Dakota didn't come to us as well trained as our other dog pound dog...
Adult dogs, especially ones who've been abandoned by their owners, have unique needs. Dakota came to us as a problem dog. Here's her story, and some of the techniques we've used to potty train her...
In the beginning, total chaos
(I didn't know a dog could pee that much)
In Part I - Training an Adult Problem Dog we introduced you to Dakota, the 7 month old problem dog we had adopted from the dog pound. Dakota had been through five homes in 7 months counting two stints at the dog pound. Dakota was a Yo-Yo dog.
Potty training a Yo-Yo dog is a very challenging task. They are highly stressed from being bounced from home to home. They live in the fear of it happening again. And what does a stressed dog do? It pees.
Dakota had the secondary problem of being a nervous pee-er. If she was stressed, she peed. If she was excited, she peed. If you raised your voice one iota, she peed. If she was mad at you, she peed. If the urge struck, she peed. While putting the leash on to take her out to pee, she peed. Every time.
Our first weeks with Dakota were a nightmare round of hauling out the carpet shampooer and scrubbing the garage floor. We didn't have a crate so on work days she was relegated to a confined portion of the garage.
We hadn't expected this level of commitment being told she was housebroken when we adopted her. You'd think that the days she spent in the garage would be easier on us but they were actually harder, and a LOT more work than the carpet shampooer.
Dakota dumped incredible quantities of poop when she was in the garage and she smeared it everywhere. Every single thing in her reach would be covered with poop by the time we got home from work, including Dakota herself. Amazingly, she did not do this in the house, only the garage. Maybe the garage felt more like the dog pound to her with the cement floor. Maybe not being in the house where her comfort zone was stressed her out. Who knows?
In addition, she destroyed her water bowl. We didn't put her good one out with her, we put a butter bowl full of water out for her when we left. As soon as we were out of sight she'd tip the water bowl over and proceed to chew the butter bowl into a million little pieces. Everything we tried to do for her was a tug of war... we tried to do something good for her and she turned it into a nightmare.
Don't kill the dog
(You mean that wild-eyed bucking bronco wallowing in a sea of dog poop?)
My commute to work is an hour and a half each way, so after working all day and then battling traffic for an hour and a half I'd come home to Dakota and the alien world she'd created in the garage covered with poop and pee. Every evening before I could relax I had to scrub down the garage floor with a long handled scrubber and a hose, and then wash every single thing that had been in her reach. Dried dog poop on a cement floor doesn't come off easily, it turns into a superglued cement and no amount of scrubbing would get it all. But at least after that first day when she'd smeared herself, she wasn't getting on her anymore.
I have no doubt whatsoever that if anybody else had adopted her she'd have been back at the dog pound after the first week. There aren't many people willing to commit themselves the way we had to commit to Dakota. We were utterly miserable but we were also determined. I knew what Dakota's ultimate fate would be if we failed her, and it wasn't a good one. Besides, Dakota was actually great fun, she had a unique personality and you couldn't help but love her. In her good moments she was utterly charming and she made us laugh a lot.
You have to see this from Dakota's point of view. Most people don't see it from a dog's perspective and that truly helps in training your dog and understanding them. Dakota had been bounced from home to home for 7 months, had been at the dog pound twice, and we were total strangers to her. She'd only been with us a few days when we left her in the garage. She had no idea if we were coming back or if this was another abandonment. She had no reason to trust us. Everybody else who had passed through her life had let her down. Dakota had to learn to trust in her new family unit and this would take time.
So off I'd go to work leaving my husband a sticky note: "Don't kill the dog!" Being the first one home he had to encounter this wild-eyed bucking bronco literally mad with frenzy. And he had to traverse this minefield of puddles and poop to free her, and somehow maneuver this madman of a dog through the minefield and out into the yard.
The cleanup was my job when I got home and I spent an hour every evening scrubbing and hosing and washing toys, bones and other dog paraphernalia. Dakota was a LOT of work those first weeks.
Dakota's trip to hell
(Our once happy dog hung her head low in abject misery and I cried...)
