Hi I'm new here, you can probably tell because I didn't even know how to post a thread properly! Looking for advice / wisdom / insight into peeing on floor behaviour from my new rescue pup. I think it's too early to know whether this is likely to be habitual, or just from new situation excitement/anxiety. But any insight is useful and will be gratefully received! It's a long question; bear with. It's not a straightforward scenario. Here goes: From the UK originally, we are a family with 3 children of 19, 17 and 11 and have been living in Dubai for 3 years now. We've been looking for a labrador pup for a long time, but it had to be a rescue. Not many breeders here in Dubai and such a huge number of abandoned dogs that I can't justify buying a pup, especially since the rumours are that most pups for sale here are bred in Eastern European pup farms anyway. Not going to deliberately contribute to that economy. We were notified earlier this week of a black male 8 month-ish pup that had been picked up by the municipality, abandoned. We had to make a quickish decision on him. No substantial info was available on his previous owner/situation. But municipality rescues are usually because the owners have left Dubai in a hurry because of work ending, and don't bother to take their pets with them because of the expense of pet relocation. So they just turn the pets out - dogs, cats, you name it - onto the streets. Sadly it's a huge issue here. Anyhow. This pup was charming, friendly, affectionate. inquisitive, calm - yes calm, even in a cage at a vets in a room of much bigger, older, louder dogs - some for rehoming, some as patients. He didn't appear frightened beyond how I would have expected in that situation. He has been fully vet checked and vaccinated, microchipped, etc. We were able to take him for a short walk to see how he behaved away from the other dogs, get a sense of his personality and behaviour around strangers (including us!) and temperament. He was playful, but not a 'jumper'. He knew 'sit', 'let's go' and was eager to please us and not too 'pully' on the leash. He responded well to affection, didn't cower, a very typically waggy lab tail. Responded well to voice, and to petting. We decided he was as perfect as we could hope for in a young rescue pup - recognising that he is still young enough for obedience classes and socialisation, and that we have some work to do - and jumped in with both feet. Loki came home just 24 hours after that. His first night was a flurry of waggy excitement, lots of trips to the garden hoping he'd pee there (he didn't), a couple of encounters with our two cats (who weren't too impressed at having to share their slaves) a long sleep on the rug in front of the telly, lots of following everyone about, two pee accidents on the hall floor (luckily tiled). At bedtime we took his new bed with us up to our room and put it in a corner where he could see our bed, but was also a couple of steps away. After about 9 attempts he stayed put and nodded off. This morning a longish trip to the garden right after breakfast and a long gulping drink of water saw a successful poop (yes!) but no pee. Instead, he peed on the hall floor again right after coming back indoors. We went for a 30 minute stroll with him. He met a couple of other dogs. Very pleased to see them, loved checking them out, but not over exuberant; was easily controlled with leash and 'sit' on the one occasion he showed signs of wanting to leap at a much smaller pooch. No toileting on walk - but probably because he had already 'been' at home. The question is - do I need to worry about the hall floor becoming a fave toilet space? Or is that easily overcome by taking him to the garden regularly and at key times like half an hour after a drink, on waking, etc. And how should I express my disapproval and discourage him from doing it?
Hi and welcome to the forum. Well done on taking on a dog from this environment; we have another member, Angela (@Dexter) who is in Dubai and we often hear about these dogs that are just abandoned when work ends. It's terrible. Angela hasn't been around in a while - life gets in the way sometimes! - but hopefully she'll see this thread. As for your toileting problem, I'd go back to training him like he's a very young puppy, so, yes, lots of trips out to the garden, lavish praise and treats on him when he goes outside and put it on cue (so, as he goes, say your word). Inside, don't show any disapproval as that will make him not want to go in your presence; simply take it as a learning experience and try to recognise the signs that he is revving up to go so you can take him out. It's important to clean up with an enzymatic cleaner such as Simple Solution because normal household cleaners don't do a good enough job at removing the scent, which can encourage them to go in the same place again. With young puppies, it's often easier to make a small area of your garden enclosed (with a moveable puppy pen if you don't want a permanent fixture) so that the pup doesn't become distracted by doing other things; then the reward for going can be some play time in the garden. Good luck, and please keep us informed
Thank you so much for your reply! This is pretty much what my gut instincts were, so it's great to have that confirmed. Signed up for obedience classes but the next start date won't be till some time in January, so training / retraining has to start at home in the meantime. Some of the articles on thelabradorsite.com look really detailed and informative so I will start there too! thank you again! Will let you know how we go!
Nothing further to add to Fiona's advice above, but wanted to say hi and welcome and look forward to getting to know more about you and your pup. What's his name?
Great that you’ve given a loving home to this young dog We got our dog Obi at 9 months and he also had to be house trained. We approached it exactly like he was a puppy - taking him out regularly and rewarding him for peeing or pooping. We had a few pee accidents in the house but he got the idea pretty quickly. Because he had much better bladder control than a puppy he was much, much faster to master this than a puppy. You’ll probably find the same.
Hi and welcome to the forum from Poppy, Merlin and me, in Germany! Loki sounds like a grand dog. I have an eight month old pup myself, so happy to talk about any training issues you might come up against.
I rescued a German Pointer at 11 months old, he had only lived in kennels and did cock his leg on my house plants and sofa etc! It was just question of teaching him that outside is the place to go, treat it as if you have a new puppy to house train as the others have said. He also may have been overexcited
Thank you for the lovely welcome! His name ... well, we initially plumped for Loki but the children have rebelled on that and after less than 24 hours as Loki, he is now Bandit.
Thanks for the advice. It's reassuring to hear from others who've gone through this stage and managed it successfully!
Hi Karen, thank you. Hi to Poppy and Merlin too. Loki begs to inform that the children of the house have rebelled on name issues and he now wishes to be known as Bandit. Fortunately, no name on the vet's papers yet so that's one less headache. Bandit seems happy enough with the name change...especially if it means one of us is calling him to give him some praise or attention.
Thank you! Quicker than a puppy sounds ideal....have been working on this since yesterday...luckily time is something we have lots of for him, just like love
I have a sad update to this thread. Bandit had two nasty diarrhoea incidents overnight / this morning. And point blank refused to look at food or water today. Took him to the vets. Tested positive for parvo. A strong positive; she had no sooner done the test and said to us 'we have to wait ten minutes for a result' before she glanced at it again and it was already positive. He is now boarding at the vets for treatment; fingers crossed he will pull through. Desperately sorry for the little chap.
Oh no, I’m so sorry. I really hope everything ends up being ok. Fingers crossed here for the little man too.
