My Whinge: When Will He Be Housebroken?!?!?!

[deltron]

Have just come in from sitting outside for 45 minutes waiting for my little monster to pee. My OH is now out there continuing the vigil.

It feels about 4.C outside and is windy. Pup is wearing a jacket and is tied up over the top of a puppy pad in the backyard and we have been sitting there waiting for him to pee.

I KNOW he needs to. He just ate dinner, had a drink AND hasn't peed for nearly 3 hours. I could take him back to his crate but he pees in there too

The dog is just lying down on the ground and whining. I KNOW if we give up, the second he comes inside he'll wee. UGGGGGGGGHHHHH.

If only there was an easier way

He was so good at the vets today too. Hardly made a peep when the vet gave him his microchip and didn't even notice his injection.

Anyway - just venting. I know everyone goes through this... but man it would be SO MUCH EASIER if it was summer...

[Gayle.]

Why is he tied up over a puppy pad in the back yard?

Whenever I took my pup out to pee on a cold night, I'd stand him on the wet grass. That seemed to stimulate the bladder into emptying itself The whole time, I'd repeat the word "Toilet" and now, at 4 1/2 months, he squats down and piddles whenever I tell him "Toilet".

[kamuzz]

What about the "other" end? Or do we really need to only toilet train on piddles?

[deltron]

Why is he tied up over a puppy pad in the back yard?

Whenever I took my pup out to pee on a cold night, I'd stand him on the wet grass. That seemed to stimulate the bladder into emptying itself The whole time, I'd repeat the word "Toilet" and now, at 4 1/2 months, he squats down and piddles whenever I tell him "Toilet".

He's too distracted. He runs after every leaf on the ground, chews on sticks and nibbles and pulls at weeds, eats dirt, digs...etc. I tied him up as it was getting too cold to stand up and hold the lead.

We don't have grass in our backyard. He was originally trained on puppy pads so I put a soiled one within his reach so he would have something to wee or poo upon that has his scent on it.

What about the "other" end? Or do we really need to only toilet train on piddles?

We are training for that too. However they are much harder to predict. Basically, if anything comes out - we are happy.

Edited July 16, 2007 by deltron

[poodlefan]

Personally, I'd be keeping him on lead and walking around a bit..

If it's that cold, buy a pair of gloves and beanie and a big coat. I really don't think tying him up is going to help.

How old is he?

[Gayle.]

Or do we really need to only toilet train on piddles?

They only do the "other" once or twice a day, but a puppy is more than capable of a good piddle every hour or so, and it's much easier to train because it's so frequent. Training for the other is pretty much a by-product of visiting the backyard with pup in tow as often as possible.

[The Spotted Devil]

I like PF's idea of walking pup around on a lead - I always gave Zig loads of praise for just sniffing the ground when I first got him home. Maybe you could try a little basic training outside too....a bit of activity and positive reinforcement may get him to relax and toilet. Stick with it!!!!

[Poodle wrangler]

I walked our pup up and down a steep driveway at regular intervals for toileting. I just kept walking around in circles, being very boring, until he did something. Walking around seems to help get things moving. I'd give him the opportunity to wee/poo in the same area each time (cleaned up- they'll still smell where it was).

Soon as he started to wee, I'd say, "Wee, wee. Good dog! (sounding excited)". Reward was coming inside with me afterwards, too.

I'd put pup on a lead to walk as he's a terrier, isn't he? Mind of their own .

If he's being difficult, I'd include a favourite treat as well as praise for 'performing'.

He WILL get it, but every accident you allow inside is a step backwards- have to watch him like a hawk, or put him outside so he can't make a mistake.

He doesn't whine to be let out of the crate to go to the toilet? Is the crate big enough that he can only stand up and turn around- any bigger defeats the purpose (for toilet training)- he'll just use the furthest end for toileting .

My first dog was a winter pup and slower to toilet train than our new guy- I sympathise . It IS much easier in warmer months and I could see a dog that's not black, too, at night .

[Miranda]

You won't housetrain your dog by tying him up over a pee pad, he needs to move around.

[Dogsfevr]

Tying your dog there will only make the dog more nervous,unwilling to toilet due having no clue why hes there.He simply will think hes beening punished & will remember te pee pad for the worse not the good.

