[SJ071985]

Hi there,

New here! A little about us: My husband and I love animals and have dedicated our time to rescuing several and fostering as well. We do not have children as our pets are essentially our children.

We have two cats (Spock, Maine **** 13 year old, and Luna, domestic shorthair 11 year old) and two dogs (Logan, Shiba Inu 3.5 year old, and Lilly, mixed Australian Shepherd/Cattledog 7 month old). We always knew we wanted a dog as we had the cats originally. So, we adopted Logan through a Shiba rescue when he was 2 years old. He was a puppy mill dog and came to us extremely shy/scared/anxious. He has settled into a very calm and well-rounded pup. My husband and I agree he is the best dog we have ever had. The cats have now accepted him and even snuggle with him a little bit to our surprise.

Recently, we were fostering to adopt a Korean Jindo rescue who was a bit aggressive but she got along well with our dog, Logan, at first. Unfortunately, she bit my husband several times where I had to take him to urgent care so we had to return her to the rescue. As she became unruly and extremely fearful/aggressive towards us. It was putting the safety of our animals in jeopardy as she would bite Logan as well to the point of leaving bald patches on his neck.

Afterwards, Logan seemed sad for a while, so we decided to find him a new buddy. We tried a few times with different dogs and came upon Lilly. We adopted her two weeks ago. She is extremely affectionate and energetic, but she has some things that we're not quite sure what to do. We adopted her from a shelter as her previous owner had surrendered her. The shelter mentioned that she seemed to have some anxiety issues because of this. We didn't think it would be an issue since have already retrained our Logan who had severe anxiety.

I know it has only been two weeks but she is really testing our patience and making us extremely exhausted. Almost every day since adopting her she has peed in the house. Even though we take her out 5 times a day... We can only relate that to anxiety and still adjusting. She jumps all over us especially my husband. I think I have gotten her to understand that I don't like her jumping on me by only praising when she sits at my feet. We walk her with our dog Logan 3 times a day at around 20-30 mins per walk, plus we play in the backyard with a frisbee and balls 2-3 times a day at again 20-30 mins each time. We also sit with her about 15-20 minutes a day doing training like learning "leave it" "sit" "down" etc. We're using the Pupford app to help us with this. She still whines and barks and pulls and just never settles. I work from home and have meetings where I worry that she'll get out of control during my calls. We keep her in a puppy proof room when we're busy with a gate so she can see us and know we're still around. She irritates Logan sometimes so we keep them separate most of the day until we go for walks or play time in the back. We worry that a puppy might not be the right fit for us, but don't want to give up on her. She is very sweet and deserves a good home that dedicates as much time to her as we do. Because we do dedicate a lot of time and energy to her.

I feel like this will get better with time as she learns that this is her house and as she gets older. I sometimes wonder if it is her breed too. Any advice or words of wisdom would be really appreciated Guess I just needed to vent and hope someone can relate.

Thanks!

Tired and Currently Drinking Coffee

 

[DaySleepers]

It's very normal for a 7 month puppy with a rocky start to not have solid potty training, especially in a brand new place. She may not even be physically at the point where she has full physical and mental control of her bladder yet - the general rule is that most dogs hit this around six months, but this is only a broad average and many pups need more time before they can be expected to be able to handle an adult potty schedule. It might also help to understand that many dogs don't learn "potty inside bad, potty outside good" but rather "potty in this specific indoor space bad, potty outside good" and so often need potty training refreshers when they move homes, or even if they're allowed into new rooms they've never spent time in before - you'd be surprised how common problems like "I started letting my dog into my basement and he goes down there to potty!" crop up.

I'd treat her like a younger puppy for a while. Take her out more often than you think you need to, especially right after sleeping, eating, a big drink, or a play session. If you notice she tends to have accidents at certain times of day or in certain situations (our youngest needed extra reinforcement on rainy days for a while), make sure to be extra vigilant then and plan extra potty trips based on when she has accidents. Always go out with her and stay with her so you can praise and reward her like crazy immediately after she pees so you can reinforce that pottying outside is way better than inside. Clean up any indoor accidents with an enzymatic pet mess cleaner that's designed to break down pee smells so thoroughly that even a dog can't smell the old accidents and think "hmm, this smells like a good potty spot".

