Potty Training an older (8 month old) otherwise NOT trained puppy

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

This is Dexter's saving grace, he is a total love bug and his sister LOVES him to pieces. This morning he is in the proverbial dog house again. After being outside 3 times, morning at 8, before breakfast and 9 and then again at 10 he walked into the living room, lifted his leg and peed on a toy. UGH!

We are clearly not doing something correctly. We tried doing what worked wonderfully with Daisy, treating and taking out constantly (see above) and he just does not seem to be getting it totally. All the accidents happen on our days home. in his crate During the week he holds it for 4 hours, gets a potty break and then 4 hours later we are home and gets a potty break. He was heavily treated in the beginning, he has been with us since January 1st. We tapered the treating because, well he seemed to start to understand. I feel like we must be missing signals but I don't know what they are.

I may try potty bells, anyone have good experience with this? If so please let me know how you go about it.

Dexter is going to be 8 months old on the 23rd, he did not have training like we gave Daisy from the start so I think that has a lot to do with it.

Luckily, for the most part "solid matter" accidents are better under control, though they do happen if we aren't diligent.

Suggestions please, my carpet cleaner is getting a workout.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh, Dexter, it's a good thing you are so sweet!

I was thinking maybe it was marking, since he's lifting his leg to pee on an object, and he's not neutered yet. But then I saw it also happens with poop, so probably not. 

Are you using an odor neutralizer like Nature's Miracle on the accidents?

When you actually catch him having an accident, do you verbally correct him?

What has worked best for me in the past is to catch them in the act, give a sharp verbal correction (not to scare or shame them but to startle/stop them and make it clear that they are doing something that definitely doesn't please you, something like "Eh Eh!") and then grab them and get them outside ASAP. If they finish outside, they are treated and praised to the moon. The message is "Indoor potty, bad! Outdoor potty, good!"

I hope that helps a little. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I also know that he didn't have a good start on his potty training. If I remember correctly, I think the previous owner stood in the doorway with Dexter outside on a Flexi-lead. :( 

Poor guy, I'm so glad he has you and Daisy now to help him learn what to do. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I really think you may have to start from scratch which would mean taking him out on a leash to be sure he goes and crating or confining him in the meantime.  So for the morning it would be....take him out when he gets up on leash...say your "potty word...we just say "potty" and wait....give it about 10 minutes and if he doesn't go take him back inside and crate him.  Wait about 30 minutes and repeat the same process.  At some point he will go (since he's apparently doesn't go in his crate).  Then praise like crazy and I would use a great treat that is reserved only for pottying outside.  After he goes he can be free for a few hours and then you'd start this process over again.  I did use the potty bells.  I would ring them each time we went out.  Guinness never used them, but he was on such a schedule that I really didn't need him to.  Murph still uses them to let us know he he needs to go out which helps a lot if we're upstairs and don't see him go to the door.  Both of my guys had occasional "setbacks" with the potty training and each time I just went back to the basics of confining when I couldn't watch them.  I do remember the carpet cleaning nightmare....I had the "green machine" and was a regular customer of Stanley Steemer. 

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I have had amazingly quick and great success with potty bells to the point where it's hard for me to imagine training without them. I got the bell when Kona was about 10 weeks old. Within 1 day he understood that the door opened when he rang the bell, and within 2 weeks, he was completely potty trained via the bell and uses it every time since for the past 2+years. And when I adopted maggie when she was about 9 or 10 months old, she watched Kona use it, and she understood immediately that that was how she could get the back door open., and she uses it every time she has to go as well.
My disapproval signal is growling. most of the time, I can growl from another room, and they'll stop the bad behavior. If not, I stand over them as the lead alpha dog and growl more directly. It took awhile to train myself to be very consistent with the growl, but they eventually trained me that it was the only sure fire way to stop them.

[Judith and Addie]

My doodle, Addie, had a hard time being reliably potty trained, although not to the extent of Dexter. I put the blame mostly on a very disruptive time for her from when she was 6 months, when my house was under contract for sale and I started packing until she was 10 months and we finally moved into our new home. In the course of the move, we were actually "homeless" and staying with relatives for 6 weeks.

The beginning of the end of the accidents in the house was when I caught her as she squatted to pee (and did wet the rug). I gave a sharp "No!" and immediately picked her up and carried her outside (she was almost 12 months but she weighs a little less than 30 lbs). When she finished her business outside, she got lots of praise. It was a lightbulb moment.

If the bells work, that seems a good solution. I and my dogs never got the hang of it. Dexter has to associate ringing the bells to go outside with the fact that potty is only outside, not inside.

Dexter is a total sweetie.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is exactly my experience; they need that light bulb moment when you catch them in the act, then praise them when they finish in the right spot. 

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Karen, we have had several light bulb moments....he is good for days and then wham.

Mike was taking him out so often that I started to think he was forced in to thinking he had to go every 30 minutes .... I started saying lets stretch to an hour.

To be fair, outside of yesterday's lifting his leg on a toy (not sure he lifted his leg, I just heard the rainfall from kitchen) he has his accidents in the heat of the play moment.

Yes we do use natures miracle.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

The bells worked for me because I have a tiny house with lots of doorways with baby gates, so it was easy to contain him to my tiny rooms and watch him like a hawk for the two weeks it took me to train him. In addition to taking him out regularly and hitting the bell with his paw each time we went outside, I knew his sniffing signals and would jump up and scoop him up, set him by the back door, hit the bell with his pay, use the potty words "go hurry up" and take him out and repeat the potty words until he went, then praise him mightily with love and kisses when he did it. I was nearly always right about his sniffing meaning he had to go, so his little brain quickly correlated that urge with me making his paw hit the bell, and then him going "hurry up" outside.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I would also confine Dexter to the room you are in so that you can keep an eye on him.  Use baby gates, and ex-pen stretched across a large doorway or whatever it takes to keep him in a smaller area.  As he gets better, you can gradually increase his areas of freedom.

[Samina, Snickers and Duke]

Duke was a year old when we got him. He was intact & liked to mark in the house. Here's what worked for us: we watched him like hawks all the time. We made sure that he was never out of sight unless he was in his crate. If he even looked like he was thinking of lifting his leg, we'd give him a sharp "eh, no" to distract him. We'd get him outside & make fools of ourselves doing a happy dance for him.

I think the key for me was to get him while he was thinking about it, before he actually got to lifting his leg. It was no fun for a while & he's lucky that we were willing to work with him. It took several weeks. He's fine now, but he's still crated when we're not home. As Karen said, natures miracle is a must.

Duke is a submissive dog, so he was eager to be in our good graces & get lots of snuggles. I Think that helped. Good luck with Dexter.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

just a quick comment about natures miracle. I had two kitties for 19 years and when one of them got sick, no matter how many gallons of natures miracle I used he still went back to the same spots so I knew the order and residue was not gone. That's when I learned about Odor Medic. Amazing. Just using a fraction of the quantity solve the problem. And that's what I use to this day. Enzymatic cleaners have enzymes that can die and be ineffective and are sensitive to temperatures. Odor Medic uses essential oils among other ingredients and it saved me servers thousands of dollars when I was ready to toss some very expensive boots and area rug.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've been using Nature's Miracle to housebreak dogs for 25 years, it's been foolproof for me, even with adult fosters. I don't know how well it works for vomit or for cats, though.