[rujeltaoser]

I would make the progression a very slow one. If you have a garage, slowly day by day bring her in there for longer periods of time each day. Don't make the transition to fast. You have to slowly allow her to adapt but don't baby the dog. It's a dog, your pet. Treat it like an animal not another human being. Assert your alpha, make it known that you are the one who is in control. This does not need to be done in an aggressive way at all.

[zzquo0iR]

My biggest concern is that even though you might feel fine right now, this is the home stretch of your pregnancy. You may only have 2 or 3 weeks even and who knows how you're going to feel. You might start making progress with the pup, just in time to have to let it go and have to start all over later on. Is it really important to get the dog under your roof before the baby comes? It's a long process and you're going to have your hands full already.

[xLQLRcXh]

It seems like a huge task. She is a year old and fully accustomed to life outside. She enjoys going potty where she pleases and chewing on limbs. She isn't the best at listening, either, which is understandable because you don't need to do much listening inside.

The problem we had when getting her that caused us to make her an outdoor dog is that she can't be crate trained. She spent much of her life in a pound, defecating in her crate with improper cleanup. I fell pregnant about 2 weeks after we got her and I was just too sick all the time to consistently work with her, or to smell her poo. Now the baby will be here in a month and I feel so much better. I want our entire family under the same roof, including pup. Any tips? Is it realistic to think she could be a non-jumping, non pooping-in-the-house dog by the time the baby gets here?

[xLQLRcXh]

She's actually extremely passive. She has big problems with submissive urination, she only eats when no other animals are around, she flinches a lot, and so on. I suspect a history of abuse. This makes it really difficult to train her. On the other hand, she is a jumper and also pees when she can't handle excitement. It's easier to control the excited peeing, but maybe you're all right, maybe now is not the time. Yes, to answer Jessi, it really is "that" important to me to get the dog in the house before the baby comes, but however important it may be, it is starting to seem unrealistic.

Thanks for the input! I'm sure I'll have many sub-questions related to this project as time goes on!

[Unonounaple]

Almost any dog can be trained to be able to come in the house and behave itself. The hardest part will be for you to establish dominance if you haven't done this yet. From what you've said, it doesn't sound like anyone has done any training with the animal so he has been the alpha dog for a long time. It is probably going to take quite a bit of time and effort to teach your dog enough to be able to behave appropriately.

As Jessi said above, I do believe that now is not the time to start training your dog to be inside. With the baby coming, it's going to be far too much work and you won't have enough time. I would recommend start training the dog to behave the way you want him to while he's still outside. Don't let him continue to jump on people or otherwise act out. That will make introducing him to the inside of your home much easier when you're ready to do so.