[Igrene]

I have quite the problem that doesn't seem to want to be fixed.

My Italian Greyhound puppy managed to fly off the couch into the coffee table, resulting in a fracture leg not two days after I got her. The huge problem is that the breeder she came from simply let the puppies roam all around their room and the five-acre-land completely freely; they basically never really worked with the puppies.

Bridgette is 14 weeks old and we've been trying to get her to use her pee pads. She uses them all right. If she's out with us (we have her out for an hour, put her in for an hour, etc unless we're gone) she'll usually walk over to her pads and pee. However, having turned the beds we put into her crate into toilets, she literally holds in her poop until nighttime, anywhere between 3-9 AM. She often pees as well. We've tried setting our clocks to the time, but she will not go on her pads. She refuses. She holds it in until she gets into her crate, where she gets it all over the crate and herself. Then she cries, of course, but ultimately she doesn't want to stop. Being an Italian Greyhound (they're catlike, stubborn dogs), the fact that she doesn't want to stop poses as a huge problem.

I know that part of the reason she goes in her crate is because of the cat. She gets far too excited and distracted whenever he comes about. I'm sure there's also nervousness included, since she probably feels like the safest place to go is her crate.

Another problem is that we can't take her outside. In fact, we can hardly let her walk around because of her injury (as directed by vet). When we put her on her pads and she refuses to go, she gets antsy; they fly around (we were told by the vets not to buy the trays they come with because when she gets antsy, she could further injure herself with them) and we have to rearrange them. She's used to going outside, but even when we had her with the lack of injury for the two days, she still held it in.

Note that I live in a small one bedroom apartment. There's really no fair way to separate the cat/dog without having either one of them feel abandoned and develop separation anxiety problems further. My cat is very attached to me and Bridgette is too, of course.

Basically I'm searching for a solution to the problem that A) Won't stress her out B) Won't require us to force her to stay on the pads (she'll slip around and further injure herself) and C) Preferably does not separate the cat from the dog. She can't get used to that.

Any suggestions at all?

[KISS]

A tough one:

Can you hold the cat or put the cat in a crate out of harms way, so the IG can see it, but it won't bother her?

Put the cat in a crate for short times so that the IG can get used to it and the IG is free to roam.

Have a second crate that the IG can use as a bathroom? Or even a boxed off area with pee pads?

These are just ideas. Hopefully someone can use bits and pieces of them.

Unfortunately for you, you have a dog-cat anxiety, an injury and a new member of the household.

[Igrene]

Holding the cat wouldn't work, because in all honesty, it's just Bridgette. She's excited about the cat, she wants to play with him, sniff him, be with him and he doesn't care too much for her, so he often leaves and, of course, she wants to follow.

I also cannot put him in a crate. He's an alpha of the house. She needs to be used to the idea that she does what she needs to do with him living his life.

I can't have a second crate that Bridgette will use for a bathroom. No dog can do that. A dog doesn't have the mind capacity to associate "I can pee in this one" with "but I can't pee in that one." Unless someone wants to break their backs trying to train it into, say, a poodle or a German Shepherd. This certainly cannot happen with Bridgette.

I thank you for your suggestions, though. :3