Broken Record Time---More Potty-Training Woes

So, as I've written about before, despite the fact that Shibas are supposed to be easy to potty-train dogs, with some even coming home basically potty-trained, Zim has been anything but. We've never been able to go more than two or three weeks without an accident and the fact that he has separation anxiety has made it even harder to figure out exactly what's going on---is he deficating because he doesn't like it when I'm not there with him or did he just not get an opportunity to poop outside? Either way, at 8 months old, he's still only about 90% potty-trained and he may even be regressing on his pooping.

Part of the problem is, of course, that we've not been able to interrupt him for simply months now. Picking him up no longer works and tonight when he had an accident and I finally kept my wits about me enough to try clapping loudly, that  didn't work either. I suppose next thing to try is a shaker can, but frankly I dispair of that working as well.

Really, I just don't entirely know why it is that he pees in the house. It's not a UTI, we've checked, and I don't think it's infrequent chances to go to the bathroom. When he had his accident a few minutes ago, he'd been on a walk not that long before. Instead he just quickly walked up to the baby gate and then peed. Now, I'll admit, in retrospect I realize this was a signal, but frankly he pulls that whenever he wants to go out for any reason and I'm sick of being at his beck and call for Zim-wants-to-have-fun-outside-time. That said, if I make him really insist, sometimes he pees in my house (and I'm not entirely certain he even signals before every accident, I'm just pretty sure he did this time).

Everyone keeps telling me he'll get there eventually, it just needs consistency and to keep a close eye on him. Well, been doing that and here we are. How the hell do you stop a dog who refuses to be interrupted from peeing from peeing in your house so you can redirect him outside? I really, honestly, have no idea. Like I said, we'll keep trying things but . . . well, first we have to think to use them, then we have to see if they actually work.

Honestly, sometimes I really do get tempted to see if I can teach him to use potty-pads because I feel like I'm banging my head into the wall and doing something that doesn't work for either of us. The problem is, of course, that we didn't start that way, and I worry about confusing him by refusing to take him outside and trying to retrain him or something. Maybe we should just try getting some potty-pads and only using them when he does have these infrequent accidents? Maybe that would be enough to teach him without confusing him? I really don't know.

Mostly, I just think I'm bad at this potty-training thing.

Confessions of a First Time Dog Owner

Sometimes I'm really genuinely scared that I'm going to screw my dog up---and not in a having bad manners by jumping up on people sort of way (which he is well on his way to right now) but in the I'm going to let serious behavior problems develop because I don't know what to do about them sort of way.

There are several examples of this. Zim resource guards a tiny bit. He also sometimes will just suddenly growl-bark toward your face in a sort of snappy way. I actually got bit this way earlier today. Now, I think he was going for my hair (he likes to chew on hair) but I'm honestly not sure and it's the not knowing that sort of freaks me out. Sometimes I really just don't know what's going on in his little head. Is this a temper tantrum that should be gently but firmly curbed? Is he trying to play and thus just needs to be shown that playing like that is unacceptable? Is this some sort of aggression that needs to be dealt with? Frankly, I don't really think it's the latter but I do sometimes wonder. What if this is something serious that I'm missing because I have no frame of reference for what "normal" puppy behavior is---normal Shiba puppy behavior, which is high idiosyncratic because Shibas just aren't a normal dog breed.

So what do I do? Well, for now Fathead and I have resolved to keep trucking along. We've been trying to teach him "give" and I think we're starting to get somewhere and as far as the other stuff goes, we're just trying not to encourage any bad behavior. If he barks instead of doing the trick asked for, the food goes away. He barks at me when he's near me, then either he or I goes away. Hell, maybe I should start putting him in time out in the bathroom when he does that. I'll have to mull the last one over. On the one hand, it's where we keep him at night so having bad associations with it isn't something I want---on the other hand he seems to have grown to hate it where he was fine with it at first so I really wonder if that can make it any worse.

Do puppies go through an ornery stage at 3 months? I know there's adolescence but I feel like I'm getting some of that now. Is it a stage? Is it that he's finally settled into to being in a new place and now feels free to be a brat and try and run the show?

Either way, only thing to do is to keep doing my best. Really, he's kind of a dream of a puppy. He certainly isn't the "terrorist" that I've sometimes heard Shiba puppies described as. It's just little bouts of unpleasantness. He'll probably grow out of a lot of it (or he'll respond to our training) and will turn into a very nice adult dog.