Quote:
Originally Posted by YankeeBernie  Thanks for the responses folks. I hope I don't seem heartless b/c I LOVE my dog and he gets rained on with kisses and hugs believe me. I'm happy to see that time outs can work in some cases. When I go off to work he stays in the big living room via little gates so I don't really need a crate. For the rare times when I need him confined I have a slightly bigger cage that quickly assembles. I rarely need to use that cage however.
In any case, I think I will follow some of the advice here and not have him think of the crate as place of punishment -rather a place to chill out for a little while (e.g. putting snacks in there every once in a while). I'm still a little perplexed at the pee - still can't be sure if it was a nervous submissive pee or "take that!"
Thanks again everyone. In the meantime I'll get a sturdier bowl (maybe also remove the mat). Don't yet know if I'll stick with this 'time out' method. |
Dogs are smart, but they aren't humans. I don't think that dogs have tbe ability or desire to be vindictive. Your puppy (I actually don't know how old Bernie is) probably just had an accident. Franklin has been pretty much trained since the day we got him - he has been accident free for months now, just peed on my carpet this morning. Dogs have accidents, just like humans make mistakes. I wouldn't read into this too much.