My Poor Christmas tree...

LatilitiesLove · December 2011

Okay, I am soo fed up with my Rottie. He is about a year old, and he is the biggest baby in the world. If he's left alone for more than a couple seconds he howls and whines like someone is seriously putting his paws in a meat grinder.. If he's outside for longer than he likes, he scratches immensely at our back door.. I'd show you a picture, but my camera doesn't take very good pictures. But is all scratched up from him. We tried bell training for when he wants to come in, and after he rings the bell, he will scratch vigorously at the door anyway. We have now trained him that if he's quiet in his kennel he can come out. And we put nail caps on his nails to stop damage on our door. However, now its christmas season, and I have a synthetic christmas tree.... No matter what I do, he will ALWAYS pee on the tree. I will let him outside, and I'll watch him pee like niagra falls, and he'll come in, walk around for a bit, sniff the tree... and pee... He's never peed in the house before and this has gone on for a month now.... (Yes, I've had my tree up that long, don't judge me monkey...) I've tried everything. Loud noises when he goes by the tree, smacking him when he sniffs the tree, I've even tried a shock matt. He doesn't care about the noise. If I smack him, he just looks at me and lifts his leg anyways! And the shock matt he will stand on anyway like its nothing! I'm all out of Idea's, and I can't bring him to my parents house if he's going to pee on their tree too! They have 5 acres and a couple dogs of their own.. But they have more than one tree to look after.. I'm so lost.. If anyone has experience training dogs.. I thought I did. I'm certified dog trainer in RL, and i'm talking to trainers out here... Please help if you have any suggestions... Or if you went through the same thing...

Patty · December 2011

I don't have oodles of dog training experience. Hate to break it to you, but, if the dog was mine, I would definantly be using postitive reinforcement only. Punishing your dog is not going to help a thing, it's just making it worse. Good luck.

Emster · December 2011

ok my dog used to pee on people lol and we did this not let her jump on them and not get excited but ur case get a soda can or redbull dont drink it rinser it out and put pennies in it and put them around the tree when he ges by it will nock over and make really loud noise my dog hated it and around in a circle and when he goes neer fall and u throw one a t him not AT him but really neer him

EmmeZoec · December 2011

Why not just prevent the problem so that it doesn't occur? I.e stop it BEFORE it stats or before it is set in stone. Get an exercise pen from your local pet store and fence in the tree, there fore she can not pee on it

I have 4-6 dogs (my dad is getting one tomorrow and Im getting one the Friday before Christmas.. Ya you can call us crazy) mostly Border Collies but they are all trained to do some kind of sport or performance event. Now when you have the ex-pen up bring her in with cookies in one hand and your handy dandy clicker that should already be loaded and when she sniff the tree ignore her, when she walk away click and jackpot her (when you go cookie, good girl, cookie good girl, cookie, good girl, cookie and so on). Make sure your clicks are right on, as soon as she turns her head click and PARTY like she just figured out how to predict the lottery numbers each week. Its all positive!

LatilitiesLove · December 2011

All my dogs are trained clicker and kennel trained. However, we cannot put a gate up around our tree unless we want the gate right next to the tree.. Its in an odd spot to begin with, and we cant really move it without rearranging the whole house. We only have a foot and a half of space to get into the kitchen with the tree there. So the gate wont work unless we want to climb into the kitchen, and being pregnant, Im clumsy as it is, so I cant climb anywhere... However, the positive reinforcement doesn't work on him either. However, now, every time he goes near the tree I put him outside. if he starts whining i ignore him. Until he's quite he comes back inside. And I've been doing that for the past 30 minutes.. And now he isn't going near the tree. Atleast so far... We'll wait till daddy gets home to see if that worked or not.

EmmeZoec · December 2011

Then put him on a leash and work with it. Positive training works with every dog unless you reverse it with a negative which you have done. Just put the leash on and when he turns away from the tree click and treat.

EmmeZoec · December 2011

Plus he is a puppy for gosh sakes! You can't expect him to be perfect!

DiamondPuppy0809 · December 2011

I've never heard of a dog do this and not responding to training. I do agree that positive reinforcement is the only thing that really ever works... On all four dogs, it's the only training that works for me. Smacking him will never work. I also realized that any time I got frustrated or angry with one of my dogs during potty training or urinating somewhere they shouldn't be - it only made the problem worse. Every single time. I began using kennels, x-pens, baby gates, and any other restraints to my advantage. If the dog can't get to the tree, he can't pee on it. Being less than a year old, he's still a puppy and still learning. Puppies need constant watch and training or else they will get into trouble like this. $:\$ The fact that he peed on the tree once is enough to make him pee on it over and over again because the scent of it is already there... I went through this with my dog, Max, except with a real potted plant in my house. It never became a real issue, once we caught him he stopped immediately. Prevention will be your best weapon in this situation. My brain isn't working properly right now but later I can hopefully suggest some other ideas as well.

Hibachi · December 2011

Sounds like he has separation anxiety. Smacking/hitting a dog in anyway never works. I'm not a "certified trainer" but I have trained my dog to perfection and everyone says she is the best behaved dog they have encountered, but you have to remember 1 year old is still puppy-like. My dog is only a year and half, and although she is well behaved she still has the nature of a puppy. I would advise putting some sort of gate up to block him from certain areas, he could be marking it as his or he could relate the tree to being outdoors.

Emster · December 2011

put some sent of his near the tree and he'l smell it an dwont pee like in the garden to keep them frome digging put their poo in a whole where they dig and they dont dig so put not a toy but fur something of his

EmmeZoec · December 2011

Also if he sleeps in a bed or crate put it next to the tree because dogs don't soil where they sleep.

Emster · December 2011

right i forgot about that

LatilitiesLove · December 2011

EmmeZoe wrote:

Also if he sleeps in a bed or crate put it next to the tree because dogs don't soil where they sleep.

And He pees in his crate too if left in there by himself. We've worked on that, and gotten him to the point where he doesn't pee in there by decreasing his kennel size.

Avla wrote:

Sounds like he has separation anxiety. Smacking/hitting a dog in anyway never works. I'm not a "certified trainer" but I have trained my dog to perfection and everyone says she is the best behaved dog they have encountered, but you have to remember 1 year old is still puppy-like. My dog is only a year and half, and although she is well behaved she still has the nature of a puppy. I would advise putting some sort of gate up to block him from certain areas, he could be marking it as his or he could relate the tree to being outdoors.

However, like I said before, the space that I'd need to put up a gate we dont have. I dont need to be monkeying my way into the kitchen.I understand he is a puppy, but he has never peed inside the house. And What I've done has actually worked. Every time he goes near the tree. I put him outside. He hates being alone, so after a few minutes I bring him back inside. If he goes near the tree i put him right back outside. I've been a trainer for a couple years, and my other two dogs aren't "perfect" but they are pretty damn good. If you see my post about my zoo on the pets forum you'd read about my other two dogs. And on another note, he does have separation anxiety. We've established this, and we are working on him. He's still one of the best dogs I've ever had on and off the leash. He just wants to be as close to you as possible. But thanks for all your help, but I did get him from peeing on the tree from the simple removal technique.

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My Poor Christmas tree...

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