Five weeks after we adopted Dakota we went out of town for a week and boarded her. Normally we don't board our dogs, we either take them with us or we find a local helper to come to our home and care for the dogs. But Dakota was such a nightmare we couldn't do either one, so off she went to the boarding kennel.
She arrived at the kennel with head high and tail wagging, happily awaiting the new adventure. Dakota was a happy dog. We'd plucked her from the dog pound and a life of revolving doors and brought her into a place of comfort and food and spent a lot of time with her. Even when she was in trouble she was happy and we dubbed her Dakota the Undauntable. She enjoyed her newfound home and family and even if we were mad at her she didn't mind it, life was good from her perspective. She lived in the house with us in comfort, had another dog to torment, had food and water and toys and bones to chew on, and people who loved her. For Dakota, life was very very good.
Our other dog, Gypsy Rose, went on the great adventure with us, being a road trip of several hundred miles. We waved goodbye to Dakota and off we went for a week. I agonized the entire week, I could not relax and enjoy the trip for worry over Dakota. I hated to do this to her knowing that the boarding kennel would feel like another dog pound abandonment to her, but there wasn't much I could have done differently, or so I thought.
Finally back home again we went to collect Dakota from the dog kennel. The change in her was so profound that I cried. Her head was down low in abject misery, her tail tucked between her legs, her demeanor was totally beaten down when they brought her down the hallway toward us. She hadn't seen us yet and she was shaking badly. Her whole body was trembling in fear and misery. She absolutely thought she'd been abandoned again and for Dakota, the week had been absolute, pure hell.
Our happy dog had morphed into the most miserable dog you could imagine. On top of that she came back to us literally crawling with fleas and transmitted them to our other dog. Now we had two flea-bitten dogs going mad with itching and our flea treatments weren't working. So every night I had a new job in addition to the scrubbing of the garage... picking fleas off the dogs.
I tormented myself over what we'd done to Dakota by boarding her. What could we have done differently? I found the answer. We got her a dog crate. If we'd bought it before the trip she could have come with us. It would have been far better for her to be with us even if she had to spend the whole week in the crate. Either way she was in a cage, right? It would have been better than the boarding kennel. She would not have felt abandon, she would not have gotten fleas (and possibly worms), and she would have been with us.
The dog crate
(Gift from the gods...)
I'm not a big fan of locking a dog in a box. Gypsy Rose has full run of the house and she's a dreamboat. But the crate opened up a whole new world for Dakota, and for her this was a positive change. The dog crate allowed Dakota to stay in the house when we were at work. This was more in her comfort zone. Gypsy Rose was close by and Dakota could see and smell her home so she wasn't as panicky. She didn't feel the abandonment fear that the garage left her with. It didn't feel like a dog pound.
We got a good size one for her not knowing how big she'd get and wanting to be able to use it when we travel with her. Ours had a divider so you could make it smaller inside if it was too big for the dog. It also had three doors and folded into a suitcase. The dog crate fit perfectly in the backseat of the truck (the seat folds down) and having a door on each end allowed us to put Dakota in and out without taking the crate out of the truck. This would be perfect for road trips and the crate was big enough to put both Dakota and Gypsy Rose in for the hours on the road.
The dog crate was a pivotal moment in Dakota's progress. Dakota did not poop or pee in the crate. She actually held it in all day long on our work days. No more did I have to spend an hour scrubbing down the garage every night. Dakota was happier, more at peace, and we had a solution for our next road trip.
Potty training a problem dog
(Adrift in a sea of dog pee, I saw a glimmer of hope...)
Now that we solved the workday problem we were back to Dakota's bad habit of peeing in the house when she wasn't in the crate, which was anytime we were home with her. Dakota didn't give a lot of warning before she peed. She didn't sniff around and look for the perfect place. She simply stopped in mid-stride without warning, squatted and peed all in about one second. She was that quick.
