for several weeks shane and i have been working with milly on housebreaking. she has only had a couple of accidents in the house and for awhile she was doing really well. the problem as of late is that we have a dog who does not want to go number 2. we will take her out and she will chase bugs, sniff around and then eventually get to the point. however, lately this process is taking up to 45 minutes and as of this morning, shane was out an hour and she still had not gone. we are having a really hard time wrapping our heads around this one. i've never had a dog that didn't want to go. we have tried changing eating schedules, taking out schedules, exercise schedules...we are just at a loss.
with school about to start for both of us we are trying to figure out what our options are and crating her seems to be the only one. however, this does concern me a little because she does have some separation anxiety, especially from shane (go figure...i get that too), and i'm afraid she might hurt herself in the crate. on the other hand the crate might help her to relax more quickly. i don't know. the method/purpose of crating is also something i'm not sure about. do we buy one that is big enough she can move freely, or do we get one that really limits her ability to move about. we also thought that if she went number 2 in the morning we would leave her out and if she didn't put her in the crate in hopes that she would get the message.
if any of you can offer some wisdom on this i would appreciate it. i haven't had a puppy since i was a young pup myself. tristan came pre-packaged perfect. milly is truly a sweet heart and we really want to find a way for all 3 of us to be happy together. please help!!!
peace and love (and hopefully some number 2s)
with school about to start for both of us we are trying to figure out what our options are and crating her seems to be the only one. however, this does concern me a little because she does have some separation anxiety, especially from shane (go figure...i get that too), and i'm afraid she might hurt herself in the crate. on the other hand the crate might help her to relax more quickly. i don't know. the method/purpose of crating is also something i'm not sure about. do we buy one that is big enough she can move freely, or do we get one that really limits her ability to move about. we also thought that if she went number 2 in the morning we would leave her out and if she didn't put her in the crate in hopes that she would get the message.
if any of you can offer some wisdom on this i would appreciate it. i haven't had a puppy since i was a young pup myself. tristan came pre-packaged perfect. milly is truly a sweet heart and we really want to find a way for all 3 of us to be happy together. please help!!!
peace and love (and hopefully some number 2s)
2 comments:
Sadie is crate trained but she only sleeps in it at night. She loves it though. She goes in and out of it all day long...partially to get away from the kids :) The #2 problem stumps me. That's quite odd. Maybe your second idea will work. Hmmm..have to think about that :)
Hey - this is Fu. Crate her - she'll love it. I always had outside dogs growing up so the thought of leaving a dog in a box all day was equal to doing the same to a kid (we can talk about that separately). When we had Abby - the cocker - she used to have really bad separation anxiety also and would tear the crap out of everything when we were gone. Finally broke down and got a crate big enough for a st. bernard to salvage our house. She loved it. Would go in voluntarily - like a place of refuge. When I would get mad at her, she would run to her crate (note: if Milly does that, it is important not to spank her while in the crate, that needs to be a safe place) It also should help with the #2 issue because they normally hold it for as long as possible before going where they sleep. So if she doesn't go in a reasonable time in the morning, bring her in and put her in the crate. She'll figure out when she needs to go.
Theory says it should be just big enough for them to stand and turn around in - but see my note from above - didn't quite matter. I wouldn't worry about her hurting herself - she'll do that anyway unless she just hates it.
Anyway, there is my 2 cents... which I think is the whole concept of blogs... but you asked for comments.
PS - i don't blog, so I don't have an id nor do I want one so this will say anonymous. Love you guys.
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