In general I'd expect her to eventually settle in, but it may take some time, especially with being bounced around so much at such a young age. I'd expect some of the restlessness and generalized stress to improve in the coming weeks/months, but it'll be a process and you're probably looking at a while of her needing a lot of your care and attention. Adolescent dogs are demanding in the best of circumstances, and she does have some special considerations. You may want to look into some strategies for teaching a dog how to settle on their own, like Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol or Margot Woods' Sit on the Dog, and try some tricks like freezing down portions of her meals into stuffable food toys (like the Kong Classic or Toppl) and offering them to her throughout the day so she has to spend some energy and mental focus licking/chewing at it. Chewing is naturally calming for dogs, so the more you can encourage her to do that on safe, appropriate, dog-safe toys and chews, the better.

In the situation where she just doesn't seem to be improving no matter what you do, consider getting a vet involved. Just like with people, it's possible for dogs to have anxiety conditions that are extremely difficult to manage through training and lifestyle alone. If her mental state is interfering with her quality of life even in a safe space like her home, anti-anxiety medication can be a lifesaver. Some dogs only need this short-term until they learn the world isn't as scary as they thought and they learn strategies for how to calm themselves down and self-soothe, and some dogs need it longer term. I wouldn't jump to it at the moment because she's only been with you such a short time and her stress is understandable, but know that there are options if it truly seems like nothing's working.

Lastly I want to say that it's okay if she's just not the right fit for your home. It's better to give her a chance to find somewhere that's a better fit for her than to make both of you miserable trying to make her fit into your life. I totally agree with trying your best to help her through the transition and going from there, but there absolutely is a point where accepting a dog isn't working for your household is the kindest thing to do for her sake (and yours). I hope it doesn't come to that, but support you whatever you choose is best.

 

[Calmlittlebuddha]

Hello, I have a new 6 month old puppy and I still take her out about every 2-3 hours. i can defiantly relate how tired and stressed you are but hopefully once she gets used to your home and rotinine more she will go out less. You sound like you will make a very good mom for your pup, I hope she can stay with you!

 

[SJ071985]

It's very normal for a 7 month puppy with a rocky start to not have solid potty training, especially in a brand new place. She may not even be physically at the point where she has full physical and mental control of her bladder yet - the general rule is that most dogs hit this around six months, but this is only a broad average and many pups need more time before they can be expected to be able to handle an adult potty schedule. It might also help to understand that many dogs don't learn "potty inside bad, potty outside good" but rather "potty in this specific indoor space bad, potty outside good" and so often need potty training refreshers when they move homes, or even if they're allowed into new rooms they've never spent time in before - you'd be surprised how common problems like "I started letting my dog into my basement and he goes down there to potty!" crop up.

I'd treat her like a younger puppy for a while. Take her out more often than you think you need to, especially right after sleeping, eating, a big drink, or a play session. If you notice she tends to have accidents at certain times of day or in certain situations (our youngest needed extra reinforcement on rainy days for a while), make sure to be extra vigilant then and plan extra potty trips based on when she has accidents. Always go out with her and stay with her so you can praise and reward her like crazy immediately after she pees so you can reinforce that pottying outside is way better than inside. Clean up any indoor accidents with an enzymatic pet mess cleaner that's designed to break down pee smells so thoroughly that even a dog can't smell the old accidents and think "hmm, this smells like a good potty spot".

In general I'd expect her to eventually settle in, but it may take some time, especially with being bounced around so much at such a young age. I'd expect some of the restlessness and generalized stress to improve in the coming weeks/months, but it'll be a process and you're probably looking at a while of her needing a lot of your care and attention. Adolescent dogs are demanding in the best of circumstances, and she does have some special considerations. You may want to look into some strategies for teaching a dog how to settle on their own, like Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol or Margot Woods' Sit on the Dog, and try some tricks like freezing down portions of her meals into stuffable food toys (like the Kong Classic or Toppl) and offering them to her throughout the day so she has to spend some energy and mental focus licking/chewing at it. Chewing is naturally calming for dogs, so the more you can encourage her to do that on safe, appropriate, dog-safe toys and chews, the better.

