BehavioRx
Case of the Month
for April 2003
A 5 month old Labrador Retriever started urinating on the
floors and furniture in the
house. He had been banned from indoors, except while on a leash, tied
to Alice's waist.
Alice tried this "umbilical cord" technique for two weeks, then let
"Casey" free inside. However, he regressed and started the urination
again, this
time even urinating while he was in the act of drinking water in the
family kitchen. The
client phoned and was completely frustrated, saying she had followed
our BehavioRx
Housetraining Adult Dogs and Puppies and it had failed. However, when
we reviewed the
instructions with her, we found she had not actually followed them.
First, the leash-tied-to-waist is not a part of them, since this
practice may give the
owner a feeling of control, it frustrates most dogs, creates stress and
accelerates their
production of urine, often causing excessive water drinking and
urination. Secondly, she
was feeding a dry food and failed to soak the kibble in hot tap water
(no hotter than 120f
degrees) for the recommended time; i.e., 10-50 minutes or until it is
completely soaked.
This breaks down the gum binders in the food and
tends to cuts down on the dog's water intake.
Alice also admitted she was not really practicing the "Learn-to-Earn"
praise and
petting (the No Free Lunch) program consistently. We had a short
discussion on how we
humans tend to cut corners. Alice called back a week later to say Casey
was as good as
gold. She had also switched his diet to Steve's Real Food freeze dried
chicken and was
delighted with his clean smelling breath!
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