At ropes end...
 

I am at my ropes end. I dont know what to do. I had a problem with Dusty marking his territory for several years, had him fixed and finally had him completely house trained. I was sooo excited. several months down the road now my grandmother is living with us. She is at home all the time with him. I have told and told her that if he is out of his crate he has to go out every hour for his bladder. she will put him outside( in a safe guarded area) and leave him out there for thirthy mins or so and thank he should be good the rest of the day because he stayed out so long. The other night I came in at 7:45pm and asked her how long it had been since he went out? she said (well not since you left this morning) I left at 6:00am. Needless to say everyday now I am coming home trying to find his spots which are all over the house before my husband gets home. I dont want to get rid of him but I cant take much more. What should I do/
:confused::confused::confused:

I hope you wouldn't get rid of him for a mistake humans are making.... you need to hire a dogwalker or be sure he is let out more often.

Have you considered trying to litter train him?
I use a grid system, and Harley will go inside and outside, it would take a bit of initial work, but then you or anyone else wouldn't HAVE to put him out, then he would just have to go out to play etc.

check out this link. http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...while-ago.html

Wow that's a long day not to be let out. Maybe a ex pen that he can be in which is larger then a crate and pee pads inside so he can relieve himself. Then no one will be mad he will be confined and not peeing all over. And you can buy all sizes of these. Bellybands would work if someone would take him out more often the slip one of those on. Just a couple of ideas. Good luck

Who let him out, back when he was "completely house trained"? And, why are you now solely relying on Grandma from morning til night, when she's showing you she's not capable?

Can you go back to doing whatever it was you were doing when potty training was working?

I would try Pee pee pads and/or Belly bands... or like someone else said hire a dog walker or pet sitter.

He was staying in his room which has a potty box in it. as long as he is in there and the door is shut he will use his box. If the door is open he forgets its in there and wont go back to it. She feels sorry for him being in his room all day and she loves him to death so she lets him out to be with her.

How would I go about training him to just use the potty box only? maybe instead of taking him out when I am home take him to his room and tell him to potty? That way he would learn to go to the box all the time. I dont know why but he will use it if he is in his room but if he is left out he will not go back to it. Please tell me why...
By the way his box is a litter box with newspaper in it. It seems to keep the smell down better and is alot cheaper. He likes it better also.

I'd add another potty box or two, so he can see them and remember?

I agree- add another box in a place where he is more often during the day. Otherwise hire someone to stop by in the middle of the day to make sure he has been let out. You absolutely cannot expect a dog to go over 12 hours without going out and not go in your home.

because he is a dog and as much as we thingk and treat these little guys like tiny humans...they are stll dogs and think COMPLETLEY different than us. they don't understand that we don't like a house that smells like pee or that the table they just peed on cost a lot of money.

he likely smells his urine scent all over your house from every time he marks. even if we clean the area and do not smell it any more, dogs noses can pick up the scent and think it is ok for them to pee there unless they are properly trained (through positive reinforcment and consistency!) not to do so.

i think the problem here is grandma, not Dusty. You need to make sure she follows the rules if she wants to let dusty out.

When I was training Harley, his grid was in his room too, he'd forget about it, so I just put another one in the livingroom, eventually he stopped using the second one and I put it back in his room. now he zooms off to his room and then goes and zooms back. Also it's ok to let them go outside to potty, it's just a matter of teaching them that when they can't go outside they go on the tray/grid/litterbox. Harley is now one of those dogs who will hold his pee until he gets in his room and go on the tray. He'll poo outside, but the grass just isn't his pee toilet lol.

I would try to consistently be watching him on his grid and throw a praise party when he goes there (the grid is the same as your litter box, just has a rubber grid on top, I use papers too). Also to make sure he knows what the second box is, I would put the old one in the new spot and put the new one in the old spot, that way he knows the scent of a "potty" when he sees the new spot and goes there.

Praise is the only real way you'll get him hooked on the indoor training, so someone will have to be consistent with him, maybe your grandmother can watch him and give him lots of treats when he goes on the right spot, that way she gets to have him out, not feel bad, and spoil him :D plus you get a good trained dog.

I agree, you either have to move it to closer to where your grandmother spends most of her time during the day (I'm assuming he hangs out around her;)) or get a second one. I'm currently working on housebreaking my 7 month old and I have piddle pads in 3 different locations in the house for inbetween going outside - she goes where ever I am, she won't move to another room to use a pad, not yet anyway.

Is your grandma not able to let him out or is she choosing not to or forgetting? I would make the rules clear with her, if she wants to let him out of his room where he was trained, then she needs to let him out consistently. You could even set a timer to remind her, or hire a dogwalker. Since the pee boxes are working, having them in more visible areas could help, and confining him to one or two rooms would also be beneficial.

Good luck:thumbup:

I know, I feel so bad for him and I cant get upset with my Grandmother because she is 89 years old. She dont just dont know how to read him. Like tonight I came home and he was excited to see me , but he let me know real quick he had to go potty.