Veterinary Verdict

Today was Kioko's second visit to the veterinarian for a scheduled vaccination. She LOST weight, somehow. She went from 16.5 pounds to 15.75 pounds. The vet seemed unconcerned and said she didn't look unhealthy weight-wise. He did, however, after administering the shots we originally came for, give her a good checkup to see if he could find anything wrong.

Well...her ears are infected and she has an eye infection that causes excessive weeping. She has always had the weeping, so I guess I thought it was normal. It has, however, gotten markedly worse in the last few days.

So. We have antibiotic ointment for the ears and antibiotic drops for the eyes. Sigh.

On the upside, Kioko is adapting to life on a tether very well. She is MUCH happier tethered to me than she was during the month of crate-training torture. She has adopted the chair next to my desk as her special spot, and she is pulling on the tether less and less. Plus...there's the whole "I get treats for going outside" motivation. She is an altogether happier beagle.

And I...am an altogether happier beagle mom.

Kioko likes ice cubes , now, and she is reliable with "sit" and "drop it" if she knows she'll get a treat for doing them. Stinker dog! Not so much if I have no treats. Ha ha. Oh, but that's just cause she's a beagle. I expected a bit of that when we got her.

So...altogether improved, but two infections that need to be licked.

Our next big challenge? The spay surgery. I'm way more nervous than I should be.

God bless the beagles!

These Are the Things that Vex Me

Well, we are now at the end of our first week without the crate, and I have to say...I think we actually have progress! Because we got rid of the crate, the following has happened:


1.) I am not stressed out and angry all the time
2.) Kioko is no longer skittish around me because I am not angry with her constantly
3.) Kioko has finally found a "place" in the house to call her own, and she readily settles in to nap, snack on a chew toy, or just "be" there. The crate was never going to be that place for her, and because she had no place, she didn't feel comfortable...and she never settled or napped or played with complete security inside our home before.
4.) We have had only one urine accident and two poop accidents in the last four days. Everything else has been a successful outside potty. This is having a HUGE effect. Because she's not going in the crate all the time (where we could not see her doing it or "catch" her in the act), she rarely had anything left for the positive feedback an outside potty would bring. Now...she's out there going in the appropriate spot and receiving treats and praise each time she goes. We've gone from a dog who would plant her feet and refuse to go out the front door without being carried to a dog who gets EXCITED when I open the door to take her out.

It's so wonderful! We love this little dog. Truly, we do. The whole family is (and has been from day one) willing to do whatever we need to to help her learn, but we were beginning to think she just wouldn't ever get there. Now I know that she can. I have hope back that one day our Kioko will be reliably house-trained...that she's not defective and that we are not bad dog parents.

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And that...brings me to the stuff that upset me today and inspired the title of this post...

I am SO glad we looked beyond the so-called expert opinions on the right way to train a dog and ditched that horrid box. I have no doubt that crate training works wonders for some dogs and that it CAN work for most dogs. It does NOT work for every dog. In fact, there is a whole category of puppies and dogs for whom crate training will most likely never work at all. But the dog people who publish books and articles and run puppy classes will never admit that to you.

I had a nerve hit today. A woman in one of my online beagle groups has a rescue beagle that she and her husband just adopted. This dog (we'll call her "Marge") is soiling her pen regularly, and the new owner was at a loss for what to do. As ALWAYS...the responses were a mix of the following:

1.) Your crate is too big...because NO DOG will eliminate where it sleeps if the crate is small enough.
2.) You're not taking her out often enough...because NO DOG will eliminate where it sleeps if you take them out often enough.
3.) She must be sick...because NO DOG will eliminate where it sleeps if the crate is the right size and you take them out often enough unless they are sick.

AAAAAAH!!!!!!!!

