House Breaking

ThirdMan

Hi. I'm having trouble house breaking my 5 month old staff.

House training started roughly two weeks ago, and for 10 days he's been excellent. He's inside for 3-4 hours during the day. And on the hour I take him outside and he pees (although I haven't seen him poo yet). So far so good.

He usually stays outside at night, but I decided to leave him inside last night. At 6:30am I checked up on him and he had peed and pooed. That's okay. He'd been inside since 11:45pm. I read that, in general, a pup can hold his toilet for one hour for every month of age. So I'm not surprised he couldn't hold on.

However, at 9:00am I checked again and he had peed once and pooed three times! Incredible. I'm a bit disappointed. He wouldn't have done that even before training started.

I guess I'm just looking for some general advice.

I'm aware that it's only been ten days, and that it will take much longer. But he just seems to be so clever, and he's made great progress so far. No doubt I'm asking too much of him so soon, but I just feel like I'm back at square one.

Crate training. I've heard great things about it, but I just cannot get up and running with it. The pup hates it. I've tried to introduce him to it in a friendly way, feeding him beside it, throwing treats and toys in there, speaking friendy when we're beside it, leaving it open so he can investigate it himself, etc. Nothing works. He hates it, full stop. And I think I've made it worse by bundling him in there and closing the door. Now he knows that if he steps inside he's not getting back out.

He whines awfully when he's in it. I've just moved into a new house, and I'm reluctant to subject my neighbours to his noise, even for a night. Do you think I should just put him in there, no matter how he reacts, and just let him deal with it?

Any advice at all.

Thanks.

toadfly

ThirdMan wrote: »

And I think I've made it worse by bundling him in there and closing the door. Now he knows that if he steps inside he's not getting back out.

This wont have helped and you probably need to go back to the start with crate training. Have you tried feeding him his food in a frozen kong in there?

I'm lucky my dogs love the crate, my staff spends all her time in there when the door is open and she is bored with whatever i am doing in the kitchen.

Staffs arent really outdoor doors, they dont have much hair on them to keep warm so hopefully you can sort this issue.

Ms Tootsie

There is tons of advice on here about crate training. It is by far the best way to house break a puppy esp when it comes to getting him through the night without any accidents.

Introduce to the crate by putting in treats and encouraging him to go in after them. Dont close the door and let him come out. Try this for a day then close the door for a few minutes and only let him out when he is quiet. Reward him with a treat. Never open the door when he is whining as he will think whinny will get him his freedom. He needs to know behaving gets him his freedom and a treat. Repeat this until you can close the door for a substantial length of time without any whining.

Then try to have him in for an entire night. Pop him in with kong, we did this with our guy and by the time he finished the kong he was fast asleep.

Make sure the crate is a place he will want to be in. Make it his 'den'. Put in his blankets and bedding. Make sure he has enough room to stand up and move but not enough room to go to the toilet in one end and sleep in the other.

For the first few nights get up and let him out in the middle of the night until his bladder is a bit stronger and he can hold it.

The main thing is to be consistant with your crate training and establish a routine. Dogs loves routine.

Our guy love his crate and he treats it like his own personal space. We never bother him in his crate. When he is in there we know he wants some peace!

If you are still looking for help try searching crate training on here, that is where I got all my help and advice.