We had already trained her to pee outside every time we took her out which was often during those first weeks and months. We used food to bribe her. Dakota had an insatiable craving for food and we used this in her training. We bought a bag of dog food different from her normal food with bigger pieces and a different flavor, and when she peed outdoors we'd give her a piece of food as a reward. This was in addition to her normal portions so it was extra for her. You'd think it was a hunk of steak the way she coveted that potty treat. She learned very quickly to pee outdoors, anything for that potty treat. Trouble was, she still peed indoors.
The dog experts pretty much all agree that it's better to train your dog with a reward system than a fear system so we tried to focus on the potty treats. We made it clear to her that we were not pleased when she peed indoors but we had to be very careful not to yell, because the slightest raise of voice stressed her out and made her pee again. It was difficult. Even when she knew we were taking her out she'd get excited and it just came out before we could actually get her through the door. We gave a stern NO when she slipped up, immediately took her out and if she peed again outdoors, she got a reward. I hated giving her that potty treat if she'd peed in the house first, I felt like I was rewarding her for bad behavior. But I was following the advice from the dog experts.
The hardest times were coming home from work after Dakota had held it all day. She was fully loaded. We kept the dog crate next to the door in the hopes of getting her out of the house before she let loose. In the beginning, it didn't work. The minute her feet cleared the door to the crate the pee was coming out. But we continued on out to the yard, her peeing all the way down the stairs, and took her to the pee pee spot, where she peed even more.
There were times it felt hopeless, where we thought we'd never get her to stop peeing indoors. Last night before going to bed I'd re-read Part I that I wrote ten weeks ago and woke up this morning with a head full of words to share. I was afraid I'd forget them so I jumped out of bed and came in here to write them down quickly before they went away. For the first time ever, I did NOT take Dakota out first. We've now had her for10 months putting her at 17 months old. Dakota did not pee in the house even though I did not rush her out the door. She held it. That shows incredible progress for her.
In 10 months Dakota has progressed from peeing many, many times a day in the house to maybe once or twice a month. We no longer keep the carpet shampooer out in the middle of the floor ready to fire up. Dakota has truly made incredible progress. Before long she will be accident free. I have total faith in this. Maybe State Farm will give me an additional accident free discount...
Tricks of the trade
(Empty the dog...)
What are some of the things we've done in trying to break her of peeing in the house? Remember what made Dakota pee in the house in the first place... Dakota was a nervous pee-er. If she was stressed, she peed. If she was excited, she peed. If you raised your voice one iota, she peed. If she was mad at you, she peed. If the urge struck, she peed. While putting the leash on to take her out to pee, she peed. Every time.
Location, location: We kept her dog crate next to the door to minimize the time it took to get her out the door after she'd held it all day.
Potty treats: We rewarded her with potty treats when she peed outdoors. We had to give her so many potty treats that we didn't use fancy schmancy expensive treats, we used pieces of dog food. The dog food was a different flavor and with bigger pieces than her normal food. We kept a bowl of potty treats near the back door.
She has come to expect a potty treat for peeing outdoors. When we come back in she sits next to the door and waits for it. I toss it to her and she catches it in midair. I've used potty treats as a way to teach her "catch" so she now knows the word "catch".
Rubbing her nose in it: Yes, on a few occasions we attempted to rub her nose in the pee even though the dog experts tell you not to. When we knew she was doing it out of spite we tried to rub her nose in it. But you just try to take a 60 pound dog and force their nose to the floor when they stiffen their legs and use every muscle against you. Good luck with that.
Water restriction: In the beginning we restricted her water intake. I searched hi and lo for specific recommendations on how much water we should be giving her. While it was easy to find info on how much food, no place would tell me how much water. One of the dog shows had an episode on dogs peeing in the house and the dog in question was a little bitty dog. The owner's provided the dog with a full bowl of water at all times and the dog expert held up a small glass and said: "This is the size of your dog's bladder." She then lined up how many glasses of water the dog actually drank in a day. "And this is how much water you are giving him. How can you expect him to hold all these glasses of water with his tiny little bladder?"
Dakota's water bowl holds two 8 oz. glasses of water. I have no idea how big her bladder is, only that she's about 60 lbs. I weigh more than twice that and I probably consume 6-8 glasses of liquid in a day, or less. So at most Dakota should be getting 3-4 glasses full by my estimation.
