 It's rough, that's for sure!
Well, my girl is now nearly 9 months old. I adopted her at 6 months old. She is still not house trained and my thinking is that this is going to be a VERY long term project (and I have plenty of experience with this issue as I foster shelter dogs). My strategy right now is that I take her out, she pees and gets rewarded with treats and praise, she gets 20 minutes free time in the house WATCHED constantly (and maybe 1 out of 10 times she doesn't make it the 20 minutes though I'm able to interrupt as she starts to squat - out again when this happens), then on a short leash with me or back in the crate. I've been doing this for nearly a month and it's exhausting and I'm beginning to think this will be our lives together. Frustrating for both of us.
I posted before about poop eating (coprophasia) and I someone pointing me to an article that taught a good recall to call the dog away from the poop. This had to be started on leash, of course. This worked VERY well but *I* have been failing on this lately. We graduated to off leash pooping and she would run to me for her treat after pooping. (And don't pick the poop up in front of them - this just makes it all the more valuable to them - at least it did to my girl). But then I started getting distracted doing stuff in my yard and it's no surprise that she's pooping and scarfing it again.
The message I'm getting with these pupsters is that you have to be 100% consistent for a LONG, LONG time. I'm venting here a bit but I must say I'm getting worn down by it all. I've never experienced this with any other dog and as I said I foster shelter dogs - almost none of whom are house trained. When I read on the internet stuff like "yorkies may never be fully house trained" I get discouraged.
Well, time for another potty outing ..... |