House Train a 3 year old Bischon?

j14

Hi All,

I have recently moved back home with my 11 week old Pup, who is doing great at his house training.

He is currently sleeping in my room and is confined there during the day.

He is on his own for a maximum of 4 hours and there is rarely a pee or poo when I get back home.

He actively wakes me during the night so he can be brought out to go to the toilet.

There are already two dogs in the house that belong to my mother, a 4 year old male Bischon and a 3 year old male Bischon (both neutered, the 4 year old is the Alpha as the 3 year old is afraid of his own shadow). The younger dog cowers at the sight of other dogs and will not go anywhere with out the Alpha dog.

Both dogs are treated like children by my mother, they sleep in a childs cot that she bought for them or they sleep at the foot of her bed.

The Bischons have their own room with a dog flap for access to the back garden but the younger Bischon does not use it.

He constantly pees and poos inside the "dog room"room.

Neither dog was ever properly trained (no sit / stay / recall).

I did house train the older dog when I lived at home but I wasn't living there when she got the younger dog.

The older of the two is a "dog" dog if that makes sense, he does not like to be cuddled but will lie on your lap in the evening. He likes to do his own thing but will and will never pee or poo in the house.

The younger Bischon is contantly peeing in the "dog room". He is treated like a child, he is never out of my mothers arms.

He usually pees on anything vertical and because the cot has four legs he just continues to pee on it. I have bought a spray in the pet shop but it does not seem to deter him at all.

I would like to let my pup use the dog flap room when he gets older but I am afraid of him picking up bad habits from the younger Bischon.

Is there any way to train a three year old dog not to pee in the house?

Any advice?

Toulouse

You'll need to go back to basics as you would with your own pup. So outside frequently, after sleep, food, play and praise, praise, praise when the dog goes outside.

Keep a good watch inside and you'll see his tells and then outside with you both and lots of praise when he does what he's supposed to. Don't scold if he goes inside.

You will also need to get rid of the smell from inside as he'll only continue to go there so I suggest biological washing powder made into a paste or solution. It's probably also habit at this stage so you'll need to keep an extra close eye on him inside in his favourite peeing spots. If it's a wooden cot then it might be so soaked in pee that it might be difficult to get rid of the smell completely.

Also some bichons can be difficult to housetrain so stick with it. Consistency is the key so try to get your mother on board, it's important everyone is doing the same thing to avoid confusing the dog.

I would suggest crate training but it doesn't sound like something your mother would go for.

j14

Hi Toulouse,

Thanks for the reply.

The cot is wooden and I have put forward the idea of remving the legs from it.

The reason she got the wooden cot is that the two dogs would always sleep together (the younger dog always has to be beside the Alpha dog) and she could not find a big enough dog bed for the two of them.

Her groomer told her to put Blankets around the base of the bed to soak up the pee but I think this is a terrible idea as its just encouraging him to pee on the blankets intead of outside.

The main problem I have is that everyone in the house works so the dogs are on their own from 8 -12 (I come home to let the pup out at 12) and from 12.30 - 4.30.

Its mostly during these hours that the Bischon is doing his business inside the house and nearly every night you can guarantee he will have peed.

He will also pee if left on his own for any length of time.

If I close him in a room for even a few miniutes he will pee on the floor / up against something.

The dog flap is always open so he always has access to the garden but he just refuses to go outside.

I will try to keep a closer eye on him and see if I can spot his tells.

I would love to put my dog in with the two other dogs but until the peeing inside stops I dont want my pup learning his bad habits.

lorebringer

Definitely need to treat the dog like a totally untrained pup - let him out every hour (on the hour is easiest to remember), without fail. If the dog pees/poos - give lots of praise, maybe a sneaky treat... he will soon get the message that going to the toilet outside is a good/fun thing. Because the dog is peeing when nobody is around, you need to (initially) provide an area that is ok to pee in (think puppy pad or similar) which can then be gradually moved outside/removed from room so that the dog understands that only peeing outside is accepotable. Consistancy is the key to cracking toilet training - you will need to bring out all the dogs at the same time, and ensure the praise is given directly after the act of peeing/pooing. Having access doesn't mean he will choose to go pee outside, you need to physically stand there with the dog to ensure they get the message that this (outside) is where they pee.

The other very important part of training is the clean up process - use an enzyme cleaner (available at most large pet stores or bio washing detergent solution) on any hard surfaces to fully break down any residual pee smell from the area. Rinse with a mild solutiuon of Milton or something similar to ensure everything is fully disinfected. Use a bio washing detergent on any soft things that may have pee on them (an extra rinse in the washing machine will be needed to ensure there is no detergent residue left on the fabric). The wooden cot sounds like it may have huge amounts of residual pee on/in it and it may be best to scrap it and just buy a massive dog bed to replace it. The whole room may need a good scrub to start off with due to the amount of time it has been used as a pee spot - skirting, furniture etc. will need a good clean to get rid of any smell that may encourage the dog to re offend in that area. When you are cleaning up any mess made in the house, do so quickly and do not pay any attention to the dog while you are doing so.

Because the dog is peeing when there is nobody around, you need to be super careful about your reaction when the dog is going to the toilet when you are around. Some dogs get mixed messages from when they were young that it is not ok to pee around people (usually due to inappropriate actions taken by the owner when they dog does pee in front of them - which is usually in the house - by yelling/scolding etc.). The dog will not get the message is it is scolded all the time, it needs to know what is the correct place and time to go, once he gets this he will be far easier to train. The other thing to note is some dogs will pee on certain textures (think paper training a puppy... this is essentially training the pup to pee on newspaper)... if the dog is constantly peeing on the same/similar fabric textures, removing these will be your only option. One of mine had this issue with fleece and we now no longer have fleece blankets on our bed due to one too many accidents.

Lastly, good luck! Some dogs can be hard to crack, I have house trained countless adult dogs and all get the message eventually - it's all about consistency.