The Dog Behavior Answer Book - Arden Moore [60]
Offer to work with your friend and her dogs. Take her trio to the veterinary clinic to make sure they do not have any medical condition that may be causing them to have weak bladders. Most likely, however, they urinate indoors because they don’t know the difference or they are each marking their own territory within the house with their signature scents. Male and female dogs will both display marking behavior, especially if they have not been neutered or spayed. Studies show a dramatic drop in this unwanted behavior following sterilization surgery.
Your friend must start from the beginning and completely retrain her dogs if she wants to solve this problem. Ask if she is amenable to crate training her trio or confining them to one room (like a kitchen or other room with an uncarpeted floor) when she can’t be at home to supervise them. Establish a routine in which the dogs are ushered outside as soon as they wake up in the morning, after meals, after playtime, and before bed. Encourage your friend to praise each dog every time they do their business outside. If she catches a dog in the act inside, she should clap her hands loudly to startle and distract him long enough to grab him and take him outside. The minute he does go to the bathroom outside, she can heap on the praise and give a treat.
Accidents will happen during the training process, but it is important not to become angry or frustrated. When you vent those emotions, training stops and your dogs just become fearful or confused. It is futile, and foolish, to punish dogs when they do make puddles or defecate in the house. All they will learn is to do their business secretly or when their owner is not around.
Another step your friend must take is to thoroughly clean all her carpeting and furniture with an enzyme-based product that actually destroys the protein molecules in urine and feces and eliminates odor rather than covering it up with another smell. There are many pet cleanup products on the market that work this way. Do not use any products with ammonia, because it smells enough like urine to actually attract dogs back to the scenes of their crimes. When her dogs are thoroughly trained to go out only doors and not to have accidents in the house, it sounds as though she will need to replace a great deal of carpeting and padding. When she shops for new flooring, suggest that she consider pet-friendly types like tile or laminate!
Stop Begging, Cold Turkey
Q My seven-year-old cocker spaniels, Billy and Bessie, are champions at begging for food. They each take a position on either side of me at dinner. Every time I put a forkful in my mouth, I can feel two sets of brown eyes boring into me. They really work on me, and I end up succumbing to their begging and giving them a little bit of food from my plate. The problem is getting worse. They are now targeting my dinner guests, some of whom do not take kindly to dogs watching them eat. I want to stop this behavior, but is it too late?
A Who can resist those begging eyes? That slight drool and ever-so-subtle whimper for a piece of your meat-loaf or a spoonful of gravy? Billy and Bessie have learned that when people gather around the dining room table, lip-smacking goodies seem to fall from the sky. With such rewards, of course their begging behavior is increasing. Unfortunately, some charming beggars transform into thugs who aggressively try to take food from you. Others gain too much weight from nibbling on high-fat table food and become ideal candidates for diabetes, heart problems, arthritis, and other health problems. A little bit of leftover chicken or steak won’t hurt, but it’s important to limit their intake.
My father used to love pulling up to the drive-through window and ordering three cheeseburgers with all the fixings: two for himself and one for his dog Keesha. He stopped when Keesha became very ill with pancreatitis, a potentially fatal disease. My dad never conquered his own fast-food cravings, but he did make