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Hoping some of you can help my husband and I out with some suggestions as we so frustrated and confused right now. We have an 11 week old German Shorthaired Pointer who unfortunately, took a tumble on the stairs after we had her for 4 days and broke her leg. She had surgery on the leg and has to stay pretty much immobile for 4 weeks, which is next to impossible (and ridiculous!). The vet wanted us to keep her in her kennel for the 4 weeks except to go outside to pee/poo. Well, that just does not work with a puppy. We have sort of set up a cushy play area on the floor so that she keeps to one area and we have spent the last 2 1/2 weeks with her 24/7 to make sure she plays while laying down and that she does not run around and hurt herself. Because of all this coddling we have had to do, she has really bonded with us, especially me. She is so upset if we put her in her kennel, even if for a few minutes just so we can have dinner or go to the bathroom. I have no doubt that we have created a very spoiled puppy who cannot bear to be by herself now, and we are really frustrated and exhausted trying to train her to spend some time on her own. Our biggest issue, is that she gets herself so worked up in her kennel, she ends up peeing or pooing in there as she goes nuts. She gets taken out very frequently during the day for pees/poos, so I'm certain she is doing it either for attention or just out of sheer anxiety. When she poops in the kennel, we take her out of course since she ends up with it all over and the stench in the house is unbearable. Even if we remain in the room and she stays calm in the kennel, she still ends up peeing in it pretty much every time. We bought a small kennel so that she cannot do much other than stand up, turn around, and lay down, but it does not seem to stop her from eliminating in the kennel. We have another week and a half to go until her bone should be healed. My question is, how do we go about undoing the separation anxiety issue we have created, and how do we get her to realize that the kennel is not a bathroom?

Maybe this will help, I do this with my dogs and it seems to work. I give them a Kong with peanut butter inside. They get so busy with the kong, they all forget that I exist. I say nothing to them and pay no attention to them while they are in their kennel. When I come home, I also say nothing to them, open the door of the kennel, lead them outside, and only after they finish their outside business, thats when I talk to them and praise them, it seems to work for us, and I have had issues with separation anxiety with them where they would vomit in the kennel, but that hasn't happened now for over a year. I hope this helps.

Lynn

So first off, if you're worried that the coddling you are doing is going to cause separation anxiety, then stop the coddling now before she is done her 4 weeks. If you make a big deal about her injury, then it will affect her. If you stay upbeat and positive, instead of oh you poor thing, then you'll have a more confident pooch and you'll both be better equipped to deal with what the future holds. If she's whining in the crate, correct her, and don't try to comfort her, as that will make things worse. Praise her like crazy when she does well. Do some practice sessions in the crate, leaving her in there longer than just a few minutes and see if she stops whining after a while. When she does, let her out and praise her. Do this for longer and longer periods of time. You can also look into places such as doggy daycares so she's not in the crate all day every day when you go back to work.

I'm assuming that it's not going to be, 1.5 weeks and she's back to running around and playing. You'll probably have to take it slow for a while. When our dog couldn't run because of stitches in his chest, we did a lot of umbilical so he wouldn't be tearing around the house and reinjuring himself. You practice sit stays, off leash training where you train your dog to walk beside you (let the leash drag and step on it every few steps to keep her close, this might be more appropriate to do when her leg is a little stonger). You can talk to your vet on strengthening exercises like swimming. You want your dog to feel confident and not worry when you are gone and she is alone in the house, and it all comes back to the alpha training again. If you are the alpha then she feels confident in you and in her ability to be at home alone. At this age it's also important to expose her to many different environments, so if you are going for short walks, go to different places with different smells and sounds, textures (gravel, grass, pavement, etc). Have fun too! You can also ease her into it too, return to work every other day, or half days for the first little bit. Either way you'll have some work ahead of you with her recovery. I wish you the best as I know it's not an easy situation to be in, but you'll be fine!!

