House training

PTO

Took a rescue pup in a couple of months ago.. Estimated to be about 10 months old at this stage. She's been with us 3 months now and been trying to house train her but getting nowhere...small improvements but not much. Just now she came in from the garden and peed on the carpet... Any advice out there?

Nody

How exactly are you house training the pup? How often are you bringing her out? What do you do when she pees inside?

PTO

Nody wrote: »

How exactly are you house training the pup? How often are you bringing her out? What do you do when she pees inside?

Bring her out quite often. First few months was every couple of hours but now with the weather so good she is out all the time.
When she goes inside we put her nose in it and send her outside.
Puppy pads are on the floor at night.

cocker5

PTO wrote: »

Bring her out quite often. First few months was every couple of hours but now with the weather so good she is out all the time.
When she goes inside we put her nose in it and send her outside.
Puppy pads are on the floor at night.

Good god op don't put her nose in it..that's a prehistoric method and proven to be very unproductive .. How would you like it done to you?

Secondly she is peeing inside as that's where your training her to go with the puppy pads.. And then your rubbing her nose in it??? Puppy pads are useless and confusing for a pup they need to go.

You need to start from the beginning.. Bring her out every hour and say a command word.. Ie 'toilet' or wees etc.. When she goes says the word again and praise her.. At night you need to be getting up three times doing the same method as above.. If you do this properly and consistently after two weeks she will be trained.

Please stop rubbing her nose it in it's just wrong!

Nody

Ok so basically you've done every single mistake possible there.

• First of all stop with the puppy pads; all they are doing is confuse her and tell her that it's ok to pee inside and delay the training even further.
• Secondly you need to bring her out directly after play time, directly after feeding, directly after drinking etc. to the same spot that you want her to pee and poo in and once she does pee/poo you cheer the living daylight out of her like she scored the winning touch down in the finals.
• Third stop rubbing her nose in it; all you're doing is once again punishing her randomly because she does not understand why you are doing it and all you're doing is making her fear your hands and further delay her training. She does not have any connection between your punishment and her peeing inside so all you're doing is randomly punishing her from her perspective.

Because you've already spent months confusing her you're going to need to spend some serious time to untrain her of these bad habits that you've been reinforcing to get her to change her habits. This means you should basically treat it as a pup; out every hour to the spot and wait there until she pees and cheer the living daylight out of her. She'll get the idea shortly that if she pees there she get cheers and it's great to pee there and with that you can then start to introduce a command word for peeing. So when she starts to pee you say "Pee pee" and cheer her on so that she starts to associate the phrase (what ever you choose) with peeing and that it's a positive thing. When there's an accident inside you simply clean it up and don't comment about it (if you catch her in the act of peeing you simply bring her out to the spot instead) because once again she does not have the attention span or cognitive ability to connect the act with the punishment.

Also since you've obviously been told / read about punishment for training here's another thing you need to be aware about. A dog does not have a alpha/pack leader, a dog does not try to dominate or need to be dominated and anyone talking about such things such are full of crap and you should ignore them. They are ignorant of how dogs work and there are a ton of science going back over 20 years that has proven every single piece of that to not only be wrong but to be detrimental to your dog and your relationship with the dog.

PTO

Thanks for the advice. A lot of stuff online about it so didn't know which way to go. Will try that out!

Nody

PTO wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. A lot of stuff online about it so didn't know which way to go. Will try that out!

Please do and if you do have any questions/doubts do post here; there are a ton of people here with decades of experience inc. fully certified behaviorists who can help you with advise on what to do (note I'm not one of those experienced people; I've simply picked up the basics from the real experts around here!). That means instead of you trying to find and sort out stuff like that you can have them do it for you

If you need a quick guide however this page offers a lot of advise and ideas that you can use that are up to today's standards.

DBB

Some more advice from closer to home OP, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Ireland embrace only kind, dog-friendly training methods which are led by scientific research and evidence, not hocus-pocus, anecdote, or supposition:
http://apdt.ie/index.php/articles/house-training/

ShaShaBear

I've said it before, and I think it's relevant.

Potty train your dog the same way you potty train a toddler. Praise, encouragement, ignore accidents and mistakes and always watch for cues as missing them makes the accident your mistake!
And always make allowances for accidents when the dog is ill

faceman

Puppy pads have their uses but id tend to limit their use given your pup is 10 months.

Perseverance is key here. Don't let her out of your sight and try and watch for behaviours that indicate she is going to/wants to pee. It could be subtle but the sighs will be there.

Praise her lots and lots when she pees outside. Use a treat.

Is the pup left alone in the house much during the day?

PTO

faceman wrote: »

Is the pup left alone in the house much during the day?

Not at the moment thanks to the summer but she will be alone a bit later in the year.

Ashbx

If you do want to use the puppy pads (which is absolutely fine to do), you should place them right next to the back door. As she gets older and used to using the pads, move the pad closer and closer out the door so they learn.

One thing I will say is make sure you praise her loads when she does go outside. It seems she doesn't really know what she's supposed to do outside.

Good luck!

ShaShaBear

Ashbx wrote: »

If you do want to use the puppy pads (which is absolutely fine to do), you should place them right next to the back door. As she gets older and used to using the pads, move the pad closer and closer out the door so they learn.

One thing I will say is make sure you praise her loads when she does go outside. It seems she doesn't really know what she's supposed to do outside.

Good luck!

We did this with our first dog. All he learned was that he could wee against the back door if he couldn't get outside. I wouldn't recommend letting any dog train itself to toilet inside the house full stop.

Ashbx

ShaShaBear wrote: »

We did this with our first dog. All he learned was that he could wee against the back door if he couldn't get outside. I wouldn't recommend letting any dog train itself to toilet inside the house full stop.

Oh no! We have two bitches so not sure if that made a difference maybe!

OP I should have mentioned, I only used the puppy pads for the first two weeks and then trained them to go outside. You just need to have a keen eye and learn your dogs tale tale signs and don't give her an opportunity to have an accident!

ShaShaBear

Ashbx wrote: »

Oh no! We have two bitches so not sure if that made a difference maybe!

OP I should have mentioned, I only used the puppy pads for the first two weeks and then trained them to go outside. You just need to have a keen eye and learn your dogs tale tale signs and don't give her an opportunity to have an accident!

Possibly, Shadow was smart enough but not smart at the same time. Probably thought he was aiming it outside and that it would do grand :pac: