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do you give her a treat when she goes out?? when i was potty training my 2 dogs i would go out with them and as soon as the started going potty i would say 'go potty, yes good girl!" and then give them a treat right away.....
Wow. I really don't know what to suggest since it seems to me that you are doing everything that you should! Confining her to limited space, giving her ample opportunity to go outside, praising her when she does go outside. The only other thing I can think of that we were told it not to let the dog see you clean up her mess. Apparently its like a power thing that they like that they can make you clean up after them? So when she does have an accident, one of you take her out and the other one clean up while she's not in the house to see you. Other than that just give her time, be patient with her, and keep doing what you're doing. If she continues to make no progress at all, I would check with your vet. Perhaps she has a blatter control issue of some sort (though it seems unlikely since she can hold it in the crate).
Scolding her isnt good. Praising her when she does potty is good.
Seems like she needs to learn how to tell you she needs to potty. We trained out dog to ring the bell when she needs to go out.
We have it tied to the door we take her out and we rang it and then made her ring it until she learned that thats what she needs to do.
I think it's pretty normal for a puppy that age, and personally I think your friend is nuts. We have a welsh terrier and he's 8 months, we are still trying to train him. He's almost there, but still have accidents. My FIL's dog took a year to fully house train, and so did my parents' two dogs.
She's got the crate thing down. She knows not to pee in there or she has to sit in in. However, when let out she doesn't know not to pee because 1 of 3 things.
All of these are hard to get past. You can't force her to deal with it if she pees in the corner, you can't scold her for peeing, and you can make her grow up faster.
Here are a few things I would suggest:
Another thing that I found really helpful was to train "go potty" on command. When I would take my puppy out, just walk around with him and say, "go potty, go potty, etc" until they actually go and then give lots of praise. He now knows what i mean when I say, "go potty".
Please don't listen to advice about scolding, especially "really scolding" - whatever that means, it sounds unpleasant. Time and time again, negative reinforcement has been PROVEN to create other problematic behaviors in dogs. It might work on one issue, but will create another issue somewhere else.
Positive reinforcement works the best -- reward the dog when it does something correctly, and ignore it when it does something incorrectly. Dogs are programmed to want human acceptance. They want to do what makes you happy, so communicate that to them.
Second, 3 months old and being completely housetrained is NOT THE NORM, and more than that, it is EXTREMELY UNLIKELY! Don't hold your dog to that standard because you will be disappointed. Animals that young are physically incapable of holding their bladder for very long. 14 weeks is very young, and if you stay on course with her crate training, taking her out frequently, and rewarding her with praise and treats when she goes outside, she will be potty trained. The only thing you're missing is patience.
Also, withholding water from a young animal, especially a puppy or kitten, is just asking for trouble. Puppies and kittens are notorious for crashing when they don't have proper access to the essentials.
Please alter that habit and make water constantly available, especially during the summer. She needs to ALWAYS have access to water. It is cruel otherwise.
@grenadine: I disagree that a puppy needs to always have access to water. When we were house training our puppy, she got water with each meal and after she came in from going potty. Then we put her right back in the crate with no water access. She is now over a year old and is perfectly healthy and happy. It is in no way cruel as long as the puppy is getting enough water.
OP, I didn't consider my dog fully housetrained until she was 8 months old. Don't worry! All dogs are different and develop at different schedules. House training is the hardest part of owning a dog though.
I wouldn't completely listen to the people who say not to scold your dog when she pees in the house. The trick is that you should only scold them if you catch them in the act; if it is afterwards, don't scold as the dog doesn't make the connection between what they did and the scolding. They will only connect it to what they are doing at that moment - therefore, why you must catch them. Then a stern "No! We go potty outside" as you take them out to finish their business should do the trick. And definitely give her TONS of praise, treats, etc when she does go outside - every time.
Other than that - you seem to being doing everything right (although I would argue that you should always have water available except for when they are in their crate). These things just take time. You dog will slowly begin to have less and less accidents but you're a long way away from none.
@grenadine: We certainly weren't holding our pup to the standard of being potty trained by 3 months of age. Since neither of us has trained a puppy before, though, we just wanted to make sure our pup was on the right track. When our friend said their dog was trained so soon, we just wanted to verify that it's not the norm.
We give her plenty of water, but we do take it away after 7pm so that she's not drinking right before bed. She has access to water when she eats, after she goes to the bathroom, and when she comes in from walks/play time. She seems to be doing pretty well with that.
Thank you all so much for the advice! We have been praising Doppler heavily when she potties outside, but we haven't used treats... maybe we'll switch. I'll also start taking her out every 30 minutes instead of every hour. It sounds like our pup is right on track, though, so that's reassuring!
