Hi everyone! Long time no write again - thought I'd get the peanut gallery opinion on litter box training. So I have (had) Tayda trained to use a litter box filled with Equine Pine pellets when we aren't home. We've moved around several times in the last couple years but each time she seemed to have adapted pretty quickly. But in our new place, she seems to have regressed a bit.
Her situation in our previous houses have all been pretty similar. She was blocked in the kitchen with about 12x12 of room to "roam" in. I had a dog bed on the floor for her, and near the door to the outside I put a large shallow tupperware bin (the kind you can buy to store stuff under a bed) with the pine pellets in it. And with that set up, she has been fine all day, peeing in the bin multiple times before we get home. There was a rug in the room, but she never (or very rarely) peed on the run - always in the box.
But this time, the kitchen situation is not one that allows for her to be blocked in efficiently. So I have her blocked in the family room, which is a bit bigger. She is able to sleep on the couch during the day if she chooses, and i have the bin with the pellets near the door to the outside. This seemed fine for the first 2 months or so that we lived here. But then I started coming home to finding pee in the box AND pee on the rug or on the wood floor next to the rug. It is large amounts of pee so I don't think it is a UTI or anything like that. I really feel like she's just getting lazy about walking ALL THE WAY (about 10 feet) over to the bin. Is that possible? Boooo….
So I am now trying to go "back to basics" with the litterbox training. I have her back in a LARGE crate, with a dog bed taking up half the crate, and a litterbox with pine pellets taking up the other half. The idea being, of course, that she won't want to pee on her bed, so she'll pee in the litterbox and that will help get her "re" trained.
HOWEVER, today was the second day of trying the "back to basics" training. I videotaped her yestserday and today and this is what she did.
Day one: didn't pee in the box at all, peed in her bed, and then slept in it.
Day two: didn't sleep in her bed. slept in the litter box. The tape ran out before she peed in the litter box so I don't know if she slept in it after she peed in it, but I suspect she did.
ugh, now what??? If the idea is that by giving her only a small area to sleep in and an a litterbox to pee in, and dogs naturally don't want to sleep in her pee..... what now? She seems to be at least "okay" with sleeping in the litterbox? strange! I don't remember her doing this last time around.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
