[SummerGirl]

Hi everyone,

I have a 1 year old Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling retriever who I am starting to believe will never be fully housetrained.

She is crate-trained and manages to go at the appropriate times & outside 90% of the time. However, she has accidents at least once or twice a week consistently. We do all the right things... we have her on a schedule, praise her when she uses the bathroom outside and discipline her when we catch her in the act. We limit her food and water.

When she has accidents, she often does it right in front of us. It tends to be at totally random times, as well. For instance, I often work from home and purposefully do not take her out at all during the day, even though I am there, so that I don't get her off her schedule. So I know that she can make it all day, and she almost always makes it all day even when we aren't there. But once a week or so, she will have an accident in the house during the day, even if I am home.

This is not a UTI - this has been going on since she was a puppy - she has never been 'fully' houstrained, despite all of our effors.

We are totally at our wits' end... it is beyond frustrating and it is becoming harder and harder to keep our tempers! At times it seems that she is even being spiteful... for example, we had to leave her outside on the porch this weekend for longer than she would have liked because we were cleaning the house. She walked in and immediately peed on the carpet.

Aside from the housetraining issues - she is a wonderful dog with a good disposition. A bit naughty, but she is still a puppy after all.

Will getting her spayed resolve some of this? What are we doing wrong? Are there some dogs that are just 'unhoustrainable'? Help!

[labman]

I would definitely have her spayed. I think it is more of a leadership question than housebreaking. It is not so much spite as ''Well there, what are you going to do about it?''. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete For more on being top dog, see Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position, Letting your dog know you are the boss