Thelma is an approxiamtely 2 y/o female Mini-Doxie. She was rescued from a puppy mill where she had been kept outside, in a crate, for probably most of her life until her rescue at 9 months of age. We also own a rescued German Shepard X..............the vet thinks Sheltie or Australian Shepard. The two of them took to each other immediately and while the Doxie is only 12 pounds (well, OK, 15.........the entire neighborhood feeds her!) and the GS is 80+, SHE rules the roost. She was shy for about the first 15 minutes she was with us and then totally took over the house and our hearts. We have NEVER hit any of our animals but we do sometimes raise our voices if they are really out of bounds. Sorry, I will get to my question. Thelma has adapted to our home and us and our 5 cats and is calm (well, as calm as a Mini CAN be) well behaved 97.8% of the time, housebroken, unless it's freezing, (we're working on this) and is basically a very well adjusted dog. My problem is that when I go to bed and she tries to jump up, (Yes, she sleeps under the covers with my husband and I) she doesn't always make it the first or second or even third time, so I call her to my side and reach down to help her up. I am not angry or exasperated when I do this, but every single time I reach down for her, she will pee. Not a lot, just dripple a few drops which makes me think she is frightened! She doesn't piddle if my husband picks her up. Is it possible it's because a woman may have been in charge of the puppy mill and this fear stems from that? I never yell at her for this.........it just makes me feel sad. I can pick her up any other time and she doesn't react this way. Any ideas of what's going on, what I can do to help her?
Really sorry for the length of the post. I don't get out much................LOL
Thanks so much
Linda