I have a small dog. She is a special snowflake because I have ruined her.
She sucks at housebreaking and I have had the luxury of taking her out often to relieve herself in the past. Now that my hours at work are longer I have had to crate her during the day. She has tons of new hotspots and terrible anxiety. I tried the thundercoat and have someone stop in at lunch to walk her but she is still a mess. I am afraid to let her have free rein while I am at work since she tends to have accidents when alone unless she is in her crate.
Honestly? Perhaps continue crating or keep her confined to a small room with soft music playing. It seems cruel, but I'm not sure she would feel any "safer" roaming the house. We crated with our SS dachshund/chihuahua mix because he simply could not be retrained and it was less stressful inside the cage than out. You may also want to look into training classes. I normally say no way to crates, but some dogs just are safer in them. May I ask if you are afraid she will get into things if left out? Any other concerns other than accidents?
What about putting her in room with tile/linoleum (somewhere that can easily be wiped down if accidents happen and putting a gate up? Then she is not crated and if accidents happen they are easy to clean?
Honestly? Perhaps continue crating or keep her confined to a small room with soft music playing. It seems cruel, but I'm not sure she would feel any "safer" roaming the house. We crated with our SS dachshund/chihuahua mix because he simply could not be retrained and it was less stressful inside the cage than out. You may also want to look into training classes. I normally say no way to crates, but some dogs just are safer in them. May I ask if you are afraid she will get into things if left out? Any other concerns other than accidents?
Funny she is a dachshund mix too. She doesn't get into anything. Just accidents.
What type of training classes do you recommend? Everything I looked at was sit/stay type thing. She is awesome at all her basic commands. Just the accidents get old.
Is there an area you can section off with a gate/x-pen and keep her in - preferably with access to a crate/den? Having complete run of the house will likely up her anxiety so I wouldn't go that far but I understand wanting to give her a little more room to stretch/play.
Honestly? Perhaps continue crating or keep her confined to a small room with soft music playing. It seems cruel, but I'm not sure she would feel any "safer" roaming the house. We crated with our SS dachshund/chihuahua mix because he simply could not be retrained and it was less stressful inside the cage than out. You may also want to look into training classes. I normally say no way to crates, but some dogs just are safer in them. May I ask if you are afraid she will get into things if left out? Any other concerns other than accidents?
Funny she is a dachshund mix too. She doesn't get into anything. Just accidents.
What type of training classes do you recommend? Everything I looked at was sit/stay type thing. She is awesome at all her basic commands. Just the accidents get old.
Well, we tried some classes/online videos that dealt specifically with separation anxiety and while they didn't work for BooBoo, I still think they were really informative. Boo was just a little special, thats all. You could always attempt to re-housebreak your pup. It can be done and while it may take a while, in the long run it may be beneficial. Though, if you don't think that is a viable avenue, you could put her in a tiled room during the day. That way she isn't crated, but it isn't necessarily a big deal if she goes oops.