House-breaking an older pup

[cocoincanada]

Hi all,

 

We rescued Diesel (6 month old black Labradoodle pup) exactly one month ago. His house-breaking only started about 7 weeks ago when he arrived at the foster home, so all things considered, I think he's doing okay...

 

After 2 nights at home with us, he was no longer getting up at night to pee. So, he can consistently make it from about 11pm until 6:30am without needing a pee break, which is great! And in the daytime, he's only home for 4 hours at a time, because luckily - my husband can come home to let him out at lunch. We're hoping to increase the time he's left alone as the weeks go by.

 

Our older dog Sunny has had free range of the house for the last 2.5 years. Since we got Diesel, we've reduced the amount of space Sunny has access to, and we've been barricading both dogs into the kitchen/dining room/living room area. We also don't leave much water out for Diesel, because he will - and has - drank the whole bowl.

 

We haven't been crate-training him, because he has major crate anxiety and separation anxiety (we're working on that), and also because Sunny has free range of the house. We thought it would be easier if we could leave Diesel out too. So far, it's not going so well. We've had several accident-free days (yay!), but then there are other times when we leave for an hour and come home to two puddles and a poop.

 

Does anyone have any house-breaking tips that don't involve a crate?

 

We take him outside lots when we're home, and praise him lots and give him treats when he goes outside, make him go to the bathroom right before we leave to go anywhere, and I've even caught him waiting at the door a few times, so it looks like he's learning...but he's still having lots of accidents in the house.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Lori]

Are you using "pee pee pads"? I found that while Casper did extraordinarily well with house training - probably because I was home with him - the few times he did have to go, he went right to the pee pee pads. Always praise, as you said you have been doing & maybe give a small treat after a potty outside, like the "Charlee Bear" snacks (I get them at Trader Joe's) - don't worry it will all work out in the end...as you know these are SMART doggies we have : )

[Helen & Kirby]

You might try confining him in a smaller area.  I kept Kirby in the kitchen, but put up freestanding gates to make her area small, just a little bigger than crate size. She had a nice cushy dog bed.  I would give her a kong or marrow bone every time she was confined.  Soon, she leved to be confined!   That way the dog is not inside a crate, but in a smaller area, but not so closed off like a bathroom.  I also got a pet sitter to come in every three hours to let her out and have a short walk.  My other dog was either outside, or in the other part of the kitchen. 

[Harper]

I agree with Helen.  We used the confined space trick using gates instead of a crate.  It unfortunately means the dogs can't play together though when you're out.  We used our foyer and just gated off the way to the stairs  Harper had a space about the size of a large bathroom that she considered her "den" and she almost never had accidents in there b/c she treated it like a big crate.

[Jess and Pippin]

We did the same.  Baby gated off the foyer (he did well crated at night, but barked when crated in the day when we left the house.  No barking when in the foyer!), hired a pet sitter to come in mid day for pee breaks (our dog took a while to catch on and even now at 6 months still has the occ accident).  We also were really persistent in taking Pippin out every hour while we were home and did this for a couple of weeks.  It was a bit of a pain, but really helped.  He now will go and sit at the door when he needs to go out.  We noticed that Pippin had certain areas in the house he would go to (like the landing on the stairs), so we made this a part of his "territory" by feeding him there and playing with him there.

[Eva and Fenway]

Hi Coco, 

 

I think you are on the right track so far with keeping him within an enclosed space. You might have to address the separation anxiety first by breaking him into a crate-type situation slowly. Puppies will potty in their space if they have more room than they need to lay down/turn around. I have worked on 'crate games' with fenway, and also I did use the pee pads that Lori suggested as a holdover until she could be trusted. We are weaning off of these. I've also trained her to ring her poochie bells. Some dogs pick this up quickly and some don't, but Fen had it down within 3 days. She just came back from a 4 day weekend with her friends (they have a dog door, so no bells) and she still rings them. These are just some ideas, but I think the important part is to find a schedule that works and stick to it. Once we got into a rhythm, it went much easier.

[shelly]

What about using an expen and restricting the area... not quite a crate but does confine him more than an open house.

[Camus]

Hi, 

We don't use crates. I think that Camus got house-trained at 10,5 weeks (no accidents for the last 5 days in a raw: both of us work and Camus is free in the house). Of course, it's much easier with a young puppy than with an older one. So first of all I wish you strength and good luck.

I'd say that if you caught him waiting at the door it's a very good sign! Camus started like that as well. Than he started whining at the door. At 9 weeks, we tried poochie bells, but I got rid of them pretty soon. They worked but there were many "false alarms" and Camus was playing with them frequently and sometimes rang them just for attention. 

I would recommend to punish (in the right amount) the dog for puddles and poops. Puppies do understand punishment and this really helps (they are punished by their mother when very young for biting her breasts when fed). The best is to punish right after the "crime". I punished Camus once and he knew since then that that was bad. We had some accidents after the punished one and  an accusing voice was enough to make Camus run with his tail between his legs and hide. So at least speak to him in a severe tone of voice saying how bad what he did is. I think that it's important for him to understand that peeing in the house is really bad so he'll try to avoid the "punishment".

By the way, two days ago we had a funny accident. We were walking at the park and Camus suddenly started peeing in the middle of the road (an asphalted road, not at the curb) and he looked at me with such a guilty look as if asking to forgive him: "I am very sorry it's just happened". Hahaha. 

Good luck!!!

 

[cocoincanada]

Thanks everyone! Today, my husband had to work a long day out of town and was not able to come home at lunch, so it was the true test. I barricaded the dogs into a smaller area (dining room/kitchen), and didn't make the living room available, which is where he'd been peeing most of the time.

 

HORRAY!! I came home after 8 hours and there were no puddles! I was so proud!! We're in the middle of a heat wave, so maybe he peed and the humidity sucked it up before I could see it....haha! But I really think he had an accident-free day! He peed on the rug tonight, though -- but that's okay. It was my own fault for not taking him out right away after a long play session with Sunny.

 

We'll continue confining him to a smaller area and hopefully that will work. Thanks again!

[Jess and Pippin]

Yippee!  Such a good feeling to come home to a dry floor!