My dog wants to go out every 2-3 hours

[de]

Looking for some advice. My dog is 3 and I’ve had him for about 3 months (he’s a rescue). Hes a 30 lb terrier mix. He’s driving me crazy wanting to go out or looking for attention every 2-3 hours while I’m working. I live in an apartment and can’t take him to the dog park or daycare because he’s very reactive to other dogs. We’re already working on that and have hired a trainer. I’m home all day most days, with the exception of maybe 3 hours for errands/social stuff.

The problem is that he knows that if he whines, I’ll take him out. This is because he’s gone through phases of having an upset stomach, waking up and whining in the night, and if I didn’t also wake up and take him out he’d poop on the floor.

We’re past tummy troubles and poop accidents now, but aside from when he sleeps at night (10/11pm to 8/9 am) he wants to go every 2-3 hours and whines loudly. It’s very hard to ignore and occasionally he will pee inside if I do ignore him. It seems like he should be able to hold it though. We very recently went to the vet due to the tummy issues and he has a clean bill of health.

Generally, the schedule I aim for is a 1 mile/30ish minute walk first thing when we get up and he always poops and pees. Ideally, I work until sometime between noon and 2, and have a 30ish minute lunch break which I use to take him out for another mile. We also go out right around 4:30, and again at least once or twice before bed (usually like 6/7 and then again at 9). He always poops a second and sometimes third time. We end up walking 4-5 miles total every day, especially lately because he’s been so annoying and I’ve been caving and taking him out off schedule in the afternoons.

During the day, I give him a kong or food puzzle that takes about half an hour. He also eats at least one of his two main meals from a big food puzzle. I have two types that I switch out randomly. We also do training for 10-15 minutes a day and also play tug / toss the ball around the apartment and down the stairs for a good additional 30 minutes at least. He also has bones and chew stuff and toys that he’ll occasionally use without any direction by me.

Does anyone have any tips? For an example, today I took him out at 8 (0.8 miles), 10 because he was whining (0.5 mile), noon because he was whining (0.9 mile), 2:30 because he was whining (0.5). It’s now nearly 5 and we’re sitting together and he is whining again and has been whining on and off for about half an hour.

 

[cherry_78]

@de For the frequent whining to go outside, it may help if when he whines you only take him out to potty. No walk, no play, no nothing. You walk him to a spot, stop and wait until he does his business then when he does immediately go back in.

This should teach him that whining only gets him a potty break and prevent him from whining to demand ‘fun’ walks. In addition, this method also ensures that if he’s whining because he actually has to go you don’t miss it. Of course you would do his regular “fun” walks, but on a schedule so he doesn’t learn that he can demand walks whenever he wants.

Also, is he crate trained? I’m not saying you have to have your dog in a crate the entire time you’re working, especially if you’re working from home. But sometimes letting dogs spend a little time in their crate with a chew, kong or otherwise can teach them how to settle and entertain themselves. Dogs also tend not to potty in their crate if it’s the right size so you have the added bonus of not worrying about that.

If you didn’t have such a detailed plan for enrichment and exercise I probably would advise you to do more exercise or activities but you seem to have that covered pretty well. However, maybe some dog sports like agility, trick training or otherwise may help in burning off all that energy your dog seems to have and get him some of that attention he craves. Remember, terriers are a working breed.

All in all you seem to be doing pretty well. Don’t get discouraged!