Artist: Eskimo
Album: Aspeclaria
Tracklist :
- The Popcorn (Trinitix Remix)
6 Month Old Pup Just WON'T Housebreak!?
I have a 6 1/2 month old American Eskimo Puppy. She came to us as a rescue from a puppy mill / pet store setting. During her formative stages, she was sleeping where she eliminated. I know that this makes puppies notoriously difficult to housebreak.
When we first got the pup at 7 weeks (I am aware that she should have been with her mother at this age), we decided that kennel training would not work for this particular dog. She was fearful of confined spaces, and would panic to the point of injuring herself within 5 minutes of being kennelled.
We made her fearfulness priority in her training, and spent literally hundreds of hours with her on it.
During this, we paper trained for 2 1/2 - 3 months using those "chemically attractive pee pads." We progressed from papers in the kitchen, to papers in front of the door, to papers outside. Eventually we eliminated the papers altogether. She seemed to understand the idea for about a week.
Over the course of the last 2-3 months, she has an accident almost daily. She always goes in front of either my bedroom door, or the front door. She makes no attempt to tell me that she needs to go out; no barking, no scratching at the door, and no whining.
We have since conquered her kennel issue, and are now kennelling her while we are out of the house and overnight. She does not mess in the kennel. I just can not get this dog to stop eliminating in the house.
I love my dog dearly, and refuse to give up on her, but this potty problem is causing other problems in the house. Namely, my husband thinks that "rubbing her nose in it," will solve the problem. I know this is 100% untrue, and will only set her back in the fearfulness department; arguments ensue.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Should she know this stuff by now, or am I just being impatient? I would think that by 6 months, after 4 months of work, my pup would have figured it out. She is otherwise very smart, and knows all basic commands and a few custom ones.
I'm at the end of my rope!
Just as an answer to a few questions:
1) My husband has not punished the animal; he is not involved in her training whatsoever. He isn't abusive, or barbaric. This is the "correction" he saw with his dogs as a kid. I explain until I'm blue in the face that it isn't cohesive or kind.
2) I am fully aware that the paper training can be confusing to puppies. First you teach them to "go" in the house, and then you have to redirect that. I do know this. However, because of her previously abusive situation (she is a puppy mill bust rescue) and fearful nature, we had to choose this method. It's my belief that she still needed to be with her mom at 7 weeks, so we allowed her surrogate mother (our tomcat) to have access to and interaction with her on a daily basis until we were able to overcome her fear of the crate.
4) She hasn't used the pads since October.
5) What is a good enzyme cleaner to clean her messes with?
6) The vet ruled out infection or parasite.
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