Dog Community

Couple of Housetraining Questions

Posted : 4/6/2006 2:59:37 PM

I have an 11 week old female lab who I think is doing well in the housetraining dept. (I've had her since 8 weeks.) She sleeps an average of 6-7 hours straight thru the nite and does not soil her crate while I'm at work. (4 hours avg)

Now a couple of things:
...She's fine in her crate at night, but does not like to be in it when I'm around. I've fed her in there, given her treats, kong+treats, etc...but she sees me and whines. I only let her out when she gets quiet, but I'm wondering if I let her out too quickly after she quiets. How long should she stay quiet before I let her out. And is it normal for her not to take to her crate? Should I just be more diligent about putting her in there more often for shorter periods when I'm around? Should she go in there everytime she naps during the day?

...She was ringing a bell on the door to go outside about 70% of the time the last couple of weeks but this week, she stopped ringing the bell and sits at the door and whines instead or paws at the screen door. Also, last week she went three days with no accidents and regular bell ringing and this week, she's more accident prone in the house. Now, I'm guessing this is my fault because I didn't walk behind her everywhere she went since she did so well last week. (Now, I am following her like a hawk again.) I want her to get back to ringing the bell (well, at times she more attacks it, but I digress...) because it's such a great way to let me and my bf know she needs out and the dogs I grew up with did this, and I don't know any other way myself!

...Also, she hates to poop. Now, she did have worms, which are taken care of but she puts up the biggest fuss when she has to poop. She walks around and whines and whines I know she does because she has a certain way that she runs and you can almost see it coming out! (yuk, I know.) I'm just wondering if this is an aftereffect of the worms; ie, she still remembers the unpleasantness and doesn't want to do it?

Any info would be great! There is just so much conflicting information, and the book I bought to research labs isn't too helpful in this department. I thought it would be because I bought the same line of books for Beagles and it was great (when I thought about getting a beagle.) But the lab book isn't nearly as comprehensive. Oh well.

cyclefiend2000

Posted : 4/6/2006 3:03:58 PM

ORIGINAL: shenne0808

...Also, she hates to poop. Now, she did have worms, which are taken care of but she puts up the biggest fuss when she has to poop. She walks around and whines and whines I know she does because she has a certain way that she runs and you can almost see it coming out! (yuk, I know.) I'm just wondering if this is an aftereffect of the worms; ie, she still remembers the unpleasantness and doesn't want to do it?

do you leash her when you take her out? amelia likes to be as far away from us as possible when she has to poop, and we leash her because we havent built a fence yet. so we put her on a 16' flexi for potty trips....[sm=2cents.gif]

Shannon Henne

Posted : 4/6/2006 3:23:57 PM

I do leash her, and she doesn't get as far away as humanly possible from me, but she will NOT go with another person/dog around. Sometimes if there is even a loud noise! Even if it is almost bursting out of her. I'm hoping it's a phase that will pass when the memories of the worms are gone!

Candy Sparrow

Posted : 4/6/2006 6:10:56 PM

When she is in the house with you and out of her crate did you try attaching the leash to you when you are in the house cause that worked for my pup! Every time i took him out of his crate i attached his leash to my belt so i could always supervise him. When he was in his crate he use to whine a lot but i would ignore him, only when i knew that he had already went potty and already ate, i would totally pretend that i couldnt hear him wouldnt give him any attention, even though it was so Hard, i wouldn't even say quiet to him, no attention at all, then when he settled down and was quiet for a bit i would throw in a treat and say good quiet, and this would make him jump all over again and start whining after he ate his treat then i just walked away from him and ignored him all over again until he was quiet again and lay down then i would do it all over again tell him good quiet and give a treat or i would take him out to let him play.... he finally caught on that i wasnt going to give in to his whines!! He totally acts like my toddler, but all the work is so worth it!! [

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Shannon Henne

Posted : 4/7/2006 10:59:51 AM

I actually tried the quiet/good quiet thing and it seemed to work a bit. I think this weekend is going to be a "working" weekend as far as crating goes. We need to get this worked out because there are times I need her to chill in her crate and she pitches a fit; I wouldn't mind so much but I live in a condo complex....if I was in a freestanding house, the crying wouldn't 'bother' me. However, I have asked my neighbors and none of them even knew I had a pup until I asked!

Candy Sparrow

Posted : 4/7/2006 12:07:50 PM

I just told my neighbour who lives upstairs, cause we live in a basement suite, that i just added a puppy to our family and that we are in the training stage, she totally understood and would rather deal with it now then hear him cry all the time.... when my puppy was put in his crate he use to throw a total fit and we use to give in and let him out until i read that him throwing a fit and us giving in was him knowing that everytime he whined and barked would mean that he would get out of the crate. Now we learned that us ignoring him would teach him that he won't get his way if he whined..... it was so hard and so annoying to hear him cry and throw a fit but now that he knows his whining isnt working anymore and has totally settled down and knows that i will only let him out on my terms not his!

Paulo

Posted : 4/7/2006 12:53:47 PM

My guy had problems going into the crate at first as well. He wanted to be out with us the whole time. What I started to do was show him a treat (either in a Kong or a small bit in my had) and let him smell it. I would say "go in your crate" and he now runs in there. It does take time, but if you are persistent with it, it'll work. Before it would take him 5 to 10 minutes of him laying there not wanting to go in but now he runs in there.

cyclefiend2000

Posted : 4/7/2006 3:03:40 PM

ORIGINAL: shenne0808

I do leash her, and she doesn't get as far away as humanly possible from me, but she will NOT go with another person/dog around. Sometimes if there is even a loud noise! Even if it is almost bursting out of her. I'm hoping it's a phase that will pass when the memories of the worms are gone!

amelia does the same thing. amelia is a very timid dog and i am sure the timidness is what is causing her problems. we have been trying to socialize her with people and other dogs, and that is helping. also, we have been doing clicker training with both our dogs and this has really helped amelia's self confidence. maybe your dog needs some confidence boosters too [

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Shannon Henne

Posted : 4/8/2006 10:44:14 PM

She's definately not shy in any other respect! She is now more willing to go, but it still takes time.

She's getting along better in her crate. I've been feeding her in there and putting treats in so we'll see how that goes for awhile.