Charles J P
Senior HTF Member
Our 6 month old basset hound puppy had my fiance literally frustrated to tears last night. Overall she is a great dog, but sometimes...
We both work pretty long hours and took this into consideration when we decided to get a dog, however, after talking with some coworkers with dogs who are huge workaholics and seem like they are at the office more than they are at home we decided we could do it. So, we bring this dog home, and we decide to "crate" train it. Which means you put it in a port-a-kennel to sleep, and during the day while your at work. The idea is that dogs wont mess in their own "bed" so this is how you house break the dog.
Well, once we started to figure out that one of us really couldnt make it home every day for lunch, we decided we needed a better solution. There is no way I'm putting a dog in a little pet carrier for 7 hours at night then let it out for 45 minutes in the morning, and then put in the little carrier for 9 hours while we're at work. So we bought a dog "play pen" its basically just a portable fence that we setup in the unfinished basement that gives the dog about a 10' X 15' area to move around in. The problem is, we have a linolium remnant down there so we can clean it easily, but the dog goes to the bathroom all over it, all the time. Its covered in pee and poop every day and the whole basement stinks. She is house broken to the point that when we have her out in the evenings, she goes to the door to be let out and usually doesnt have accidents in the house. However it seems like she makes no attempt to even try to hold it until we let her out in the morning or after work.
Should we change her feeding schedule? No food or water except after we get home from work, so she has a chance to go before bedtime? We tried to "paper train" her in pen so that her mess would be confined to one area and easier to clean up, but she just shreds the newspaper or those special puppy pads if we leave them in there.
The other thing she does, is she has basically destroyed the walls she can get at in her pen. They are unfinished drywall, and she has gotten ahold of the paper at the seams or at the bottom and ripped huge chunks off, and in some places, she has dug the plaster out, so now all that has to be patched.
She also is very hyper for a basset hound. I thought they basically slept all the time. The dog equivilent to all cats. Sometimes she just runs all over the house grabbing anything she can reach.
I dont know what to do, I have had dogs growing up, but never a house dog. My fiance cried for a couple hours last night after cleaning up after her. She feels like the dog runs the house and controls our lives right now. We dont want to get rid of her, but we are at our wits end. I think if we could even make progress in one area it would help. I guess I wish we could get her to contain her mess when she is in her pen (paper train her or something) because its not fun cleaning up pee and poop every day. Is there something we can spray on the floor in her pen to either make her go in one spot or make her not go everywhere else?
Thanks in advance guys and gals.
We both work pretty long hours and took this into consideration when we decided to get a dog, however, after talking with some coworkers with dogs who are huge workaholics and seem like they are at the office more than they are at home we decided we could do it. So, we bring this dog home, and we decide to "crate" train it. Which means you put it in a port-a-kennel to sleep, and during the day while your at work. The idea is that dogs wont mess in their own "bed" so this is how you house break the dog.
Well, once we started to figure out that one of us really couldnt make it home every day for lunch, we decided we needed a better solution. There is no way I'm putting a dog in a little pet carrier for 7 hours at night then let it out for 45 minutes in the morning, and then put in the little carrier for 9 hours while we're at work. So we bought a dog "play pen" its basically just a portable fence that we setup in the unfinished basement that gives the dog about a 10' X 15' area to move around in. The problem is, we have a linolium remnant down there so we can clean it easily, but the dog goes to the bathroom all over it, all the time. Its covered in pee and poop every day and the whole basement stinks. She is house broken to the point that when we have her out in the evenings, she goes to the door to be let out and usually doesnt have accidents in the house. However it seems like she makes no attempt to even try to hold it until we let her out in the morning or after work.
Should we change her feeding schedule? No food or water except after we get home from work, so she has a chance to go before bedtime? We tried to "paper train" her in pen so that her mess would be confined to one area and easier to clean up, but she just shreds the newspaper or those special puppy pads if we leave them in there.
The other thing she does, is she has basically destroyed the walls she can get at in her pen. They are unfinished drywall, and she has gotten ahold of the paper at the seams or at the bottom and ripped huge chunks off, and in some places, she has dug the plaster out, so now all that has to be patched.
She also is very hyper for a basset hound. I thought they basically slept all the time. The dog equivilent to all cats. Sometimes she just runs all over the house grabbing anything she can reach.
I dont know what to do, I have had dogs growing up, but never a house dog. My fiance cried for a couple hours last night after cleaning up after her. She feels like the dog runs the house and controls our lives right now. We dont want to get rid of her, but we are at our wits end. I think if we could even make progress in one area it would help. I guess I wish we could get her to contain her mess when she is in her pen (paper train her or something) because its not fun cleaning up pee and poop every day. Is there something we can spray on the floor in her pen to either make her go in one spot or make her not go everywhere else?
Thanks in advance guys and gals.