"He's too distracted. He runs after every leaf on the ground, chews on sticks and nibbles and pulls at weeds, eats dirt, digs"

Because he doesnt now what outside is for & i gather from the other posts being outside is a new experience & as hes been taught to go on puppy pads he hasnt a clue at present why hes standing outside,you have to be more hands on if you want results quickly.

If your sitting there it means your not doing anything to encourage the pup what peeing is,you can sit there till xmas comes & the pup wont be trained any quicker.

If your interesting enough to the pup & with the excitement of your voice you should be able to stand there with pup off leash & get it all excited about toileting & if it losses focus thats when you with great excited call it over & walk about saying "toilets"if it really gets distracted then use a lead .

"If only there was an easier way " it actually is very easy but at present your making it hard,turf the puppy pads out unless there being used when your out for emergencies ,when outside the pup uses the backyard,you make or break the results & at present tying a small pup over a puppy pad because its too cold & too much work to be more motivated wont get you anywhere.

[Sayly]

Our newest (5 months now) is a Terrier (Irish) and she won't piddle inside for the whole night unless we get up late. She has her dinner and a bit after we take her out the front on the leash for a piddle. We don't have grass out there just lots of leaves from our gum trees around the plants out there.

She has learnt that when she gets taken out the front it means piddle time and she goes almost straight away now, before heading back inside. Her reward is a "good girl!" and getting to go inside. She will piddle outside when either my mum or I take her but won't for Dad. The difference is Dad lets her wander around where she wants, Mum and I won't let her move very far from the one spot. She takes advantage of Dad, the softy!

Your baby is a terrier right? They are smart but mostly at getting their own way! I know you won't give up but it can only get easier, he will get it eventually. Best of luck and in a couple of months you will forget how hard it was.

[deltron]

Tying your dog there will only make the dog more nervous,unwilling to toilet due having no clue why hes there.He simply will think hes beening punished & will remember te pee pad for the worse not the good.

"He's too distracted. He runs after every leaf on the ground, chews on sticks and nibbles and pulls at weeds, eats dirt, digs"

Because he doesnt now what outside is for & i gather from the other posts being outside is a new experience & as hes been taught to go on puppy pads he hasnt a clue at present why hes standing outside,you have to be more hands on if you want results quickly.

If your sitting there it means your not doing anything to encourage the pup what peeing is,you can sit there till xmas comes & the pup wont be trained any quicker.

If your interesting enough to the pup & with the excitement of your voice you should be able to stand there with pup off leash & get it all excited about toileting & if it losses focus thats when you with great excited call it over & walk about saying "toilets"if it really gets distracted then use a lead .

"If only there was an easier way " it actually is very easy but at present your making it hard,turf the puppy pads out unless there being used when your out for emergencies ,when outside the pup uses the backyard,you make or break the results & at present tying a small pup over a puppy pad because its too cold & too much work to be more motivated wont get you anywhere.

I walked him for 20 minutes on leash around the backyard saying 'go wees' (what I have been saying from day one) exitedly before I sat and tied him. The puppy pads and tying him were a last resort was because I was so cold I couldn't move around anymore. It's damn hard to get my dog's attention, he really does run after every leaf - he's a terrier - it's in his blood to go running after anything that moves.

I wouldn't call walking around in the freezing cold wind for 20 minutes while my dinner inside goes cold 'easy'. I am actually motivated - hence me taking him out there every 2/3 hours. If I wan't motivated then I would not have bothered. As I said previously I was having WHINGE and a VENT...sheesh.

Our newest (5 months now) is a Terrier (Irish) and she won't piddle inside for the whole night unless we get up late. She has her dinner and a bit after we take her out the front on the leash for a piddle. We don't have grass out there just lots of leaves from our gum trees around the plants out there.

She has learnt that when she gets taken out the front it means piddle time and she goes almost straight away now, before heading back inside. Her reward is a "good girl!" and getting to go inside. She will piddle outside when either my mum or I take her but won't for Dad. The difference is Dad lets her wander around where she wants, Mum and I won't let her move very far from the one spot. She takes advantage of Dad, the softy!

Your baby is a terrier right? They are smart but mostly at getting their own way! I know you won't give up but it can only get easier, he will get it eventually. Best of luck and in a couple of months you will forget how hard it was.

Yep. He can be so frustrating. The other day we were outside for 20 minutes with no success and I had to come inside as I was late for work and he slipped past me and ran under the bed and weed under there.