In the beginning I'd give her about 8 oz. in the morning and 8 oz. in the early evening on workdays (when we'd be gone all day). On days at home when I could take her out to pee more often I'd give her an additional 4 oz. or so about midday. I didn't give her any after dinner because I wanted to be sure she was empty before bedtime.
As time passed and she learned to hold it, I increased the quantity. If I increased it too much and she peed on the carpet, the next day I'd go to a smaller quantity again. It was trial and error. If I gave her * this much * she would pee, if I gave her * that much * she wouldn't.
Today, after 10 months of potty training I am giving her 3-4 big glasses full on days at home and 2-2.5 glasses full on days at work. To put this in perspective I work out of the house 2 days a week and at home 3 days a week. So five days a week I am able to take her out an empty her allowing me to give her a lot more water those five days.
Paper training and pee pads: We did not attempt to paper train her or teach her to pee on pee pads. We considered this to be counter-productive. The objective was to retrain her to pee outside, not to train her to pee inside. Paper training and pee pad training teach your dog to pee indoors. While this might be okay for a very small dog who pees in tiny little quantities, it would be disastrous for a big dog like Dakota, especially when we were trying to break her of the indoor habit.
You're with me: In those early days I kept Dakota with me at all times. I literally made her follow me around the house as I did things. If I was going upstairs I'd hook my finger in her collar and guide her up the stairs with me saying, "You're with me." I did this a lot. The goal was to keep her under supervision at all times so that I could keep an eye on her. That way if she showed signs of potty (or any other bad behaviour) I could immediately nip it in the bud. This was pretty effective overall in her training. It also produced an unexpected result. She learned the command "you're with me" simply by repetition. I wasn't trying to teach her the words. I just simply said them anytime I made her stay with me and now, anytime I go up the stairs she immediately follows. It has become her habit to follow me up the stairs. She has also learned my very predictable routine and knows that on certain days she is going to spend the day upstairs with me. I stay in the office, she usually snoozes in the bedroom. She has graduated to not needing constant supervision and has freedom of whatever floor I am on.
Go directly to jail, do not pass go: If she peed out of excitement or stress, we did not punish her. We made it clear we were displeased but we did not put any consequences onto it. However, if she peed out of spite we took her out, let her finish the job outdoors, and then put her in the dog crate for an hour or so as a form of jail time for bad behavior. The dog experts tell you not to ever use the dog crate as a punishment so we went against their advice on this one. But those first months were so bad, her problem was so severe, that we simply tried every method we knew of to break this bad habit of hers. And that's exactly what it is, a very bad habit.
How can you tell what kind of pee it is? How can you tell the difference between stress pee, excited pee, and spiteful pee? Consider the circumstances that led up to it. If you're playing ball with your dog in the house and she's frolicking happily, and squats and pees, this is an excited pee. If you walk in the door after being gone many hours and she pees, this is an excited pee. If she has done something wrong and you just chastised her, it might be a stress pee or it might be a spiteful pee.
We learned to read Dakota. We can look at her and tell you if she is stressed, happy, or mad at us. Her body language is very clear. If she is stressed her eyes are worried and she is breathing hard, and she is trying to figure out how to please us. If she is mad her demeanor is full of attitude, bad attitude, and it shows. The spiteful pees almost always occurred if she'd been bullying Gypsy Rose and got in trouble for it.
Don't get her over-excited in the house: To cut down on the excited potty accidents we did not play with her in the house. We did not throw the ball or wrestle with her, we did not do anything with her in the house that got her all revved up and excited. The goal was to remove the reasons she did it in the house to give us time to create better potty habits in her. We hated not playing with her indoors but there was just no way around it, at least not in the beginning.
About all we could do for her in the house was to give her chew toys to keep her busy. She went through a lot of chewies. We gave her big, hard bones, and humungous rawhide bones, and hooves to chew on. The dog experts are also against all of these chewies but for Dakota it was necessary. But that's a subject for another dog tale.
