Harley is not being good!!! He will not poop on his pads! I am so sick of cleaning my carpet! My house smells like dog and poop. I moved the pads closer to the door so he will start going outside but it has made it worse. He has been having accidents bc the pad isn't right in front of his face, it's in the kitchen. I bring him to the pad everytime I put a new one down and he will pee on it, but no poop. AND EVERYDAY i come home from work he has shredded is pad into a million little pieces! So I am going to just have to leave him in his crate all day while I am at work...I feel bad though bc he has to sleep in it all night too. But what else can I do? Any advice will help.
Very frustrating, I can tell you have had it up to "here" with it. Does Harley have full run of the house while you are gone? I know we had touched on this once before. Where is Dasiy, is she in the bathroom? The best thing I can tell you is to confine them to a small space. Like for my boys, I put them in the laundry room together when we leave. They do fine there and basically curl up in bed together until we return. Can you tell us more about the situation?
Have you considered using dog litter pans? I use these with Rufus, and he's pretty reliable - only misses now and then when he's busy playing and just doesn't make it to the pan in time. He's reliable almost 100% with poop! We have a big house so I have 3 litter pans scattered where he hangs out, plus one in his nighttime crate.
Also, when I'm not home to keep an eye on him, he stays in his "playpen" - an x-pen we have set up in our tv room. That has a bed, food and water bowls, litter pan and a few toys. He does just fine there, he's safe, and he can't make a mess.
BTW, with the litter, Rufus doesn't play with it, eat it, or make a mess with it. I use something called "Woody Pet" which I buy at the Farm suppy store. It's actually made to use with horses and rodent pets, but it works great for our little dogs! I would imagine Purina's dog litter would work just as well. This is just what the breeder used, so it's what Rufus is used to.
Hang in there, dear - I know this must be so frustrating for you. Keep loving your little guy even when he's driving you nuts!
Daisy is outside during the day, Harley is gated with 2 gates(one on top of the other bc he is a climber) in the kitchen. I think he gets mad that I leave or bored and shreds the pad. And he has soo many toys in there too. I know it's prob. bc he is a pup but I mean come on!! Everyday!
I like Lin's suggestion, but I remember the way he climbs and would not be surprised that he could climb out of the play pen. But it might be worth a shot. Back when I had Buster and Boots, I use to separate them into two rooms during the day while I was gone and when I got home, Boots done tore everything up. All he wanted was to be with Buster. I know this may not be an option for you, but some of his anxiety might be his desire to be with Daisy. This will be a tuff one to ride out.
I leave at 7:30am and Evan gets home at 4pm. It's a long time. I wouldn't be scared anymore of Daisy killing Harley if we left them together, but last time we tried to leave Daisy in the kitchen she tore our walls apart. But I wonder if they were in thekitchen together if Daisy would be good, since she wouldn't be so bored w/ Harley. I just don't know if that is a chance I want to take bc we rent. And she has already chews the walls....
It may be worth a try, maybe try it on the weekend for a couple of hours or something like that to see how well they get along. We had a malamute that dug holes in the wall, ate the rugs, carpet, tile, and the trim off a designer couch, so I know the pain you are feeling.
I was thinking about the length of time you would be gone and trying to remember when we use to do that... I think Chris came home during lunch and let them out so they always had a break in the day and the longest period of time they were cooped up was about 8 hours. They always do good, no messes.
Our laundry room is small, so they have a small space and a bed in there. When we get ready to leave, they are in the room before we get out the door and in their bed. We have accidentally left the main door open into the house and I believe they just lay there in bed.
Anyhow, try a test run and see what happens. Keep us updated.
Oh gosh this trial run is going to be scarry! I don't know what they will do. Harley pooped on the floor this morning, and peed(that made me sooooooooo mad bc he KNOWS to pee on his pad!!!!!) And when i got up in the middle of the night to let him go potty he ALWAYS gets on his pad and goes(I usually put him on it), but I put him on it and he walked right off of it and peed on this blanket that was on the floor..............
Came home from work yesterday, he had peed on his pad and then shredded it bc there was chunks of soaking wet cottom from the pad everywhere. I was soooo mad. THen I cleaned it up and put another pad down and put him on it. Went to the bathroom, came back and he was pooping on the family room floor. So mad AGAIN! It ruined my night, that is for sure. And then he pooped again on the floor later that night. Can you answer me this.....Is it mean of me to leave him in his crate all day while I am gone ( i can go let him out to go pee during my lunch) even though he has to be in his crate all night too. So I put him in his crate, get up in the morning and he gets to play for about 45 min. then put him back in the crate til 12, let him pee, then put him back in til about 4....sound cruel?
Ohhhhhhh... I remember all of this with Chimi. He shreded any puppy pad that I put on the floor, instantly. No pee or anything. Just shreded them. Whenever I put papers down on the floor, he would always use the papers. So he had aparently been used to the papers. I think that the puppy mill use to line the crates with papers there, and that is where he got used to pottying on things that looked like newspaper.
At our puppy class the trainer suggested that I try to litter train him. (Like Rufus' mom mentioned.) The litter is AWESOME! He goes in it at all times, but he is also trained to go outdoors too. But with the litter it's a whole different thing. You dont even have to worry about leaving the house, and it's alot easier to maintain than messy kitty litter.
What I did was I bought the Pedigree litter box and Pedigree litter. (I dont think everything needs to be Pedigree, but that's just what I found at our local pet store.) I put litter in the box, and then put the papers over top of the litter. Chimi would always crawl into the box to use the papers, and I left them like that for about a week. After a week I would line the box with papers only halfway, and then litter on the other half. I left it like that for a week, and he was still going in there beautifully. I started to remove the papers more and more with each week, and within 3 weeks Chimi had been going in his litter box with no papers. It may be more difficult for other dogs to learn this way, but Chimi did awesome with it - and he is a very quick learner. He isnt really all that stubborn either. So it sounds like if you wanted to try this with Harly then you need alot of patience, and instead of newspapers line the litter box with puppy pads. (Since he seems to be peeing on those.)
As for the crating, I dont think it's cruel at all to crate your dog while you are at work. Dogs are den-like creatures, and it is instinct to want to find a nice dark place and rest or get away from everything for a little while.
I also dont feel bad about crating if they are being a lunatic in your house while you are gone! LOL. I am fostering a Chinese Crested at my boyfriend's house... and he rips toilet paper from the roll, pees and poops everywhere, claws holes into the wall, chews on the furniture, rips up the mail, jumps on the table and kitchen counters, AND he can even open the fridge and get food out if we leave a rag on the handle. Needless to say... this dog definitely gets crated.
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