Well our newest family member, pictured above in all her so-called innocence, is turning out to be something of a challenge.
She is adorable as I said, and everyone just loves playing and holding her, but her housebreaking is going slowly. I qualify slowly since it just started, but damn if it doesn’t feel like forever. She has only had a couple of small accidents in the house, peeing on the floor and a rug we have in the family room, but what is killing us is she also pees in her crate (we are crate-training her).
Now this is not an unknown issue with crate-training dogs, but when I Googled for answers on what to do about it I found out we are already doing everything we are supposed to do and none of it is working.
Sigh.
And even the peeing in the crate we were handling, but no, she had to ratchet things up a bit. So this morning at about 4:30 am, no more than 10 minutes after I had walked her outside and she did her business, I walk into the kitchen to “shush” her as loving wife would say, and I find her knee-deep in poo and pee spread out in her crate. (Okay knee-deep is a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit let me tell you.)
And boy did it stink. She stunk. The crate stunk. The whole damn kitchen stunk. And the stink was making its stinky way into the rest of the house.
It was Stinkfest 2008.
So loving wife grabbed her up to bathe her while I took her cage outside to wash.
Four-fricken-thirty in the morning, freezing and dark and I am out front with a hose cleaning out this crate.
Amusing, no?
Add in the fact that we had to open a few windows letting in the freeze, light candles, and spray room deodorizer and it was an interesting morning.
So we are a little frustrated as you can imagine. We are getting up every hour to two hours to take her out, but that doesn’t seem to be enough. Even after she has just peed outside, she will go again in her crate.
Granted, she is only two months old so we expect - hope - it will get better, because we are doing everything the way they say to do it. The “they” being all these puppy experts on-line, who all seem to say just about the same thing with small variations.
So wish us luck, because I think we are going to need it.
As an aside, Butler was much easier. He slept on our porch in the late spring and summer and moved into the garage in the fall and winter and the whole world was his bathroom. No whining in a crate. No walking outside at 1:00 am, 3:00 am, and 5:00 am in the morning. No “No, no no, don’t jump on the couch” every ten seconds.
Oh well, different dog, different deal.
I’m sure we will all get the hang of it. I just hope we can outlast her.
