Shelter dog housebreaking issues

Have you considered sleeping in a hammock? I'm fairly certain a dog would be unable to access such a device.

Let me know how that works out, Sam.

Gus,

I assume you mean the woven rope kind. It could work, I'll need to check with Wiyaka.

Sam

Wiyaka seems to have a certain sense of adventure. I think she would be up to the challenge of hammock sleeping.

Don't bother asking her -- surprise her!

I can just see the look of joy on Wiyaka's face when she comes home and finds the bed gone, replaced by a shiny new hammock.

(sometimes I underestimate my genius)

weve all been sayin that too

Sam, you're going to need to figure out which dog is having the problem. (where's timber?)

We've already worked this out, Beth.

Timber's presence wil not be required.

Farmer, Gus,

Thank you for the laugh, Just the mental picture of Wiyaka's expression...

ehBeth,

We're working on it. For some time we thought for sure that it was Yamni. Now because Yamni may have been in his crate when it happened and the fact that we caught Witko peeing on the comforter, makes for doubt. Inyan's the only one we know had no part in this. The old process of elimination thing. (damn, pun factor)

Sam

On the funny side of this issue. We ran out of sheets for our bed (king) last night. After some searching I came up with 4 twin, flat sheets, we used 2 on the bottom and 2 on top. What a zoo. The hammock idea looks better all the time.

Sam

Hmm, how about a nice "dutch door" effect (1/2 door) if you don't want to entirely shut it off.
Once in a while Pacco goes to the couch (the actual covering I rarely see, I save it for when company is ringing the doorbell..) at night and then I feel weirdly unsettled. I live in a not small/not big house at a sometimes busy intersection in a small, but not that small, town. But the unsettled feeling comes first, before thinking of the city around me - I just like having m'dog in the room at night, it's cool.

Also, how high do they jump?

I sleep in my parents' old mahogony double bed, which I have dragged around all these years (I remember getting to sleep in it in NY City when I was nine and had an ear ache...) which has the area for the whatchallit, box springs, fairly high off the ground, and with the new fat mattress - hard to find an old fashioned thinner one - the top of the mattress is 27" off the ground. This is a deterent for a corgi, heh, although he can stand on his hind paws and give me a cold nose for when he wants to go out.

You could work out some kind of low loft... say, at 48"....

(I love design problems!)

Given that a sled dog is taller, I would suppose 27" wouldn't be enough, but I have no idea of the borderline for their being able to climb up. My business partner's doberman would think of getting on the bed as a slight skip to m'lou.


Uh, continuing to train, of course, but saving yourselves some aggravation...

Osso,

Neither hight nor width is a deterrent to our boys. I have seen Witko clear 4 1/2 " with room to spare. A 6" long jump is nothing to them. I'm afraid that it's a full door or outside. Ah ha, perhaps a screen door, the air could circulate while the dogs could not.
If we're in bed no problem. It's when they are in the bed room alone that we find deposits on the bed. As it is now Yamni spends the night in his crate and the other spend some time on the bed, but sleep mostly on the floor. (cooler for them)
The bear thing is a real issue. About 12-13 miles from here a Black Bear sow with 2 cubs killed and dismembered 6 sheep. Usually Black Bears are peaceful creatures, rarely killing except when famished. Even then it is usually a case of killing the whatever and dragging it into the woods to feed. This all took place in a small sheep pen. The bears worried the sheep to death, tore them apart, ate some and left. No they were not caught or killed, they are still out there. I would prefer that my chained dogs not have to face a bear gone bad. <sigh>

Sam

Ah, screen door? seems weakish. How about buy a screen door, remove screen, or make one, it would be stronger, and add a bit of 2 x 4" wire fence screening, it's sturdier.

I suppose a regular door is ok, but less open..

Hmm, a loft? (expensive...)

where's Timber?

Osso,

I use 1/2' hardware "cloth" with regular window screen. Both our cats and dogs treat plain window screen like tissue paper.

Sam

I guess I don't know what hardware cloth is. We use a lot of deer fencing wire up here, which is the 2 x 4 stuff. Anyway, something strong. It doesn't have to be ugly, actually, one can trim it out.

I suppose good hinges are appropriate.

osso,

In local jargon hardware cloth is usually 36' wide and whatever long. It is made of woven wire. The openings start at 1/4' square and increase in size from there. To make this clear, you can get 1/4' or 1/2' and so on hardware cloth, make sense? The larger the opening the heavier the gage of wire used. Oh, try to picture hypertrophic window screen.
About 10 min ago I had an "Ah ha" moment. Why not use the bi-fold doors, currently stored in the basement, in front of the curtained doorway to the bed room. It works, air and cats can get through, dogs stay out. I'm as happy as a hog in a mud wallow or better yet, Wiyaka on a shopping spree.

Sam

yippee...

(how can the cats get in?)

I left just enough space at the sides for their little bodies to squeeze through. The dogs will only need to knock it over once to learn not to mess with it. Well maybe two or three times, they can be ever so dumb.

Sam

Sounds like the pup is tryin' ta tell ya somethin ... or mebbe tryin' to tell the other pups somethin. It's likely either a pack-order thing ... a "who's boss?" sorta challenge, more or less, or pouting ... the pup knows that dismays you, the pup is upset for some reason, so the pup decides to dismay you.

Whichever, I think its prolly a "get attention" thing.

Timber,

I think it's a pack order thing. It seems to be the two younger ones. Why they're wrangling over this now, I don't know yet, but I intend to find out.
For now they are respecting the fact that the bed room is off limits to dogs. Whew! I was beginning to wonder how much washing the bedding could take.

Ill bet youve learnt that Febreze is our friend.

ive gotten a "safe distance' chuckle because I remember when we got main dog (a catahoula pup) and backup dog (a border collie) the border collie trained itself, she is such a fastidious little guy . Barely needed any reinforcement, with Main dog, we had a special learn to pee training school. It got so bad that I was taking him outside and we peed together in the field. then he got a cooky treat after makin wee wee. .
It took a few weeks but he developed a special whine that trained us to let him outside. to this day 9hes now 5) he comes up and looks you in the face and goes wheeeenniee. Then its outside.

Farmer,

I should quote this whole post on the What made you laugh thread.

Nope, I cant stand Frebreze, The small is too strong and artificial. I use Arm and Hammer deodorant powder under a fresh mattress pad.
Interstin' all three dogs just asked to go out. No access to the bed room, hmm.
I've done some thinking since Timbers last post on this thread. When we had one dog, Inyan, we would put him out on a long chain. Then we got, Witko, and attached a shorter piece of chain with a swivel snap at each end.This ended up as a sort of Y shaped affair. When Yamni joined the pack, we attached yet another short piece of chain. This changed the Y into a trident (?) made out of chain. You following so far?
Well, I got tired of untangling the chains from around trees, and really tired of needing to unbraid and untangle the chain itself. I installed three big heavy eye screws in the side of the house. I screwed them into the rim-joist, so they would be nice and solid. Then I attached three chains for the dogs. they are long enough for socializing, but too short for tangling to be a major problem. I think I went wrong by putting Yamni in the middle. Pack order is, Inyan first, then Witko and finally Yamni. I think Witko was unhappy with Yamni being second instead of last.
This time we followed strict pack order. We'll see if this helps.

Sam