accidents in the house

[martha]

My Dixie is 5 month old Labradoodle and she is still having accidents in the house. she won't bark when she has to go out. I've tried the bells but my cat keeps playing with them. I've tried the crate - but she'll even go in the crate

we started obediance school- she's the smartest one there. she sits, stays + walks well on the leash. she's a smart little girl but I'm at my wits end with all these accidents.

any help and ideas would be greatly appreciated

[Stacy, Bruno, Molly and Gracie]

Have you had her checked for a UTI? Have you spoken with your vet? 

[L.M.]

How often is she going to the bathroom?  At 5 months, dogs can pretty much hold it for an entire work day (my 2 doods were holding it for about 8 hours during the day while we were at work at that age).  Like Stacy P said, maybe she has had a UTI for some time and that is making her unable to feel when she actually has to go.  

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I would have thought a whole work day is too long for a 5 month puppy. I had a dog walker mid-day up until mine was 10 months.

[L.M.]

We didn't have much of a choice to leave ours for the day....we did crate them so they trained quickly, but both my doods were holding it for the day by 5 months.   

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

If she doesn't have a UTI, you need to be sure you are cleaning the area where she is going in the house with some sort of a oder neutralizer like Natures Miracle.  If you aren't using something like this to clean the spot (and you really need to soak the spot if it is carpet), she will continue to go in the house forever. 

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

vinegar works well too, though I wouldnt use that on carpets, jut hard surfaces like tile, laminate, wood, linoleum and the crate

[Ginny Nightingale]

A friend had this issue with a 5 month old pup and she did have a UTI--once it was cleared up the problem was solved. Her pup had a very thick curly coat and she had too much hair around her tail end--it was holding in liquids and allowing bacteria to grow--trimming her and keeping her clean helped a lot. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

By the way, only one of my dogs barks to go out--and usually she does that because she wants to come right back in and get her reward--a treat! She is such a smartie-pants. I have another doodle that sits quietly against the door and the third one paces a bit, but doesn't really signal her need to go out at all (She doesn't have to with her smartie-pants sister barking away!) So you need to look for subtle signals and perhaps if it is a UTI, you will see more clear signals when her need to go isn't so urgent. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Unfortunately, you cannot rely on a puppy to tell you when he has to go potty. I know these bells, etc., are very popular, but the fact is that until a puppy is fully and reliably housebroken, he cannot be left unsupervised and free in the house.

I have never used bells, and I have never had a dog who barked to tell me he had to go out. My last dog was 100% housebroken by 12 weeks old. (Of course, her breeder had started her on crate training before she came home, which helped a lot.)

Your best tool in housebreaking is to be able to catch the dog in the act of having an accident. If it happens without your witnessing it, there is nothing you can do other than clean it up. If you can catch the dog in the act, you can stop them with a correction, (startling them is usually enough), take them to the correct place outdoors, and then praise them. The message you are giving is "Inside potty, bad! Outside potty, good." That's what a dog has to understand to become truly housebroken.

So Dixie cannot be loose in the house without supervision, ever, until you get the housebreaking issue under control.

Also, she cannot be outside unsupervised. You must know that she has eliminated, and you must be there to praise her and reward her.

The fact that she has accidents in her crate is odd and is going to work against you with this. What was her background before you got her? When she goes in the crate, is it just urine, or is she pooping in there, too? If it's just urine, it might be a good idea to have her checked for a UTI, as the others have suggested.

The info on cleaning up after her with odor neutralizers is good, too. Just because you can't see anything or smell anything doesn't mean she can't. You have to neutralize the odor all the way through. As Lucy and Sophie's mom said, that means soaking carpetted areas all the way through the pad with Nature's Miracle or a similar product made for that purpose.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

How often do you take her out? Do you reward and paise her for going outside?

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Something i read when we were at our wits end with Cooper (she actually potty trained within a few weeks) was to not let them see you clean up, otherwise you are signalling to them its ok that they went potty (like the Mom cleans up after them when they are little). One of us would take Cooper outside and say potty (even though she had just peed) and the other would clean it up. it worked really well!

[Ron Carnes]

Zack had an occasional accident until he was 7 months. He is now over 3.  He didn't become vocal about going out or in until he was 2.