How long does it take...

KaddyKaddy
edited September 2008 in General
... for your dog to FINALLY decide on a potty spot????

I just spent over an hour walking with Keiko so she could find the perfect spot. She's usually good about peeing, a few circles around the front yard and she'll go... but number two is a whole other story!

I beginning to think my neighbors think I'm some weird psycho dog walking addict because I walk her around the same route over and over again until she finds a spot she deems acceptable. I know she has to go because she's doing the 'potty sniff' (yes... I'm positive there's a 'potty sniff' and a 'I want to find something to get into sniff' ... James thinks I'm nuts) and if you look at her butt... you can tell it wants to come out (SO gross... I know... but I have to make sure!).

Anyway... just wondering if your dog is as neurotic about potty time as mine is!

Comments

  • ljowen123ljowen123
    edited November -1
    Jazz definitely has a different sniffing setup when she has to go. Fortunately for me, due to her being kenneled outside for those two years, she isn't fond of being out for too long. She goes pretty quickly (within 10 minutes). Afterwards, she will turn around to head home. She has to be encouraged to continue the walk.
  • BradA1878BradA1878
    edited November -1
    Oh man, I know exactly what you mean! On leash Ahi will take HOURS [<- exaggeration, more like 30 minutes] to find the right place to potty - it SUX when you are out there in 15 degree weather waiting for her to find the right potty spot.

    I'm pretty sure that is a Nihonken trait. Lucky us! :o)

    ----
  • dlrobertsdlroberts
    edited November -1
    Joey will go anywhere anytime. I almost always have bags in my pockets just because of him. Lucy is an entirely different story. She is a VERY picky pooper. Unless she has been disrupted from her normal routine for long enough, she will generally only go while we are on a walk. She gets an hour long walk in the morning and a 20-30 minute long walk in the evening. If she doesn't go, then she holds it until next time. As long as you stick to a routine, Keiko will pick and choose when she wants to go. You are essentially "enabling" her by continuing to stay out with her until she goes. Pick some amount of time, say 10 minutes, and if she doesn't go then go back inside. She'll learn pretty quick that if she has to go, she'll need to take advantage of the opportunity.
  • LeonbergerLeonberger
    edited November -1
    Kuma goes whenever. He will start walking faster like he was trying to get away from me, and after a minute or so, he'll just take a quick turn and squat.
  • tsukitsunetsukitsune
    edited November -1
    Kitsune goes almost instantly every time, Tsuki is a dawdler and is so preoccupied it takes her a few blocks, Hachi though is the 'last minute lily' because she waits until the last stretch of grass after an hour of walking to go twosies.
  • lindsaytlindsayt
    edited November -1
    I wonder if the females seem to be pickier about where they go than the boys because they don't feel the need to lift heir legs and spray the entire neighborhood with urine. Beebe takes 4-ev-R to poop. She won't do it while on the AM walk but will at the park I think because she is scared of all the "boogymen" that might come get her so it scares the s**t out of her. Until she goes, however, she pulls on the leash and gets frantic looking for a spot but you can totally tell she has to go becasue her third eye is winking at me:) I had to start doing the 10 minute thing becasue she just ended up trying to hold it until the last possible minute even though I would spend up to 1.5 hours outside with her waiting for her to poop (she just wanted to play-like a little kid.)
  • JessicaRabbitJessicaRabbit
    edited November -1
    Oh no Moto needs to contemplate the place where he urinates like the fate of the universe depends on where he chooses to pee. Miko too. The only one who gives me no grief is Piglet, she walks out pees poops and walks back to the door.
  • sujewelsujewel
    edited November -1
    Mika and Keigo aren't picky on our daily walks. However, before Kurt and I got Keigo, we took Mika to Pittsburgh for Carnegie Mellon's Carnival. Mika wouldn't poop for 4 days and only peed twice.
  • JessicaRabbitJessicaRabbit
    edited November -1
    I wouldn't want to poop in Pittsburgh either! ;)
  • ljowen123ljowen123
    edited November -1
    LOL
  • brandon_wbrandon_w
    edited November -1
    Wow. That is some impressive holding that Mika did.

    Nemo will not pee or poop near our apartment, we have to walk at least a little bit away. On our walks he pees a lot, but is picky about where to pee, sniffing a 1 foot square spot until he finds just the spot and then lines it up. His poop dance usually does not last more than 10 seconds.

    Whizzer pees and poops instantly, which is great late at night or in the winter. He takes like one step onto the grass and pees, everytime.

    The first time we left Nemo with our friends for a weekend, he wouldn't poop at all. Three days, which is a lot for a dog who usually poops three times a day. I took him on a walk just after we got home with him, we went about 200 yards and he had an explosion out his rear end. The noise and volume shocked him and he jumped forward. Pretty hilarious.
  • JessicaRabbitJessicaRabbit
    edited November -1
    Jay calls Moto the PeePee Bandit. He has this way of sneaking up on whatever he is going to pee on. Just a couple days ago we were on a walk, Moto went to pee on something right as Piglet went to sniff the spot. Piglet got her snout peed on! Someone got a bath when we got home.
  • tsukitsunetsukitsune
    edited November -1
    LOL! Kitsune has peed on tsuki's snout! Tsuki gets bathed much more than a shiba should because Kitsune keeps lifting his leg and she keeps walking under the golden stream.

    Since we moved to our new place, there are a lot more trees, they line all sides of the streets, its nice actually, but Kitsune goes on a pissing frenzy now, he's like obsessed with marking every block or so. Whats the deal?
  • brandon_wbrandon_w
    edited November -1
    Only every block? Nemo would go for every tree.