WHY? Why is no one out there talking about dogs like Kioko and Marge? I am very fortunate to have found a small and personal group of beagle people in another part of the internet where the members have supported me and bolstered my confidence throughout my ordeal with Kioko. But, you know what? That isn't enough. Not everyone with this issue is going to come over to our group and join up. Why aren't there books about how to train these dogs? Why aren't there puppy classes for shelter dog owners that address crate soiling? Why is the pat response from the dog community one of criticism of the owner? Marge's new owner had done EVERYTHING right. She was monitoring the times and amounts that Marge was drinking/eating. She had a clean, comfortable, and appropriately small space for Marge to "crate" in. Marge was checked out and given a clean bill of health from the family veterinarian (Marge is not an "only dog," either. The family has raised two other rescue dogs, as well). Marge just simply is not a candidate for crate training. She spent a lengthy period in her first home confined with no choice but to eliminate in her crate. Time spent without individual guidance during her time with the shelter just exascerbated this problem.

Dog owners who buy or adopt dogs like this are left alone and bewildered...wondering why they can't do it right...what they're doing wrong...devastated that they have this dog they want to love...but can't because they're too exhausted from all the poop and the stress. And all the dog community has to offer is, "well, you're doing something wrong...because ALL dogs will crate train." The simple truth is...no. Not all dogs will crate train. Some have crate stress. Some have lost the den instinct. Some just hate confined spaces. Whatever the case, if you end up with a dog that chronically soils his or her crate...you are not alone. Your dog is not a hopeless case, and you are not a bad owner.

Don't you worry.

Mrs. Nix, armed with her supremely uneducated-but never incorrect opinions, will get through this just fine. Kioko will too. Once we've succeeded, I will send all those dog experts a neatly-bundled pile of poo that,--finally-- I did NOT have to scrape, while weeping, from the bottom of my beagle's crate. And there you have it.

God bless the beagle owners who refuse to give up on their little hounds.

Kioko vs. Crate Training

My husband has been gone on a 10-day business trip. Thank goodness, he's finally home! With him home, it's much easier to deal with the stress of cleaning up after Kioko. Plus, he's my partner. Everything is easier when he is here.

Crate Training is useless for a dog like Kioko (read the post, How We Got Where We Are to understand more about this). For that reason, we are adopting the following changes as of today:

1.) Rather than being confined in her crate, Kioko will be tethered to my waist via a 6' lead, thus having to be with me everywhere I go in the house. This is going to be a huge pain in the ass, but there's nothing else that can be done given the floorplan of our small home.

2.) The crate will continue to be used for transporting her in the car, but crating--as we have known it--is over. Since the "den instinct" logic does not apply to Kioko, we are reversing that logic and going out to get her a large crate that will supply ample room for a sleeping area on one side and an "approved" potty area on the other side with a piddle pad. It is this, we hope, that will teach her to keep her sleep areas separate from her elimination areas. Having the OPTION without anger or stress from her owners of a place that she is familiar with (the crate substrate vs. an outside grassy substrate) to do her "businees" might just do the trick. Our fingers are crossed.

The hope, of course, is that she will become reliably pad trained while in crate. I can live with that long-term. For regular "house" training, we will continue to take her outside during the day (hence...the tether to me so that I can see her all day long and observe her need to go). This will eventually result in a dog who uses piddle pads in her confinement uses the outside potty area when NOT in confinement.

We'll see how this goes. It's Saturday morning, so I must be off to puppy class.

God bless the beagles.

How We Got Where We Are

My husband and I have been preparing for a beagle for about three years. We read about the breed, met beagles, researched training methods, prepared to pay for huge vet bills and obedience training. We even began studying up on agility and other things that beagles tend to be quite good at. We knew about the stubborn streak and the characteristic “nose-iness.” We understood that our beagle would never be off-lead outside in an unfenced area, and we understood the need beagles have for closeness with their pack ( ie. They need to live in the house with the family and they don’t tolerate long stretches of alone time).

Kioko came to us from dubious circumstances. We do not know, and have no way of finding out, how she was raised from whelping box to pet store. She was 7 months old when we brought her home, and we suspect that there were a LOT of problematic circumstances for Kioko during those months because she has a few training issues that are proving very difficult to deal with. There is one in particular that we are finding impossible to overcome, and if we can’t find a way to make some progress soon, it will be the reason she loses what we wanted to be her forever home with us. That reason is: Kioko will not house train.

