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Housebreaking - Help! — Brooklynian

Housebreaking - Help!

bklyntransplant
bklyntransplant
edited November -1 in Brooklyn Pets
I recently adopted a lovely shar-pei/pit bull mix. He's settling into the routine of apartment life so well and is in general making good housebreaking progress...BUT....I live on the 3rd floor of a walkup and every 2 days or so, the dog pees on the stairs. It's not that he can't wait the additional 45 seconds to get down the second flight of stairs...it's that he seems to be choosing not to.

Any ideas? :-(

Comments

  • mr. met
    mr. met
    my dog did that for a few weeks after i first got her. she stopped eventually.
  • opossumqueen
    opossumqueen
    Some dogs, especially unaltered males are prone to peeing inside new spaces to mark their territory, just like outside but obviously more offensive inside. If there have been other dogs in the place this might be part of the problem.

    Is it always the same spot? If so, maybe you could try cleaning the area with whatever it is you use to clean up dog urine (google this..maybe a vinegar solution?). This may sound silly, but try going quickly past the pee spots--don't give the dog time to stop and pee.

    Good luck!
  • bklyntransplant
    bklyntransplant
    He is altered...and it's not in the same spot. The worst is when he pees mid-staircase and it becomes an entire offensive waterfall :-(

    The entire hallway has a sheen of Nature's Miracle. :-(
  • lilbangladesh
    lilbangladesh
    I don't know if dogs, like cats, find citrus offensive. You might try cleaning up the pee spots with orange cleaner if they do. It would probably encourage him not to do it again and leave a pleasant smell for the neighbors.
  • opossumqueen
    opossumqueen
    What fun to clean up! :/

    It still could be marking. If it were me, I'd try the get him down the stairs fast bit. Maybe have him do a sit stay (or someone else keeps him in a sit at the top) while you go down a landing or two. Then call and have him run to you, using an excited happy tone since a frustrated voice will not be as encouraging. Repeat the sit stay, then run down a set of stairs until you're at the bottom. If the dog isn't allowed to stop and sniff and have time to pee, it won't. Once he gets used to this, the peeing will likely stop.

    If you're walking down together, as soon as the dog starts to sniff or stop, just make a noise to get his attention or a gentle tug on the lease to distract him from what he's doing (about to pee). If you pay close attention you can learn the signals that he's about to do X behavior and you can help stop it by always distracting before he's fully into it.

    Keep us posted.
  • akm
    akm
    It took me two months to completely housebreak my dog. He's a young adult dog so he should have been able to hold it, but he was peeing every twenty minutes! I live on a second floor walk up and he often would go in the lobby right before we got outside. Drove me crazy! (He was even tested for kidney disease because he was going so often.) I'm so happy to say that he can hold it for at least five hours now and never pees in the building. For me it just took lots of time and patience, and tons of praise. I would literally go bananas telling him how good he was when he went outside and gave him his favorite treats. I still occasionally reinforce his housebreaking with treats.
    Hang in there! Some dogs learn in a week, and some in a few months.
  • bklyntransplant
    bklyntransplant
    He is making progress...knock on wood....no accidents for 3-4 days now. As he gets more comfortable on the stairs, the issue is lessening. We'll see.

    Thanks for your input/encouragement/suggestions!
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