thoughts about leaving a dog home alone

[Stacy]

Training gurus, I could use your help brainstorming for Miss Maggie. She's been here two weeks and she's doing really well. It sounds like she had a less than ideal living situation before DRC rescued her, so I've been going really slow.

We're working through some potty issues, and as long as she's leashed to me and we go outside frequently we haven't been having any accidents. But sometimes I have to leave.

I thought I could baby gate her into the kitchen, but it wasn't 20 minutes before she pushed the gate down and let herself into the rest of the house. She's not destructive, she mostly lays on the couch. And she's welcome to the whole house if I can help her understand that we don't potty inside.

Yesterday I had to leave for less than an hour and so I thought I would try crating her, but she was not a happy camper. I do have a gate that is hardware installed coming from Amazon, but even if I can keep her in the kitchen I would ideally like her to not potty inside. 

I've always had dogs that were crate trained, but somehow I don't think I ever really crate trained them. I just put them in their crates and they were fine. 

So I guess it's a two part question. If I can't keep her in the kitchen, how do I convince her that she shouldn't relieve herself on the carpet when I'm not home to remind her? And do you think it's possible to crate train her at 18 months old, when she may have some negative associations with the crate? There are times when it would be convenient for her to be crated. The family is thinking about going on vacation this summer and she would go with us, but she can't just be left loose in a cabin. 

She's a lovely girl, and I know we will get through this just fine. It's just a different situation than I've encountered before and I'm not quite sure where to begin. 

Thanks! Stacy

[Stacy]

I'm almost afraid to say it and jinx it, but I think we might have solved it. I just went out as a 20 minute experiment and left Katie out with Maggie in the kitchen together and they did great! The first time Maggie pushed the gate over and freed both of them, but now she can't do that, and she didn't seem invested enough to jump over. There was no barking or pacing. She even laid down. Fingers crossed. 

[Sebastian and Chester's Mom]

That is wonderful news!  Sebastian, Chester, and I hope that this is a good solution for you!

I hope you like the Simple Green Bio Dog as much as I did!  My sister’s doodle had a UTI, and decided to use the formal living room couch as her secret 2am potty place several times.  My sister thought that the couch was ruined until I went over there armed with a bottle of Bio Dog.  You would never know that there had been a single accident on that couch!

[Stacy]

I hope the simple green works for us too! So far I've used Nature's Miracle with oxy - the orange container. It doesn't smell quite as bad as the original does to me. Bissell's pet stain formula, Folex carpet cleaner. I poured a carton of corn starch on it and left that for a half an hour before vacuuming. I poured 2 boxes of baking soda and left that overnight before vacuuming. Nothing works. I have a nose for pee, and the carpet cleaner smell only makes it worse. I never wanted carpet, but we are stuck with it for a while, so I have to make the best of it. 

[Stacy]

I just wanted to tell you that I'm very impressed with the simple green bio dog so far. It's not completely dry, but it smells like pine, and not pine mixed with pee. If it stays like this when it's completely dry I might consider the carpet cured. It always amazes me that the products that work aren't necessarily the ones that are readily available. I couldn't find anyone local that had it in a store. I ordered it from Amazon. But I think we should be recommending this one more often! Thanks!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Yay....that's great news.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Hooray!