Sunday, March 30, 2008

I just wanted to post the letter that I wrote to Cesar Milan the "Dog Whisperer" for two reasons:
1. Maybe someone can give me some advice that has had similar experience
2. I laughed out loud when I read it back to myself and Nick even though it is SO NOT FUNNY

Cesar,
I adopted my Dachsund/Terrier mix dog Ali two years ago in April 2008. She was 8 weeks old when I adopted her and I immediately began house training her using puppy pads and frequent trips outside with simple "Go outside" commands and praises. When we lived in an apartment and had to use a leash to go outside she had occasional accidents in the apartment and I wasn't too surprised. When she was 1 year old I moved into a house and thought that the accidents would disappear considering we would have a fenced in back yard for her to freely roam and do her business. The situation got worse! She is two years old and has accidents in the house over night and during the day almost every other day. She will defecate on my bedroom floor while I am sleeping but sometimes will wake me up to take her outside. If she defecates during the day in a guest bedroom she may eat half of it or spread it out to "hide it?" I don't want to have to crate her at night because she crates while I am at work. One more thing... she HATES to be outside by herself and if the grass is wet she will refuse to go in the grass unless I pick her up and put her there! Please give me some advice!
Sincerely,
Laura M.

6 comments:

Mary said...

Seriously, I could write a NOVEL to Cesar about the multitude of issues our dogs have. Lane assures me that he only actually visits people in California where he lives unless that are ridiculously famous so I haven't bothered yet. We do religiously watch his show. I dare say he is a miracle worker.

I don't really have any advise on this topic. But, I know that Jon & Mechelle have 3 Dachshunds of various ages & recently moved into a brand new home. After years of letting them roam free, the only thing that has worked for them is to baby gates the dogs in the kitchen pretty much any time except at night when they go to bed.

Anyway, not sure if that's an option.

The Bean said...

I know you don't want to crate Ali but we did it for Clutch and Seven at night and they were both crated during the day when I worked too and they actually loved it. They would randomly wander in there when I was home and just lay in there with the door wide open. They really did love their crates and they would never pee in them because they slept there and loved them so much. Just my experience.

M'elle said...

I have a little bit of experience in this area, so I'd be happy to help you out via e mail (ask Nick for it)since my response would be very long here.
Mr. Milan has some good ideas, but you don't need him to fix this. There's no "magic pill", you just need consistency and a great deal of patient determination.
I also agree with The Bean about the crates. Our dogs love them, too.

Stephanie said...

I have no useful information. But almost everyone I know who has a small dog has had this problem. Good luck.

Stephanie said...

Also, I think you're carrying the girls high, too. That's how I was with Asher - I'll have to show you pictures sometime.

The Bean said...

LOVE the new sidebar picture!