Question:
Are Cairn Terriers Hard to Housebreak?
Answer: Given all
my previous opinions this is probably going to surprise you but the
answer is no. Both male and female Cairn Terriers housebreak
quickly.
The problem is that it doesn't stick (probably long term memory
issues), and Cairn Terriers do get lazy.
Successfully
keeping a previously housebroken Cairn terrier housebroken
means refresher courses are required.
Crate training every three
months or so for a couple weeks whether you think the Cairn needs it or
not, will doubtlessly contribute to a happy and pee-free household.
If you don't believe me, that's fine.
Perhaps your personal preference is
a urine stained house.
That however, is
not my personal cup of tea.
Comment on Housebroken
Cairns
Peeing in House Again
In
my view if the dog doesn't have a medical problem, the cause of this
problem is once again usually owner
self-inflicted and the answer can be found in asking yourself one
simple question: "What
Changed in my Home Recently?"
Common Answers:
1. I brought a new pet into the home.
2. I brought a new child into the home.
3. I altered my Cairn's daily routine in a significant way - like stuck him in a boarding kennel for a week
4. I did some remodeling
5. I bought new furniture.
6. I altered my dog's comfort zone in some manner - moved his
crate, restricted or opened up new space for him.
How to Rectify the
Problem
If you had enough forethought
to crate train your Cairn at the outset, this is a no-brainer.
Let's
say your Cairn is the only dog in the house. He was crate
trained
but you got tired of having the crate in the house. The dog
is
house broken and likes the couch anyway.
Let's also say you have
another dog who is an outside dog but due to illness is now spending
nights inside on his blanket. What can happen? What
was
exclusively the Cairn's territory is now a territory shared
with
another dog. What does the Cairn do? He starts marking his
territory - the other dog's blanket, the other dog, the couch the Cairn
sleeps on and
other choice places in the house.
You unknowingly injected a
major problem into the environment and the best way to deal with it is
by getting back to the basics - the crate. The Cairn goes
back
into the crate every night his routine is disrupted. Odds are
he
will also be quite relieved. He knows he is not supposed to
pee
in the house and probably feels a measure of guilt about doing so but
can't help himself.
For
me, the number one reason for the cairn peeing in the house again is
because he just got back from the pet boarders and seems to have an
urge to mark everything, inside and out. The dog is on a lead when
coming in after an extended stay elsewhere for the first day or so and
his movements are severely restricted so if there is any marking going
on, it will be dealt with quickly and then everything goes back to
normal.
Remember: DOGS
ARE CREATURES OF HABIT AND DO NOT RESPOND WELL TO CHANGE
A dog suddenly
starts doing something different, figure out
what changed and go from there.
Question: How do I
keep a Cairn terrier off furniture?
Answer: Salting
the furniture with mouse traps under newspaper works well and it is
entertaining. Kind of a pain though if you have a slow
learner on
your hands.
Another option is a personal piece of furniture,
namely a dog bed or kennel. Cairns are perfectly
capapble
of learning to stay in one spot for reasonable periods of time. Make
that spot a desirable place to be - more desirable than furniture.
Place the bed next to the couch or wherever people
congregate. Remember, Cairns are social animals and it won't do much
good if the dog bed is tucked in an out of the way place in another
room.
If the cairn is on furniture because you are not
in the room or not in the house, I wouln't blame the cairn
and I
would start looking around for wet spots and other surprises as well.
Search: My 18 year old Cairn terrier
male is suddenly peeing in the house when he never did before.
First off, Congrats on
an 18 year old Cairn Terrier!
I
was actually talking to the vet a while back about a similar issue and
something to remember, 18 year old Cairn terriers and 80 year
old
men have a lot in common in that it is not uncommon for incontinence to
be an issue.
I have had several breeds that
reached advanced ages for the their canine groups and you need to face
the fact that control is not what it once was.
Crating a
dog does no good when control is a problem. It is best to
place
your Cairn in an environment where clean-up is a minimal issue.