Oh I remember the puppy potty training days. It's an around the clock thing. We didn't get a lot of sleep during that time. I agree with most posts above. Definitely praise her each time she pees and while she is peeing say just what @caszos in saying, "Go pee-pee, Go potty... and say her name.' I still do this with our 2 year old dog when he can't pick a place to poopie. So I say, 'Go poopie, Boris" and each time he mosies over to the grass and goes. It's unbelieveable.
I also agree with training her to ring bells so she can let you know when she needs to go out. We did this one with our other dog and he's great at it. He'll ring them, stand there and if we don't get up right away, he'll come over and sit right in front of us just staring at us. Quite funny.
Don't be scared - and good for both of you for having patience and looking for advice. I see so many new owners give up way too quickly!
I agree with the positive reinforcement, teaching a command (we use 'hurry up'), and increasing outside intervals. I would also let her outside and get energy out before she's loose in the house with you. Those breeds are smart and want attention, so she may forget to go when she's outside if she doesn't yet have a command. (There's just so much going on!) It may mean waiting for a while with no fun and games outside before playing, but it will likely help.
@stephinpa and @michelleez: How did you train your pup to use a bell? I think one of our biggest issues is that Doppler doesn't know how to tell us she needs to go out...
1) She is still really young.
2)Dogs love routine. She has no problem with the crate or at night because she knows exactly when she will go out next. Make sure you are establishing a very specific routine: you walk in the door, you take her out, dinnertime/playtime, you go out, relax time, you go out, then bedtime.
3)Make sure you bring the treats outside with you. As soon as she is finished with her business, give her a treat right then. Waiting until you get back in the house is too late.
4)Make sure her walks are long enough to really empty out.
Somebody once said that the reason God made puppies and babies so cute is that they are such a pain in the neck, no one would want them otherwise:)
Hang in there--the day she finally asks to go out will be the happiest of your life so far!
Okay here is my two cents. I've helped potty train two labrador retriever puppies with my family. Things to do:
1. CONSISTANCY--take her out the same door, to the same place (aka "potty spot") and say go potty. Keep her on her leash. No playing games....it's time for potty. She needs to understand that outside = potty.
2. Praise her. When she does her potty stuff give her immediate and consistant praise. We didn't give our dogs treats, but I guess that wouldn't hurt.
3. If you catch her in the act of peeing, IMMEDIATELY take her to the potty spot and say "go potty." Don't clean up the pee, keep eating dinner, finishing watching tv, etc. etc. Consistancy is key.
4. Keep a schedule. Make sure she goes potty at the same time every day and that she eats at the same time every day.
I don't see a need to scold a dog for having an accident. You should be taking her outside through the same door, to the same place, and telling her to "go potty" before you even attempt to scold her. I think the crate training is a good thing. Dogs are den/pack animals and if she is keeping her crate clean, that is a very good sign that she understands where she needs to go potty.
Good luck!
@DecemberBride: Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I think you're doing all the right things and her body just needs to mature. You know how when you're potty training a kid you ask constantly if they need to go potty, they say no but you take them anyways because if you don't you get "Mommy, I have to...oops"? I'd say that's where you are now. She probably just doesn't recognize that she needs to go until it's too late. My friend was having trouble with her Beagle/Pug so she brought him to my house for "Boot Camp." I basically paid attention to him 24/7 (except for sleeping) for a weekend in order to never let him get close enough to having to go to have an accident. It was a pretty big commitment but it seemed to help something click into place. I don't think he had an accident after that unless she was too slow to notice him.
Good luck getting through this stage! It's a bit of a rough patch.
I second the comment about the bell training! My dog is not one to whine or bark when he needs to go out, so if I am not watching him *every* second, he will find a corner. We bought Christmas type jingle bells you hang from your doorknob at a pet store and every time I took him out, I took his paw and jingled the bell and then took him out. It didn't take him long to start jingling the bells himself and it helped tremendously!
As far as scolding, if you *catch* him doing anything you don't want him to do, try scolding/yelling at/smacking the object rather than directed it towards the dog. My mom's dog used to be horrible about chewing shoes, and nothing helped until she started "getting mad" at the shoes, he got better about it. I guess he didn't want to get the shoe in trouble, haha. If you don't catch him doing it though, it won't do any good. We use a three second rule on our horses to correct them for anything. If you lapse that time, they won't connect it.
I first want to say you are doing a lot of great things to help your dog along. Every dog is different but I can tell you about what worked for our "problem" pup. We adopted a 4yo Boston Terrier from a Humane Society in June. He lived in filth before being handed over to them and had no housebreaking training to their knowledge. He has been officially accident free for 3 weeks! Our first dog will bark to let you know she has to go but like your pup our Boston's signals weren't as obvious.
