I adopted a rescue dog who is a 1 year old chihuahua mix a few months ago. She is "partially house-trained" and I'm doing crate training with her.
There are some things I've noticed that I'm trying to get corrected, and I've searched and read as many articles and forum posts on, and I'd love to hear your feedback/tips for things I can do the make things better.
- She has a pee pad that we keep by the door that she was used to using at her former family and foster mom's house and that we used before I got her the crate. Steadily over time, she has used it less. Before, she used to literally finish going on a walk or going into the backyard just to go on the pee pad. I'm considering removing it now but this leads me to...
- She likes to poop secretly, when no one is watching for a FEW MINUTES, in various carpeted areas in the house. Even though there's a pee pad available and she used to use it to do #2 on as well. Problem is, I am at work all day and my parents take care of my dog during the day so there are moments where my dog will do something naughty unsupervised for a mere minute (which is what happened the other day). My parents are not able to always catch her in the act and if she's crated when they are home, she barks and loudly whines, or at least I'm told (she's usually whiny when I first put her in and then quiets down when I am home). I've now gated off the upstairs (where my dog LOVES to go to poop and the other day, also peed on a bath mat, which is a strange since she's usually been good with the pee pad for that) so now she has resorted to quietly pooping on the main floor when no one is looking. She's not going on the pad anymore nor outside when she is let out into the yard fairly consistently.
She also poops 2-3 times a day, once early in the morning and usually once per meal - which seems to be quite a lot compared to other dog owners I have talked to. But it's always a regular sized poop and then a teeny weeny poop when she does eliminate outside with someone, whereas it can be more of a "hefty load" when it's "secret inside popping". I don't know if it's a thing about privacy LOL. I give her ACANA (from the Orijen folks) for small breeds and the amount specified for her size on the package. She never poops "right after she eats" as per
the articles I've read. It can take an hour, it can take numerous hours and sometimes the 3rd poop never comes, so it's hard to keep a schedule of letting her out based on wanting her to eliminate.
- When she DOES go into the backyard, which is fenced in, she eats random things out there. There's a tree in a neighbor's yard that drops acorns on the ground, which she eats, and she eats leaves, eats grass, attempts to eat snails, and, one of the more problematic things, is that she goes into the corners and sides of the yard that have things I do not want her to get into (there's also a compost box back there and I'd really like to keep her away from that area). She just keeps burrowing into the dirt and ickiness and won't come out. When I tried "the pinch/claw" method from Cesar Millan, she just growls and tries to bite me. I've been teaching her the "leave it" command but it's not taking and when she has some sort of thing she wants to eat, it's like she becomes a whole different, aggressive dog that will swipe at you and ignore you if you stop her. Again, because, I am at work and my parents are taking care of her during the day, they cannot always put on her harness and leash to go to the backyard each time she has to eliminate and stay outside with her - preferably, due to them helping me out, I'd like to make it as easy as possible for them. And even when she is on a leash, she pretty much still eats like it's a buffet out there and bites/pulls the leash.
I tried some of the deterrents for getting dogs out of areas: i.e. lemon juice and a spray bottle of water when I catch her in those areas but she is not at all deterred. What else can I do to 1) get her out of those areas and 2) stop eating everything and just go out to the backyard to do her business and then come back in like most other dogs? There's a product called Shoo that I saw at PJ's that supposedly uses pheromones to make your dog avoid certain areas but I can't find any reviews on it and I'm iffy with using it.
Lastly, she had her vet check in June and was declared healthy.
Anyway sorry for the lengthiness! Any input would be appreciated!