Sunday, September 20, 2015

House-Breaking

Casey is 5; Poly will be 5 next month.  5.  5 years old.  Yes, you read that right, 5.

Poly does not understand that it's not permissible to tinkle in the house.  It just isn't.

We have tried so many things, but she just doesn't get it.  Casey has freedom in the house, except when we got out and Poly has to go to her kennel.  Then, Casey can run free upstairs and he can sleep on the sofa or the bed.  Poly has been out of her kennel overnight (the gate is locked then) and we have, more than once, found that she has peed on the sofa (typically).  Just last night, K came down to find that the towels covering the holes the dogs created when they were first here.  It's usually a blanket, but last night it was a towel.  We have tried putting towels or blankets in her kennel when she was confined overnight and she always peed on those.  I think the towels caused her to think that it was okay to tinkle on the sofa towels.

The problem is that we have left her out of her kennel overnight.  If we try to put her in, she will bark her little head off and we know she can sustain that for well over 90 minutes straight.  The neighbors will file an official complaint.  We can tell that she knows we're home because we can hear her barking.  That leads to the obvious conclusion that the neighbors can also hear her.  It's embarrassing.

But back to the peeing.  She's 5 years old.  I've tried a number of behavioral techniques, all with no success.  We have to catch her when she goes to the kitchen and assume it's because she has to go out.  For me, she usually doesn't react and I have to guess.  Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I miss and wind up stepping into it.  She won't pee on the carpet, but she will on a rug he have in the kitchen.  For K, of course, she will act like a "perfect" little princess.








If only she's wasn't so darn cute!

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