It's a fact of life...nearer to the end of life to be more specific.
If
you get a chance, send along a pic of the 18 year old Cairn. It will
lay to rest the doubts that the seemingly improbable, is possible.
Question:
My Cairn terrier keeps peeing on guests feet right in front of me! What
do I do?
Answer: Entertain a better class of guests.
If it's your feet the dog is
peeing on, you might look here.
Question - My Cairn Terrier
pees right in front of my feet! What is this and What do I do?
Answer:
I will preface this with a story. Turd dog, I mean Rufus
discovered some new neighbors across the yard - three very
friendly mutts. I watched him race up and down the fence with
them. He spent the entire day at the fence.
Warning
bells should have lit up when I saw this but I apparently got lulled
into complacency. Turd dog hadn't done any fence
digging for
years.
Not a chance he
would start doing it again............
The
following day, no Rufus anywhere and in the middle of the fence out
back was a suspicious hole dug under same which just happened to be
about the right size for a Cairn terrier to fit through.
I drove
around the block to the house on the other side of the fence, hoping
the neighbor might have in their possession our little hairball.
The
neighbor was very friendly and said yes, Rufus was over there most of
the morning playing with other dogs that weren't hers either.
She
looked for a tag on Rufus and guess what........no tag. It
disappeared at some time and we never noticed it.
She then went on to say one of the neighbors called the pound because
one of the larger dogs crapped in his yard.
Grrrr...............
I called the pound and guess who was a resident guest at the Gray Bar
Hotel?
You guessed it.
And
guess who joyfully jumped into the front seat of the Dog Catcher Mobile
for a free ride? And guess who had to rub it in a bit by
saying
that the seizure of Rufus was one of the easiest captures he ever made?
You guessed it.
I
could have bailed out the little (*#&%^Y the same day but since
he
already incurred charges and the current royalty fee was good for 24
hours, I decided to let him sweat it out for another day in
the
slammer.
The following day I went over to pay Turd
Dog's (I mean Rufus's) bail and one of the jailers asked me
about
him. The first question out of her mouth was, 'What a
friendly
dog! But I have a question - does your dog have an attitude?'
I said, 'What do
you mean?'
She
said, 'I went into his cell and sprayed out the the floor while your
dog went and sat in a corner away from the water. After I
finished up I called to him to get him to come and settle down. Most
dogs find the cleaning traumatic. He looked at me
and took
a few steps forward, didn't even bother to lift his leg and peed all
over his front legs and on to the floor.'
I responded that yes, Cairn terriers are known to have
attitudes. I left while the getting was good.
So to get back to
the question about peeing at your feet...........
I
have seen similar examples of this behavior more times than I would
have expected and curiously enough, it is generally observed in the
terrier breeds.
I have the 'Why' of
the question nailed:
It is an expression of
disdain on the part of the Cairn terrier for mostly people and
sometimes things.
Some might argue that the dog
is marking his territory.
Really............
If that's the case then who owns who?
Something a little mixed up if you have a situation like
that.
The 'What do I do?'
part of the question is going to sound familiar:
You
the owner are the problem in that don't
know how to the pack leader.
What you
need to do at as a minimum is attend a class on canine psychology.
More and more of these are sprouting up and a good one should
not
be hard to find unless of course you live in Dinkytown Nevada,
population 125.
Odds are you got
the dog and didn't know or think of what to expect next. You
might have presumed you were getting Toto, who just loved to be held by
Dorothy and when not being held, followed her everywhere.
This
situation unfortunately is not limited to Cairns.
It
happens whenever a previously unknown breed makes it to the headlines
in the form of theater or perhaps into a song. It ends up in
thousands of ignorant, ill-considered purchases and it stresses out
animal shelters throughout the country.
Three
Examples:
Ever heard of the movie "101 Dalmatians?"
The movie spawned much
interest in dalmatians and the puppy mills went into overtime providing
cute pups for the holiday season.
