FRUSTRATED HOUSETRAINING

[LORRIE PAULUS]

I thought Rosie was getting the housetraining thing.--she is 15 weeks.  We went 4 weeks without an accident...Then today she went #2 upstairs (she NEVER goes upstairs--our bedroom, etc., are on the 1st floor) and she just peed at the door where we take her out.  She rings the bells to go out -- In the last hour she went out 2x for at least 15 minutes each time.  The #2 accident today was my husband's fault--we take the bells off the door at night when she's crated, because I sneak out to go to work at 5 am and don't want to wake her with the bells--he forgot to put them back on the door.  I don't think she gets the difference between going out to potty and going out to play.  She will go out, be outside for 15 minutes, come in and immediately ring the bells again to go out.  Sometimes she'll do this 3 or 4 times in a row.  I told my husband that he HAS to watch her when she goes out to be sure she potties....but he doesn't want to stand at the door and watch her!  I want to let her out when she rings the bells, because that's what I want her to do....will this get better??? HELP!

[Veronica Z.]

Oh my goodness. I completely sympathize. I have found housetraining to be impossible with my 13 week old goldendoodle, mostly because it was complicated by a UTI and surgery which means she cannot go outside for at least 1.5 weeks. However, before all of that happened we had tried the bells and had the exact same problem. She basically rings them when she wants to go outside and not because she needs to go potty. Soon she will be free to explore the outside world once again (HOORAY!) and at that point I will be trying the pairing of going out to potty with a word. Victoria Stilwell suggests that when you take them out you follow them like a hawk and when they start going you use a specific word or phrase ("Go potty!" or "Go pee!"). After a while you should be able to take her out and let her know to go by simply using the word or phrase. It's worth a try I think. I'll be trying it starting this weekend. :)

[Megan York]

Ohhh, I totally understand. My 17 weeker, I thought he was totally housetrained and was feeling so confident, but then one day out of the blue a few weeks ago, he looked up at me (I SWEAR HE SMIRKED!) and peed on the floor!!!! Luckily, we have not had any more mishaps going on 3 weeks now. 

I have never had any luck with the bells on any puppy I have had. What I have found works best is just being diligent on taking them out the same door, on a leash, watching like a hawk and as soon as they start to potty giving lots of praise and pets. I do not even use treats outside (i have an older dog with severe allergies, so we have a treat-free home, unfortunately). Now that Walter has the hang of it, we are working on sitting at the door to signal he needs to go out. 

Housetraining is the worst - there is nothing like a puddle of pee on the floor to make you feel like the biggest failure at life! LOL

[Doug, Micki, Dawson & Mya]

Nope! Won't get better..... Lol! Actually our 4 month girl is just starting to get the hang of it. In fact, she rings the bell to go outside, runs out in the yard, squats, and runs back for a treat. Five minutes later she does it again. And five minutes later she does it again..... She's got a real racket going on with those treats. We actually get close enough to her to make sure she is really tinkling. We have heard that the girls bodily functions develop slower than the boys, ie bladders. But I know that that is not the reason, because she can hold it in her crate all night. It probably did not help that Mya was paper trained before we got her. To her, every carpet and rug in the house looked like a newspaper.....

[LORRIE PAULUS]

We stopped giving her treats for pottying/going to the door awhile back.  Once I figured out that she rang the bells without a treat and went potty without a treat it stopped.  I still praise her for going potty outside, etc.  So she's definitely not ringing for treats.....The breeder crate trained her so she came to us being able to go 6-7 hours at night and she's never had an accident in her crate.  She currently can go 4-5 hours during the day too...Even when she had diarrhea at night she woke us up and bolted to the door to go outside to potty, so I know she gets it....I was just completely shocked last night when she had been out 3x and then within 5 min of the last time squatted next to the door where we let her out.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I saw you posted a similar discussion back in January. The thing that will work, is to take Rosie out on a leash and go to the potty spot with her, and give her word cues to prompt her (we us 'hurry hurry' and 'go poo poo'), then lots of praise once she's done her business. You can't cut corners in these initial steps toward potty training. I know we lead busy lives and want an easy fix to problems, but this isn't one of them. The time you take up front will yield lasting results in the long run. As for the accident upstairs, was there anything stressful going on in the household at the time? Lucy had a poo accident well after she was potty trained, and we attributed it to my husband being gone on business for the week. It disrupted her routine.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I just thought of something more. If you want Rosie to associate the potty bells with potty only, you need to take away the play option entirely. Taking her out on a leash will help, but personally, I wouldn't allow her to play at all while out for potty breaks, not even after, and not in the back yard at all until the potty bell situation is remedied.The potty/play association in Rosie's mind is so ingrained at this point it will take some doing to change it.