Potty Training - Paw Talk

damsel911 · #1 04-08-2008, 10:23 AM

Has anyone else ever had problems with a dog "forgetting" their house training after a pregnancy?

Emily is a 2+ year old mother of 7 puppies (Australian Shepherd). She gave birth 3 weeks ago and about a week ago started having accidents every single night (always pees, sometimes poops). We closely monitor her food and water intake and we no longer allow her access to water immediately before bed. She's always had housebreaking issues, but usually it's rather infrequent. I guess now that I've typed it out, I wonder if it's not a UTI. Any other thoughts?

jessicakfifield · #2 04-08-2008, 02:01 PM

Could she have stones?

Angelnstuff · #3 04-08-2008, 03:01 PM

Has she been to the vet for a checkup since shes had her pups? If it had started right after she had them i would think it was because she was afraid to leave them or something, but since it didnt start till a week later, you might want to take her in and have her checked by a vet.

marmilla · #4 04-08-2008, 05:14 PM

Yeah, I would say that's probably not "forgetting" and more some sort of health issue that is making her go. Maybe you can call the vet and ask to see if he/she has any ideas. It would be good to rule out nothing medical too, then you can work on retraining if that's the issue.

damsel911 · #5 04-16-2008, 07:17 AM

So we've determined that it's not a health issue, but it's continued to go on for two weeks now.

Last night we let her out at 10:30 or 11 before we went to bed, and I was upset enough when I thought she wasn't willing to hold it til 5am when I get up (and actually she woke me up a few minutes earlier than that), but then I talk to Nicholas and he got up and let her out at 2am for 20 minutes!! So, in reality, she refuses to hold it for 3 hours...

I swear when the puppies are weaned, she's going outside at night.

Mallory · #6 04-16-2008, 08:33 AM

I dunno that its okay to hold food and water for long when she's feeding pups, but instead of pulling up the food and water immediately before going to bed, how about pulling it up a few hours earlier?

If not, perhaps you can try to paper train her? I know she's bigger than most "paper trained" type dogs, but if it'll be easier to keep under control its probably worth a shot... Then when she's steady with the paper training, you can slowly move the paper away over a period of time, getting her more comfortable getting up and going away from the pups to get relief.

Good luck with it!

damsel911 · #7 04-16-2008, 08:58 AM

That's one of the most frustrating parts, she's not afraid of leaving the pups. In fact, I could stand to see her with them more often (but I'm sure she needs to be separating from them seeing as they should be weaned soon).

The weirdest part is it seems that if we leave the lights on she only pees, but if we turn the lights off she does both.

And when I say immediately, we feed her when we get home from work ~5. And I make sure she doesn't have water for a couple hours.

But, I love the paper part, didn't think of that... that would be infinitely better than chasing pee all over the floor. I could stand to just clean up paper! THANK YOU MAL, I honestly think you just saved my sanity!

marmilla · #8 04-16-2008, 09:59 AM

I always leave the lights and radio on for my pups. Maybe she's having some sort of separation anxiety? Is she confined to a certain room at night? I leave the pups in the kitchen for easy clean up. I hope the pee mats work!

Mallory · #9 04-16-2008, 12:00 PM

I wouldn't have suggested it normally, because I guess I figure paper training is easier for smaller toy-ish sized dogs... But I was quickly corrected on that theory when I brought home Boudreaux, my Great Dane. He was already 50 something pounds, and his breeder had him paper trained! I was seriously astonished... I never thought this huge puppy he was could grasp to pee on a sheet of newspaper. xD But he did! And he did it well until I house trained him; I sure wouldn't try it these days! LOL

damsel911 · #10 04-18-2008, 10:15 AM

Thank you all so very much! I put an old ratty towel in the area that she pees and viola, all I have to do is wash it. And I thought about the separation anxiety... at first dismissed it because she was separated from Zeus but the dates didn't line up. Well, I thought what the heck, I'll put them back together (despite Nicholas' fear of breeding, she shouldn't come back in heat for another month or two, if I remember correctly). So, the first night I didn't think she'd done anything and was ecstatic! Only to figure out that the towel did it's job... but that's still a step up! Well, last night she held it!! *happy dance*

Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was going to lose my mind. THANK YOU GUYS!!

HappyDancer · #11 04-18-2008, 03:53 PM

I am glad something is working...my older dog had a few mishaps with not being able to hole it, the vet told me to give him his big meal in the morning and a snack at around 6 and then to take the water away 2 hours before I go to bed...I never did any of that though lol I just set my alarm for 2 am to let him out and that works lol