*cry* dont know what to do

S

snkoyle15

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as i type this, im in tears. :( we just dont know what to do about Gizmo any more. my husband is at his wits end and keeps threatening to get rid of him. it seems like no matter what we do and how hard we try and how much we work with him, we can not get him 100% house trained! (among other problems i will go into) the longest we can get him to go without an accident is maybe a couple months, IF we are lucky. i cant tell you how many times we have completely started over with potty training and it never seems to stick with him. he did have a UTI several months ago, but i dont think thats the problem any more. when he did have the uti he peed on our couch twice within just a few hours, before then he had never peed on the couch. since then, it has happened probably another 3 or 4 times. we have used an enzyme pet spot cleaner and vinegar every single time (its a microfiber couch so it doesnt soak down into the couch itself) but he still ends up peeing on it again. last night, he had been playing with our pyr pup and had only been out about an hour before. well he jumped up on the couch for scratches (which is totally normal) but without any warning at all, just peed all over. and thats how it is every single time. there is absolutely no warning. he will be running and playing and then immediately stop (but sometimes he will stop without peeing so there is no telling when it will happen) and just let loose all over the carpet. sometimes he can go maybe 2 or 3 hours (at the longest) in between going outside, other times its not even 15 minutes before he has to go out again, so you never know when it might happen. and if we cant take him out immediately he just goes on the floor. the ONLY time he is 100% reliable about no accidents is when he is in his crate. he can go all day in the crate without a problem, why cant we get him potty trained????

he ends up spending so much time in the crate because most of the time i cant keep 100% of my attention on him (cleaning, dishes, our daughter, etc) and we just cant trust him out of the crate so he is stuck it in so much. and i hate it, but i dont know what to do to change that.

he also ends up stuck in the crate any time we are eating. he is the WORST beggar ever (and we dont ever give in to it but it doesnt seem to matter). and if he gets the chance he will literally take the food off your fork, or out of our daughters hand as she tries to eat. the only thing we can do to get him to stop is to yet again, put him in the crate while we eat.

Every time he has an accident i have to wonder if we did something wrong, how did we screw up? :cry: does he have a weak badder, or something like that, because of something we did? how much longer can we deal with this? he turns 2 on feb, so he is still really really young, and i just dont think DH will keep him around unless we can figure something out. DEF not for another decade of this.

i cant help but wonder if he would do better with someone else? maybe someone that actually knows what they are doing? someone more experienced? i dont want to give him up but i just dont know what to do. i love having him around, but we just cant seem to train him, in house training, dealing with food, he can be horrible outside, he STILL lunges at cars-even after working with him on that since we got him, he pulls horribly and never seems to get any better.
My daughter loves him so much too, i think it would be devastating to her if we were to get rid of him.
if we do end up getting rid of him, i feel like its because we gave up on him. and that we just didnt want to "deal" with him any more. i feel like we have failed him and screwed him up somehow. everyone talks about how smart shelties are and how easy they are to train, so what happened? whats wrong with us? we have had him since he was 6 months old, and there are just so many things that its almost like he hasnt improved on at all, and if he has, its not much.
I just dont know what to do any more. :cry::cry::cry:
 
Get him checked for a uti again. Some dogs have them recur frequently. Sometimes a change in diet is in order if they keep coming back.
Tether him to you when he's out of his crate. Don't let him up on the furniture for now either. It will allow you to keep a closer eye on him, and he can't wander around and just find a place to pee.
 
we should get him checked again just in case, but i dont think thats the problem again, but we can check it. so what do we look for in changing his food? protein differences? fat changes? what is it that might need changed? he is on Blue buffalo (has been since we got him), does really good on the chicken and the fish formulas. tried the lamb but think he has a food sensitivity to that one. how do we keep him off the furniture? we have never been successful in that either :no:. doesnt matter how many times we take him off immediately after he jumps up, he always always always gets back on. and its not really that he wanders around to find somewhere to pee. its he will be playing and running around and very suddenly stop and let go. its like im playing, but oh no i suddenly need to pee so ill just stop now and go.
 
