Hello! I'm new to this forum. I'm here because I feel I've exhausted all the ideas I've had on housebreaking my two-year-old Belgian Malinois. She had an unfortunate accident when she was a pup that left her with a serious head injury and possibly leading to her epilepsy. She takes meds for it and has been seizure free for five months now. (Woo hoo!
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Anywho, lets get back on track...
I have had this dog for a year now and housebreaking has been a struggle. She has a crate and she's crate trained, but she'll potty in it (1 and 2) in the middle of the night or sometimes during the day when my husband and I are at work/school. The longest she's being left alone is about five hours. We take her outside every 1-2 hours when we're home, make sure she potties before bed and right when she wakes up. We have a strict feeding schedule as well that goes along with her medications. The problem persists. While she's had a UTI in the past, she shows no signs of one right now. Last vet visit she was happy and healthy as a horse.
We've tried feeding her in her kennel, shortening her kennel (It was a bit big because I thought she'd get bigger.), praise when she goes outside, moving what's left of the mess (Because she'll eat poop. Ew.) to where we want her to go in the yard, longer walks, I sometimes get up in the middle of the night just to walk her because I don't want to have to clean a mess up before work or school. She's also wicked smart and knows that the back door is where we take her out through, so when she has to go, she walks over there and makes these really ridiculous noises like, "Hey! Heeeeeeey! I really wanna go pee on the world, guys!"
She'll go through a few weeks of being super awesome and not pottying in her kennel, and then we'll find it. It's either done while we're sleeping or not home. Possible behaviors from separation anxiety? And no, we don't freak out when she potties in her kennel. I learned years ago that that only makes the issue worse. But I'm also wondering if this behavior is related to her TBI and she just forgets? She's learned basic commands and sometimes does those super well too, but other times I'll say something like "Sit" and she just stares at me like I have lobsters coming out of my ears. What do you all think? Any ideas?
)Anywho, lets get back on track...
I have had this dog for a year now and housebreaking has been a struggle. She has a crate and she's crate trained, but she'll potty in it (1 and 2) in the middle of the night or sometimes during the day when my husband and I are at work/school. The longest she's being left alone is about five hours. We take her outside every 1-2 hours when we're home, make sure she potties before bed and right when she wakes up. We have a strict feeding schedule as well that goes along with her medications. The problem persists. While she's had a UTI in the past, she shows no signs of one right now. Last vet visit she was happy and healthy as a horse.
We've tried feeding her in her kennel, shortening her kennel (It was a bit big because I thought she'd get bigger.), praise when she goes outside, moving what's left of the mess (Because she'll eat poop. Ew.) to where we want her to go in the yard, longer walks, I sometimes get up in the middle of the night just to walk her because I don't want to have to clean a mess up before work or school. She's also wicked smart and knows that the back door is where we take her out through, so when she has to go, she walks over there and makes these really ridiculous noises like, "Hey! Heeeeeeey! I really wanna go pee on the world, guys!"
She'll go through a few weeks of being super awesome and not pottying in her kennel, and then we'll find it. It's either done while we're sleeping or not home. Possible behaviors from separation anxiety? And no, we don't freak out when she potties in her kennel. I learned years ago that that only makes the issue worse. But I'm also wondering if this behavior is related to her TBI and she just forgets? She's learned basic commands and sometimes does those super well too, but other times I'll say something like "Sit" and she just stares at me like I have lobsters coming out of my ears. What do you all think? Any ideas?
