Toilet training adult dog

Aeternum

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice

We have recently added a 5 YO female Samoyed to our house. There was no plans to get a second dog as our 6 YO Pyrenean/retriever cross is quite attention hogging, but this poor girl has spent her whole like in a shed out the back, sometimes going days without seeing anyone at all and I also have suspicions that she may have gone extended periods without being fed... The previous owner bought her off DD as a pup but lost interest fairly quickly..

Anyway the owner has been hospitalised and a family member was feeding the dog once a day..or every few days I suspect. So through a mutual friend we agreed to take her for the time being at least - under the condition she was spayed as our guy might get a bit frustrated!

We have had her for about two and a half weeks now and everything is going great! She is such a little dote, the thought of how she lived her life so far breaks my heart she is getting on great with our Guy and it's so wonderful to see them playing with each other every evening!

The only issue we are having is toilet training her - she honestly just doesn't seem to understand that she shouldn't go inside. I know this is obviously because she was never taught this and we have been trying but it doesn't seem as though we are making any progress! I don't want to reprimand her for her indoor accidents because I know she doesn't know any better so I have been trying to focus on praising and rewarding her when she does go outside!

It seems to be that she only does it inside when we are not around - there will always be an accident in the kitchen in the morning when we come down the feed the dogs and let them out. Trying to work a routine for letting her out - but getting up during the night to let her out and wait for her to go is tough because a lot of the time she just won't!

If I was to let her in to the kitchen after being outside for a while and I stay in the room and play with her - she will be great! But if I leave the two dogs alone in the kitchen and come back in ten or twenty minutes there will be one if not two accidents! Both are from her, our fella has never had an accident and has been trained since we adopted him!

I'm just wondering if there's something else we should be doing, trying to keep her occupied when she is inside and make sure she has company but there can't be someone in the same room as her all the time and I don't want to leave her outside constantly because she tends to sit at the back door and not go into the shed so she gets soaked!

Any advice?

SingItOut

Ah the poor little pet, good on you for taking her in.

As regards the toilets training my guess is she may be suffering anxiety every time you leave the house or room. As you say she may have been left for long periods alone by herself so she's probably panicking thinking you're not going to return. Being around your own more confident dog will help build her confidence. Try leaving the room for a few seconds at a time then gradually building up to one minute, two minutes, five minutes etc and treat her each time you come back to the room, this lets her know that she hasn't been abandoned and you are not far away.

I'd imagine she was never house trained as a puppy so take her out every hour where possible and continue to praise her when she goes to the toilet, if you praise your other dog she'll pick up on what he's doing quickly and do what he's doing. Have you tried crate training her? It might be no harm to crate her at bedtime, most dogs won't soil where they sleep so that would help with the toilet training as well as giving her a place to feel safe.

DBB

Hi OP,
First of all, thank you for taking this poor creature in, it's lovely to hear that she's now got the chance of a good life. What a horrible time she's had til now
This may not be what you want to hear, but having fostered and cared for many, many adult dogs in my time, the one thing that works really well is to put her, and her bladder on lockdown for a few weeks.
This means using a crate, or my preference is a playpen, which she must go into every single time she's to be left alone, even if you only have to step out of the room for a few mins. The pen should be big enough for her bed and a bit more room (you can dictate what size to make a playpen, one of the advantages they have over the crate), and she should be routinely fed in it.
Dogs are very unlikely to pee on or near their bed nor where they eat, so the pen gives you control of what her bladder is doing.
She can of course remain out of the pen when you're there to supervise, but if you have to take your eye off the ball at all, stick her back in the pen until you can give her your supervision again... This minimises the risk of accidents and maximises the chances of her getting it right, going outside, and being well rewarded for it... The essence of all good training!
Also be aware of what you use to clean up any accidents... Any product containing bleach must be avoided, as bleach mimics the smell of pee (to a dog), and causes them to try to overmark it with their own scent.
When you bring her out, of course give her soft praise as she's going, then as she lifts out of the squat, have a party: huge praise, very tasty treats etc.
Has she been spayed only recently? I have found that some bitches can lose any bit of housetraining they may have for several weeks after spaying, If she was close to a heat when spayed, I think it exacerbates the problem.
When you leave the room, does she become at all worried, like whining, scratching the door, agitation, pacing, salivation, panting?

Aeternum

Thanks for the replies! I had been looking into crate training but the playpen sounds even better so I will look into getting one definitely! She has however peed on the other dogs bed once or twice and she likes sleeping in that so she might be a strange exception to the soiling where they sleep idea.

Thanks for the tip about the bleach too, wasn't aware of that and definitely want to make this as easy as possible for the little thing!

She was spayed just before she came to us and only had her stitches removed last week so that probably could be affecting it!

As for when I leave the room, as long as our other guy is with her she won't cry or whine at all. If she is left completely alone she does whine so obviously we have stopped that, at least until she gets more settled.

We have been feeding them separately as she eats everything in sight and would have both bowls empty before the other one even realises it's dinner time! Haha, so she is being brought into the living room with her food and with someone in the room to keep her company and he can eat in peace in the kitchen. We have tried teaching her to keep to her own bowl but I think the poor thing is worried about when the next time she will eat again will be so she just inhales anything she sees!

As you can tell I'm a complete newbie to managing two dogs at once but am trying my best to keep them both as happy as possible! They are currently cuddled up together in the shed out the back while I try and clean the mess their mucky paws have made on the kitchen floor!

DBB

It sounds to me like you're doing a fine job
And don't talk to me about muddy floors... Jesus swept, I almost cried yesterday at the state of the place!
As for her peeing on the other dog's bed, that's not the same thing as her peeing on her own bed. Peeing on another dog's bed is territory marking, it can also be a little bit of anxiety. That said, from what you've described it doesn't sound too likely that she pees in your absence due to separation anxiety. It sounds more like a matter that she's just not housetrained, and as she was locked in a shed, she's somewhat used to peeing inside.

aonb

OP just wanted to say well done to you for rescuing this poor dog. Your brownie points score is sky high for your kindness. Sounds like you are on the right track, and great that your own dog is very happy to have her around - lucky her - good luck with the toilet training.