Ashlin Posted July 4, 2009 Share Posted July 4, 2009 Just a follow up to my last post... Mysty is the new member of the family - she's an Alaskan Malamute and is now 18 weeks old. She's had all her vaccinations and is settling in really well to her new life. We had problems getting her to sleep in her crate at first, but now she sleeps in it every night and rarely has an accident inside the house. Toilet training seems to be going well, and she will wee on command about 80% of the time when we're home.... not perfect, but we're getting there. She seems to be "shy" about doing her poos and will usually wander outside herself and sneak them out when we're not looking. However, Mysty will not go to the toilet when we're away from the home. She'll do a wee if we're very very lucky but never a poo. We wait and wait but nothing seems to happen. Last week we organised a play date with my cousin's puppy and they got along famously. They had a great time playing with each other in my cousin's backyard and were at it for a good couple of hours. She'd been running a bit and so had a big drink of water but still nothing. I thought maybe it was because she was in another dog's yard/territory and she may have been reluctant to leave her scent or she was being distracted by the other dog, so we walked her up the street by herself... still no results. We walked her to the park where there were no dogs around to distract her and still no action... I would have thought with all the activity she would have been busting by now!! We were there about 4 hours and she didn't go once. Once we put her in her crate for the trip home... yep, bingo. Didn't even get 50m down the road! She MUST have been busting! We don't have any bedding in the crate so it's not a big deal to clean up the mess but we really don't know how to correct this behaviour in a constructive manner. That's pretty much the way it happens each time. We're really confused - crate training at home seems to be going really well but why does it seem to be backfiring when we're abroad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmoothieGirl Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Ashlin I don't have any technical answers for this really, but I think its a confidence thing that they need to figure out for themselves. Surely going to the toilet puts them in a more vulnerable position. Both on a physical point of view in the moment and also it allows other dogs to learn a bit more about them than they may be willing to give away. My Dobermann was the same, it took her a while to figure out that going to the toilet anywhere other than the back yard was ok. I'm going through it again with my Collie. It look her about 3 weeks into her walks to go wees and she has only once very recently done a poo on her walk. Normally she holds on then rushes outside when we get home. Maybe someone will swing by this post with a more helpful response, but I'm sure your girl will figure it out for herself soon, she's still only very young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashlin Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 Thanks for replying Shel. I guess we're not sure if we're doing something wrong or not and we like to take a constructive approach with correcting her behaviour. Right now it seems like she thinks it's acceptable to toilet inside her crate and not outside... but when we're home it's the opposite (of course). And I don't believe in punishing her for going inside her crate as it's not her fault really but I wish I could make it easier for her. What we're trying to do is take her out fairly often, mixing things up to expose her to different situations/environments. Hopefully she'll soon grow accustomed to this and feel more comfortable when we're abroad. That's about all we can think of right now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t-time Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Ashlin - you said that she wees on command - are you giving her the command when you're out and about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigsaw Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Sometimes bitches don't like to urinate off their territory and it does become a worry especially if you're wanting to do any trialling. I'm not really sure why but it does happen. My girl was like this until she was about 14mths old. She very rarely wee'd when we were out walking but come home absolutley busting and running through the back door. When she did wee when we were out I really praised her up and probably looked like an idiot for rewarding a wee but I really didn't care. She had been taught the wee on command too, although she's still very stubborn about it if the grass is wet. I ran into a lady the other day who had the same problem with her 5 mth old GSD bitch. I've also known another bitch that wouldn't wee when on lead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashlin Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Ashlin - you said that she wees on command - are you giving her the command when you're out and about? Yeah we've tried that, and in a quiet place too with as little distractions as possible but no joy. She's still learning the command to be honest, and it's only 80% reliable when we're home but she's getting there with it slowly. Sometimes bitches don't like to urinate off their territory and it does become a worry especially if you're wanting to do any trialling. I'm not really sure why but it does happen. My girl was like this until she was about 14mths old. She very rarely wee'd when we were out walking but come home absolutley busting and running through the back door. When she did wee when we were out I really praised her up and probably looked like an idiot for rewarding a wee but I really didn't care. She had been taught the wee on command too, although she's still very stubborn about it if the grass is wet. I ran into a lady the other day who had the same problem with her 5 mth old GSD bitch. I've also known another bitch that wouldn't wee when on lead! Wow really? Thanks for letting me know about that. It's nice when you realise that you're not the only one out there with a similar problem. And stubborn is a great word to describe it - she is a Malamute after all! So I guess all I can really do right now is continue with what I'm doing? Praising her heaps for going in the right places hopefully she might grow out of it...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teebs Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Kaos has weed a whole 4 times in 4 years out of her own yard She can hold on for hours and hours, when i moved to WA she held on all day, till we got to the place we were staying out that night, then go. On the way home we only had one place where i could let her off lead (thanks Eza!) and she peed there, she held on over 24 hours till we made it home to go again. She suffered a horrible UTI from that trip. She wont go in her crate (i wouldnt have cared if she did, she was so sick from the UTI i would be ok with her going in the crate), she wont go on anything but grass, and off lead only. I try to make sure there is no need for her to be away for many hours anymore, when she is at the kennels the girls get her out first thing in the morning and last before they lock up at night, she drives me mad. Oh,she has also never pooed on lead, but will go in the house Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PandaGirl Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Sometimes bitches don't like to urinate off their territory and it does become a worry especially if you're wanting to do any trialling. I'm not really sure why but it does happen. My girl was like this until she was about 14mths old. She very rarely wee'd when we were out walking but come home absolutley busting and running through the back door. When she did wee when we were out I really praised her up and probably looked like an idiot for rewarding a wee but I really didn't care. She had been taught the wee on command too, although she's still very stubborn about it if the grass is wet. I ran into a lady the other day who had the same problem with her 5 mth old GSD bitch. I've also known another bitch that wouldn't wee when on lead! My girl won't toilet in public. Just crosses her legs! If she absolutely has to, it's always done behind a tree/in tall grass/out of sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schnauzerlover Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 This has been an interesting topic for me as we have a 5 month old female mini schnauzer and I find she is a bit 'private' with her poo's in particular. She will go in the garden away from anyones eyes and unless you are following right behind her you wouldn't know if she has poo'd. She doesn't do this all the time and we have found that now she is a bit older she is pooing on other places out in the open in the yard, generally in corners though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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