[Wren]

Good afternoon everyone! It has been a long time since I posted here. Several months ago I joined and got some wonderful advise about my (at the time) puppy who had a horrible reaction to vet anesthesia and was thought to have permanent brain damage. I am happy to say that for the most part he is 100% back to normal. There are changes in his personality that the family notices, but no one else does. My reason for giving that little bit of background, is because I don’t know if it factors into the problems we are having now.

Trexon is a JRT, and will be 1 year old on Valentines Day. My two huge problems with him are
1 - He is *still* not totally house trained.
2 - He refuses not stay out of the trash.

Potty training with Trexon was totally finished until he had his incident. After that we had to start all over. We tried to use the crate but no matter what we did, how long we left him he would not settle down and "take" to it the way he did before. I am not sure if he associates the crate with the bad experiences at the vets office or what. But when crated he will not only bark and whine, he will bang his head into the door, and once even cut himself so that his head was bleeding a little. I stopped trying to crate him after that. We watching him carefully, and during the day he does well when asking to go out. He *almost* never has accidents during waking house. At night however he just goes anywhere he feels like. I am not sure what to do.

As for the trash, he would always knock over the can...this I expected so I got a taller can with a lid and moved it back against a wall. He discovered in just a few days how to knock this over as well. So I moved the can into the small closet pantry, behind a door thinking this would remedy the issue. Wrong again. He sits in front of the door and scratches and bites at it trying to get in. I am going to have to replace the frame around the door soon. He has access to food and water, and the trash is taken outside nightly. When I catch him scratching at the door, I give him a firm no and move him away from it. This normally works for a little while, but before the end of the evening he is back at it. What can I do to get him to stop?

My husband says because of the problems he had, I pampered and spoiled him too much, which may be true, but I often wonder if his lack of catching on is related to the brain damage he suffered or what. Any thoughts, suggestions, and ideas will be most welcome. Thanks and have a great day!

[cigwyllt]

Hi - it is so great to hear that he is doing well although the problems must be frustrating for you.

With regard to the housetraining - what have you tried? If you have not done so already I would work on treating him like a young puppy, taking him outside every hour and staying with him so that you can reward and praise him when he goes appropriately. If you have tried that already you may want to consider using a leash to keep him tied to you at all times when you are busy (as well as taking him outside frequently) as he will be less likely to "go" in the house when you are around.

As for the trash - that is a tough one! My oldest dog is 13 and if I am going to be leaving her for any length of time I have to make sure that there is no food waste in the bin as she will do all she can to get at it. No matter what and when she is fed the smell of thrown away food is just soooo tempting. She is much bigger than a JR so that much more powerful and so able to get what she wants if I am not around to prevent it.

Something you could try which has worked with my JR and my Patterdale is booby trapping the bin. You might want to do it when the bin is empty though LOL! May put a box of plastic bottles on the top, empty cans (no sharp edges) things that will make a noise but not hurt him if they fall on him. Then when he goes to raid the bin it may scare him and put him off the idea for life. Not foolproof, particularly with a bin raiding Jack but possible!

[Wren]

For potty training we have tried taking him out every hour, treating him when he goes, crating him....the big issue is that he rarely if ever goes in the house during the day. Its only at night. We have a huge fenced in yard that we have Jack-proofed so he can stay outside when we are gone for longer periods of time during the day, and he has a doghouse if the weather gets bad. So day time is not an issue. He seems to know exactly what he is supposed to do and either cant, or wont wake me up at night or hold it till morning.

I like the idea of booby trapping the trash can. Trex hates loud sounds, and the idea of something falling like that really sounds like its worth a try.

[cigwyllt]

If he's only messing at night what about taking his access to water around 6.00 p.m. or so?

[Ghst]

cigwyllt, I have a few suggestions, If Trexton does fine during the day, But has most of his accidents at night, I would let him sleep outside in your big fenced back yard at night for a while. This will help him and you get some relief at night. Many Jack Russells exhibit bladder control problems, some are worse than others. If it isn't a medical problem then he just has a bladder control problem that you can help him fix. My Jack Russell, Murphy had excitement urination problems. And had to be slept outdoors, until he displays control over urination while excited. (Murphy gets excited over everything). I had a hard time getting some family members to stop "Gottcha" scaring him, because they thought it funny that they could scare the "wee" out of him and that their actions were only setting him back. He is now 9 mos old and is displaying control while excited. I can now keep him inside, without him "weeing" if someone knocks on the door. If Trexton is slept outdoors at night, it might help him to associate outside as being "ok" to do his business at night. If he is housebroken during the day inside, then he will probably have to outgrow his tendencies to not go outside at night. Sleeping him outside will make it easier for you and Trexton.
I once had another JRT, Jake that would playfully attack me. At night while I was sleeping he would pester the stew out of me. I found his hidden "Gotta Go" place in my bedroom, and realized why he was pestering me so! He had to train me to get up and let him go outside. I learned fast from Jake!

[Lovemyfinny]

Wren,

My dog is going through the exact same problem that yours went through. You said he's almost 100% back to normal...does that include his blindness? When did that come back?

[cigwyllt]

Perhaps you could start a new thread? It's been well over a year since Wren last posted and we've had a lot of new members since then so very few will remember what was wrong with her dog. So it would be best for you to start again and give us all the details of what has happened to your dog.