This song has nothing to do with dogs, but I’ve been thinking of it this morning while I’ve been fighting fatigue/anger/frustration with our dogs:
Here’s the main problem: Our dogs poop and pee in their crates. It goes against nature for them to do this, so it’s been a very difficult habit to break. We’ve had our dogs for a little over 2 years now and they use our house as their bathroom whenever they have to go. Zoe is worse than Wrigley, but there you go. That’s our biggest issue.
When we adopted them, they had been through the ringer–born in a puppy mill, taken to a too-full pet store, then dropped off at a shelter, then taken to a foster home with a rescue lady. They had health issues and were dangerously small for their age of 4 months when we brought them home.
So that’s the biggest contributing factor to the issue–when it was essential for them to learn the behavior to not go in their bedding area, they never learned. 2 years later, Mike and I are fed up with coming home and cleaning up shit on a nearly daily basis. I come home at lunch every day to give them a break, but Zoe has pooped up to three times a day in her crate no matter how long or short a time she is in her crate. If left out of their crates, she’ll still go into her crate to poop if she has to go.
So on Saturday, we had a trainer come. Finally. We figured we’d try it, even though we know that it’s an extremely difficult case. Phil Guida from Canine Dimensions came, and sat with us for an hour, making ALL kinds of suggestions to help them break the habit.
We’re supposed to feed them once a day now, and we’re slowly switching their food from Blue Buffalo to Life’s Abundance. It’s pricey and available through web ordering only, but we thought we’d try it. It’s supposed to have even less fillers than Blue Buffalo so they’ll poop less often a day. (Currently they’re at like, 4 times a day. It’s ridic.)
We also got them new crates. We went from this for both dogs:
To this:
Originally, we separated them and put them on either side of the couch in the kitchen. Having never been apart before, they freaked. out. There was crying and barking and scrambling and biting and chewing and Zoe was trembling uncontrollably. We couldn’t sleep. It sucked. We’re usually champion sleepers, but this issue with the dogs has been escalating so much that we’ve barely slept for the past week.
BUT…so far they haven’t pooped or peed in their crates. It’s only been two days, so I’m not overly wishful right now, but so far it’s been helpful. Now, if only they could sleep.
I emailed Phil today to see what we could do about Zoe chewing on the plastic and causing an uproar. He suggested putting a nylabone in her crate (we’ll have to find a super heavy duty one since she’s broken them to pieces before) and shaking a can with coins in it if she starts eating her crate again. That way, we don’t have to sit on the kitchen floor at 3am until she calms down like we did last night.
Seriously, we’re trying so hard here. We love our dogs, but Zoe especially is just so difficult to deal with. I don’t want to clean up dog poop in the house for the rest of their lives and I don’t want them to hurt themselves in their crates. It’s such a tough situation, and I hope that things will improve soon.
This was a super long post, but the background was kinda necessary to the story. If they weren’t so damned cute, they’d be in trouble:
Cross your fingers for us! Think positive, poop-free, plastic-eating-free thoughts for us! I’ll keep you updated on this situation.
