Originally Posted by GrayC25  Are you kidding me with your diatribe? Not trying to be rude or judgmental???? FYI, didn't happen. I understand that the few times that we've slacked isn't good for Samson, but I honestly DO NOT believe that everyone here, including you zenzele, has always 100% jumped out of bed at 6:30am in the winter or gotten up off the couch to let the dog out on time. Just like dogs, we humans have slip ups. SSorry that I haven't lived up to your idea of a dog owner.
If you'd read all my posts, you would see that we HAVE tried to train Samson. We don't just let him run around, and pee whever he'd like. We don't sit on our asses, not let him out and then yell at him for peeing in the house. We have him ring a bell before he can go out, we treat him when he goes outside and we praise him when he goes outside. All we're asking for is a little sign from him that he needs to go outside. We've taken him outside, he pees, then comes back in and pees a HALF HOUR LATER in the house, without any warning. That's where we are at a loss. It's like he's not making the connection of going to the bathroom and outside. He hasn't flipped the switch yet by going "Ooooohhhh!!! THIS is where I'm supposed to go, not there" and we have no idea how to help him flip it.
He's been neutered recently (about a month ago now) and the peeing in the house at night started before the surgery.
We took the advice of the PetSmart guy and have really started watching him, leashing him and then crating him when we can't supervise him 100%.
Also, this dog has never had free reign of the house like some of you have said. We shut off the two bedrooms and then it's just the main room, the kitchen and the bathroom where his water, bed and toys usually are. The kitchen and the main room are connected, so I could gate the hallway so he'd only be in the main room, so maybe we'll try that.
We took a potty training class at PetSmart yesterday and they told us that crating him during the day while we're at work should help. He should learn to hold it for longer. They've said that, even being crated in a small bathroom, he's more active in there, hence drinking more water and then peeing on the pad or bathtub (yup, something new!!!) So, today was our first day in crating him all day. Hubby and I are both freaking out. It breaks my heart to think of him not being able to hold it then have to lay near/by/in it for the rest of the day. My hubby keeps saying that Samson will not go in his crate, so it breaks his heart to think that our little one will be uncomfortablel all day TRYING to hold it.
Another idea we got from the trainers at petsmart is to hook one of those water bowls to the inside of his crate and put only ice cubes in there. That way he has some water, but not a ton. She also suggested an ice cube in his water dish in the evening so he has some, but we won't have to pick up the filled water dish so early. We'll see how it works.
Since we started all this a few weeks ago, Samson's been better. He's only had a few potty accidents (all our fault) and one poop (which is so weird, he hardly ever poops inside). So it's still a ton of work, but we are working on it.
I think if we got a little sign from Samson that he's maybe starting to get it, it would be a heck of a lot easier. We just have no idea if what we're doing is the right thing or if we're doing it the right way. |