UGH! I seriously just threw out close to $200 in clothes..easily more.

The way my apartment set up is kind of confusing..but when you walk in, the "living room", kitchen, and bathroom are all BAM BAM BAM. It's just one long room, with no doors. You can see straight into my bedroom from the front door, and my bedroom is rather large. You walk in to my room, and there is a big octagon shape, and then to the left there is like an office type space, then a walk in closet. The only thing that has doors is my closet.

In my room I have both dog kennels. Sheba's is against the wall closest to the door and Ares is right under the fire escape window 10 ft from my bed. I noticed my room has been REEKING of pee and some other weeird smell. I have been spraying Natures Miracle by my bed and the smell went away.. or so it seemed. I don't ever go into my closet because I have two dressers and most of my clothes are in there. Well I went to my closest and I started gagging right away. I had a bunch of clothes on the ground because I was going through my clothes for a garage sale. 

Turns out Ares has been using that corner to pee and poop. There was poop stuck to clothes that were completely molded over. I have problems with the moisture level in this apartment because it's pretty shitty, so I have to catch things right away to make sure it doesn't spread. The floor was SOAKED and all of my clothes were ruined. It also appears he is peeing out of the side of his crate..

The longest this boy is alone is seriously 6 hours..tops. And that's maybe once a week.. I am SO infuriated right now. While I have my landlords permission for him to be here, I don't have her permission for him to DESTROY my apartment.

I don't know WHY he is doing this. You cannot see the corner of my room from the living room. I am so mad I want to put him a kennel outside (I have one with a top of it, don't worry). I won't put him out there, but I am just...so aggravated.

With me leaving for Vegas, I'm worried Chris can't handle this. I am contacting the local Sibe rescue to see if she can help me out; I don't want this to sound bad, and it may just be because I want to throttle the poor boy, but I want him gone. I love Ares, but I can't do this anymore. 

Does anyone have any suggestions besides the obvious (taking him out more). Chris is already on board with taking him out more, and tomorrow I am going to set up someone to take them out to potty. There isn't anyone I trust to actually WALK them... 

HELP!

I thought he did this before, but I wasn't too sure..

I was going over to vacuum up the carpet sprinkley stuff I put down, and Ares was trying to go over to the spot where he pees and I grabbed him really quick cause I had been telling him NO every time he had tried to go over. I had to drag him backwards (not like, super rough or anything like that), and he deep throat growled at me and showed me his teeth.

I got super big and made direct eye contact and said NO in a really deep and big voice until he broke eye contact with me and walked away with slightly submissive body language. He growls at me any time I try to manipulate where his body is going.. Tonight however is the first time he actually showed his teeth like he was going to go for me..

Wow! That sounds really really rough! I'm sorry you have to deal with that! I think getting him into the rescue asap is probably the best for both you and him, especially your sanity. In the meantime, I would crate him when you're gone and leash him when you're home, and see if you can find an enclosed crate, maybe a cheap one on craigslist? From your post, I think it sounds like he's peeing while in the crate. You could also see if you can put a tarp around the outside of his crate and also maybe put one on the floor underneath the crate to protect the floor. I would get him in the rescue asap, if possible. I'm not sure where in NB you are, but you might be able to contact the rescue in CO, I think some members here even volunteer for them to see if they can help if the local rescue can't take him. Is it possible to get an extra tall baby gate for your closet? Then you can block the doorway so he can't even go in there, but it would still allow for airflow. Our apartment is similar in terms of moisture issues, and we only have windows on the north side, so its really hard to get any kind of air moving in there. Do you have carpet in the closet? If so, it might have soaked the pad and through to the floor underneath and you might have to pull the carpet up to get it completely dry and clean, and even then any time it gets wet, you're going to smell it. It may have to be replaced altogether. Once you get him situated in the rescue and have assessed how much damage he's done in your apartment, you should probably let your landlord know, and ask for permission to replace the carpet in the closet. You could probably find a remnant rather cheaply and hopefully have it installed for less than $100. I wouldn't do anything until he's out of the apartment, and you're sure your girls haven't regressed in potty training though. Also, before you put anything new in, I would definitely recommend pulling up the carpet and letting the flooring underneath dry out whether its concrete or wood, it might have absorbed a lot of the mess and may be wet from all the urine. If it's concrete I'd probably pull up the carpet completely out of the closet and clean it daily for a week or so with a dilute bleach mixture and set up a powerful fan 24/7. You've done a lot for Ares, and you should feel good that you were able to help get him out of a bad situation. Don't beat yourself up for being upset with him or having to make this decision. Good luck and I really hope you can get him in a rescue soon!

Yikes,

I've been there... for a long long time.


Our cat who recently passed refused to use her litter box for the last 3 or 4 moths of her life. I had to lay a tarp down in my spare room, which we routinely mopped up and cleaned to allow her somewhere to eliminate.

