House training help

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bilberry

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10 August 2014
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I could really do with some help with our new rescue dog. We've only had her since Saturday so early days, but don't want to do anything which will make her settling in any harder for her. She was severely neglected and had been in the rescue for nearly a year. She's a very gentle, calm dog, but she's extremely stressed in her new home and seems to shut down a lot, as though everything is getting too overwhelming.

We were told that she was unreliably house trained, so that was top of the list to tackle. We're keen to try and get her to go in one place so there isn't poo all over the garden. Since she got here we've taken her out to her designated toilet area regularly on the lead as the first place we go when we go outside. We obviously haven't been telling her off or otherwise reacting for going elsewhere, just lots of praise and treats when she goes in the right place. This worked really well for the first couple of days, but then has deteriorated into her standing looking bemused when we take her there but not actually peeing. Today she held it all day after her morning walk at 7:30 despite several opportunities at the toilet spot and two more walks where she obviously has ample time to go. Eventually this afternoon she peed all over the kitchen (seriously, I've never seen so much wee) while I was standing with my back to her- I looked round and she was mid flow, nothing I did could get her to stop/move, and no surprise- she must've been flipping busting!

Are we making her neurotic by trying to be clear where she goes? What else/ what instead should we be doing? She seemed to get it at first, but it was a bit of a disaster today! I hope it's just linked to her general stress and this is just a hiccup, but I'm really worried we're going about it the wrong way.
 
There's probably too much stress/pressure associated with making her pee in one spot. Maybe if she was a puppy or young dog I'd try and target it (and that sort of stuff takes weeks to train with a smart dog) but she is a rescue of unknown background with a bad start to life, I'd just work on encouraging her to go outside in the first place.

With my own dog, he will hold it all day rather than go in his run/kennel but he needs a proper leg stretch first, if it's a pee on lead I let him circle a few times until he needs to go, with a 'pee' command, if he needs a number two he needs a proper run before he goes.
If I just took him straight out and stood still in one spot, he wouldn't go unless he was bursting.

If she's been in kennels she'll probably have learned to go in her run, which will transfer into the house - there's no real 'here is where I sleep, here is where I chill, here is where I go for walks, here is where I pee' type differentiation in her head as she won't understand that she needs to travel to a particular place to go.
 
Thankyou for your reply. We had wondered if we were just putting too much pressure on her, hence posting for ideas/wisdom. It had originally been suggested to us when we said we were keen to not have poo all over the garden as a way to also help her know where to go- as you say, in kennels she's had no need/opportunity to learn to go in a specific place.

We haven't just been going and standing still in one place, I wouldn't be able to cope with that much performance pressure, never mind her:-). Previously a good sniff on the way and a bit of a rummage in the bushes on the end of the area was enough to inspire her to go. It's quite a big area so lots of space to circle and move around.

We reverted to just letting her out in the garden and she seems slightly more happy to go. I feel terrible that we've been inadvertently stressing her out more, it's so hard to know what to do when there is so much different advice.
 
It might just be too much to ask for her to go in one spot at the moment, I think you would much rather it was in the garden somewhere and not in the house at all. Perhaps for a little while it might have to be like puppy training, where you take them out in the garden every half-hour, no stress, just for the opportunity?

Mine also really hates going on the lead, which is a proper nuisance when we go somewhere new as he has to find his 'spot' and with a certain amount of privacy! I use a very long lead held loosely when we are away from home, as its the only way he will go. Usually looking the other way ;)
 
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