AS DonC says,"the question of whether they WANT to...". I had one that after about a mile would lay down on his side and refuse to move. More than once did I have to carry that pain the butt Basenji, on my shoulders native style, home.
Welcome to all of you. So exciting with a new pup..
Look through the puppy threads and also the training threads..lots of info to read..
Where in TX are you, I am in Houston, if you are close, it would be fun to meet up..
The cold probably made her stiffer than usual, so a small misstep might cause a fall. Glucosamine kept my old girl going for several years, good luck with your oldie.
I got my pup when he was 7 months and he was sort of house broken. When I took him to the vet I found out that part of his house breaking issues was that he had a bladder infection. If you continually have problems house breaking (like very frequent urination or peeing in the crate) you may want to have your vet test for a bladder infection just to make sure.
Another problem I discovered was that he didn't know how to tell me he had to pee. I hung bells on the door and by having him ring them every time we went out I taught him to tell me when has to pee. It has been great. Some times he rings them just to go out and play, but mostly he rings them when he really has to go out. Now the only "accidents" he's had is when I ignore the bells b/c I am busy. (he literally peed all over the living room the other night because I ignored him)
One other suggestion, make sure you use an enzyme cleaner on any "accident" spots. These really eat away the reminants of the feces/pee so that your b will not recognize the area as an ok place to go to the bathroom
Other helpful tips I got was to be sure you use the same door when you take your b out and take it to the same part of the yard. Give your b LOTS of praise for going outside (and a treat if it is food motivated).
I started with a cat toy with a pl bag tied on the end to see if they would be interested before i went any further. The I used an old fishing rod with rope tied from there. Kind of worked the same as a lunge whip. (I'm too cheap to buy one if I don't absolutely need one)
