Potty Frustrations

[DevilDog]

I know I've only had Sage since last Sunday, and she's been perfect...

 

Well she can't be that perfect, right? Nope! Oh the potty frustrations...

 

This girl has wicked pudding poo. Now I know it will take some time for her belly to settle and get used to her food. I also know that she is not on our schedule yet. But ugh. Yesterday morning she didn't poop. Ok, not a huge big deal. I crated her while I went to work and came home for lunch to check on her/take her out. Well the little darling left me a soft serve surprise, which she stepped in smeared around, and then escaped from her crate while I was trying to get her out and ran around the apartment doing the happy dance. So now let's add poopie paw prints to the clean up list. Anyway, she made a tiny poopie on out evening walk and that's the last time she pooed.

 

She's not a big pee-er either. This morning before work I wanted to make a point that she did ALL of her business outside. We went out for a good walk and she waited till the last minute to pee.. and no poops. *frustration* She doesn't show a lot of interest in doing anything on our walks besides looking and listening to things.

 

So in the crate she went so I could go to work. I don't want to crate her anymore.. I'd like to try her out of it because she's otherwise well behaved. But I can't risk it if she can't do her business when she's supposed to. Poor thing- she really doesn't want to be in that crate!

 

Thoughts? Opinions? Calming words for a frustrated Mommy? Something..?

 

[Guest StriderDog]

I think your only option is to keep her crated until she gets into the groove. In a few weeks her stomach will settle and she'll be used to the sights and sounds on your walks enough that she'll be able to focus and do her thing.

 

Just make sure that you're using a prompt ("Go Potty!") and that when she does, you throw a super huge and fantastic party. That way, you can use the prompt to give her some extra focus if she's busy looking around and not getting down to business.

[arandomchic]

What's your morning schedule like? What time do you walk, what time do you feed, etc? You may just need a minor tweak in your schedule to help the situation.

 

We've only had Molly for a 10 days, but she's gotten the schedule down for the most part. I walk Molly at 5:45am for 30-45 minutes depending on her energy level. Then we wait at least 30 minutes before feeding. Then I wait another 30-45 minutes and take her out one more time as sort of a last chance option for her until her 1pm walk. Sometimes she goes potty, sometimes she doesn't. But she hasn't had a daytime accident yet.

 

Also for the wicked poo, you could try adding a little cooked oatmeal to the food. That was recommended by our adoption group and it worked like a charm until it leveled out on its own.

[DevilDog]

What's your morning schedule like? What time do you walk, what time do you feed, etc? You may just need a minor tweak in your schedule to help the situation.

 

We've only had Molly for a 10 days, but she's gotten the schedule down for the most part. I walk Molly at 5:45am for 30-45 minutes depending on her energy level. Then we wait at least 30 minutes before feeding. Then I wait another 30-45 minutes and take her out one more time as sort of a last chance option for her until her 1pm walk. Sometimes she goes potty, sometimes she doesn't. But she hasn't had a daytime accident yet.

 

Also for the wicked poo, you could try adding a little cooked oatmeal to the food. That was recommended by our adoption group and it worked like a charm until it leveled out on its own.

 

I forgot about the oatmeal.. I'll have to try that.

 

Also, I may try to feed her earlier to give her system a chance to do its thing before our walk.

 

From day one, every time she potties I repeat the phrase "go potty" so she starts to associate it.

[Guest MyBoys]

Maybe you could try baby gating her in the kitchen, at least maybe if she does go it will be easier to clean up, you might be surprised by leaving her out of the crate that her habits improve.

[Guest lisa_grublesky]

Maybe I didn't read close enough, but do you "walk" her for potty trips? Do you have a fenced in yard in which to let her do her business. I know that our Sundae won't poop on a leash. She has done it like twice in the almost year we have had her. A suggestion we got was to elongate her leash; that she may have "performance" anxiety. The man who was telling us this said that is we made her leash longer, she would feel like we weren't right there while she was doing her stuff.

 

I don't know if this will help you or not. Just thought I would pass it along.