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Potty issues- help!

5 posts, 2 voices

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Participants in this thread:	khrystel73 Kelly Dunbar
khrystel73 3 posts	I have a 4 month old Red Heeler. She’s been doing pretty good with the potty training. About 2 or 3 weeks ago she started peeing when it was time to go outside. Usually if she need to go pee, she will whine either at us, or at the front door- great!! When we go to take her outside, we tell her to sit, put the collar on her to go out, and have her sit when she comes back in to take it off. One day when we told her to sit, she sat, and proceded to pee (while sittin, not squatting). We’d tell her no and rush her outside where she would finish her peeing. To answer the question tha may come next, she is not doing a excited to go outside thing and piddling, she’s just calmly sitting there as she’s peeing. We have a crate for her that she has no problem with, and, in fact, can be in there all night without a single accident. We decided that since she won’t pee in her crate, or on her bed, we would start putting her collar and leash on her while she was in there, then take her out. This seemed to fix the problem until a couple of days later she peed ON her bed. We took the bed out (as it was now soaked and needed to be washed), and have not put it back in there, because she continues to pee in there. We will open the door, or try to call her out (to hope she won’t pee in there anymore) to put the leash on her outside her crate, and she will sit there calmly and pee anyway before coming out. We have made loud noises to try to startle her to stop, and that doesn’t always work either. Once the leash is on her, no more accidents and she will stand there and wait for us to open the door so she can finish peeing outside. Sorry for writing so much, just wanted to give as much detail I could. A friend did sugggest putting a small amount of sage in her food ecause it will normally contract the bladder show she would have to make more effort to pee, but I’ve never heard of this before, so I don’t know if she is correct..what do you think? I’m so frusterated!! HELP!
Kelly Dunbar Berkeley, CA 39 posts	I understand your frustration. It is good that you are trying to nip this in the bud right away, and thanks for the details. I saw the photo of your girl and she is adorable! It could be a few of different things: 1. She is still very young and may be able to hold it in her crate, when her body is resting her metabolism slows down, and she doesn’t need to pee. However, as soon as she is awake and activated, her still very immature sphincter muscles can’t physically hold it for very long. The fact that she is able to hold it for a long time in a crate is good, but it also may mean that when she finally wakes up it is a time sensitive emergency! You may want to try to shorten the amount of time she is asked to hold it even if she is good at in her crate and not having accidents. 2. You do mention that she is not doing the wiggly, excited pee, and thank you for bringing that up, but she may be urinating out of appeasement. You have a lot of structure around her toilet break, and ultimately that is good, however it may be too much too soon for such a young (and possibly sensitive) gal. What is your tone when you ask her to sit at the door? If your tone is harsh or commanding, when you say sit it may be enough to make her try to appease you because she perceives your tone as angry. Or it may intimidate her just enough to lose her barely functioning bladder sphincter control while she concentrates on you. (the doggy equivalent of walking and chewing gum at the same time) Additionally, bending over and looming while you put her collar on may also be perceived as intimidating and add to, or cause the same problem as above. I suspect it is a combination of the two. And if you have tried to startle her and are getting frustrated it will exacerbate the situation. It sounds like it is becoming a self-fulling prophecy and a vicious circle. There is now stress around the routine of coming out of the crate and putting the collar on. She gets upset and pees, you get upset, which upsets her more, etc. Suggested solution: Ease up on her a bit and help her to succeed. She is still very young. As she gets older she’ll have more bladder control, but full sphincter control doesn’t come until around 6 – 8 months of age. In the meantime I would ignore any peeing that happens when you try to get her out of her crate, collar and leash her, or bend over to pick her up. —I know, it sounds crazy, but the only way to make her feel better about those scenarios is to break the cycle and ease her anxiety. Gently coax her out of the crate, or better yet, open the crate door, step back a few feet, and turn away from her (towards the door to outside) and start walking away while happily calling her to follow. Don’t loom or pressure her, don’t even look at her, but rather look towards where you’d like her to go. When she comes out quietly and happily praise her and nonchalantly scoop her up (pick her up) and carry her outside. Put her collar and leash on while you are holding her or once you get outside place her down, have her sit, and quickly and quietly put in on out there if it is safe to do so. Do this for a month or so, carrying her outside and not pressuring her to perform or sit at the door, or until she is consistently not peeing when you let her out of her crate. Whichever comes second. You don’t want to move to the next level too soon. Then gradually reintroduce your routine but with lots of praise and encouragement. Throughout the process ALWAYS reward her with a food treat and gentle praise for going pee outside. Best of luck! Let us know how it goes.
khrystel73 3 posts	Thank you so much, and we will try it! At this point we are willing to try anything, however I’m aftaid if I pick her up, she will pee on me (It’s happened before).
Kelly Dunbar Berkeley, CA 39 posts	She might pee on you, if she does, try not to react. It sounds crazy, but if she is stressed the best way to get her over it is to build her confidence. Better a little bit of pee now than a long term problem. And please remember, she is not being bad, appeasement urination is a reflect response. And she is too young to have full sphincter control. Hang in there!
khrystel73 3 posts	Okay! We’ll give it a try. Thank you so much!! Oh, and before I forget, have you heard about the Sage thing I talked about earlier? I’m not planning on doing that, but I’ve never heard of it before.
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