@roguecoyote Good for you ! I swear by a Gentle Leader as a training tool. A week or so on one and then a day on a normal collar and lead and they trot along fine. They go back on the GL from time to time just as a refresher. You are controlling their head and that is very important.
Needs Help-Potty Training
-
Hello! My boyfriend and I got our little girl when she was 2 months old (she is now 7 months old). Having her for 5 months…you would think that she wouldn't potty in the house anymore but that's NOT the case. She is still peeing in the house and occassionally goes #2. I don't know what to do to get her to pee OUTSIDE! We take her outside as much as possible so we avoid the accidents but they still seem to happen. Please help!
-
First, have you ruled out a medical cause like a UTI?
Next, when you take her outside are you making sure that she actually goes? This may mean putting her on a leash and walking her until she does her business. When she does finally potty do you make sure to praise her so there is no mistaking that doing this is absolutely the right thing to do?
What sort of schedule do you have her on? Is there a pattern to when she is having her accidents.
My boy is not quite 6 months old and though he is pretty much housetrained, if we miss his cue that he needs to go out, he will have an accident in the house. His cues can still be a bit subtle, like, Goes to door, glances at handle, then goes to find another place to pee.
-
Since it took me so long to get my little girl trained, I really have no room to talk but, I will tell you what finally worked for me. The first thing that really did the trick, and probably would have worked even faster had I done this from the beginning, was to make dedicated bathroom runs that if unsuccessful would lead to more kennel time. So she's out and playing and it's time to take her for her "business" trip and we leash up and go outside. Maybe it's raining or maybe it's too cold or maybe something gets her distracted so she doesn't go to the bathroom, after giving her a reasonable time I bring her back into the house and straight to the kennel. She gets 15 or 20 minutes of kennel time and then we go right back outside so she can relieve herself. If she does, then we get some free time, if not, it's right back to the kennel for another 15 or 20 minute wait. Just kept on repeating this over and over until she got the idea of what she was supposed to do. Now, it doesn't matter if she's inside or in her outside run, the first thing she wants to do when she gets her leash on is to run outside and go to the bathroom. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen for taking a dog to the bathroom. It doesn't matter if it's cold or wet or anything, she is up for the job the instant she gets her leash on.
Now as well as this worked for her, and it work very well, there were two things I also had to learn with her. The first was that she was still like a little child and cannot be left alone without supervision. Whether I missed the subtle clues she would give or if she never even gave them, I found that ignoring her while she was loose would set us back a bit in our training. The other thing that I found was that I had to learn not to raise my voice. I come from a loud family I guess, perhaps from working around machinery too many years or something. It didn't have to be when I was scolding her, although that never worked out well for me, but if I spoke too loudly at my wife or my granddaughter I would likely find a nice little present hidden from my immediate sight. I eventually learned that I could live a happier life if I kept my voice a little softer, especially when I was correcting her. And it seemed that the softer I spoke, the faster she would respond to me anyway.
Like I said, I really have no business in giving advice on this, but I wanted to share with you what I found that worked for me. Best wishes and I hope you find what works well for you.
-
It's a natural puppy instinct to NOT pee/poo outside their "cove". This is to prevent predators in finding them with their smells all round the area. Sometimes it takes longer for some to go outside.
A neighbor of mine got a puppy, and they too where having a hard time with pee/poo inside. I told them to just take it easy, and don't punish. Spend a good time outside, and award when he/she does go outside. It took until their dog was 8 months until he started going regularly outside.