If she didn't have this area to void, she would go anywhere else she could.


It sucked... It was rough, and the house always smelt like cat piss. 24/7. I was so tired of it, and honestly exhausted with it and defeated. It was a constant stress and something to worry about.

Unfortunately this cat was 16 years of age, and had been getting insulin for 4 years give or take. I didn't have the time to find out why this was suddenly happening, and what I could possible do to fix the situation, as her health had deteriorated and it was time to say good bye to her. 




With Ares,

I would start over from the very basics of house breaking. He is still young enough to learn and to correct this behavior to me. Retrain as if I had a new puppy, always on umbilical, with my full attention and supervision. If he can't be trusted to be alone I wouldn't allow him so.

I would clean and or replace anything that had his scent on it, so that wouldn't be a focus for him. 

I would take him to the vet to make sure there was no UTI or other underlying issue I didn't know about that was preventing him from being able to "hold it" for long periods of time.

As Jen Suggested I would also find some way to limit his spray. Replacing a wired crate with a solid one, so he could not piss outside of it. 

I would also ramp up exercise, and training while walking. Making sure there was structure to my walks and only a couple of areas I allowed for exploration, sniffing, or bathroom breaks. This would help enforce where and when my dog should eliminate.

I would also be extremely mindful of food and water intakes and times Ares normally eliminates or has "accidents" and make it a point to be outside during those times and for extended periods.

If I caught him in the middle of having an "accident" I would correct it by a vocal warning (Hey I Caught you! type thing) and then relocation. If that wasn't enough to stop it, I would physically move him by lifting him off the ground, mid stream or not, and placing him outside in an acceptable location.

Bearing teeth and growling are mixed bag and hard to give advice for over the internet on a forum. I know what I would do with my own dogs, because I understand them and their body language. All I would need is body positioning and my voice to stop it and end it with my pups. Not knowing Ares or what to expect, I couldn't tell you what he meant by it, or how to fix it.





Only you know what is best for you, and if Re-homing Ares is the right solutions then so be it. What I describe above is in no way me telling you what you should do and it comes with no guilt, it is simply what I would do given your situation.

He isn't doing this out of spite, or to make you agitated or angry. He is doing it simply because he can and doesn't understand it isn't acceptable behavior yet. To him everywhere is a toilet still.

Best of luck,
~Chris~

It's okay Kelsey - breathe.  I can understand your frustration.

First things first - try to air the carpet out and clean it.  There are several home recipes around for pee stains.  Most of them include typical household cleaners - distilled white vinegar, baking soda and etc.  

Try this home remedy: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf/Cleaning/Carpet/Removing-Dog-Urine-Stains-from-Carpet.html

Another: http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Pet-Urine-from-Carpet

http://spotremoval.coit.com/how-to-remove-urine-from-carpet


After you've done this, try to rent or borrow a shampooer to suck the rest of it out (your rescue may be able to let you borrow one).  After that, let it air dry and see if it can be saved.  If not, I'm very sure you can find a local carpenter for less than $100 to re-carpet the area.  Call around for quotes.

Now.  This is my observation:

He is a male.  I believe he is trying to mark the house to show his dominance.  To counter this, get a belly band.  

http://www.amazon.com/PlayaPup-Belly-Bands-Green-Large/dp/B007TD7ITW

http://www.bellybands.net/

If you do not want to buy one, ask the rescue that you're fostering for if they can provide you one.  My rescue is a great group of people and they give me any type of advice/item whenever I need it.  After all, you just provide a loving home for him (and food).

I'm not sure if he'll try to get out of the belly band or not (I've never had to do this to a male, just heard stories from other marking males).  If you catch him trying to mark, scold him. 

For the growling at you thing (as well as marking in the house), I believe he may be trying to show some dominance.  Ask your rescue for advice on that, I'm not sure how to deal with it.  I'm sure this forum will have some helpful advice too.

That really sucks he is also peeing in his crate - odd.  Does he have enough room to stand up and hike to leg to pee outside of it? The belly band could alleviate that while you're gone. 

Maybe have another foster in your rescue group watch him while you're gone in Vegas if you think Chris can't handle it.  The rescue is kinda my thing and I would feel bad if I left John the responsibility of my foster. :l

I really wish you luck - fostering is a rollercoaster of emotions.

No judgement here, but I am a little surprised that the rescue let you foster while in an apartment. It's for this reason that I don't think most allow that.

All I will say is not to take your anger or frustration out on Ares (not suggesting you would physically, I mean this more emotionally). If you never noticed that he had started going in the closet, there's no one to blame but yourself. What was probably a one-time accident has now turned into a habit that he believes to be acceptable. If the excrement had enough time to mold, this has been happening a LONG time and that is not the fault of the dog, but the owner.

