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I need any suggestions for a sad rescue!

2K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  imported_MilesMom 
#1 ·
Hello everyone!
My daughter rescued a dog that was earmarked for euthanasia after a well known dog food maker closed a plant and no longer needed that many dogs and cats that were at the facility for testing.
This poor soul is 6 years old and has lived his entire life in a kennel.He is doing remarkedly well,given his history,adjusting to life with my daughter.He is learning to trust her slowly but surely;but she has had him for only 2 months.
Here is the biggest problem: he absolutely will not pee outside at all.In the 2 months that she has had him he will only pee in his crate when she approaches it to take him out to go.She has tried no eye contact when opening the crate,she's tried special treats to get him out before he pees,she's tried taking urine soaked papertowels outside to give him the idea.
He will only pee in the crate.How does she go about trying to turn this around? It's like housebreaking in reverse-he doesn't mind peeing in the crate and he never pees outside for reward!
She's poor and cannot pay for a behaviorist and I have no suggestions.
Any thoughts or advice?
 
#3 ·
:-* bless you guys for taking him in

I don't know what size he is or if he must be crated so I have a couple of different suggestions

if he's little and it doesn't much matter - leave him penned with his crate open and he'll wee in there - slowly over time she'll catch him doing his thing outside and can praise him for it -

if it's important he may need a crate outside for now to get him going- the one he has been going in .. and NOT to be crated in the house (or crated in a COMPLETELY different style of crate)
I see a varikennel hard sided crate in my mind - if thats the case - you can make it less crate like slowly - remove the door, then the top then have just a tray

does this make any sense?

she will get there - I have had dogs I have DISPARED of ever being clean (or close to clean) and sometimes the thinking has to get pretty ingenious but so far we've always managed ...
 
#4 ·
I like Tannersmom's suggestion and think that can work.

Go with what's already working and introduce something into that situation which the dog can learn to pee on. Once that happens, you can then move the new thing to the desired place.

For instance, introduce something (newspaper?) into the crate so the dog learns to pee on that. After a bit (maybe 2 weeks?) when peeing on the paper is well established, move the newspaper just outside of the crate. Once she can get peeing on the newspaper outside of the crate, then she can gradually move the newspaper outside. Once outside, the newspaper can be made smaller and smaller.

It will help a lot to keep a schedule of when the normal times for peeing are if at all possible.
 
#5 ·
wow this one totally stumps me but I think a good christmas gift idea would be a good clicker training book. My friend works in a research facility and she has introduced the clicker to many of the animals and it seems to work wonders especially for building trust
 
#6 ·
Does he/she need to be crated? I would ditch the crate (for now) in favor of an ex-pen set up instead. I would imagine this guy has been kept in a crate his/her whole life, so doesn't know that there are other option s in terms of eliminating. Removing the crate (I think) would throw the dog off just enough that it would give you an opportunity to show him/her that eliminating outside is an option. That's a bad way of putting it, but I've been writing papers all day and my brain is fried. :ugly:
 
#8 ·
thanks for all the ideas! You are correct in thinking that this dog has been kenneled all of its life;I'm sure that he doesn't know any other way to go.After speaking with my daughter, he also seems to be submissive peeing when she approaches him to let him out of the crate.My daughter tried to keep him contained in her kitchen when she goes to work,but he breaks out and then gets into mischief by chewing on things that are forbidden.And if she walks by the crate he sometimes will pee;I'm sure that he must be afraid! However,he seeks people out for petting when he is out of the crate and seems to like the attention.
 
#9 ·
How long have you guys tried to keep him outside? What I am thinking is maybe if you guys have a large field somewhere she can take him there with some water and play with him for awhile. Let him drink water, run around, sniff, explore whatever even if it is just laying down on the blanket with him just wait for him to have to use the bathroom. When he does praise, praise, praise and treat make sure he knows it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It may take a couple of days to get him used to this but he will start to realize that going outside is a good thing. Just a thought.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for all your suggestions!
To answer your question about how long we have waited for him to pee outside -this dog has held urine for 48hours.I am not making this up!So to out wait him is fruitless.My daugther is attempting to train him to piddle pads and took his crate away and just has him in the kitchen area.She has had limited success-she has to kind of drag him to the pad when he starts to go-if she takes him immediately outside like you would normally do with housebreaking he doesn't go again for literally hours. I don't know if she can ever train this;she is starting to get very discouraged.This is her first dog;she wanted to do something good for all the rescues out there.She has had him for 3 months now with little sucess.
I told her that maybe the best thing for him would be to rehome him with someone with more knowledge and is home more,but no shelters is our area will take him because of his issues.
 
#12 ·
Dog learn by repetition and he has learned for a long time to go in the crate. I am sure with consistency and patience he will learn to go outside, the training pads and newspaper inside are a good start. Remember he is fluent in peeing in the crate, so thi sbehaviour needs to be extinquished. I am not sure if there is a thread on extinction in this forum but there is one on clicker solutions .com I would suggest getting a private lesson with a trainer that uses all positive reinforcement. If there is a clicker trainer in your area I would try to get an in home lesson with them. Could be a great Christmas gift. The worse thing you could do is rehome a rescue dog as the more often they are rehomed the more unwanted behaviours occur. If the dog has learned the behaviour over years then it is going to take a while to reteach a new behaviour. It is a trainign exercise the same as Sit, Down or Come. I work with a lot of rescues and I have seen way too many end up in shelters because they pee in the house. I know from experienc ethat this can be frustrating to most owners but patience will pay off.
Hope you can find a clicker trainer in your area that can help you with this.
 
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