Help! At my wits end with housetraining!

[Fred&Me]

Hi,

We have a one year old male Carin. We got him when he was four months and he is fixed. He does not get the concept of housetraining! I am literally at my wits end! Fred(our cairn) knows what "go out" means, he runs to the door. We take him out about every 30-45 minutes but anytime he has the urge he goes in the house. He has never let us know when he needs to go out. We throughly clean the carpet and tell him "no" very firmly when he messes in the house.

He is crated all day while my husband and I are at work and he doesn't go in there. I have tried treats when he does his business outside,the bell on the door to alert us, and the embilical cord method. He does not seem to care when he gets in trouble and nothing has worked so far. If we don't watch him constantly he'll go in house. I am out of ideas and running out of patience. Can anyone offer any advice???

[Tracy A.]

First, welcome to the forum.

Are you using an enzyme cleaner for the carpets? If not the urine smell is left behind.

when it comes to house training, it sounds like you doing all the right things- But are you using a key world that only means 'pee'? I have two I use with my dogs... "potty" means pee, and 'Poop'.

Then I praise whent they comply. I started off by saying potty when they peed and gave them a treat. Then when they did it when I asked I gave tons of paise.... and now the pee on command... even just a drop to shut me up. You can also get a belly band which will help you in the house. You mentioned that he doesn't pee in his crate. I would suggest that you build on this and treat him like puppy for a few weeks. In and out of the crate to potty when he is in the house... otherwise crated. When you take him out of the crate, go straight outside.... work on the command.

It will be important to give him plenty of walks when doing this retraining. When you have him out of the crate youc an also put a belly band on him when you come back in the house...

Last, I'd have him checked for a UTI just to be on the safe side and to confirm it isn't a medical issue but a behavior issue.

[ToToOwner]

I am having this same problem, only I have a spayed female and she is 2, i have had her since she was 4 months, and i am just completely lost, she doesn't associate going outside with using the restroom, she only associates it with playing, if i get her outside fast enough in the morning she'll pee, and if i leave her out there for 20 minutes or so she'll usually poop, but a lot of times she'll come inside and do it or not make it outside to pee...

when she goes to the door during the day and i take her out, she just wants to play, not use the restroom. she makes no noise as to needing to use the restroom, even though she has seen my other 2 dogs bark to go outside, she just doesn't seem to understand it...i've tried watching her every move, sticking her outside when she starts to "go" in the house, and scolding her, i've tried the bell on the door, which she just try's to tear off at all times as do my cats and it just got annoying...and i've tried setting up times throughout the day to go out so she gets accustomed to a schedule...now that has turned into play times...and she is either stubborn or just doesn't understand outside is the bathroom...

i've also tried the enzyme urine remover, which i use RELIGIOUSLY but it just doesn't help...

i'm to the point of just putting down laminate or hard wood next to the door so it would be easier to clean..i mean what are my options here?

[tomatosandwich]

Hi and Welcome!

I think what I would try is strict crate training method. In other words, I would crate the dog and take him directly outside. I wouldn't let him walk out of the crate. I'd pick him up, and put him outside. I would not play with him or anything until he does his business. I'd give him 15 minutes to do this. If he has success, I'd reward him with play time, outside, for another 15-20 minutes, and then I'd put him back in his crate. I'd repeat this for a few days.

Then I'd crate a single room in the house. I'd continue the crate idea above and add some free time in the penned room--only after he has success outside. So crate--outside--bathroom success = 20 minutes free time in the one room in the house. Then back in the crate to repeat the process. If there is not success going outside, I'd put him back in his crate and try again in another 15-30 minutes.

It's time consuming and it feels like it's never going to end. But it will eventually end. Once he starts getting the smells outside and the reward of freedom and play time for it, the light will go off. Then you can open more and more house space to him gradually.

My dog is subtle about his signal to go out. He'll just sit and stare at us--sometimes from far away! Maybe a subtle signal like that is what is being sent?

Good luck sorting this out. Hang in there. They are smart little dogs and will eventually catch on!

[DemiSheep]

I just thought I'd let you know our experience. We have been crate training Attila. He has never had an accident in his crate ever, when he was small we had a divider in his crate to make sure he didn't section off a potty area. We've always had his playpen attached to his crate, and we kept him in his play pen a long time allowing him out here and there for short periods. He was making messes in his play pen for a while and then he finally figured out the playpen was an extension of his crate and he shouldn't potty there, and he hasn't had an mess in there forever now and we have now moved him up to the family room where his crate/playpen are in. He is starting to get the picture again that he isn't suppose to potty in the family room but he still is having an occasional mess, after we get him set in the family room we'll move him to the bigger living room and then on to the whole house. Attila is just past 5 months old now. In our house though, it sure doesn't help that the previous owner had lots of animals and they surely made messes EVERYWHERE. We would hose down ALL the carpet in our house with enzyme cleaner if it was cheap enough to do it.

[Meggie]

This may sound silly but Hubble came to me at 6 months and had been kept in a cage where he messed where he stood for 4 months. So we were starting at zero.

I've never had a dog and no clue how to even approach house breaking. We had a crate one day and he broke it He went in the house willy nilly. He'd pee next to the wee wee pads

One thing I did notice was scolding made no difference.

It seemed to make him think going to the bathroom was negative in general so when I'd walk him...he'd hold it and find a sneaky place in the house to go when I wasn't looking.

So I changed the approach after awhile. When he would go in the house instead of saying "no" "bad" or anything firm, time outs etc. I'd feign a gasp of shock and say his name like he had offended me as I cleaned it The way you would speak to a toddler who drew on your wall

With praise, treats and dealing with it from a place of "oops" rather than frustration, it took a few weeks but it worked like a charm. Much to our surprise.

It seemed his eagerness to please trait kicked in when dealt with more gently, whereas before that I was compounding the problem.