Many
of those pups ended up in shelters and pounds across the country
several months later because the buyers didn't bother doing one thin
dime's worth of research before buying dalmatians for their kids.
If
they had, they would have discovered that dalmatians are one of the
most dimwitted, pigheaded, slow to mature breeds in existence.
Not exactly an ideal child's pet.
Ever heard of the
song 'Catahoula?'
Probably not unless you are a fan of Country Western music, which I am
not.
This
one song generated hundreds if not thousands of Catahoula
puppy
sales to households which had no clue as to what they were getting into.
Catahoulas
are very smart, domineering, many times pigheaded dogs which require a
strong personality on the part of the owner to control the animal.
It is not
a natural child's pet. Some months later animal
shelters were deluged with unwanted Catahoulas.
Ever heard of the movie "The Wizard of OZ?"
You
probably have and if you are having issues with your little bundle of
joy and if your are intent on keeping the animal, get some
expert
advice.
If the experience to date is not one you would care to
continue, there are several Cairn Rescue organizations
throughout
the country who could more than likely assist with placement of the
animal.
Do some research and know what it is you are actually buying before you
go forward with the purchase.
It can save you a
lot of unnecessary grief and lighten the load on animal shelters at the
same time.
Question - When can
You Stop Using Crate for a Cairn Terrier?
Answer: When you want to
start having house breaking problems.
We got rid of
the crate for a while because we were tired of having it in the house.
Some six months
later, problems started.
Problems ended
when we tossed the Cairn in the garage and back into the crate.
Problem solved.
What
is interesting is he loves the crate. Let him in the garage in the
evening, he heads straight into the crate, turns around and waits for a
treat.
Of course Cairns being Cairns, it can be difficult
getting him out of the crate in the morning, but that is preferable to
a urine stained house.
The Smelly Cairn Terrier Gas
problem - Revised and Expanded
I can now answer this in five words but that doesn't make for
interesting reading so I will tell a little story.
We
generally board our dogs, two Catahoulas and a Cairn 2-3 times a year
for a week or so at a time. Each time we came back to
retrieve
the dogs, the two catahoulas looked skinnier and healthier, and the
Cairn actually looked like he had the beginnings of a waist.
The
last time we got the dogs, they looked really good so I had to ask what
what the boarder was feeding them and how.
I should preface
this with what I was feeding them and how:
All
the dogs got fed in the evening. For the large dogs it was
about
3-4 cups of dried, mixed with one can wet each. For the
Cairn, it
was about 1 cup dry with a tablespoon or two of wet. Worked
out
well enough and the Cairn smell was considerably reduced with just a
taste of wet.
What the boarder
was feeding them and how:
The
boarder fed the dogs in
the morning, not in the evening. The big
dogs got 2-3 cups of a custom, concentrated mix of dry only.
The
Cairn got a little more than a cup of dry. No wet.
He
then opened up the big male's mouth and showed me all the
tartar of which wet food he said was a contributing factor.
He went on to say that wet food is only required by those who
have been conditioned by advertising and bad advice.
I
mentioned that if I put dry only out, the dogs would go a day or more
without eating. The boarder went on to say that that was
correct
however.......in nature dogs would only eat every other day anyway
and............in his 60 some odd years, he never saw a starving dog
with a bowl of food in front of his face.
So I asked for
some detail on the food, which he happened to have brochures for.
As of this writing, the dogs have been on a diet of dry only
for
6 months, once in the morning with no wet food other than the
occasional treat.
How has this worked
out?
1.
The dogs look great. The two catahoulas are lean, mean,
geriatric
fighting machines. The Cairn looks like he had a tummy tuck.
2. We no longer have to purge the back
yard of licked empty dog food cans.
3.
The dog food is delivered to the house and the cost is
actually
less than the dried we used + the cans. They also eat less.
4. There is less doggie doo to clean up. Much less.
Last but not least
and the reason for this Opinion Piece:
5.
