Why does she pee when I leave her for 5 mins?
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- First Name: Jane
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Why does she pee when I leave her for 5 mins?
Our adorable 12 week old is baffling me. I have been off work and have spent every day with her for the last 4 weeks devoting my time to house training her. I’m now working from home. A lot of the time, with the nice weather, I’ve had the French doors to the garden open and she and our old boy have been in and out, sometimes with me, other times on their own. She is the perfect pup through the night going from 10pm till 6am BUT if I leave them in the kitchen, sometimes I’ll pop her her pen, and pop upstairs for 5 mins, she will pee. I know she would have done one in the garden within the last hour. The only way to avoid this is to put her in her crate which I don’t want to do. My question is: have I created a needy pup by spending too much time with her and who is worried about being left and how can I address this?
- zeta1454
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Re: Why does she pee when I leave her for 5 mins?
Hi Jane - I think you have answered your question to some extent in that now (as with so many people with puppies in lockdown) you have a puppy that is so used to having you there that she is not prepared to cope with being left. It is not necessarily that she has become a ‘needy pup’ but you will have to work on getting her used to a routine of being without you for periods of time. As would have been the case pre-pandemic restrictions, puppies need to be gradually trained to settle for short periods of just a few minutes, building up to longer as they cope with time without you there.
Peeing when you leave could be anxiety or just a protest at being left and in my experience there is no doubt that some dogs will demonstrate their disapproval of something we humans have done to them by pee-ing or poo-ing in places we don’t want them to. The floor is probably the least bad as with our affens we have had poo in shoes and pee on pillows!
I think you do just need to start a new routine of regularly leaving her for very short periods through the day, building up to longer. As she is still young, I would invest in a playpen if you haven’t got one or separate off part of the kitchen to create a smaller space where your puppy can have her bed, safe chew toys etc. and use this as her settle area for periods every day - even at times when you are home. This way if she does pee when you go out, at least it is in one place so easier to clean up but it may help to resolve this issue in time.
Although given the current circumstances it can be most relaxing and enjoyable to allow pups and dogs to wander freely in the house and garden, it is vital with puppies in particular that they know there are times when they settle in a safe enclosed place that gives more freedom than the crate but does encourage them to sleep and relax until it is time to interact with the family again. With our first three mini schnauzers once they were over the very young puppy stage, we would leave them in their bedroom when we went out. It took very little time to train them to go upstairs to their room, be given a biscuit and settle while we were out. Much of training is just creating a routine and, as long as it is consistent, dogs will quickly respond as you want and tasty rewards help too
Peeing when you leave could be anxiety or just a protest at being left and in my experience there is no doubt that some dogs will demonstrate their disapproval of something we humans have done to them by pee-ing or poo-ing in places we don’t want them to. The floor is probably the least bad as with our affens we have had poo in shoes and pee on pillows!
I think you do just need to start a new routine of regularly leaving her for very short periods through the day, building up to longer. As she is still young, I would invest in a playpen if you haven’t got one or separate off part of the kitchen to create a smaller space where your puppy can have her bed, safe chew toys etc. and use this as her settle area for periods every day - even at times when you are home. This way if she does pee when you go out, at least it is in one place so easier to clean up but it may help to resolve this issue in time.
Although given the current circumstances it can be most relaxing and enjoyable to allow pups and dogs to wander freely in the house and garden, it is vital with puppies in particular that they know there are times when they settle in a safe enclosed place that gives more freedom than the crate but does encourage them to sleep and relax until it is time to interact with the family again. With our first three mini schnauzers once they were over the very young puppy stage, we would leave them in their bedroom when we went out. It took very little time to train them to go upstairs to their room, be given a biscuit and settle while we were out. Much of training is just creating a routine and, as long as it is consistent, dogs will quickly respond as you want and tasty rewards help too
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras
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- Schnauzerluv
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Re: Why does she pee when I leave her for 5 mins?
I have a covid pup and I feel you with training them to be ok with you leaving. I am still in the process of training him for it. My strategy is to slowly build him up to being alone as suggested above.
At first he would freak (pacing around the door franctically, whining and howling). So I had to take it much slower, yoyoing in and out the door about 10 times a day to get him accustomed to seeing me go out the front door without him. Then I started staying out for 2 minutes. I am looking for no reaction, if at any point he whines, I have moved too quickly. Gradually I increased the time I was out by a couple minutes. I am now at the point I leave for 15-20 minutes. It took a long gradual time as he is now almost 9 months old, but completely worth all the effort for the long run to have Ozzy feeling calm when he is at home alone. I didn't think he'd ever be ok with us leaving based on how he freaked at first, but with patience and a good attitude, it really works!
At first he would freak (pacing around the door franctically, whining and howling). So I had to take it much slower, yoyoing in and out the door about 10 times a day to get him accustomed to seeing me go out the front door without him. Then I started staying out for 2 minutes. I am looking for no reaction, if at any point he whines, I have moved too quickly. Gradually I increased the time I was out by a couple minutes. I am now at the point I leave for 15-20 minutes. It took a long gradual time as he is now almost 9 months old, but completely worth all the effort for the long run to have Ozzy feeling calm when he is at home alone. I didn't think he'd ever be ok with us leaving based on how he freaked at first, but with patience and a good attitude, it really works!
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- Member
- Posts: 53
- Joined: 29 Aug 2011, 12:26
- First Name: Jane
- Dog #1: Gregory
- is a: P/S Mini Dog
- Born: 17 Jul 2006
- Dog #2: Alfie
- is a: P/S Mini Dog
- Born: 0- 0-2006
- Location: East Midlands
Re: Why does she pee when I leave her for 5 mins?
Thank you both for your replies. She does have a playpen which I use a lot, especially to give our old boy respite. We are lucky that we have another so shes never totally on her own. I have started leaving for short periods e.g. I was out for an hour first thing today collecting my click & collect and she hadn’t pee’d. It’s very difficult when I work from home as my workspace is within eyesight (due WiFi signal). Just need to persevere. Thanks guys x