Two Toodles and a Doodle

[jules2dl]

Hello!
My name is Julie, although my friends call me Jules. I have a 14 week old Labradoodle named Pyewacket (she's the Doodle) and 2 Cockatoos, Zoey a 12 year old Umbrella, and Daphne a 10 year old Moluccan (they are the Toodles). Zoey is extremely bonded to me (although I have told her time and time again that sorry, I cannot fertilize her eggs), and does not like me to have other friends of any species (including human), she only just tolerates Daphne. So there is currently a battle waging for dominion over the household and Mom's affections. I have a feeling that Zoey will win, only because her skills are honed after many years of similar battles, and the fact that she is smarter than any dog I have ever known. Pye is an intelligent pup though, so she may give Zoey a run for her money!
I am currently attempting to housetrain Pyewacket according to a member's suggestion given to me in a different forum. So far, Pye thinks that her training pad, and the tray it sits on is her bed, and she uses the rest of the floor as her potty ground when we're not home. She also does not poop at night until after we go to bed and she is in her crate, although we walk her several times after her dinner. She just gets so upset at being crated at night that I guess she can't help it. Last night we let her stay loose in the kitchen, hoping things would be better in that regard, but she just pooped on the floor and rested on her potty tray. Sigh.
My Significant Other and I are both starting new jobs with entirely different schedules, which almost led us to rehome Pye until I got that great suggestion from another Labradoodle member. So life should be interesting and fun here with our little menagerie for the next month or 2 until everybody settles in to a new routine! I will enjoy keeping you guys updated, and look forward to reading your replies!
peace and blessings,
jules

[tuffystar]

Welcome Jules and family!!! I don't have any suggestions for training because I don't work and have not faced the challenge before you. I do know that there are many that have wonderful ideas on training. Good luck and I look forward to pictures.

[kirama]

I love your cockatoos! I have an African Grey who is about 25 years old and talks to my dogs- she gives them commands in a voice that sounds just like mine, and they obey but can't figure out where the treats are lol. She also whistles for them to come and yup- they run over to her and then she laughs. We give Tuki the Grey alot of nuts to eat but we have to avoid unshelled walnuts as she will take them to the bottom of her cage and sit on them for weeks trying to hatch the walnut.

About your puppies "poo" problem- First, you need to scrub the crate and spray it with something like natures miracle or vinegar that will kill the smell of her pee and poop. She is just returning to the same place that she pooped before that is absolutely normal puppy behavior. I'm assuming she is now tethered or confined to a limited area with her crate in that area, otherwise your whole house is fair game for becoming a puppy toilet. Dogs can smell an eyedropper of pee or poop in a swimming pool so it's essential that anytime she uses the wrong place for a toilet you thoroughly remove the pee smell. We had a problem with Beck for awhile, he was pretty well housebroken but would occasionally pee on our slate entry. I would scrub and scrub and he would keep going back- then I realized that I was not getting the scent out because the grout was porous. I scrubbed it again and then sealed the grout and he has not returned there since.

Forget the puppy pad frame for now, instead cover the entire space she is confined to with newspapers or puppy pads. There should be no area of the floor that is not covered. What you want to do is make it 'ok' for her to toilet anywhere in her space at this point. Hopefully that won't be in her crate which I am assuming you are leaving open for the time being for her to sleep in. Most dogs will soon pick one or two spots that they will return to time and time again. You can increase the probability of that by rubbing a bit of pee from the soiled pad onto a new pad that replaces it. As she starts 'picking her spot', Start removing the papers or pads from the area she is not soiling. Don't do it all at once! Just slowly make the area covered smaller and smaller. She will eventually be trained to go to one piece of paper or puppy pad, then if you want you can try the frame for the pad again but in my opinion those are a worthless waste of money. This all takes time and an outlook that the puppy is not being bad, she just is doing what comes natural because no one ever taught her anything different. It's unfortunate that the breeder didn't crate train her that has made your job alot tougher. When I got my puppy he had already been trained not to soil his crate even though he slept in it for 8 hours without being let out to potty.