In the situation where she just doesn't seem to be improving no matter what you do, consider getting a vet involved. Just like with people, it's possible for dogs to have anxiety conditions that are extremely difficult to manage through training and lifestyle alone. If her mental state is interfering with her quality of life even in a safe space like her home, anti-anxiety medication can be a lifesaver. Some dogs only need this short-term until they learn the world isn't as scary as they thought and they learn strategies for how to calm themselves down and self-soothe, and some dogs need it longer term. I wouldn't jump to it at the moment because she's only been with you such a short time and her stress is understandable, but know that there are options if it truly seems like nothing's working.

Lastly I want to say that it's okay if she's just not the right fit for your home. It's better to give her a chance to find somewhere that's a better fit for her than to make both of you miserable trying to make her fit into your life. I totally agree with trying your best to help her through the transition and going from there, but there absolutely is a point where accepting a dog isn't working for your household is the kindest thing to do for her sake (and yours). I hope it doesn't come to that, but support you whatever you choose is best.

Thanks for your advice and words of encouragement!

Yeah, the room we have her in is our guest room where we have hardwood floors and area rugs usually. She's peed on all the rugs and the floor. I have Nature's Miracle that I have used with our other pets with success but it didn't seem to make a difference on Lilly. Even after cleaning the rugs thoroughly with that, she would still come back and pee on them. So we ended up just putting puppy pads down for now until we can get her situated with the potty training. She does really well in her crate at night. No messes in there so it gives me hope that she understands that you don't pee or poo where you live/sleep. I guess she just needs to understand that our house is her home now.

She luckily does not have a chewing problem like most puppies. We do have several toys of different varieties (treat dispensers, nylon chewy bones, ropes, etc) in there for her to chew on but she only chews on them when we're in the room with her.. go figure! haha... is social chewer a thing?

We just went for our lunchtime walk and she did really well. I only had to correct her once or twice for jumping on my husband mid-walk haha. She listens to me when I say "quiet" when we pass by dogs. First few days, she would furiously bark and lunge at them.. she might only be 25 lbs but boy can she pull! My hands were sore after that.

I'm hopeful that with time she will settle down. We have let her meet the cats through the gate and a few times had her in the living room with us while on leash. It was ok... She whines to get close to them but they hiss and bat at her to back off if she does pull enough to get somewhat close. Our dog, Logan, has become protective over the cats so he comes to see what's going on with his feline friends and Lilly backs away.

That's another relationship that is interesting. Logan is a large Shiba Inu at 48 lbs (they're usually 20-25 lbs as males) of pure muscle. He's quite gentle with her but when she gets out of line when they're playing he will do his older dog corrections on her. Which we have learned to stay out of so that she can learn boundaries with him and the rest of our "pack". We just don't want anyone to get hurt. Not that he bites hard or pins her or anything... but he nips at her and growls at her and pushes her with his paws to stop it. I would say in terms of dog EQ he ranks pretty high so I'm not concerned with that. We have seen Lilly lunge at his neck a few times and growls very furiously at him... she also guards toys. I think that's mainly a puppy thing and learning boundaries which I hope he can help her learn.

But, anyways, before I make this too long. We're going to work with her and continuously as we have been and hope that in time she will calm down a bit. Thanks again.

 

[DaySleepers]

Rugs are nice and absorbent and don't cause as much 'splash back' as hardwood floors. They're pretty naturally attractive pee spots for puppies, especially if they've already been pad trained. Many puppies struggle to tell the difference between the absorbent pad they're supposed to pee on and all the nice absorbent pad-like things people have lying around they're not supposed to pee on, so I personally never pad-train my puppies (I've used them in emergencies but never reward pottying on them).

