I thought it was getting better until recently when the last half dozen times I've come home, she's peed in her kennel. She hasn't done that in a LONG time. She doesn't even pee in the house anymore (or hasn't for quite some time) - she rings the bell to go outside. I found a couple internet resources which I've been using:
I'm trying a combo of things from these resources.... the first thing I am doing is the technique from the YouTube video - a leash around the doorknob and slowly increasing my distance between myself and Maple. She was okay almost immediately with the 'close' distance, and it took her a while to get used to the longer distance. After that I went around the 'corner' where the door is to go outside. She immediately freaked out, so I came back out, and did the 'far' distance again for a while, then tried around the corner again. She freaked out again (barking and howling) so I came back out. Repeating this sequence, she finally got okay with me being around the corner for up for one and a half minutes. I even left her and went to the bathroom, and she was okay. She even got to the point where she lay down and didn't move with me coming back to her and leaving again. What I did differently was incorporating treats into the training.
After that little bit, I began going around the corner and then opening the door and immediately closing it (not leaving, but she can hear the door opening and closing). Again, immediate freaking out. In the two hours of straight training, we could not get past that point. She was not okay with that door opening and closing, even when I came back out into her sight immediately. She even regressed back to whining when I would walk away from her for the 'long' distance. However, after two hours, I felt that was enough for one day and let her loose. I guess this is something I'm going to have to do every day for a while.
I did have some problems with these articles, the main ones being the time frame to 'train' the dog. One said it could take up to five weeks! I don't have a problem with working on this for that long, but I don't understand how the training can be effective if we work on it for a couple hours a day, and then the next day I have to put her in her kennel when I go to work. It seems like I have to be doing this training for weeks at a time without leaving her for extended periods of time.... you know, working from two minutes up to five to eight to ten to fifteen to twenty and so on. How am I supposed to do that if I have to go to work for five hours?
Thankfully she does seem to be okay with being left outside in the backyard by herself now, however that was my 'failsafe' for getting her to come in when I wanted her too - close the door and she'd come running! I also do routinely NOT make a big deal of leaving and coming back, although it is fairly obvious when I'm leaving because I put her in her kennel with a peanut butter kong. I am also going to start putting on and taking off my shoes or jacket every time I get up, as well as carrying my keys around constantly.
Promise to keep you posted how it goes :)
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