Thank you so much for all the comments! It’s helpful to know that there are others out there with quirky pee habits also...
Yes, I always leave fresh water available, but outside the crate. I personally watch him drink 3- 4 times a day though may be more, I am assuming the day care makes water available as well although I could certainly ask to make sure. I also roughly approximate the volume he “needs” by weight and I know he is probably getting that but I will try measuring exactly. And I could try flavoring more to see if he drinks more. He is crated for about 6-8 hours overnight, and 1-2 h at a time during the day for potty training purposes only if I need to step away and do errands. Otherwise he can go drink whenever, play or snooze next to me, etc, I just don’t trust him to have free reign otherwise yet (he will either chew/swallow something or have an accident otherwise, I’ve had to fish out a few pieces of garbage on walks). We go outside every 2-3h except for when sleeping. I’ll cut off two hours before bedtime unless we’ve had a lot of activity, in which case I don’t necessarily. I mix water with his food also to encourage drinking. Otherwise his nose is always wet and skin nice and taut, so I am assuming he is not dehydrated. But yes, I have a vet appointment in the next few days as well.
If we are in the park, it’s a little easier to let him roam on a 6 foot leash without watching him all the time but unfortunately on busy city streets that’s not always possible. I am careful to look for “cues” as well on our walks as well, for pooping it’s been more obvious squatting, so I will stop everything and shower praise (and a treat if I have it) within a minute after (sometimes it’s hard to do it right after if he poops in the middle of a busy city street and I’m trying to body block the area to avoid the ire of others, plus keep him from wandering more than 3 feet away and clean). Just haven’t had a chance to catch him the middle of a pee outside yet to do so! And unfortunately I don’t think the poop praise generalizes to all elimination praise. But I’m hoping a full weekend dedicated to just watching for this will help. And he seems inclined to do things as much for for praise as for treats (he’s not terribly food motivated), so as we continue to bond I’m hoping my approval will start meaning more to him as well.
The longer walk/jogs are honestly as much to burn off some energy as much as anything else. And we both enjoy them as fun/bonding time so will probably keep some of them, although I agree that it probably isn’t contributing in any positive or negative way to the potty training itself. I live in NYC so Central Park is the closest to “woods” we get, but we enjoy romping through there as well so we’ll keep that going too.
We are less than a week out from adoption... so hoping we start seeing more improvements soon as he adjusts. It’s already amazing to see how much more comfortable he is with me (snuggling to nap, short jogging, enjoying easy agility tasks in the park- scrambling up rock hills, starting to learn commands etc, less startled when meeting other new dogs etc)
Again, thanks for the comments and suggestions. If anyone has other thoughts would love to hear them. Cheers!
