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Okay... here's something that might be useless, but... what the heck.
Lily, my female spins when she wants to go outside. I think I taught her
by accident... or maybe she trained me! Prys are soooo smart.
Anyway, trick training seems to work really good with her. It stimulates
her brain and challenges her. So... what I'm getting at is... maybe you
could use the clicker with him. Lily is crazy for the clicker!!!
Almost every bad habit that she had when I got her has been extinguished with
that small little device. I would find a behavior that you like to replace
the behavior that you don't like. For example, Lily took a long time to
get housebroken. (I know it's frustrating!!!) But I noticed that she
would spin around whenever she had an excess amount of energy. So... as
soon as she spun... I opened the door. To reinforce the "spin" I clicker
trained a nearly reliable spin. Gradually I started saying "spin" when she
would spin and then I'd open the door. She doesn't always do that to go
outside, but... when she spins... I know that she's desperate and can't
wait any longer. The other thing I did was to completely ignore bad
behavior. I didn't say anything or even make eye contact with her when she
had an accident. By the way, I got Lily at 6 months old. She was
reliably potty trained at about 12 months old???? I know that it is
frustrating, but... like everyone said rescue isn't the answer. Groups are sooo
overwhelmed and truthfully no prospective adoptive parent is going to want to
deal with this. Think of the bond that you have with your dog. Think
of all the work you've put in. Let that be the driving force. Think
of your dog as an alien from another planet that doesn't understand what you're
trying to tell him. 'Cause obviously he doesn't understand. Make the
reward for going potty outside more worthwhile. Don't reward mistakes with ANY
attention. My dogs' favorite rewards are those new Nutro canned
desserts. They will do anything for them. I put them in a plastic
dixie cup and let them lick inside the cup for the reward. You can store
it in your fridge and bring it out just before you take him outside. I
hope this helps. Sorry for being so long winded.
Jennifer & co.
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