puppy training

holly1998

hi I have a 4 month old yorkie who I am struggling to house train. I cant get her to poo outside no matter how I do it, ive brought her poo outside so she can sniff, ive bought a puppy trainer spray in the pet shop, watched her like a hawk but she shows no sign she needs to poo, in a split second she disappears under the couch and does her business. I have a kids travel cot that I was gonna use as a crate but am not sure if it is suitable..i don't really want to crate her but am at my wits end as she has peed a few times on the couch to. please help.

betsie

Just wondering why you don't want to crate train her I have a 13 week old JRT x Bichon and found it great. One thing when you bring her out to poo give her plenty of time I know my guy can wonder around the garden for ages to find his perfect spot . Also if you bring her out after you feed her you should be pretty much guaranteed she'll need to go and then its just praise her loads then when she does, you kinda need to pre-empt them for a while until they get the idea because otherwise as you've found out it can be hard to spot the signs until its too late. Bailey hardly ever poo's inside now, and if he does its usually my fault rather than his, still hasn't quite mastered letting me know every time he wants to pee....but getting there!

smeal

Had similar trouble with my puggle when he was a pup.. I'd say it took the guts of 5 months to train him properly. My dad was at wits end with him as he is brilliant at training pups.

The puppy mats didn't work. Instead he would poo beside the mat and then rip the mat up out of boredom! Putting his nose in it didn't work either. He also had a very bad habit of being out all day and the second he came into the house he would pee inside the front door. In the end we had to feed him and take him out straight away and like betsie said, praise the life out of him! He was still hit and miss for a while though. When he first came to the house our other two dogs didn't especially warm to him but as time went on they began to accept him and you could see that when outside, the other dogs seemed to teach him to go in the side field or wherever and since then he hasn't gone in the house once minus one or two pees but they have mostly been out of excitement

muddypaws

Putting a dogs nose in it won't work, but may damage their smelling abilities, and your relationship with the dog.

OP, the fact that she is going under the couch suggests to me that she may have been told off for going to the toilet, and so goes somewhere that she thinks is hidden. It doesn't matter if its outside or inside, she may think that it is bad to go to the toilet, and you'll need to work really hard to show her otherwise.

Straight after feeding, and when she wakes up, you need to take her outside and stay out there with her, no matter how long it takes, then when she goes to the toilet, lots and lots of praise and a treat. It will take time, as it seems as though she is going to have to unlearn one behaviour, in order to learn another.

A pup that small has a tiny, tiny bladder, and so you need to take her out every couple of hours.

Arbiter of Good Taste

You should block off any places that she can crawl under - couch, cabinets etc, until she is trained. If she starts to show signs of wanting to poo, you need to pick her up and take her out immediately. That's not going to happen if she's hiding under the couch.

When she does go outside - praise praise praise. When we were training Lola, if she did a good poop or pee we praised her like maniacs - clapping, dancing, singing. She loved it and learned pretty quickly once she got such positive affirmation.

tk123

I crated my two and no problems. For the second one I used a word (busy) every time she went and she learnt pretty quickly that that was the magic word and it was time for her to go. Also OP are you taking her out during the night? I always smile at these threads because 99% of the time it's a small breed dog - as the owner of 2 retrievers it only takes a few floods to motivate you to up your game in the toilet training dept!

holly1998

thanks everyone, I am worried about upsetting the puppy by crate training and I have even thought of sending her to training school but worried about that to. my work hours don't help and when im not home she has other adults that may have scolded her for toileting in the wrong place,. any help on how to stop her pulling on the lead to would be great

betsie

well I used the crate mainly at night time, but it did get him into the idea that I will take him out to go. he sees the crate as his bed and his safe place and its important that is how you get them to see it, it cant be a place of punishment, if you have people at home that may use it as such then it wont work either and you will have an unhappy puppy. cant give advice on the lead bailey seems ok on it, though early days yet!

tk123

holly1998 wrote: »

thanks everyone, I am worried about upsetting the puppy by crate training and I have even thought of sending her to training school but worried about that to. my work hours don't help and when im not home she has other adults that may have scolded her for toileting in the wrong place,. any help on how to stop her pulling on the lead to would be great

I'd recommend having a trainer come to your house - preferably when everyone is home so everyone can learn. You and the people in your house are the ones that need to be trained tbh - if you don't know what you're doing you won't be able to train the pup. A trainer will give you advise and go through commands/exercises with you to teach the pup and show you what you're doing wrong. The biggest hurdle with having other people is getting everyone on board - even if one person is doing things differently it can set the training back. We had huge problems with my dad for example not noticing the pup standing at the back door to go out to the loo, pup would head back to the other room to try and get somebody elses attention and not make it and have an accident - we ended up putting a bell on the door lol!! Another family member calls the crate a cage and always asks shocked why one of them is "in the cage" - when the dog has gone in themselves for a nap like they always do!

ShaShaBear

A crate is a fantastic tool and we had to use one when we got our pup - he had been so badly abused in his previous home that he was eating his own poo (as a result of getting his nose shoved in it, so don't be tempted to try that!). His crate is now his den, he only goes into it when he feels like it (usually when he has a really nice stuffed Kong to protect :P ) or when we are headed out. It's no different than using a playpen for a child - it is not for punishment, but for protection and damage control. Most dogs who are trained to use a crate will savour it, and consider it their safehouse.

As for the toileting, chances are the pup has started doing it under the couch to avoid getting punished. A dog should never, ever, EVER be punished for an indoor accident. Rather the dog should be (if possible) taken outside immediately to finish it, and then praised profusely, or the mess should be cleaned and the dog ignored. When you let your dog outside, do you go out with them and stand close by, or just let them outside and wait inside yourself? You need to tell the dog they are doing it right, they aren't like cats and will not just learn the right place to go by themselves. Also, did you use puppy pads at any point? These are a disaster and the amount of people that buy them and can't understand why they don't work is madness - they encourage your dog to toilet inside, not outside. Lastly, are you getting up through the night to let the dog out? Puppies cannot hold it all night and if they have free run, they will find somewhere to go!

With regards to a trainer, get one to come to you, and be sure that they have the relevant qualifications. Do not engage the services of anyone who discusses dominance or alpha myths or anyone who solicits punishing the dog for results. And certainly do not send your dog away to a school - how is the dog going to learn to behave in YOUR home, if its being trained somewhere else BY someone else?!