HELP! Zoe is DRIVING us nuts!!

[4theloveofzoe]

The first week that we got Zoe she was such a good girl. NEVER had ANY accidents on the floor. And now... Since my daughter's accident, she urinates on the floor all the time and defecates too. We'll take her for her walks several times a day and it just seems like she waits until she's in the house and then does it. GRRRR It's getting so bad with her, that I'm ready to trade her in for an older model. And I don't want to do that. But her relieving herself on the floor isn't HEALTHY for my 2 year old.

HELP!!!!!

[CagneyDog]

Maybe she is just really stressed out with all that happened? I'm sorry, I'm not much help

[Oggyflute]

I know how you feel. Oggy & Flute were house trained extremely quickly, maybe two weeks I suppose. Possum on the other hand took a lot longer. You just have to keep with it. Take her out after feeding, and as soon as you get up in the morning etc. She will come good I'm sure.

[buttercup132]

sorry to say it but thats trhe joys of owning a pup and scince you daughter had a acident she starts just the same with cats if one pees outside of the box they all do it...keep scolding her and once shes don it put her outside so she knows

[Ginger's Mom]

There are other people on here that are better at training than I am, but I just had a few thoughts that I wanted to share. My first dog was a little over a year old, and was fully housebroken and knew basic commands when she came to live with me. For the first month she was a complete angel. However, after that first month she started doing things she shouldn't (chewing up all of my shoes, destroying boxes of tissues). Peaches and I had a three month power struggle, while we tried to correct some of these behaviors. But after three months she was back to being the perfect angel, and was the best little companion in the world. I am saying this to say, don't give up. You have seen what a good dog she really is, and know what she can do. My best advise would be to keep an eye on her constantly when she is loose in the house like you would a puppy. When she starts to squat take her outside. When you are not home, crate her. It may help to keep a leash on her when you are home so that you can just grab it to take her out (I would not leave it on her unattended, because I would be afraid that it would get caught on something). Good luck, and hang in there.

[binka_nugget]

If she isn't be crate trained, you might want to consider it. It takes advantage of the dog's natural instinct. Dogs automatically know not to soil their own den (their den being the crate). During Kai's first night, he had made a mess in his crate. But after that first night, he was perfect in his crate. When she's not in the crate, she should be with you. It'll take you much longer to house train her if she isn't in your sight at all times. An easy way to deal with this is attaching her leash to your belt loop.

What do you do when you find a mess that she has made? It's important to clean the area thoroughly as she will most likely soil the same area if the scent is still there (I've heard that Nature's Miracle works very well for this).

It's also important that you don't scold her if you don't catch her in the act. She won't know what you're talking about. But if you do catch her in the act, a quick, stern "No!" is all that's needed. Then you can take her out immediately and praise (whether or not she does her business outside). When I was house training Kai, I focused a lot on the positive. Whenever he did his business outside, I acted like I won the lottery (sure, I looked nuts to the neighbors..LOL) and he usually got a treat.

Hang in there! Some dogs take a couple days to house train, some dogs take weeks (or months). I know how fustrating it is.. it seemed like Kai went every 20 seconds when he was a pup. It took a good solid 9 months before I could fully trust him in the house. Trust me, all the hard work will pay off!

[BitsyNaceyDog]

Ashley said everything I was going to say.

Yes, Nature's Miracle works great. I swear by it.

[RobiLee]

You have gotten some good advice. My best advice would be to constantly take Zoe out to potty. Take her out all the time and when she does potty give her lots and lots of praise. Make a really big deal out of it. Hopefull she will start to get the hang of it soon. Good luck!

[finn's mom]

I would definitely get a crate. They are amazing training tools, and, become the dog's safe spot. Whatever you do, never use the crate for punishment, though. The way I potty trained Finn was to ignore when he went inside and praise him like crazy when he went outside. You cannot discipline them (with the exception, as Ashley said, of a quick NO) especially if you haven't caught them in the act.

When I potty trained my friend's husky, I carried a bag of food with me always. He was extremely food driven. So, I put a portion of his daily ration of dog food in a bag and every time he peed or pooed, he got a couple pieces. You could try that.

Also, running the dog and really playing and getting their bodies moving will oftentimes make them have to go the bathroom. If I'm running short on time, I will jog Finn up the driveway and back, and, it almost never fails that he will poop when we slow down.

And, I think I mentioned this before, the first week is not always indicative of how a dog will act overall. The first week is really strange for the dog, and, they may not act "themselves" until they get comfortable. And, especially since your daughter was injured, Zoe may be stressing out about that. Has she been getting less attention, maybe, since your daughter was hurt? I mean, just pulling this scenario out of my head, since I don't know all the details...

But, maybe she's not getting the attention she's used to because you all are understandably spending a lot of time with your injured child...and, maybe not taking her out enough or for long enough...and, if you are disciplining Zoe or making a big deal of it when she goes inside...she may be doing it for attention. Keep this sortof "golden rule" in mind...negative attention is STILL attention.

I hope you're not seriously considering getting rid of her for exhibiting normal puppy behaviors, we can all help you with advice and training tips. Getting a puppy requires a lot of training and time and patience. These may be annoyances, but, they can be worked on. Getting an older dog doesn't guarantee that everything will be peachy, there may be problems with an adult dog that you didn't have with Zoe. And, those are oftentimes harder to fix or train the dog out of, because they are older. Please give the puppy another chance and try some of these tips out. Exhaust the options before giving her up! Please?

[poofy]

I just want to wish you luck..I havent had to do this my self, and will be starting it with Yoley this friday when I bring her home..so good luck to us both..

[buttercup132]

omg im so sorry i thought you ment your daughter had a bathroom accident not a real accident im so sorry , but maybe zoey is being bad because shes feeling a little left out or something

[Kfamr]

Again, sorry because I have not read the whole thread as to what everyone else as suggestions.

Crate training is a must with most puppies and a life saver. It's a very good method and if you want some good crate training tips, i'm sure several people here would have plenty.

Also - Puppies need to be taken to go potty, A LOT! After playing, after sleeping, after eating - those are the peak times because that's when their systems get up and going strong.

Maybe at times if you can't keep all eyes on her, keep her in a tiled area with baby gates - tiled because it'd be a lot easier to clean up and she can't destroy the tile. (I learned the hard way when Nala ripped up our carpet as a pup!)

Also, when she does go potty outside - PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE! May seem silly to be happy over potties, but that really makes them happy and realize that they've done good! Maybe if she has a favorite special toy, a favorite treat, keep those on hand when you go outside. That way that can be something special for her going outside. Also, whenever I brought my dogs out as pups I said "Go Potty" - That way they learned to potty on command if you're in a hurry. Sometimes Kiara will even squat outside for a few seconds and try and trick me if she wants to hurry up and go back inside.


Good luck and I hope you're successful!