I’m at the end of my rope. Frustrated and baffled. My nerves are frazzled. All over a furry creature that I adore… a dog. His name is Baxter and I adopted him from the Weatherford/Parker County Animal Shelter about two months ago as a birthday present for a close family member. This was done with her consent and with full knowledge that I would need to keep him for her until she moves to her own place after Labor Day. Can you see the word “Sucker” written across my forehead?

Baxter is by far one of the cutest darn dogs I’ve ever seen. A male terrier mix with an adorable happy-go-lucky personality he’s a small dog, my cat is bigger, and weighs around 13 pounds. He came to the shelter as a stray and our vet, Dr. Darryl, estimates that he’s not much over one year old. He’s playful, settles lovingly onto any lap, gets along with other dogs, doesn’t chew, and walks well on a leash. So what could possibly be so frustrating? I can’t seem to get the little toot house trained!

I’ve never had trouble house training before. Our dogs, Rosie and Rebel are so conditioned that all I have to do is tell them to “hurry up” and they squat whether they need to go or not. Very satisfying. Baxter, however, goes outside, sniffs the grass and then lies down. Then, he comes back into the house and within minutes sneaks off and does his business. Very frustrating!

I tried crate training but he just soiled his crate, even though he sleeps in it all night without an accident. I got a smaller crate, one where he could only turn around in, and he soiled it. He’s been on a schedule, his food and water intake monitored, and leashed to my leg but all to no avail.

His favorite method for elimination has always been on a walk. Now, I believe in walking dogs daily, but I want to be flexible about when the walk takes place. For goodness sakes, we have a perfectly good back yard for the dogs to potty in when there’s no time for a walk. But now it seems even the walks aren’t fool proof for Baxter. Last night after a hard day of dealing with the house training, I gave my husband the “it’s your turn to walk the dogs” look which he did. When he returned about a half hour later, Baxter immediately ran excitedly in our bedroom to see me and peed on the carpet! Aaaaarrrrrrggggg!

Please know that just because I write a weekly column about pets, I am not a professional dog trainer or expert. That’s why my column is called Pet Talk. I love to talk to people about pets. I know that house training Baxter could take many months and that I need to be consistent and patient. But in the mean time, I would welcome any suggestions or encouragement from those of you who have experienced the same challenges and frustrations in house training a dog (my contact information is below). I am determined, while I have this little fur ball, not to give up. Honestly, he is worth the trouble and one could say that this time is character building for the whole Cook household.

Housetraining requires patience, humor, understanding, compassion and time. I can tell that Baxter wants to please me by doing the right thing. I guess it’s just going to take awhile for him make the adjustment to his new home a successful one. I just hope I survive it!