Trouble Housebreaking the Puppy

Today is day 12.  Brian and I have had a rough patch with the dogs, mainly the puppy, but Heineken contributed her fair share as well.  About 2.5 months after we got Stella (she was about 7.5 months), she started pooping in her crate.  After a few days in a row of bathing Stella and cleaing up the mess, we decided that she could be an outside dog for awhile.  This was a really hard change for me because I truly believe that dogs are meant to be spoiled ridiculously, but we were so sick of cleaning up poop I wasn't sure there were any other options.

After Stella could prove outside that she could go without soiling her crate, we'd bring her back in.  But eventually she would poop in the crate, and once again we would banish her to outside.  This went off and on for awhile, for a good month or more.  Mid August when I had my mouth surgery we were home for a week so there were of course no issues then.

The first day I went back to work (a Monday about 2 weeks ago), I was a little nervous for Stella since she had a week that was definitely outside of normal routine.  When I got home I immediately smelled the poop.  I walked back to Stella's crate to see how bad it was, but the poop wasn't there.  Turns out Heineken had left a present for us that day.  We gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed that she wasn't feeling well.  This was after all the first accident she's had in 3 years.  Monday was just the start of it though, the dogs were tag teaming us.  On Tuesday, it was Stella's turn.  On Wednesday, it was Heineken again.  Wednesday night, both dogs lived outside.  We also bought a second, smaller crate to see if that detered Stella at all.

The smaller crate didn't seem to help.  Stella soiled the smaller crate Wednesday night (it's so fun cleaning up poop before work), and then she did it again Thursday while we were at work.  By this point, I was questioning my love for dogs.  Heineken was allowed back inside before Stella since Stella was still pooping in her crate.  Heineken is used to being spoiled (see photo of spoiled Heineken above) so I think she realized we meant business when she had to endure life outside and life in a crate.  (Heineken hadn't been crated for 3 years).  They have conditioned me though.  The first thing I do when I wake up is sniff to see if I can smell poop (since Stella was having problems both at night and during the day).  The first thing I do when I get home is sniff. 

Stella was eventually allowed back in as well.  Brian and I decided to stop feeding Stella completely in the morning before work.  We had been feeding her a small amount in the morning because she seems hungry.  But at 8 months the puppy food bag feeding amount decreased by about half compared to the age 7 months amount.  So I figured this was a good time to stop feeding her breakfast.  I also figured, if she eats less she should poop less.

I've also been trying to walk them regularly, play with Stella more in the evenings so that she's tuckered out by bed time, and been trying to snuggle more with Heineken (because I believe H's issues were inspired by spite).  I'm assuming this is working because we've made it 12 days now without poop.  I'm nervous that blogging about this will jinx it, and it's been a 1 day time thing, but hopefully we have turned the corner.  I guess 28 days will be my breathing point.  The different things that I've read say that you shouldn't consider the puppy housebroken until she goes 4 weeks without an accident.  I really hope we get there this round!