I am a stay-home wife and mother, so I am at home with Kioko almost every waking hour. Kioko is taken out for potty to the same spot about once per hour throughout the day, and that has been consistent for every day of the four weeks we’ve had her home. It is exhausting, and it is also largely unsuccessful. She receives regular and very thorough veterinary care. She is not sick, and that is not the cause of her aversion to potty training. After a month of excitement followed by patience which dissolved into disappointment that turned into frustration which became anger that melted into tearful hurt and despair…I know exactly why my beagle won’t potty train.

Kioko has no “den instinct,” which is that tendency most dogs have to keep their sleeping and eating areas clean. It is almost universal that dogs will not poop or pee where they sleep. Kioko has no qualms about urinating or defecating in her crate and then lying down in it. For this reason, my husband and I can only assume that she was put in a crate and left there the majority of her toddler hood without any guidance about potty training whatsoever. When this happens to dogs (which it nearly universally does in puppy mill breeding situations), it makes crate training a guaranteed failure. Kioko does not see her crate as a den or as any other comforting analogy to a home in the wild. She is 7 months old and perfectly physically capable of holding her bowels and bladder for an overnight sleep, and she has never been left, during waking hours, for more than 3 hours at a time in her crate. She soils her crate almost every single time she is put into it. She eliminates totally without discrimination…wherever and whenever it occurs to her to do so. In addition, the concept of going outside and eliminating on grass or soil is totally foreign to her. She does not view an outdoor substrate any more favorably than an inside surface…in fact, the opposite is true. Kioko PREFERS soiling her crate to eliminating outside, and she will hold it for over an hour outside only to come in and soil her crate within moments of returning to the house.

There are other methods by which people potty train dogs, and this blog is going to be the place that I share with whoever cares to read about it, the mechanics and results of our efforts to housebreak our beagle. In all my searching online and in books, and after all my inquiries to forums and dog professionals, the ONLY useful information about house training problems like Kioko's was located here: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1713 In all my searching, that was the one and only article I found that would admit dogs like mine even exist. If you are feeling the same frustrations with your own dog, please have a look at this article and know that you are not imagining things. Sometimes..."sticking with it" with regard to crate training is never going to help a dog. In my case, it was counter-productive at best and harmful to Kioko's bonding with us at worst.

We love this dog, and we want her to be happy and live as a member of our family for the rest of her natural life. I certainly hope we can make that happen.

God bless the beagles.

Meet the Beagle

This is Kioko. She's gorgeous, isn't she? Kioko is a beagle. She's my beagle. She's a beautiful, funny, affectionate, and friendly dog. She's killing me.

I've loved beagles all my life. I have begged my husband for a beagle for years. I harrassed him for one, even. We knew all about the breed and the challenges we might face with a beagle. Being a man who strives daily to give me every single little thing I want in this life, he gave in one day and gave me his husbandly hominus dominus to go out and obtain a beagle of my very own.

We live in Okinawa, Japan at the moment, and so I had no idea where to find a reputable breeder. A friend of mine got her Dachshund puppies, who are very well-adjusted and healthy dogs, from a pet store that fronts for local breeders here in Oki. In The States, I would know better. Here...I didn't know how to find a breeder, a friend recommended the place, and I REALLY WANTED a beagle pup. So...I made the tragic decision to go to this pet shop...checkbook and heart wide open. That afternoon, I met and purchased the beagle that would become Kioko Lily Nix. If I had any inkling of what I had just gotten myself into, I would've run screaming from the store.

I didn't, though, so I didn't, and now I'm stuck with her forever and ever...or at least for the next 15-17 years. None of the problems we're having are Kioko's "fault," but they are nonetheless very difficult for a first-time dog owner to properly handle. To get straight to the point, I think I'm going to burst into flames before I get through potty training this dog.

This blog will be devoted to keeping a record of all the trials, frustrations, new methods, and--yes--happy moments that come to me while I raise Kioko into an adult beagle.

This isn't going to be easy, and I'm already at the end of my emotional rope here. It is my sincere hope that by journaling all this out as we go along, I'll be able to see some progress and gather some fortitude for the future. There are many lessons that prospective beagle owners could learn from Kioko's story. So...if you're considering a beagle for your own family...or if you're a dog owner struggling with house training complications that go beyond anything that anyone will admit to or deal with in any dog training book, then stick with me. Perhaps I'll stumble across something that will help you.

God bless the beagles,
March 14, 2008