In this case, if you absolutely can't be taking her out often enough to prevent accidents in the dog room (or she seems to be peeing due to stress/anxiety over being left alone), I'd consider removing the rugs entirely (less temptation, easier to clean thoroughly), setting up a pen in part of the room with no rugs (smaller space may encourage her to hold it, easier to clean thoroughly), and/or even crating her when she's not being directly supervised (likely the most effective at entirely preventing accidents, since she's already reliable, but you might want to add in some extra supervised playtime to make sure she can stretch her legs). Every time she has the opportunity to pee indoors she's reinforcing that behavior and it's that much harder to reach that goal of reliably housetrained, so preventing these accidents is really important - it's not something that's likely to go away on its own. This can mean a lot of time in the crate/confinement at first, but the trade off is she's more reliably potty trained more quickly, so she can have freedom to be loose in the house that much sooner.

Chewing when she's with you might be because you're a comforting presence and she feels too stressed and insecure alone, or it may just be a quirk! I like feeding part of their meal with a food toy because for most dogs it's a bigger motivation to start chewing on their own, but it's not always enough for dogs who aren't that into food or need more time to settle in.

I do set 'house rules' that I reinforce between my two boys - one of which is that it's not at all allowed for either one of them to attempt to take chews directly from the other's mouth. If they get up and walk away from the chew it's fair game, but absolutely no stealing. They get fed separately to completely avoid mealtime altercations. Certain toys are supervision-only or they need to be separated for to prevent squabbles. Some dogs can never safely have any toys/chews in the same space as other dogs, it really depends on the individual temperaments. Nothing wrong with letting your older boy set down boundaries - that's definitely a good thing! But if you're seeing behavior between them that you don't want to continue or could lead to escalation, stepping in to interrupt and redirect to something more appropriate is a good call.

A lot of this sounds like typical adolescent dog, though! I do think she'll figure things out and it's great she's already responding well to some training. I bet most of what she needs is time and (sometimes a lot of) patience. Hang in there!

 

[K9luv]

It sounds like you had it easy with Logan. I can relate, my 1st pup was a dream, so smart, so chill, hardly ever got into trouble, picked up outdoor potty really well and quickly. We got a second pup 1.5 years later, she was amazing but as a pup, it took a lot longer for potty training even though I had the same training plan as our 1st dog.

We now have our 3rd pup, the other two are passed, and my training method has changed (improved) due to schedule, but my pup is not like the other two, even though they were all the same breed. Every dog certainly has their own kwirks and personality.

Having wrote all that, I wanted to reinforce to refrain from comparing Lily to Logan. Not saying you are, but I know I said the same thing when my girl wasn't getting it like my 1st boy. Every dog at their own pace and training to work with the individual dog.

 

[SJ071985]

Hello, I have a new 6 month old puppy and I still take her out about every 2-3 hours. i can defiantly relate how tired and stressed you are but hopefully once she gets used to your home and rotinine more she will go out less. You sound like you will make a very good mom for your pup, I hope she can stay with you!

Thanks! We also take her out every 3 hours. But, sometimes for whatever reason she just can't hold it. I do think it's just a getting used to our house and new routine. Good luck with you and your pup as well!

 

[SJ071985]

It sounds like you had it easy with Logan. I can relate, my 1st pup was a dream, so smart, so chill, hardly ever got into trouble, picked up outdoor potty really well and quickly. We got a second pup 1.5 years later, she was amazing but as a pup, it took a lot longer for potty training even though I had the same training plan as our 1st dog.

We now have our 3rd pup, the other two are passed, and my training method has changed (improved) due to schedule, but my pup is not like the other two, even though they were all the same breed. Every dog certainly has their own kwirks and personality.

Having wrote all that, I wanted to reinforce to refrain from comparing Lily to Logan. Not saying you are, but I know I said the same thing when my girl wasn't getting it like my 1st boy. Every dog at their own pace and training to work with the individual dog.

Right, we haven't been comparing the two mainly because we got Lilly to be somewhat of an opposite to Logan. Logan is super calm and was putting on a bit of weight because lack of exercise despite our best efforts to walk him several times a day and reduce his caloric intake. Lilly is higher energy so she makes Logan play more and in a different way than we could provide. But, yes I agree we did get it easy with Logan. He is just a very good dog

 

[SJ071985]

In this case, if you absolutely can't be taking her out often enough to prevent accidents in the dog room (or she seems to be peeing due to stress/anxiety over being left alone), I'd consider removing the rugs entirely (less temptation, easier to clean thoroughly), setting up a pen in part of the room with no rugs (smaller space may encourage her to hold it, easier to clean thoroughly), and/or even crating her when she's not being directly supervised (likely the most effective at entirely preventing accidents, since she's already reliable, but you might want to add in some extra supervised playtime to make sure she can stretch her legs). Every time she has the opportunity to pee indoors she's reinforcing that behavior and it's that much harder to reach that goal of reliably housetrained, so preventing these accidents is really important - it's not something that's likely to go away on its own. This can mean a lot of time in the crate/confinement at first, but the trade off is she's more reliably potty trained more quickly, so she can have freedom to be loose in the house that much sooner.