As others have said, I would rip up the carpet and replace the flooring if the urine has soaked through the carpet. Then spray the walls and the crate down with Nature's Miracle and bring Ares back to step 1 of potty training.

If you bring him back to the rescue, I think you should take it as a sign that you are just not meant to foster at this particular time of your life. Potty training issues are probably the #1 issue with rescues/rehomes and if this is something that will be an issue for you now, unless you learn to work through them, they are not going to get better with another dog.

I apologize if any of this seems overly harsh. I don't mean to be. I am just trying to be honest and objective.

Good luck!

I don't think she's fostering through a rescue, if I remember correctly, she took the dog in from a bad situation. I could be wrong though and mixing Ares up with another foster.

I think you need to take a step back and reassess the situation - when you get an unaltered male this is a very likely occurrence. Has he been neutered? That curbed any marking issues Cato had.

Everyone gets frustrated, but you have to be attentive and forgiving. Fostering is hard on both of you. For what it's worth, I'd take a dog that marks over having to rehabilitate a dog from resource guarding...which I had to do with Delilah.

Is Ares neutered? If not I suggest getting it done asap. I don't know how old Ares is, but marking can be stopped if not controlled usually by neutering. In fact my 5 month old puppy Loki was neutered on Monday because of this same problem. At 3 months old he was already lifting his leg to pee. He has a strong personality, he came in here wanting to be alpha lol. Recently he had begun to lift his leg on the wall by my front door. When this started happened a few more times the vet said to neuter him asap. It was earlier then I wanted to do it, but I didn't want these bad behaviors to become habit either, after speaking with my vet again we decided on the neuter, he did just fine.

I am not fostering through a rescue, I took him in out of a bad situation like Jen said. I was going to contact the rescue to see if they could help me cross post him and get his face out to more people then I could on my own. I am still going to contact them tonight and see if she has any tips for me.

He is neutered and he is about 1.5, at least that is what I have been told. I am more aggravated at the fact I was told he was housebroken so I didn't pay any special attention to him except when I noticed he was doing this the first time I posted a thread about it. I thought I had caught him and we took the necessary steps after that; he was always in the same room as me and was never left unsupervised, unless he was in his crate, obviously.

So my thinking is that he had gone into the corner first, and then it just smelled so icky he moved into the traffic area where I could see/smell it. So it was definitely an accident that formed into a habit; no doubt about that.

I would never take my anger out on my pups. I went for a nice long run this morning bumpin some awesome beats and I felt much better. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I had found this mess, so take that into consideration as well LOL..

I am fully aware this is not all his fault, and mostly I am mad at his previous "owners". He is a sweetheart of dog that got the shit end of the stick. It's just like... don't lie to me and say he is potty trained when he isn't. Just be honest!! That's what frustrated me the most. I fully admit I gave the dog too much freedom and too much leeway, and now I have paid the price.

Mostly, I just wanted to vent and see what others had to say about why he would be peeing out of his crate, because that is just WEIRD to me. I put up a line of tote lids and I have two fans going in the closest corner after soaking it last night with Natures Miracle. I'll be picking some more up today as well.

Nobody is being harsh. I am still a teenager and I am apt to throwing my own temper tantrums LOL. I don't take anything said personally.

Like I said, it's not Ares' fault and I know that. He is laying on my feet right giving my apparently dirty toes a bath. He is just a pup who needs some guidance.

My question..is it marking even though he is fixed?? I am not well educated on boy dogs as I have 2 girls. I am thinking Sheba may be going into her second heat soon, so could that have anything to do with it?? She is acting almost similar to her first heat.

I will take him into the vet to see if he has any issues going on or not, just to rule it out.

I would never give a dog up for having potty training issues, though. I am one of those super dramatic people where I say things I would never do. I would never just dump a dog that had any type of issues onto another person/group unless I fully disclosed the problems and thought said person/group could manage. I made a commitment when I took Ares in and I intend to keep it. Kind of stings that you would think that of me, but no sweat off my back. I understand it is the internet and things are open to each person's own interpretations.

Sorry if my response is all over the place. I can't get the quote button to work with this new setup and I am stressed out over leaving tomorrow, so sorry if I rambled (which I totally did)!!

Hi Kelsey, and lol to your post! I think we all know you were just ranting, heck we all do sometimes, if not on here then to our friends or ourselves.

Both of my males have peed out of their crates at some point while being potty trained, soon as they get old enough to lift their leg they do it (Loki did it once at 3 months ugh!). I don't know if this is commonplace or not, it has been my discovery however that male huskies can be more difficult to housebreak. Pull up "Balon's peeing issue" and you'll see what I went through with him. HAHA . Loki is not as difficult as Balon was for sure. But honestly I can't say he is real quick either !

