Help!! My 6 month pup wont house train

undecided

Hi all
Im at my wits end. Got a lovely pup in Jan and just love her but cant house train her. I've half mastered sit, lie down, roll over etc. Shes very intelligent cries at the sink for water when thirsty and knows quite a few commands.

Started house training as soon as I got her ie took her out regular and gave her treats when job done and was goin ok as long as I watched her all the time. She never cry to get out. Now she wont go out when I ask and if i take her out will hold it for ages hence take har back in and soon as im no lookin goes. wont do it when im looking so i cant catch her.

Any help would be great I.m starting to get desperate

andrawolf

What kind of breed is she? I had alot of bother with my husky. She used to wet every time I spoke to her. She did grow out of it. You can only keep up what you are doing. Now she will not wet or anything only on concrete. That is where she was always let to go on. she doesn't even get the urge near grass.:o

peasant

undecided wrote:

Hi all
She never cry to get out. Now she wont go out when I ask and if i take her out will hold it for ages hence take har back in and soon as im no lookin goes. wont do it when im looking so i cant catch her.

Any help would be great I.m starting to get desperate

Somewhere along the line your dog seems to have made a wrong connection. In your eagerness to watch her and to "catch" her, you probably gave out to her while having a wee inside.
My guess is that she connected doing the wee with the giving out, so now she is afraid to wee in front of your eyes and holds it as long as she can and only relieves herself when you're not around.

When you give out to a dog that is doing a wee inside, it will not be able to understand that it is the inside bit of the act that you are upset about and that outside would be ok ... instead they think that having a wee (wherever) makes you upset and therefore they do it when you're not looking.

So you basically have to start from fresh (and it will probably be quite a long process)

Stop watching her with eagle eyes for starters.
Not all dogs cry when they need to go out, some just stand at the door or get a bit agitated ...so don't wait for a cry or a bark.


Have you got a fenced in garden or some outside area where you can let her run unsupervised?

If so, then let her out after every feed, after every sleep and after every play session to do a pee. Now the difficult bit will be to make sure she does her pee outside, while at the same time not watching her
Try to watch her so that she doesn't see you. Once you're sure that she does indeed pee outside, give her praise when she does. Let her finish first and then immediatedly praise her.

This will be tricky, of course ...because in her head she still thinks peeing in front of you is not allowed. So you basically have to sneek up on her to praise her without startling her and making her think she just did something wrong again. Take your time on this one ...the right moment will come.

EDIT: On second thought ...forget about the "sneeking up on her" ...that's just to complicated. Praise her from far. Make a song and dance about it ...show her with lots "Good girl" in a happy voice that she just did something exceptionally brilliant that pleases you no end (at the same time ignoring the neighbours who will think that you've gone gaga ). You can even call her to you and give her a treat while you do your happy song and dance.

Do this a few times and she should gain the confidence that peeing outside (and in front of you) is ok.
If she does her business inside, don't give out to her, stay calm, say nothing, just clean it up.

Good luck (and be patient)

Schlemm

Put your dog out at regular times so that they get used to the routine. Put her out first thing in the morning and in the evening. However it is very important that you put her out after each meal: when she eats, she'll have a reflex response to eliminate, so take advantage of this.

First of all, stick to regular feeding times as this will lead to regular elimination times, and she'll soon get used to the routine.

Then, when she's finished eating, pop her outside in a certain spot in the garden (and always use the same spot) and wait for her to go, and reward her when she does. If she won't go when you're looking, watch her from a remote area so she can't see you.

If you give out to her for eliminating inside, the whole timing of the giving out is quite important. (Generally, rubbing her nose in her urine doesn't work...it's better to use the positive reinforcement approach of taking her out at regular intervals and after feeding and rewarding her.) Many owners will scold their dog for eliminating indoors, but they make the mistake of waiting too long after the dog has peed everywhere. The dog just can't make the association between soiling the house and the punishment, because the time interval between them is too long. In order to be effective, they must make the association within a matter of seconds of eliminating, or else it won't be effective. One technique I've found quite effective when housetraining is to literally pick up the dog when they start peeing in the house and put them outside, and then reward them (and again it's important to take them out and put them in the same spot).

undecided

It's nearly like she knows not to go inside and is just lazy because if she does go outside for me she will come in very happy with herself and look for her treat. I do think she has the idea but just cant be bothered. I have been doing quite alot of the tips given(except for the happy dance not sure what the neighbours would make of thhat!) suppose i'll just have to keep trying. I did think i'd be half way there at this stage

Is there any way I can get her to bark to go out I have a v busy house and I'm the only one who watches to see if she might want out???

Also how do I get her to stop going hyper when visitors call it's that bad I have to put her out of the room and I dont really like having to do that??

Thanks for all your advice so far any more tips is much appreciated.

Golferx

You could try watching her for an extended period of time and bringing her outside when you feel she needs to go.

Bring her outside and walk around the garden. As she eliminates speak to her with a word which will be associated with the process, like "BUSY".

Keep saying "BUSY" until she does her business and she will soon associate that word with that process.
End up giving her a treat for doing her business and she won't be long associating the two.

Six months is still a young puppy.

Time and patience and you'll look back and wonder what all the fuss was.

peasant

You can't really train her to bark if she needs to go, but what you can do is establish a routine.