    I can't even begin to count the number of dogs Nemo has peed on.
  • dlrobertsdlroberts
    edited November -1
    While we're on the subject....At what age did your males begin to mark. Joey is 8.5 months now and has shown little interest in marking anything. He doesn't lift his leg yet, so I'm wondering if that's correlated?
  • sujewelsujewel
    edited November -1
    Yea, Brandon, Mika's got some skills. Of course the two places she peed were the worst of places to pee. We were outside 18 hours a day, but she chose to pee in the hotel room and in Kurt's school shop!!! Silly girl.

    Jess: Mika pees on Keigo too. It's his fault really. SHE will lift her leg to pee and he'll go sniff! I can usually pull him away, but sometime, he just gets in the way.

    Brandon: Mika and Keigo would mark every tree if I let them too. They both do the kicking thing too.

    Hmmm. I forgot to mention. While Keigo will pee anywhere on our walking route, he does take some time to decide which leg he'll lift. Hehe.
  • NekopanNekopan
    edited November -1
    Out of curiousity, do you guys have a "command" to entice your pups to do their business? We tell Jack to "go find a spot" or "hurry up" to get him sniffing. He usually only takes a few minutes, but he doesn't seem picky about finding the perfect spot.
  • scientistescientiste
    edited November -1
    Tsuki is quite finicky about a poop spot! Her bathroom breaks and walks are separate things, so I wish she'd go instantly when I take her out at 11 pm when I'm about to go to bed, but it takes her about 10 min or so, which isn't long, but it does seem that way!

    Strangely she's not on a poop/pee schedule, so I just try to take her out often but she's very good at directing me back in if I take her out but she doesn't need to go.
  • tsukitsunetsukitsune
    edited November -1
    Kyla: We tell the dogs "DO THEM!" if they are just interested in bug zapping or sniffing late at night. It doesn't always work, but we try!

    Dave: While we adopted Kitsune right about the time he was 10 or 11 months old, he didn't lift his leg for a few months after that, I'd say between 15-18 months old. But that was under a different set of circumstances. The basset we fostered from 5 months old to 13 months and he only started to lift his fat stubby leg around then as well.

    Janaki: Tsuki just sounds like a heavenly Shiba! Have you thought about Therapy Dog training? If she is as great as she sounds, she'd probably be perfect for therapy!
  • WhiteGC8WhiteGC8
    edited November -1
    When we first got Yoshi, we'd have to wait for him to bark letting us know it was bathroom time. Then we'd have to walk him a block or two away from the house. It just wasn't his thing to go anywhere near the house.

    Then he got neutered. Due to the vet's orders, we couldn't walk him that far, so I took advantage and started to show him where I wanted him to go. When the mood would strike, I took him to the back. It took him a while before he'd do it, but he did it.

    Now that he's healed, he'll poop a little around the northern perimeter line of the property. Sometimes he holds some of it to poop during our walks which really annoys me!
  • sujewelsujewel
    edited November -1
    Dave: We got Keigo at 9 months. He probably started lifting his leg a month later, but he never marked his territory.
  • Honey's momHoney's mom
    edited November -1
    I swear I typed this before. Must not have clicked ADD?!

    Before we got Honey I was given this advice and it REALLY worked for us! When Honey needed to go out, we would put her on her leash and take her to the back yard. I picked a general spot that I wanted her to "go". I stood there and didnt move. Since she was on the leash she was able to run around in a pretty large circle around me, but that was all. She had an area to choose from. Now she will go to that SAME area anytime we let her out to do her thing. Makes cleaning the yard SO MUCH easier!!!! Of course when we are on walks she usually picks the yard where the owner is sitting on their porch. DOH! lol
  • KaddyKaddy
    edited November -1
    Today was Keiko's first real walk in the rain... and she hated it! LOL We live in an area the real estate companies describe as "surrounded by beautiful marshland and natural sanctuaries" - which means... we live on/in a swamp. That, combined with the Portland rainy season (which we're just about to start) makes for some squishy walks! I've said it before, but Keiko is typical about not liking her feet to be wet or dirty... so it turns into this kind of prancing thing when the ground doesn't feel right to her. She'd rather be on cement anyday, but mean old dad makes her walk on the grass so she can find a potty spot.

    Tonight wasn't too horrible, but it was a struggle to get her started. She eventually found a potty spot in her semi-normal area. It's kind of hilarious to see her walk, it reminds me of those 'prancing ponies' or dancing horses or whatever... too cute :o)
  • RomiRomi
    edited November -1
    LOL! prancing!

    Dave - Ninja started marking pretty young. I think it was around 6 months or so. I remember he started doing it a few weeks before his neuter. Now he marks what he can. He doesn't mark everything new in sight, which is good. But he still pee's on all fours, haha~
  • ljowen123ljowen123
    edited November -1
    Evan - you might want to try mushing booties.
  • lindsaytlindsayt
    edited November -1
    I tried mushing booties, Beebe pranced around like a reindeer, it was hilarious. So, I always thought that female dogs that lifted legs to pee and kicked her heels afterwards were demonstrating dominant behaviors. When Beebe pees she lifts her leg sometimes, and will kick her feet for both pee and poo- is this a usual behavior for female shibas do you think or does it depend?

    Evan-I just got back from Portland a few hours ago. It rained the whole drive, for I few minutes I thought I was back in Seattle. What area of P-town are you in that's marshy like that? Are you on the river?
  • santuzzasantuzza
    edited November -1
    This is perhaps the funniest discussion I've ever read. Three cheers for doggie neuroses.
  • MommyofNikoMommyofNiko
    edited November -1
    Niko kicks also. She just circles forever before she poops and then circles while she poops to get a good sniff check of her digestive progress.
  • ljowen123ljowen123
    edited November -1
    Jazz kicks out also.
Sign In or Register to comment.

© Vanilla Keystone Theme 2024