Now normally I would go to an actual dog training website, but a few I went to were requiring me to create a couple threads in their "Meet & Greet"
type sections, before I'm allowed to go to their training forums and ask questions.
ATS has a wide variety of people on it, so I'm posting
here in hopes there's some dog-minded people that can help me train my dog out of a bad habit she's formed over the last year, which I want nipped
in the bud. I'll start by explaining where my dog came from, so those who respond have an idea of what may be wrong, and/or what may help.
Our dog is a cairne terrier/dachshund mix. She's about 4 1/2 years old. She is a very smart dog, and very well trained. My g/f's mom loves dogs,
she used to train racing huskies up north. I only mention this, to give you an idea of the training she went through initially. She lived in a
house, whose backdoor was always open so the dogs could just run outside whenever they had to. They also went on long walks every single day. My g/f
and her mom would go to parks, trails, lakes, rivers.....pretty much any outdoor place where they could safely let the dogs off lead and run around.
So, for approximately 3 years, this is what she had.
To give you an idea into her personality, she is a VERY picky dog. I noticed this on all our walks. She will hold in her poop until she finds the
absolute, most perfect spot to go. I've seen her almost go, some starting to come out, then when she decides it's not right, she sucks it back in,
and keeps sniffing. It's funny at times, and annoying at others. Like, when it's freezing outside, and she won't go to the bathroom immediately,
because she has to be picky. Ugh!
Now, here's what's happened over the last year. My g/f and I moved to another town. We're no longer near her parents, so the doggie no longer has
access to the house that always has the backdoor open. We also live in an apartment, so she doesn't have the luxury of a backyard anymore. Now, my
g/f and I don't have the most money, so both of us work. Most of the time, we work very similar hours, 9-5, sometimes she'll work days, I work
nights. Now just because we're in an apartment, doesn't mean she doesn't get out much. She gets an average of 3-4 outside trips a day. On days
off, it's once in the morning, walk in the afternoon, another outside around 4-5pm, and once more around 7-8pm. On days we work, once in the
morning, walk either before or after work(depending on time), then usual night-time outings. When we walk her, she gets an average of an hour walk,
but never less than 30 minutes. How far we walk depends on her. If she's too busy sniffing every single thing, we won't make it as far. But other
days, she doesn't want to sniff at all, and just keep walking.
Now, knowing all of that, here's the problem. She goes pee/poop in the house. Not always, but enough to cause us to make this thread. It's not
consistent, either. It's like, we go weeks without a problem, then out of nowhere, she'll do it for a couple days, then back to normal. It's been
like this for the entire year we've been in this apartment. She's well-trained, everyone we meet tells us how much of a good girl she is. She's
potty-trained. She knows how to let us know when she has to go out. We've tried everything we know to get her to stop doing it, but nothing is
working. We even went as far as to barricade our room shut, so she can't leave in the middle of the night to go potty. That's been working, she
won't go in our room, but last night my g/f decided not to barricade it. Lo and behold, she went pee in the living room.
Now I have reason to believe this has to do with her pickiness. Because she refuses to go anywhere unless it's perfect to her, she holds in her
stuff for as long as she can, to the point where she can't hold it anymore. We take her out quite often, she gets walked, she gets played with, and
we go through training drills for treats. A bit over 2 months ago, we got a 2 year old chihuahua so she could have a friend besides us. This dog is
smart, and goes potty IMMEDIATELY outside. Even our little one is getting tired of the big dogs pickiness. Once when outside, after the little one
finished, I kept telling her we have to wait until our other dog went. After so long, she ran over and started attacking the other dog(playfully)
like she was telling her to hurry the damn hell up because it's cold outside. lol
So, any suggestions on how to correct this behavior? Is it possible, or is the pickiness just going to be her personality trait that's annoying, but
makes her lovable? I don't want to make every single outside trip a 30 minute to hour walk, because that's just telling her that it's ok for her
to be picky, because it gets her constant walks. For their dog sizes, they get what they need on a daily basis, even if we're tired as hell from
work.
So, sorry for the long ass post, but for those who know and understand dogs, any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. Getting tired of getting mad at
my dog because she's being a picky hag.