the time she is near us. If she gets tired she will go upstairs by herself to lay on her bed.

Thank you for trying to help us Melissa.

[Sheryl]

I'm not an expert, but this really sound familiar to me from when Harley's separation anxiety started. Your Sophie does not sound as bad yet as my bug guy was (Harley licked all the hair off his belly/penis/ inner thighs, was chewing up my crafts, clothes, cushions, etc, and was totally out of control when I came home, even biting at me to get my attention) - I had to put him on medication to get things under control. I found lots of information about behaviour modification on the internet, and was working with a behaviour specialist which did seem to help him. It was a long process. Here are a few of the best internet sites I found.

http://www.animalaidclinics outh.com/sepanx.htm

http://www.asah.net/behavior_topics_34.h tm

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/anxiety.html

[Melissa Brunoehler]

I agree that it sounds like SA. Thanks for the links. I'll post more when I have some free time....


I'm not an expert, but this really sound familiar to me from when Harley's separation anxiety started. Your Sophie does not sound as bad yet as my bug guy was (Harley licked all the hair off his belly/penis/ inner thighs, was chewing up my crafts, clothes, cushions, etc, and was totally out of control when I came home, even biting at me to get my attention) - I had to put him on medication to get things under control. I found lots of information about behaviour modification on the internet, and was working with a behaviour specialist which did seem to help him. It was a long process. Here are a few of the best internet sites I found.

http://www.animalaidclinics outh.com/sepanx.htm

http://www.asah.net/behavior_topics_34.h tm

http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/anxiety.html

[Rachel]

Thank you for the links I will check them out. Is it normal for SA just to happen all of a sudden?

[Sheryl]

With Harley it seemed all of a sudden, but looking back there were behaviours that I should have recognized earlier, like following me from room to room, and increasingly excited when I came home from being away. Even though your friend said nothing happened while you were away, this weekend without you might have been very traumatic in Sophie's mind. I left Harley with a friend for a weekend before things got out of hand with him. I'm sure that my friend did nothing out of the ordinary and treated him well, but I think in his mind it was the last straw and maybe someday I'd go away and never come back. Harley chewed his way out through the side of his kennel when I left him in it so he wouldn't destroy my house.

[Rachel]

awww. Yeah I think the leaving her with friends might have done it.... Even though they stayed at our house I'm thinking maybe Sophie was stressed thinking who is this new mommy and daddy and why are they staying here (even though Sophie does know them very well... but they have not been over when we were not there). I was thinking about trying Bach's Rescue Remedy any opinions on that? I saw in your previous posts that you use a DAP diffuser.

[Sheryl]

At first I didn't think that the DAP diffuser made a difference but then it ran out..... and Harley was back to chewing things up again. When I put in a refill, he stopped right away, so I know it did make a difference. By the way, if you haven't read all my posts, you don't know the whole story so I'll fill in (and sorry if you do know it). I don't have Harley any more, Sailor is the little dog you see beside my name in my posts. I worked with Harley for over six months after his SA started, and did make good progress with him. But then I had to change jobs and now fly in and out of the NWT. I am in different communities in an apartment, working during the day and on-call (so in and out frequently) for about half the evenings and weekends I am there), and then back home here for my time off. It would not have been fair to Harley. He needs a home with stability and routines. I always came home at lunch for an hour, but could not come home during the day (like if I forgot something) or he would get much too anxious with a fast come and go. So with many tears, I gave him back to the rescue, and he is going back with his original owner (she gave up her dogs because she had cancer, which is now in remission). I did learn a lot in the six months that I was working with him!

[Rachel]

I'm sorry you had to give him back but it sounds like you did the right thing for him... He probably would have been just misserable.