As her potty accidents became less and less frequent we gradually began playing with her briefly indoors. But always first we'd take her out. We called this Emptying the Dog. She was never truly empty but it helped. I've never seen a dog that could pee as much as Dakota can. She stays fully loaded. We'd play with her for a brief few moments and then stop before she got to the pee point and we'd take her out again. The back door became a revolving door, in and out and in and out as we tried to keep her as empty as possible.
I worried that we were taking her out too much and that she was using this to get a potty treat.
Who dictates potty time: Dakota adopted the habit of sitting by the back door if she wanted out to pee. This was a sticky point. On the one hand we wanted her to learn that potty outdoors was the only good potty. On the other hand I did not want to teach Dakota to be a bothersome boss dog, dictating her potty times to me. I wanted Dakota to learn that if she is indoors, she does not potty, ever, and to hold it for when we take her outdoors. I wanted her to learn that outdoors was on my timetable, not hers. So this was a sticky point. We sort of compromised on this one. In the evenings when we are watching TV we do honor her requests to go out. But under no circumstances did I allow her to wake me up or disturb me during work at home hours. I'd rather let her do it and chastise her than teach her that bad habit. Funny thing is, she never did it during those times I didn't want her to. She held it.
During the night: During the night those first weeks I got up 2-3 times to go pee myself. This is normal for me. So when I got up for my own needs I threw on a bathrobe and took her out. Even during those worst first weeks she never once peed in the bedroom at night even though she had total freedom in the bedroom at night. This amazed me. Gradually I stopped. Once I saw that she seemed willing to hold it at night I cut back from 3 to 2 and then later from 2 to 1, then to none.
So she held it all night during sleep hours, and she held it all day if she was in the dog crate. She also held it when I was working at home and taking her out when it was convenient for me. Why was she so all-fired willing to let loose during the evening hours? This was baffling. I don't think there's a square inch of carpet that hasn't been shampooed by now. I don't think there's a spot she has missed. The biggest difference in the evening hours is that she goes into play mode and has access to Gypsy Rose. She goes into higher gear. She's also more likely to get into trouble and be chastised for something.
Go pee pee: I used the phrase "go pee pee" every time she peed outdoors, and the phrase "go poopie" every time she pooped. She quickly learned the meaning of those words. This allowed me to take her out, tell her "go pee pee" and she understood what I wanted. The more words your dog learns the better relationship you will have. You need to be able to communicate with your dog. You have to be able to tell them what you want, otherwise they won't know how to please you. I also taught her "No" as an overall word of disapproval for whatever she was doing. This let me communicate to her that potty in the house was bad.
How long does it take to potty train an adult dog?
(Or... when can I put the mop away?)
The dog experts tell you that potty training a puppy takes two weeks, and it can be up to six weeks for an adult dog. We did not find this true with Dakota, even with her level of intelligence it took many months to retrain her to pee outdoors. While she quickly learned to pee outdoors, and to pee on command outdoors, she still slipped up every time she was excited or stressed which was often those first few months. She had to learn to trust us, to trust that this home wouldn't be yanked out from under her, to trust that even if we were displeased it did not mean she'd be dragged off to the dog pound. Yo-Yo dogs come with mental baggage and this affects their training curve. With every week that passed her slip ups were less and less frequent. She was improving.
Eight months after adopting her she was finally holding her pee even when highly excited, though on occasion if she was highly stressed she'll still have an accident.
After ten months of training, working with her to break her bad habits and establish new, good habits, Dakota has metamorphed from a dog who peed on the carpet several times a day, to only once or twice a month. She has progressed. She no longer pees from excitement. And the rare occasion when she does pee is almost always because she is mad at us.
We still make sure to Empty the Dog before we play with her in the house. This is one of our Golden Rules and it has held us in good stead with her. Dakota is an incredibly happy dog and as time passes and she learns more good habits, our moments with her bring pleasure instead of constant work and frustration.
Our time with her is now a source of happiness. We are reaping the rewards of many months of hard work. Life is good.