Dogs need to go pretty soon after they've eaten or drunk some water, they usually need to go after having slept for some time.

Use this to your advantage. Arrange the feeding times so that they fit into your busy schedule and bring the dog outside after every feed and wait until she's relieved herself.
Keept hese times like clockwork and soon everything should work "automatically".

Jotter

our pup is about 14 weeks old and is almost fully housetrained thanks to crate training. when we got him he was 8 weeks and naturally enough went everywhere. Like you we did the whole bring outside on waking, after play, food etc but he had to be carried outside wouldnt go out by himself at all and would sometimes hold it and pee right inside the door. we got a trainer in for 2hrs (we were doing this anyway bec of young baby) and she suggested crate training him as we had a crate already but were unsure about using it - i thought he was too young to hold on all nite. we left him in crate overnite from 12am to 7am and no accidents, we let him out straight away and he legged it outside to do his thing, from then on he goes outside of his own accord and loves his crate - he doesnt whine to go outside he sits by door so we have to watch for this or hell have accident. I would highly recommend the crate training for toilet training pups - pm me for name of trainer if youd like as id highly recommend her too!

Jotter

oh one other thing, if pup goes inside make sure you clean using vanilla essance or something that will get rid of amonia smell or dog will continue to use that spot as it will smell like toilet- also leave water bowl outside that way pup has to go out to drink anyway and will usually go while out there.

undecided

Hi all

Thanks for all ur ideas think im starting to get some where. no accidents today. Tried the crate training suggested by jotter seems to have got her on the right track.

Jotter how much does the dog trainer cost ive heard that they can get great results in v little time??

once again thanks to all!!

Jotter

sorry for delay undecided, I dont check internet very often anymore with a 7 month old baby and a 4 month old pup!!! The trainer I used cost 110 euro for 2 hours, I thought it would be a bit gimmicky but I was wrong, she did very little with the dog, she spent her time training us! But we now have a very well behaved little lad and yes it took about 1 day to get his basic commands and toilet training sorted. She basically told us to think dog instead of human so the communication is clearer for both human and dog. We used www.tagnrye.com sorry if youre not ment to do this, I find my pms dont always go through for some reason. best of luck with your pup though!

undecided

Thanks jotter

Think i'll give them a buzz the other half starting to get on my case some how its always him that manages to step in pups messes! (might help if he looked where he goin) sounds like it was money well spent. I might start to get some peace!

PS.
you must have the patience of a saint young baby and a pup?? wait another few months when baby discovers pups tail you'll have great craic!!:)

macshadow

Jotter wrote:

oh one other thing, if pup goes inside make sure you clean using vanilla essance or something that will get rid of amonia smell or dog will continue to use that spot as it will smell like toilet- also leave water bowl outside that way pup has to go out to drink anyway and will usually go while out there.

Here's the key to your problem,if you use newspaper for her to go to the toilet on then when you clean it up and put down new paper leave a little scrap of soiled paper with the new paper so she knows where to go.
Then each day you move the paper a little closer to the back door and then
the final step is to put it outside!
I've read that in several dog training books,the crate method sounds good too
but don't know how it actually works.

LisaW

Crate training is based on the principle that a dog likes to eliminate away from their sleeping area. If they are confined in their bed they will hold on as long as possible before toileting. A dog that soils his crate has been left in it too long. (In some instances dogs will soil their crate, reasons can be, health issues or puppies from puppy farms that have never lived in a clean environment). The crate needs to be large enough for them to stand up and turn around, but not too big that they can pee in the corner of it. They sleep in the crate at nighttime and so need to go in the morning, you open your back door and then open the crate and bring your puppy outside immediately. Success straight away giving you an opportunity to reward and condition a que like "Toilets".

Crate training takes some time, dogs should not be locked in first time. They need to be conditioned to understand that it is a nice place to be not a prison. So start by throwing treats inside the crate and and then feeding inside the crate, make them a lovely cozy bed in the crate. All this needs to happen before the door is ever closed. When you close the door for the first time it should only be for a few seconds, over time build up the length of time the door is closed. Then you are ready to crate them over night.

peasant

Just a remark on crate training:

If you get a pup that is only a few weeks old, you can't start the crate training immediatedly. At that age, a pup will not be able to "hold it" all night.
If it is then in a crate somewhere down the hall, you won't hear it trying to get out and it will have no choice but to soil itself and the crate. That's a) a tad cruel and b) crate training out the window.

But you can use the principle.
Put the pup in a comfy cardboard box right beside you bed. That way you will hear when it gets restless and you can take it outside immediatedly. So it will learn right from the beginning that outside is the place to go.

Plus being right next to you makes it easier for the pup to get used to its new surroundings.

Once the pup has slept through a good few nights in a row, you can then start to introduce it to its crate as described above by LisaW and also move the crate to where you want it to be in the future.

LisaW

Yes that is correct, agree 100% peasant, my particular post was in reference to the 6 month old pup in this thread who should be able to last the night.

Normally people get their puppy somewhere between the ages of 6-8 weeks. We always recommend that you should let the pup out of their crate half way through the night so that 3 hours is the max they should be in it.

I agree that a young puppy should sleep in your bedroom in the crate until they get used to their new surroundings. They will find it easier to settle in that situation.