OK, what are we doing wrong? At 8 months she should be totally trained right?
I found this site whieol doign research bcause at this point we really don't understand what we are doing wrong and are afraid we have "missed the boat" and now own a dog that is not and will never be house trained.
I will try to provide as much information as possible so sorry if it's to much but we I;m hoping some can find somehting we are doign wrong so we can turn thgins around or have a million peopel tell us to relax we're overreacting..
We have an 8 month old (as of Sept 7th) Miniature bulldog. From the day we owned her (exactly 12 weeks) we crated her both at night and while we were out (never for more then 4.5 hours usually 4) and trained her to ring bells hung by the door when she needs to go outside. When we first got her every 45 minutes or so I would bring her to the door ring the bell with her paw and bring her outside to the same spot. Or if we "caught her in the act" I would SAY "no" (not yelling at her, just saying it) and pick her up, bring her to the door, ring the bell with her paw, and then bring her outside to the same spot. I did this for about 4 weeks and then gradually increased the time - now, when she is out of her crate and has free range of the house, she rings her bells when she wants to go out.
Her normal schedule is M,W and F my wife wakes up at 5:30am and
uts her in bed to snuggle with me until I wake up at 6:15 - she loves to snuggle, crawls under the covers, puts her head on the pillow and everything - it's really cute. I know, we spoil her. Anyway, I wake up at 6:15ish and feed her while I make coffee (sometimes she eats, some times she doesn't, sometimes she eats half then and half later) to take on her 20-30 minute 'morning walk' and then she gets the run of the house while we get ready. Between 8-8:15 she goes into her crate (roughly 3 feet long by 1.5 feet high) with a pillow or blanket, a few toys, a bowl of water and the rest of her breakfast if she didn't finish/eat it. I come home between 11:45 and 12:15, take her for a 15-25 minute walk (she usually goes #1 and #2) and she hangs out with me while I eat lunch. At roughly 1-1:15 she goes back in her crate until I get home at 5-5:15. Weather permitting we walk her for at least 30 minutes after dinner and she either hangs by my feet or we play for the rest of the night in the living room until we go to bed anywhere between 9-10. She snuggles with my wife in bed until I turn off the TV and put her in her crate between 10:30-12.
This was her schedule, 5 days a week, for the first 2 months of her life with us and now, for the most part (90% of the time) she is good but every once in a while she will #2 in the crate.
I should also note we did a basic obedience class and is pretty good with Sit, Paw, stay and come - at least if you have a treat in your hand and there aren't too many distractions. She is easliy distracted - the people at her Day-Care/Vet noticed it too. They have to take her out by herself after playgroups so she can go tot he bathroom.
For the last 2 months or so she goes to day-care on Tue and Thurs. Again, we felt bad she was spending so much time in her crate and this way she gets to play with play with other dogs and people. She was bit shy when we first got her and between training, day care and us bringing her everywhere on the weekends She is a very social, well behaved dog and has many friends - both K9 and human. Besides, she loves it! She knows when we pull into the parking lot and gets very excited and after we pick her up she goes home, eats and sleeps most of the night.
We started to feel bad that she was in the crate so much so last week we started to let her sleep on a big pillow/dog bed on the floor by the bed. The first night we did this I had brought her for her walk after diner and she ended up falling into a pond (she doesn't like water/swim and the pond was covered with allergy so she just walked out onto it thinking it was grass or something) I took her straight home and washed her but I'm sure she swallowed some of it. She is fine but that night and the next day she had diarrhea. Since then she has been great at night with the exception of waking us up by ringing the bells because she wants to go out and or get on the bed so last night I took those away - she great, She still gets up and walks over to the bed to see if it's "snuggle time" yet but goes back to her bed after 5 or 10 minutes.
She is perfectly healthy (22lbs or so) runs, plays, eats (with the exception of the morning but we are switching from Science Diet to Innova and hoep that will adress that) with the best of them. The only other thing this is puzzeling is her fascination with grass. She eats it, rolls in it and anything in between. We asked the Vet and he said most of the time they eat it because their stomach is upset but she eats/plays/rolls in it pretty consistently and has no sign of her stomach being upset so...
OK, that should cover it I think, Again, sorry if that is WAY to much info but I'm at the end of my rope. We thought at this point we could start letting her stay in our kitchen for short periods of time until we could trust her and just give her free reign of the house while we are gone.
Are we rushing things? Do we have one of those dogs that can't be house trained - if there is such a thing. Or even worse, did we do a bad job training her? I have heard once they get past a certain age if they aren't house trained it is nearly imposable to train them.
HELP!
ohh and TIA!