As I said Loki was beginning to pee up my walls so on Monday at the young age of 5 months I had him neutered. Balon NEVER did that! However the vet said Loki could be doing it because there's another male in the house (plus I have a female lab). Even though they get along great, he may be doing it because he wants to be alpha, which I know he does lol. He did fine thank god, and my vet said it was necessary to stop it from being a habit he may carry on with later. Don't want that so he was neutered!

I believe you know exactly what happened, I believe you are correct that he did it unchecked and it became a habit. Not sure if its marking or not, but it really sounds more like accidents to me. Now unfortunately you have to break it. I agree with those who said just go back to square one with potty training. In fact I found it most useful to actually make a chart and write down the times I take them out. Doing it now for Loki in fact. It is helpful if they have an accident to see where maybe they didn't get taken out enough!

Sorry this happened in a rental home, that sucks, but I believe you will get Ares back on track! Good luck!

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

I am not fostering through a rescue, I took him in out of a bad situation like Jen said. I was going to contact the rescue to see if they could help me cross post him and get his face out to more people then I could on my own. I am still going to contact them tonight and see if she has any tips for me.

Understoood! Wasn't sure what you meant when you said "contact the rescue"... I don't get to read every thread, so I didn't know Ares's background.

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

He is neutered and he is about 1.5, at least that is what I have been told. I am more aggravated at the fact I was told he was housebroken so I didn't pay any special attention to him except when I noticed he was doing this the first time I posted a thread about it. I thought I had caught him and we took the necessary steps after that; he was always in the same room as me and was never left unsupervised, unless he was in his crate, obviously.

So my thinking is that he had gone into the corner first, and then it just smelled so icky he moved into the traffic area where I could see/smell it. So it was definitely an accident that formed into a habit; no doubt about that....

I am fully aware this is not all his fault, and mostly I am mad at his previous "owners". He is a sweetheart of dog that got the shit end of the stick. It's just like... don't lie to me and say he is potty trained when he isn't. Just be honest!! That's what frustrated me the most. I fully admit I gave the dog too much freedom and too much leeway, and now I have paid the price.

Welcome to rescues. This is probably just inexperience, but almost every rescue will regress in potty training. The stress and the new environment just sort of create it. It's entirely possible that he WAS fully potty trained at his first home and he regressed a little from the move and then it turned into a habit. It's something you should have kept an eye on from the beginning, but live and learn

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

I would never take my anger out on my pups. I went for a nice long run this morning bumpin some awesome beats and I felt much better. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I had found this mess, so take that into consideration as well LOL..

I wasn't trying to suggest that you actually would take your anger out on your pup physically. Your first post just seemed really angry with him and you mentioned wanting him gone-- so I was trying to get across that you shouldn't emotionally blame him. The situation is more human-created than animal-created.

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

Mostly, I just wanted to vent and see what others had to say about why he would be peeing out of his crate, because that is just WEIRD to me. I put up a line of tote lids and I have two fans going in the closest corner after soaking it last night with Natures Miracle. I'll be picking some more up today as well.

Nobody is being harsh. I am still a teenager and I am apt to throwing my own temper tantrums LOL. I don't take anything said personally.

That's probably the most mature thing I've ever seen someone your age post on the forum, lol. Kudos to you. It's the internet. No sense getting offended by the internet.

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

My question..is it marking even though he is fixed?? I am not well educated on boy dogs as I have 2 girls. I am thinking Sheba may be going into her second heat soon, so could that have anything to do with it?? She is acting almost similar to her first heat.

It could be her heat, but my guess is that it's been going on a little too long for that. Honestly? It's rather ingenious what he is doing... if he's peeing OUT of his crate, he knows he shouldn't go where he is standing, so he is just lifting his leg and aiming out. I don't think it's marking. I think it's possibly a potty trained dog that knows there is a place a couple of feet away that he can pee. It might have been stress that caused him to need to go in the crate so badly the first time so he didn't want to get it ON him so he peed out of the crate. Pretty smart dog if you ask me

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

I would never give a dog up for having potty training issues, though. I am one of those super dramatic people where I say things I would never do. I would never just dump a dog that had any type of issues onto another person/group unless I fully disclosed the problems and thought said person/group could manage. I made a commitment when I took Ares in and I intend to keep it. Kind of stings that you would think that of me, but no sweat off my back. I understand it is the internet and things are open to each person's own interpretations.

Sorry if my response is all over the place. I can't get the quote button to work with this new setup and I am stressed out over leaving tomorrow, so sorry if I rambled (which I totally did)!!

It's not that we assume you would-- it's that you said that's what you wanted to do. We don't know you well enough to really know if you would or wouldn't just give up on a foster that has any sort of issues... so when you said you wanted to, and you were contacting the rescue, we took it at face value.

That pesky written word on the internet makes it a little hard for us to truly know your intentions... if it's a vent or a true cry for help.



You're on the right track though and you'll get the situation resolved. One step at a time, though... live and learn