P.S. Dogs may love peanut butter, but it's not necessarily good for them. Treats may be a quick fix but they probably won't solve the problem (ie. what happens when the peanut butter is gone, and you're still 5 hours away from getting home from work?) Something to think about...

Cheers,
Lynne

Thanks folks for the tips...I'll have to experiment a little when the puppy is better to see what will work. With the type of break she had, we had to have a rod inserted in the bone, so it's extremely important that she stays off of the leg as much as possible, otherwise we might as well put her down...it's that bad a break. Thankfully, the fact that she's a growing puppy means that the bone should be healed soon. So the "coddling" as I called it is pretty much mandatory. We have to try to entertain her somehow as she is not able to go for walks, goof around in the yard, etc. right now. So keeping her playing quietly on a blanket on the floor while we watch her like a hawk is what we've been doing. She never got a chance to be kennel trained before the break happened. We have been taking days off so that one of us is home all day, so she has not been left alone at home at all. But her getting used to having one of us around is part of the kennel training problem. She gets herself so worked up in the kennel, she ends up thrashing around and just freaking out (far from just some harmless whining). She will also either pee or poo in the kennel if she's in there for more than a few minutes, which sort of forces us to take her out. Some friends of ours have said to just leave her in there otherwise she'll get used to the fact that all she has to do is go to the bathroom and she'll be free of the kennel. But how can I just leave her in there to thrash around in her own waste? It doesn't sit right with me to do that to her. I certainly wouldn't make my child sit in their own poop if they misbehaved, so why would I do it to the dog? She gets disciplined if she misbehaves, and she has learned to "lay down" of out necessity, so that is a good sign I think, but I'm just worried about the kennel training for the most part so we can put her in there without too much drama if need be.

What are you going to do with her when she is well and you go to work, she messes in her kennel in the first 10 min expecting you to come let her out and you are gone? It's kind of like indulging a tantrum, she is upset that you left her alone and is showing you what she thinks of it. If you aren't firm now, you'll just have more problems down the road.
Meaghan/DragonRider

From the sounds of it she is bored. Thrashing around in her own waste inside the kennel is probably not exactly best for her healing if she is not to be on her legs.Plus feeling bored probably won\'t help much. People who are lively and content tend to get over illnesses faster, so I could only imagine it would be the same for dogs. Puppies ca be very demanding, and with a broken leg I can only imagine how much harder it is. She may not be able to go fool around or walk, but get creative! Put her kennel out on the deck while your family is enjoying the backyard, or place her on a blanket and lay with her in the grass that way she can see and smell different things. Or just take her in to different rooms in the house while you are doing housework. Make funny noises and toys. Rub her belly (trust me, dogs love free belly rubs). Laugh and smile with her. And remember dogs are social animals, so even if you are in the other room she wants to be part of the action. Keep her crate in places in the house that get a lot of traffic (children, other adults, animals) so that she feels connected.

I hope this helps! Hope she heals fast!

Well, everyone has some valid points and suggestions...although they just don't apply right now since she is still supposed to stay off the leg and keep to basically no activity until she is fully healed. Not sure if everyone is fully understanding the situation here. And she is not bored in the kennel. She poops or pees within minutes of being put in there because she can't stand to be apart from us I believe. If it was simply boredom, we would have figured that by now I think. She literally works herself up to the point of getting so upset that she has a "nervous" pee or poo in the kennel. We are being firm with her while trying to still keep the kennel a neutral place, and not a place for punishment. She gets fed in there and occasionally will go in there on her own with a toy and lay down for a bit. But as soon as we close the door and leave the room the problems start. I know training her in there won't happen overnight, but I'm getting really frustrated with coming back from just having a shower, dinner, etc. and the dog is covered in poo and needs to be bathed. I just never expected kennel training to be so traumatic for her. She should be back to normal health in a week or so and then she will be at a doggie daycare while we are at work. Hopefully we can get her started there for naps during the day and then work with her at home in small doses. Has anyone else had this much trouble with kennel training?