What didn't work for us:
1) The crate. He got sooo worked up being in the crate he would automatically go. He also had no instinct not to go in his sleeping area because that is all he had known. I know this is not typical of most dogs but added to our issues.
2) The bell. We got him to go to the bell with us. Even to ring the bell when we showed him. But he never put the urge with the act of going to and ringing the bell himself.
What did work for us:
1) The tether method. We literally hooked him to our belt loop on the 3 ft leash for weeks and never let him out of our sight. This way we were able to start picking up on his subtle hints for using the bathroom. For instance, when he needs to go he has a little prance that he does. It is not super obvious but it something we noticed after being in close proximity with him.
2) Ah-Ah. I learned this from "It's Me or the Dog" so take it with a grain of salt. Her rational for using "Ah-Ah", a sharp and firm corrective noise, was it sounded similar to the corrective bark that mother dogs give their pups when they're out of line. My dogs respond much better to this than No! With that being said you should only correct your dog if you catch them in the act. From what I have read on the topic dogs only have approximately a 15s retention of their acts and have very little reasoning ability. Therefore correcting them after the fact is not only not effective it could lead to them being scared to use the potty in front of you and result in more sneeky pottying in the house.
3) Praise. With high pitched soothing voices. Through touch. Through treats. You don't have to do all these at once but you should always remind your dog of what they are doing well. They will try to please you whenever possible.
4) Go to the same spot. This spot may not always be where you want it to be but find a spot your dog likes to use the bathroom and return there every time. We tried to get our dog to use the tree right outside of our apartment but he likes the fence half a block down. If it means he won't pee in my house we'll walk the half block even in the rain.
5) Keep with it. It will happen as long as you keep at it and don't show your frustration to your pup. They pick up on body language, tone, and "vibes" more than you think so stay positive and keep up all the great stuff you are already doing.
Potty trained by 3 months??? Either its a dog with a very small bladder or the owner may be exaggerating slightly :-) It's definitely not the norm. If she's peeing inside, then peeing AGAIN outside you might want to take her to the vet to check for a UTI - Pulling the water is not a bad thing because she may be drinking too much once she's out of the crate,as long as she's getting a couple of cups a day, depending on her size.
You're doing all the right things - I agree with the poster who said try taking her outside evert 1/2 hour when you're home for at least a couple of days to see if that helps. Watch her like a hawk and try to learn her "About to pee/poop" signals and it will make it much easier to know when she needs her outside time! good luck (and it's a good thing puppies are cute! we'd never put up with this from anything else!)
I agree with most of the PPs - Routine is really the key. The best thing you can do is just not give her a chance to have an accident. Take her out every 30 minutes. if she's still having accidents, make it every 15. Gradually you'll be able to wait longer and eventually, she'll get the hint and find ways to let you know when she has to go.
We were (are) having the same problem with our 6 month old wheaten. He's able to go all day with no accidents but we'd get home and he'd go all over the house! We went back to stage one - taking him out every 30 minutes, graduated to 45, to an hour and FINALLY this week he's figured out how to signal to us that he has to go - he'll touch his leash with his nose and come stand in front of my or my husband and wait. Part of it was just a matter of him realizing he has to go in enough time to let us know before he's already peeing. She'll get the hang of it. Just hang in there!
When my puppy wasn't crated and was out in the house we literally took him out every 1/2 hour so he didn't have a chance to pee or poo in the house. Make sure to take him out after drinking, eating, and playing. I was outside righ beside him and when he went outiside I made sure he knew it was pretty much the best thing in the world. He only went pee in the house two or three times and was housetrained in a couple weeks. We never did scold him for going in the house though. The one time we missed it so it was too late. The second time we just let out a dissapointed sound and took him straight outside.
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Hello Bees!
DH and I have a 14 week old schnoodle (shnauzer/poodle) and we're putting in a ton of effort to train her (specifically, to get her potty trained), but we feel like she's not responding.
We keep her in a crate during the day, and we have a dog walker come twice to let her out. We also keep her in her crate overnight, and we take her out once. She NEVER has accidents during the day or overnight, so we know that she can hold it upwards of 5 hours.
However, when we're at home she has accidents ALL THE TIME. Last night we were having dinner and we had Doppler tied up to the table on her leash in her bed. Within 45 minutes she peed 3 TIMES on the floor. If we see it happen, we scold her and take her outside, then praise her for going outside, but it's not working.
DH and I have never trained a puppy before, so here are some questions. First of all, is this normal for a pup her age? A friend of ours told us that their dog was totally potty trained by 3 months, but Doppler is so far from that. Secondly, what can we do when we're home to prevent accidents? We take her outside every hour on the hour, and we've been pulling her water so she can't drink whenever she wants.
Any suggestions???