The Rank, Odiforous, Foul, Smelly Cairn problem has all but
been
eliminated! The Cairn that eats in the morning has all day to digest,
pass gas etc. outside and not inside at around say, 8:00 pm in the
evening on.
Free Plug - A link to the dog food - a franchise - Paul's
Petfood Express.
Free Plug - If you live in Northern Nevada need a boarder,
try Cold Nose Kennels.
About
Cairn Terrier Stink
I've
stated my views on rank, odiforous, smelly, stinky Cairn Terriers.
Time for another view, this time from Ms Barb:
Dan,
Let
me toss out what I know about my "Stinky" Cairn. it is a
genetic
defect, that could be prevented through proper ethical breeding.
The
testing falls under the category, Auto-immune Disorder.
My
11 yr old Cairn, no longer stinks.
#1. Orijen
dog food (made in Canada, and is going to cost more money...
but worth it)
#2. Some dog people
swear that feeding Raw works. Some day I might try it, but not today.
#3.
Try "Silver Lining Herbs'" go to their website...
www.silverliningherbs.com and either call or send an email to
them, and describe your dog's problem. They will recommend
which
supplements to buy. Silver Lining Herbs is cutting edge, VERY
new
to dogs. Remarkable, albeit miraculous success stories.
#4.
Another supplement company that has been around a long time, is called
"Natures' Farmacy". (Yes, spelled with an "F").
They
recommended their "DoggyZymes" enzymes to put in my dog's
food.
This also works. they have a blog, explaining that dogs have
a
different digestive system than people. they need probiotics
further down their G.I. to work. interestingly enough, Orijen
dog
food repeats the exact same information on THEIR blog.
Therefore,
the PEOPLE probiotics are not designed for dogs. not good enough.
Other
premium dog foods are:
Annamaet
(now they added a Grain free variety to their line) google it and find
a source, or call them and ask where you can find it. Made in America,
created by a sled dog man who is still active in working dogs.
Kumpi
www.kumpi.com (Evy Serpa is super dedicated to dog health,
you
can only get it from her website to guarantee authentic and fresh
product, it is Fed Ex'd to your door. this food made a big
difference for my dog.)
There
was a longer list, but it has been brought to my attention, that PURINA
bought out some of these nice, holistic dog foods, and the formula
"might" have been tampered with to increase profit. Unknown.
I
am happy to say, that these three dog foods have never been involved in
ANY pet food recall.
This
is the summary, of what I know regarding Stinky Cairns.
~~
Barb
Cairn
Grooming Tip
P.S.....
ALSO important to know.... pet owners too often go to a generic dog
groomer, (Petco) and allow their Cairn to be shaved (electric clippers)
and this lazy easy, cheaper method of "grooming" a Cairn will not help
the stink., it increases the smell on the Stink-o-meter.
by
hand-stripping the stinky Cairn, you will help to remove the soft,
fuzzy under coat hair that holds in the grease and exaggerates the
smell. if you strip the coat, you will create the original
nice,
wiry coat that is indigenous to their native land. AND your Cairn will
stink less.
Hand
stripping is more expensive, but a dedicated Cairn owner (like myself)
will learn how to, and keep working at it with excellent
results.
I charge $100 to strip a Cairn, and insist that I see them often enough
so it does not become a wild bushy looking thing.
Keep them somewhat tidy (every other
month is what I recommend.)
Comment:
You mean the dollars you spend on grooming
are
directly proportional to the amount of smell a Cairn
produces?
That's depressing. I love Petsmart! And
Rufus loves them too!
I
understand what you are saying but I prefer the quality dried food
experimentation route. I think most of the cairn odor
problems
can be minimized with a quality kibble. Just takes a while to
find one that works.
I would consider proper grooming
icing on the cake. However, I cannot personally
justify
spending three figures for a strip job on a Cairn terrier when I can
get
a decent field cut on a standard poodle (a big standard poodle) for
$60.00, and that lasts six weeks.
Stink control is my agenda. Stink elimination - a bit beyond
my pay grade.
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