[jules2dl]

Thank you so much AGAIN for the invaluable suggestions! Obviously, I have never trained a puppy because up until now, all of my dogs have been older, rescue dogs.
I knew a Grey, also named Tuki (for parrot in Hebrew) who learned how to imitate the sound of a squeaky dog toy that was HATED by a female Eclectus parrot who had taken up a nest under another parrot cage. Tuki would squeak like the toy and the Eclectus would come running like mad from under the cage, squawking to beat the band and looking around furiously for the toy so that she could "kill it". She'd run around hysterically for several minutes looking for that toy (which my friend had thrown out by this point for the sake of the poor Eclectus, but alas, not soon enough, since the Grey had already mastered the sound!). Tuki, of course, would be laughing her little red tail off in her human's voice all the while!

[Raleighsmom]

Welcome to the forum again Jules! (I believe I welcomed you in an earlier post ) You are getting a lot of great advice here, and I wish you the best of luck with Pyewacket!!! Love that name!!! I'm sure in due time Pye will master the potty thing ......your cockatoos are awesome too! Keep us posted on Pye's progress!!!

[lindamarie]

Welcome, Jules!!
Pyewacket!! What a cute name! How did you arrive at that?

Okay Pye! It's time to knock this pooping in the wrong place OFF!! You may be a cute doodle, and YOU ARE, ............but this has to stop!
With each puppy that I ever had, I trained them in just a few days. I dedicated all my time to this by keeping the pup in plain view 24/7.
I didn't use any pads or newspaper's as, IMO, that delays the process of training........adds to a step 2 which prolongs your goal.

I know how difficult this is with you being so busy. But, is there a way, say this weekend, where you can watch Pye's every single move? If you can, you could pray to catch her in the act. Then you would let out a loud NO....pick her up right in the middle of it and carry her outside.

When we got Bogart, my dad was very ill and I spent many nights at the hospital away from Bogart. My husband was in charge when I was gone, and although he did his very best, he didn't watch Bogart as well as I did. So, Bogart had a couple of accidents. But, it still didn't take long after hubby caught on.

Pooping in her crate........that's not all that common so it makes me ask how large the crate is.........and how late is Pye's last meal?
The crate should only be large enough for them to turn around and stand up.
On feeding.........you may want to offer the last nightly meal no later than 6PM.

You'lll get through this!! We all did!

[jules2dl]

Thanks for more good advice! Her crate is too big, and we intended to block part of it off,but ended up spending all day yesterday devising a way to keep the wee troublemaker in the kitchen( which opens onto our bedroom, 2 bathrooms, the living room and the bird room/ office!). Don't even ask!!
One of my favorite old movies is Bell Book and Candle with Kim Novak,Jimmy Stewart and Jack Lemmon (his 1st movie). Kim Novak plays a witch,and her familiar is a black cat named Pyewacket, and I've always loved the name. The crazy thing? My fiancé's last girlfriend had a cat named Pyewacket! She also had a dog named Chloe,which is why he used to call zoey that until I yelled at him to cut it out!

[sheamusmom]

Hi Jules, and welcome,
I'm in total agreement with Lindamarie, housetraining is only delayed if you use newspaper and pee pads. By all means use your crate and get a crate divider. When you are home with the dog during the first few crucial days, tether her to you, and at the first sign of a squat or circling, pick 'em up and quickly bring them out the door to the yard designated "pee spot". And then lots of praise. I used the phrase "lets do business" when putting the dog out, and when they were successful, heaped lots of praising, and "good business". Your doodle is so smart, it won't take long at all.

[kirama]

Originally Posted by sheamusmom

Hi Jules, and welcome,
I'm in total agreement with Lindamarie, housetraining is only delayed if you use newspaper and pee pads. By all means use your crate and get a crate divider. When you are home with the dog during the first few crucial days, tether her to you, and at the first sign of a squat or circling, pick 'em up and quickly bring them out the door to the yard designated "pee spot". And then lots of praise. I used the phrase "lets do business" when putting the dog out, and when they were successful, heaped lots of praising, and "good business". Your doodle is so smart, it won't take long at all.

I agree with you both that papers or pee pads delay housebreaking, but did you read her original post in another thread?
"Thanks for all who sent replies and pics! I was sick for the past week and didn't get back on the internet until today. I loved seeing all of the pics! My week of illness seems to have set us back as far as housetraining goes, and Pyewacket has been going in her crate, as well as in the house. I am concerned because in the week since we have brought her home, our job situations have changed dramatically. My fiance starts a 3 week training period away from home before embarking on an over-the-road driving job which will keep him away for 11 to 14 days at a time. At the same time, I will be starting a month long training program which will effectively keep me out of the house for 12 hours a day. I am extremely concerned about the effects this will have on housetraining. We don't have close-by neighbors or family, can't afford a pet sitter on a daily basis, and have coyotes in the area, so we are afraid to set up a kennel outside where she'd be alone. Any suggestionsd? My training starts on 5/4"

this puppy is going to be alone each day for 12 hours! A puppy can't hold it for 12 hours at that age, and there isn't really time to housebreak the puppy in the way that you recommend, so I was trying to recommend a 'less than ideal' solution based on their current situation.

