I need doggy potty training help

mckayleesmom wrote: This puppy is just stubborn as all get out. I take him out all night long and when he is in our room at night he is fine. But during the day he goes in and out with the kids...I leave the backdoor open and he goes in and out with them....but I constantly catch him peeing and pooping inside the house. I had to block off the kids rooms because that is where he likes to try to hide it. When I see it....I take him to it...tell him no and pat his nose like dh said...Then I make him go sit outside and I shut the door....I usually leave him out for like 30 minutes. He is still not getting it.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Brianne, this won't work.

In order to punish the dog for doing his business indoors... you have to catch him in the act, and punish AS he's doing it. It's like scolding a toddler for having poored out fluor on the floor, 3 horus after. Do you think the toddler's going to remember, and associate dumping the flour with punishment? nope... they'll associate flour on the floor with punishment, not the actual dumping of it. Dogs work the same way. As far as the dog's concerned, he's being punished because there's pee on the floor... but not for having peed on the floor, know what I mean?

Most pups will do their business when they're overly excited... which with your kids, i'm sure happens a lot... (no offense meant... ) so stick him outside after eating, after drinking, after playing, after napping, after coming inside from playing outside... if you really want to take a challenge, hang a little bell or chimes to your door handle... and take the pup's paw and strike the chimes before sticking him outside. After a while, the dog will hit the chimes on his own to signal going outside.

It took about 3 days for my pup to "get it". Be patient... and remember that there is no point punishing it if you didn't catch it. Keep it very very very simple.

grapfruit replied: I agree w/Rocky, you really need to take him out every 2-3 hours. And PRAISE him when he potties outside.

luvmykids replied: I think he also doesn't know where he is and isn't allowed to go....our stubborn shiztzu didn't pt until I kept him on a leash with me all day long and when he started acting like he needed to go, out we went and lots of praise and treats, kind of like a kid

At night you might try keeping him confined somewhere, like a bathroom or the kitchen if you can gate him in. They learn to not go where they eat/sleep.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
More than that. Seriously, after every playtime, eating, drinking etc...every 15 mintues if you have to. don't leave the food / water bowl out, only give it to him right before letting him out. If he drinks when he wants to, he'll piddle all over your house in no time. Limit the time he spends drinking...and put him out afterwards. Just like a toddler.

Hillbilly Housewife replied: There's lots of little signs you can look out for... if they sort of slow down and start sniffing around, or if they whine a little... just google it.

grapfruit replied:
Leash training is a REALLY good idea. Actually IMO, dogs should be taken for walks.

Hopefully I don't offend anyone, but my probably BIGGEST pet peeve is when people get a dog "For the kids, so we can teach them responsibility" and then chain it outside and leave it there. I'm sorry, but the "average" kid can't completely take care of a dog. It's a LOT more then feeding and watering it.

There's a dog in the yard behind my friend's house that is on a chain 24/7 and DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A DOG HOUSE She said the neighbors finally put a pad lock on the gate b/c her fiance would go out and let him off the chain in thunderstorms and stuff so he could get shelter.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
That's so sad.....

My dog doesn't have a doghouse.... but I leave the door to my sunroom open so she goes in there isntead of a cage while we're not home, and outside when she wants to. I'm so lazy.

mckayleesmom replied: Rocky.....I do only punish him when caught....the thing is...he sees me coming and takes off running from me....He tries to make it under my bed. Then I drag him back and show him and scold.

I already feed him outside and I don't lay water out inside the house. He gets fed 2 times a day and the second time is fairly early so he can get all his pooping and peeing out before bedtime.

Russell and Mckaylee run in and outside with him every 10 minutes during the day...so he has plenty of time to go.....He is just very confused.

I think Im going to get a crate and crate train him.

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Ah. I see... I understood that sometimes you'll find a puddle of piddle or a #2 and then punish him. He knows better, the little brat!

grapfruit replied:
That's different, your doggie has shelter that way. I'm ok w/that. We used to do that all the time when I lived in the country. Instant doggie door!

But I want to shake people and tell them don't ignore your dog. KWIM? If you don't want them then give them to somebody that does and DON'T GET ANOTHER ONE. Rrg!

mckayleesmom replied:
I knew some people that had a cute little husky puppy behind our house....They had one of those huge kennels put up for it and just kept him locked in it all the time....He would cry 24/7 ...It was sad.

~Roo'sMama~ replied: When our dog Tank and our other dog who we ended up giving away() were puppies they pee'd and pooped on the floor constantly too, even though they knew they weren't supposed to. They ended up just growing out of it when they got older. I hope you can figure something out that works before that for you!

We did the bell thing too though, and that did help. Bailey (the one we gave away) got it right away, but Tank would just wait for her to ring the bell and count on being brought out at the same time. He started ringing it on his own after she was gone though.

To teach them, we hung a big jingle bell on the doorknob and we'd bump it on their noses before opening the door to bring them out, and so they learned to bump the bell with their nose to tell us they wanted to go out.

DVFlyer replied: I'm going to write a book about raising kids and dogs and how many parallels there are when "teaching" kids and "training" dogs. There are so many similarities......

Rocky gave the best advice and I would only add a couple of points.

A reason to take a dog out so often is to catch them doing something right and give you the opportunity to praise them. So by taking them out, saying "go potty" or whatever you like gives you the opportunity to let them do something good and get praised. And REALLY act excited.

Also, crate training is a good idea; one that I think more people should take advantage of. I have a neighbor's who's english bulldogs ruined $4000 worth of leather couches because they thought my idea of crate training was cruel.

*Usually* a dog won't go potty in his crate, but more importantly, he can't pee or poop on your carpet if he's in a crate.

The information is out there for free, but I like to reward people whom I've learned from so here is my plug for Leerburg. He has a great forum and seems to understand dogs. He has a lot of free information on his site but also some you have to pay for. Here is the link to his "E-Book" on potty training:

http://leerburg.com/housetrainingebook.htm

Spend the $12 if you think it's worth it to you.

mckayleesmom replied: Thanks...I will bookmark that site.

I think we are going to give the bell thing a whirl too.

DVFlyer replied: The bell is fine.... but remember, it's not the bell you want to focus on. It's the PRAISE for what happens after the bell that's important.

Crystalina replied: My yorkies are crate trained. I love it. At night they go in the crate and in the morning the first thing I do is let them out. Then they can run around and play for awhile and then it's back into the crate (if only for a few minutes) and then I open the crate and they go right outside. The whole "putting them in the crate for a only a few minutes" lets them know that as soon as the door opens it's time to go outside and do your business. It works very very well. They won't go in the crate and they are programmed to run from the crate to the door. Yorkies aren't the best for housetraining and this is the best and only way I've learned to deal with them and it works wonders.

luvmykids replied: Anyone who has dogs would benefit from the site DVFlyer posted....it has helped me a lot!

Hillbilly Housewife replied: Oh - and I forgot to add, for what it's worth, Cassie's crate trained for nighttime.

HuskerMom replied: We used a bell too. When we were training her we'd ring the bell everytime we took her outside and after maybe a week she learned to ring the bell if she had to go out. Although when the weather was nice we heard that stupid bell 50 times a day just because she wanted to go out and play. But she didn't have any accidents in the house after that week.