potty training is NOT going well - help!

[Puppy Madness]

Ruby (med ALD)  is now 4 months old.  We've had her since she was 2 months old.  She still has a lot of accidents.  A friend of mine the other day... who has had a lot of dogs but gets most of them as rescues when they're a little older... said you should be able to potty train a dog in a week.  Ha.  

 

Here's what we have already tried:

1. crate:  she's in the crate at night, and during the day if we're all out.  This works well.  BUT I have to say, I find it really hard to keep her in her crate during the day if I'm home.

2. treats for peeing/pooping outside - yes, but we were never consistent with this (I don't always have treats in my pocket for immediate rewarding, esp. first thing in the morning).

3. taking her out after eating - yes.  Sometimes this works.  Sometimes she won't go right away and then I'll miss it when she actually does go.

4. Tethering her near her crate (or near me) to make her space smaller (vet's suggestion):  tried it once or twice but she whined a lot and pulled.  

5. using a bell to signal to go out - the bell turned into a nice toy for when she's hyper.  I took it away and might reintroduce it at some point.

6.  getting mean and yelling 'bad dog' or something like that when I catch her in the act - have tried that (and also just the 'no') but I actually often don't catch it until after she's done.

 

FYI, when she's not in the crate, she has access to the kitchen and family room... it's a fairly large space.  There's not a good way to make that space smaller (unless we got a pen).  

So I think what I need to do is get more strict and keep her in the crate unless I'm actually playing with her until she's better trained.  Any other ideas?  Should a 4 month old puppy definitely be totally (or almost totally) housebroken already?

 

thanks,

Anita

 

[Livia Free]

One more thing, since this is still fresh in my head :)

 

The immediate reward for the dog for peeing is the feeling of relief so no treats are needed. I do praise my pup just by saying, "Good," or "Good work," if she does a really nice business ;)

[Livia Free]

Sorry, one more thing... Can you tell we went through similar troubles?

 

Don't let her see you clean up after her accidents inside. Tether her where she can't see you while you're cleaning up. Somewhere I read that it makes the dogs feel good to see their humans cleaning up after them! Silly pups. And when cleaning after her, use the special cleaner and soak it up really well all the way through the rug. If accident happens on hard wood, spray a large area around it, not just the pee spot.

[Smita, Ollie and Juno]

Ollie was completely housebroken within a month but just as kids, every puppy is probably a little different. We used the crate a lot when we couldn't watch him. If I was cooking or doing homework with kids or whatever, he would be in the crate. I watched him like a hawk when he was outside the crate. First sign of sniffing would send us to the yard. Sometimes 3 times in an hour with no result. We use the term 'go potty' and 'good job'. I always took him on a leash and gave him lots of praise (no treats). Because we were so consistent there were not too many opportunities for him to have accidents (he still had a few but only peeing). he is my first dog ever so I am no expert but I do think that consistency and persistence did pay off. I hated crating him so much but with increased training came increased freedom and now he is out all the time except when we go out and at night. We never used a bell. To me it was just an added complication. He taught himself to scratch on the backyard door and give a little woof. Best of luck. At 4 months your puppy is still a baby, keep at it and she'll be trained soon. A playpen may be useful in your situation. We used a baby gate to limit him to 1 room where we could watch him.

[Lynda Kamrath]

My puppy also did not have free access to the house unsupervised.  I don't use crates, but he had a playpen that he slept in and went in when he was in the house unsupervised.  At first, I took him from his bed and carried him outside to his potty spot and then put him down.  He always used it without treats.  I would try to get up at least one time during the night to let him out and he went right to his potty spot, and then back to bed.  He does have a lot of time outside as he eats outside and plays with his brother several times a day.  At six months, he began having free reign in the house and no accidents yet.  He usually does not ask to go out, so we let him out frequently.  Biggest problems now is for him to go in his potty spot (on the hillside grass) and not on the bricks.  If I see him heading up the walkway, I go out and take him down to the grass. 

[Sue Amos & Mulligan]

I have a 6 month old who now and then still has accidents. I have been to puppy training and got some great tips that helped. The best is you must take your treats out with you once your dog pee's give the treat, at this age they have 4-5 seconds to hold a thought of what they just did. I keep treats now by all my doors and grab one as I leave. Second I was told you have a newborn on 4 legs and you must watch them at ALL times. If they go potty grab them and take them out if you catch them in the act, this way they start to know they must only go outside. I too tried the bell and my dog thought it was a toy. I re-introduced it a few weeks ago and doing better. You can try putting peanut butter on the bell so your puppy gets the idea. Everytime your puppy is by the dog or rings the bell you have to take them out even if your puppy has just been. It is alot of work but you are so close just hang in there.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Glad to hear it's getting better. I would add the bell back into her regime. She's old enough. Even if she uses it to signal "outside play" at least you know she wants to go out. We didn't introduce the bell to Lucca until he was around 4 months and he caught on pretty quickly. Izzy will ring the bell but if we don't hear it she will bark AND ring the bell:)

[Deb, Connor & Simon]

Good advice here, but wanted to add...if she has accidents, use something like Nature's Miracle to clean it up and remove all smell from previous accidents. I have never had a dog enjoy seeing me clean up a mess....I'm not sure they are wired that way, actually. Keep using the leash to take her out to do her business until she has been accident free for at least a month. If she has an accident in the house, just pick her up (even in mid-stream) and tell her outside, outside, outside as you literally run with her into the yard. When she gets there, even if she just does 2 more drops, tell her what a good girl she is and lavish her with ear rubs, head rubs, treats, etc.

Bottom line is, your puppy WANTS to please you. ALDs are particularly good at this. Positive, happy training works best with these babies. And just like a poker player, your puppy has "tells" or signals when she needs to go...she sniffs a certain way or gets a weird expression, odd stance or something. Once you figure out what her tells are, the rest of the housebreaking will be a breeze.

Hang in there....she'll be housebroken in no time. :-)

[Jennifer and Jack]

Jack was potty trained almost fully reliable by 16 weeks. I kept him in a crate at night. He never went in his crate. I took him right out of his crate and carried him outside. I have a toy golden doodle so he is easy to carry. I would so the happy dance, praise him and act like I won the lottery each and every time he went. I got him in May so we literally stayed outside a lot. Jack never had the right to my carpeted areas unless I was able to keep my eyes on him the entire time. I also made sure that he had just went before I allowed him to be on the carpet.

When I was at work, he was at daycare. So no chance of going in my house then. When I was home and not able to watch him, I had him in his play yard, which was actually the baby gate system that blocks them in. I put a rubber table cloth down and then a soft blanket over that. He never did potty on it, but since it was on my carpet I wanted to be sure.

 

When I let him stop sleeping in the crate and get in bed with me at about six months, I kept a bell on his collar so I can hear him jump off the bed. As soon as he jumped down, I jumped out of bed and brought him outside to potty.

In recent months, Jack had a bladder infection and was peeing in the house. I immediately took him to the vet and we treated him which stopped it.

 

I have to say Jack is fully potty trained now, but when he is under a lot of stress, ( I was recently in the hospital on life support very sick) and my family ended up staying with me for a few months to get better, he had a few accidents. I believe he was reacting to the stress in the house.

 

Don't compare your puppy to others though, each are easier to train in some areas and harder in others. If I could get my dog not to jump on new ppl when they come in the house I would be thrilled.