I love this idea! We did remove the rugs (they are machine washable luckily so we have them in the laundry room anyways hah!) and put the puppy pads down. She's gone on them once so far in the past two days. So far today she has only gone outside... fingers crossed it stays that way at least for today haha. But yeah that putting a pen up inside the room is a really good idea! Love it! She jumps on the bed in there when not in her crate and barks sometimes at dogs or people who pass by... she does stop when I say "quiet" though so that is definitely a good thing. Knowing that she is catching on with training gives us a lot of hope.

I am going to try the pen idea though... I'll have to see what's available on Amazon to get it quickly. Thanks for the idea!

 

[DaySleepers]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! I like using pens myself, but be aware that the more lightweight modular ones can be easy for a pup to push around and move - the ones with a solid base tray are a little more stable, but you can also do tricks like attaching the pen to screw-in hooks in the wall, zip-typing it to other furniture, or using 2x4s or PVC along the bottom to keep the panels aligned. Here's an example of a product made with PVC to keep a playpen corner in the right shape, but this would be easy and cheap to make yourself too if you have some basic tools at home: Dog Pen Corner Stabilizer : #90 (USA Made) | Roverpet

I found this out the hard way by coming home to my puppy's pen 'walked' halfway across the living room and folded up so he had barely any room. Some puppies respect the boundary and it's never a problem, but not for my boy, lol.

 

[SJ071985]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! I like using pens myself, but be aware that the more lightweight modular ones can be easy for a pup to push around and move - the ones with a solid base tray are a little more stable, but you can also do tricks like attaching the pen to screw-in hooks in the wall, zip-typing it to other furniture, or using 2x4s or PVC along the bottom to keep the panels aligned. Here's an example of a product made with PVC to keep a playpen corner in the right shape, but this would be easy and cheap to make yourself too if you have some basic tools at home: Dog Pen Corner Stabilizer : #90 (USA Made) | Roverpet

I found this out the hard way by coming home to my puppy's pen 'walked' halfway across the living room and folded up so he had barely any room. Some puppies respect the boundary and it's never a problem, but not for my boy, lol.

Oh interesting... Yeah I bought one of those wire pen types off of Amazon last night. I was planning on attaching it to her crate. I guess we'll see how she does with it. The gate we have up at the door to the doggie room she has knocked over and it makes a loud crashing sound which has freaked her out a bit. So, tries not to touch it. Hoping it will be the same for the pen but of course we will see haha. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[SJ071985]

Good news here! We've had the pen set up since Friday and no accidents for the past 5 days knocks on wood. We put it in our living room instead of the "dog room" so we can keep a closer eye on her when working. It also has helped getting her acclimated to the cats and vice versa. Although, the cats have definitely growled and hissed at her several times haha. But, she needs to learn boundaries so it's ok. Thanks for the pen idea! My husband and I agree it was a really great purchase.

 

[DaySleepers]

So glad to hear you're making progress! Sounds like you're on the right track, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that things will be a bit smoother from now on. Pens don't work for every dog, living space, or lifestyle, but when they do they're a really indispensable tool.

 

[SJ071985]

Update: she has been going potty outside only since the addition of the pen thankfully! She also has been settling down really well at night in her crate. Attached is a pic of her napping in her pen after an afternoon frisbee session and what I like to call her puppy board (pink slow feeder next to her that I smear peanut butter on... She loves that thing and once done promptly takes a nap haha). We're starting positive dog training at Petco tomorrow. Our little lady is going to school 😅 ... Again thanks for all the positive comments and advice!