I would definitely get him tested again for a UTI. My dog had reoccurring UTI's and when she didn't have a UTI, she had low acidic urine. The only thing that has helped her is a vitamin C pill and a tiny pinch of d'mannose powder. The difference with her bladder was day and night. There were times where she couldn't hold it for more than 20 minutes.

Definitely talk to your vet. My vet even took an X-ray to make sure her urinary tract was normal and to look for bladder stones.

I would not allow your to dog to jump on the couch. My dog grew up being allowed on the couch, but when I got my own place, I didn't want her on the furniture. She very quickly learned she wasn't allowed on the couch anymore.

Good luck!
 
I am so sorry you are going through this. I have similar problems with our 5-1/2 month old pup (not potty but all the other things, and more) and I cry almost every day over it. I particularly hear you on the lunging at cars thing...ugh! I walk Sammy early in the morning and Hubby takes him after dark also, when there are fewer cars. I know there are many wise people on this list and I'm sure you will get the help you need. Janet
 
Psalms said:
I am so sorry you are going through this. I have similar problems with our 5-1/2 month old pup (not potty but all the other things, and more) and I cry almost every day over it. I particularly hear you on the lunging at cars thing...ugh! I walk Sammy early in the morning and Hubby takes him after dark also, when there are fewer cars. I know there are many wise people on this list and I'm sure you will get the help you need. Janet
Click to expand...

thanks Janet. this is something that im really worried about. we have made so little progress with this. it seems like no matter what i do, it doesnt work. and in a few months we will be moving. right now we are in an area that the road is not very busy at all. BUT when we move it will most likely be in a pretty busy area. i honestly dont know what we are going to do about it. we are hoping to be able to get into a house with a fenced yard (we are in an apartment right now) so we can just let him outside without needing to worry about him going after the cars. but i dont know what to do about walks and such because its almost a nightmare if 2 cars go past him at the same time. i dont want to see how he is if its a busy street.
 
I know how frustrating this must be. I have had over 13 shelties since 2006 & most are rescues I've taken. My daughter had a bad problem housebreaking her male maltese that we rescued from a puppy mill type place. We would up using a belly band on him & it did work. You might check into that for Gizmo. It's worth a shot. We had one homemade using a pattern we found online & part of a ladies mini pad. Since your sheltie is bigger you might can use a thin maxi pad as liner. Google it to see.
As for the problem with cars I had a sheltie that would chase our car up our long drive where we live in the country. Nothing would stop him so as a last resort I tried driving up & when he ran to the car to chase I had a squirt gun filled with vinegar water that I held out the window & let him have it. He was shocked & didn't like being wet or the smell. He has since greatly improved & we don't have that problem any more. I always try positive reinforcement 1st but some just don't learn easily.
There are products to keep pets off furniture. Someone I knew used crinkly plastic so when the dog jumped on there he didn't like the sound or feel of it. Some people have said use aluminum foil.

Good luck. I know it is tough when someone in the family is fed up & you're caught in the middle because you love the dog.
 
I don't have a solution -- but I can say a prayer that you will get this unraveled so Gizmo can stay. :hugs
 
I'm really sorry for all the stress and heartache you must be going through right now but don't give up, things can always get better :hugs

I'm in the process of teaching my sheltie not to jump on the couch. He is usually allowed on but its off-limits right now since we have relatives over. What has worked for me is to teach the "off" command. To do this I would say "off" and point to the ground while gently nudging him off the couch (just push him enough so he will lose balance if he doesn't go down). I don't really reward him for coming off other than saying good boy, but perhaps using treats may help. I also had the same problem with him jumping back on but it has gotten a lot better. Whenever he would try to jump back on I'd block him and say no. If he manages to hop on, say "off" then rinse and repeat until he gets the message.

I'm a sucker for puppy-dog eyes when I'm eating so I usually give in and toss him a little :o. However, I use it as an obedience session (make him sit, lie down, hands up etc). This way he knows he will get food if he waits patiently instead of begging and whining. Alternatively, if I'm eating something he cant I give him a treat like a dental chew so he is occupied. This probably isn't the best solution but it may help!

Also, I know some dogs pee themselves when they get excited. Could this be why he randomly pees during play?
 
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