[sheamusmom]

I agree with you, Kirama.
I missed her original post in the other thread. Wow, that is a very long time to leave a young puppy alone. It looks like housebreaking will have to wait until someone is home more often to tend to the pup.
Liz

[lindamarie]

OOPS! I did miss the original post.

It will definitely be much longer before the pup can hold on that long.
I recall one vet saying that a pup can retain urine for 1 hr per month of age. So, Pye would only be able to hold on for 3-3 1/2 hours.

Do you have a dog walker in your area? Anyone who could help out and let Pye out while your gone? At this point, that would be my only recommendation aside from the pee pads.

[jules2dl]

Yes, the timing (for bringing home a new puppy) was really bad. We brought her home on a Friday night, and the following Tuesday I got a call from out of the blue to go back for a 3rd interview from a job I applied for before Thanksgiving. The job I'm leaving was only from 11 to 5, so it would have been okay. On Wednesday I got the new job, and my SO, who had been laid-off since just before Christmas, also got a new job that same day as an over-the-road trucker, so he won't be home either! However, had I had even an inkling that all of that was going to transpire I would never have gotten a puppy, and then I wouldn't have Pyewacket, whom I adore ( so I guess in this case, ignorance really is bliss!)! The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes!
Potty training seemed to have been going well, she was using the paper, and then this morning she peed in the shower stall, on the bathroom rug, and in the kitchen not on the paper twice. She did both outside, and then 15 minutes later she did both again on the paper. Sometimes I wonder if her urinary tract is a bit hinky...is it normal for her to have peed so often in such a short time? Hmmm...I am starting to feel kinda like I did when my twins were newborns, and I had to keep a list of who pooped and when! At least I'm not breastfeeding Pye (although she did nip my right boob this morning while we were playing!), so I don't need to keep track of who-nursed-when-and-on-which-side! They turned 23 on the day Dan and I got our jobs, and have been successfully potty trained for quite a while now, so perhaps there is some hope for "The Wacket"!

[kirama]

Some dogs have a harder time getting potty trained than others. As far as peeing in the showerstall etc. It sounds like he was loose. I don't let a dog loose in the house until they reliably tell me when they need to go out to do their business, if a puppy is excited and happy they will frequently just pee where they are rather than hold it for you to take them out. Also, there's a huge variation between training particular dogs, some are harder than others- but I think it will be fine. Like others have said here, if there is any way you can find a neighbor, who could come by a few times a day and play with her during those 12 hour stints when you will be gone it will really be alot better for her- you might even ask your neighbors if they know of a teenager who would be willing to do it for a few $$ a day.

[MaxandMe]

HI JULES and welcome!!! PYEWACKET and your birds sound like a hoot!!!

2 of my dogs trained easily ...Peanut the cream one, well she was pisser till 5.5mos old
what i ended up doing was tethering her to me if i couldn't watch her, soemtimes crated her and then walked her again
another trick was to put a wooden folding chair on the stairs leaning and if any doodle knocked it attempting to go upstairs
the chair would come crashing down and making loud noises.

NATURE'S MIRACLE OXY POWER the ORANGE bottle works EXCELLENT on pee and poop.....it makes it so the dog does NOT
smell the area and go there again.
some dogs take longer than others soemtimes WE MISS their signal.

mine used to pant heavily....out we went
peanut also would jump on me .....meant she had to go out, still does this
if she bugs me constantly getting in my face i know regardless if she's been just walked recently or not
she's gotta go!!

with puppies the moment they wake whether a 2 min or 2hour nap run outside
when they play hard ....take them out
and within 10 to 15 min of eating take them out

another thing to to try it AFTER they go outside praise them and then do a short walk or play time
this way it's associated with good things or even TREAT your doodle ONCE inside the house
(mine would fake peeing if i treated them outside)

hang in there.....it will come