enchantingdragon
Well-known member
I feel like such a bad parent. When Ellie came from the breeder she was pretty much house trained my breeder said. Since Ellie was 6 months old when we got her (she is now 7) she pretty much got the gist of everything and the only thing my breeder was slightly concerned about was that she might not be able to hold her pee in for more then 6-7 hours. Well I leave around 8:15ish and my husband is home around 2-2ish depending on what he has to do after school. She has never had an accident in her crate even when my husband runs late meaning she has mastered not peeing in her crate and waiting till we get home to let her out. So far she has never had a pee accident in the home but lately she has taken to pooping inside (see other post) Also she seems to be easily spooked and scared by all the other dogs in the neighborhood. I live in a condo so I dont have a lawn or anything so she always goes out on the leash with me. We have some grass in the front of our spot and we have taken to take her there as thats what most people here seem to do. When she is out on the lawn and she sees other dogs she starts to growl. A few dogs in our area are barkers and when they bark at her she becomes terrified and tries to drag me back in. Also we have a big Rottie that she fears and does the same thing. I think part of the reason she hasnt pooped outside is that she is afraid to be out there for a long time. She growls at people we see as well but not to the same degree as a dog. This morning when my husband took her out at 5:30 around when he leaves he said she didnt do anything because she would stop to pee or poop and then see something and growl and stop her thing Another few minutes she would do the same thing Eventually my husband had to take her in as he was running late. So when I took her out this morning at 8ish I expected her to have to go right away Our neighbor has a Puggle who likes to bark a lot. Well he was on his part of the lawn with his owner when he saw Ellie and of course he barked scaring her. My neighbor held his mouth so he would stop but Ellie was too spooked at that time and tried to run in. I walked her past the Puggle and we took a brisk walk around the complex Along the way we saw another one of the barky dogs and Ellie speed past him. We got back to our house and the puggle was inside so I took her onto the lawn but she kept running at the door. Finally I just took her in as I had to go to work and she wasnt going to go. I dont know what to do about this fear thing she has. I desperately want to take her to a class as Im afraid the longer this goes on the more scared she is going to be if its not too late already (can you reverse fear?) but she is 7 months old and probably due to go into heat any day now so I wouldnt want her to go to class when she is in heat for obvious reasons. Im not sure what would be the best thing for now and Im almost embarrassed to ask my breeder as I fear she wont think we are doing a good job with Ellie :sl*p: Help!