Help Me Housebreak My Westie And Get Her To Stop Urinating When Greeting People?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have a westie, she is 7 months old. I have had her 5 months. I have tried crate training and she would pee and poop where she sleeps and eats–she eats her poop. I clean her mess and tell her bad girl – you should go outside (she knows what outside means). She doesn’t go in the same spot – she goes where it hits her.
I have 4 dogs and she is the only one under 30 lb., my other dogs were housebroken before they were 5 months old. Is training small dogs different? She is not dumb. I have taken her to the vet there is nothing medically wrong with her. I do believe that she came from a puppy mill and had to eliminate where she slept and ate. I had been Adolph’s meat tenderizer on her food and she stopped eating her poop – but seems to have started again. After working with my vet and going through the ID diet, I feed her Nature’s Recipe Lamb and Rice puppy food.
I love my puppy but NEED HELP WITH HER HOUSEBREAKING AND URINATING WHEN SHE GREETING PEOPLE. HELP HELP HELP !
Related West Highland White Terrier posts:
You should see your local vet! Here is a website that can also help on how to train your dog. Hope this solves your problem!http://www.trainingtrix.com
In all seriousness, some dogs are just stupid. Put her down and try again?
If your dog urinates when excited or upon greeting people or when you are upset with the dog, your pet has a submissive urinating problem and you should not punish the dog for it’s accidents.
If you punish a dog with this problem, you will only make the problem worse.
There are several things that can be done to help a dog suffering from submissive urinating. One is to develop good communication skills with the dog. Good communication includes not indulging in emotional greetings, avoid eye contact upon greetings (until the dog is trained for eye contact), and avoid dominant posturing with the dog.
You will also need to build a strong bond of trust between you and your dog. Building trust and confidence can be accomplished by various touching exercises that can be highly beneficial for a dog with this type of problem. In addition to these techniques, I would recommend a well balanced obedience training program.
I am seriously appalled by Poetry Fan’s comment to put the dog down. Would your parents have put you down just because you whizzed in your pants as a young child? It seems to me that the dog needs some socialization. If the problem exists when the dog meets new people, take her to a public place and make sure that the only interaction she has is good interaction with strangers. Ask them to pet your dog, hand them a treat to give to her and then walk away. This creates a sense of joy for the dog thinking that every time they meet someone new they will have something good happen. As far as the urinating and pooping where she sleeps, take her outside more!! Give her a command to go “potty” or “poo” whenever she starts going and praise her afterwards! Another suggestion is to place a bell on your door knob. Everytime you say “outside?” and take her outside, ring the bell. The dog will start to associate outside with the bell and possibly when she has to go poo, she will ring the bell! Be sure lots of praise is given and these should work well for you!