'd put pup on a lead to walk as he's a terrier, isn't he? Mind of their own smile.gif .

If he's being difficult, I'd include a favourite treat as well as praise for 'performing'.

He gets lots of 'good boys' and liver treats when he performs

AAAAAAAAAAAANYWAY - all was good this morning. He weed outside and then we came inside and he circled so we went back out for more toileting.

I'm thinking the advice people have given me 'wait outside as long as it takes' just doesn't cut it with my dog. 'As long as it takes' can be HOURS. So instead if he doesn't go he goes back inside in his crate and then we try again later. That seems to work much more successfully.

Edited July 16, 2007 by deltron

[poodlefan]

If you put him on a lead, he can't run around ... he can focus better.

The rule of thumb is that for every pee he does inside, he'll do another five. If staying outside until he wees means he never wees inside, the training will go a lot faster. If the crate works, fine but you simply can't afford to let him toilet inside.

There's a reason a lot of people don't get pups in winter ya know.

[bloss344]

There's lots of good advice in the above posts. All I can say is it will get better. Yes it's cold at the moment and yes, it would be heaps better in the warm weather, and their timing isn't always the best, but all of a sudden it will click if you are consistent and you'll wonder if it really was this bad.

[KittyCat]

I've now had Jorja for 4 days and she is now getting the hang on the "toilet" concept. When I take her out (onto the grass) I walk around with her and encourage her to walk around her toilet area. At first it was not easy. She just wanted to play and eat grass. Now when I take her out she doesnt go immediately and if she shows no interest in going in bring her back inside, watch her body language and then take her out again.

She was so good today (thank god as it is horrible outside). Poos have always been in the middle of the night on the newspaper but I took her out and she didn't go. I brought her back in and she headed straight for the door again and scratched at it. Out we went and she left two smelly little pressies for me good girl!!

ETA: as soon as your bub gets the idea it gets so much easier... just be patient and persistant

Edited July 17, 2007 by KittyCat

[The Spotted Devil]

I walked him for 20 minutes on leash around the backyard saying 'go wees' (what I have been saying from day one) exitedly before I sat and tied him.

Hi deltron - I just picked this up.....I don't want to be pedantic BUT....dogs have an association time frame of a half to three seconds so if you are walking around the yard saying 'go wees' then puppy has not learned what 'go wees' actually means! I would suggest that your puppy thinks that 'go wees' means 'walk around the yard for a bit'....I think you should only use your command when your puppy starts to squat, then follow with lots of praise/treat/both. It does take them a while to specifically relate the command to the action but if you are consistent, puppy will get there. I still give a 'quick, quick' command when Zig actually toilets, just to reinforce and practice the command. Then when we are out and I specifically want him to toilet then all the practice pays off.

Summer pups are soooooo much easier!!! Keep persisting!!!

[deltron]

I walked him for 20 minutes on leash around the backyard saying 'go wees' (what I have been saying from day one) exitedly before I sat and tied him.

Hi deltron - I just picked this up.....I don't want to be pedantic BUT....dogs have an association time frame of a half to three seconds so if you are walking around the yard saying 'go wees' then puppy has not learned what 'go wees' actually means! I would suggest that your puppy thinks that 'go wees' means 'walk around the yard for a bit'....I think you should only use your command when your puppy starts to squat, then follow with lots of praise/treat/both. It does take them a while to specifically relate the command to the action but if you are consistent, puppy will get there. I still give a 'quick, quick' command when Zig actually toilets, just to reinforce and practice the command. Then when we are out and I specifically want him to toilet then all the practice pays off.

Summer pups are soooooo much easier!!! Keep persisting!!!

Oh - that's a good point.

Maybe I should use another word too. I feel like a right dill saying 'go wees' anyway!

[Love my Sonny and Neko]

Hi Deltron

Just wanted you to know that I completely understand your frustrations.. My 2 pups (although at 8 months - hardly puppies!!!) decided that they liked peeing inside much more that out and I had to re-train them. It is getting freezing here in Adelaide and I would stand outside in my trackie, dressing gown, beanie and blanket for what felt like hours... and then suddenly, everything clicked again.

I love Charlie... he is so adorable!!!

[Rhi*Jak*Ed]

Oh Deltron, you sound like I did in the first couple of months. I would stand outside scratching my head going "what the?".

My living circumstances have hindered Jak's toilet training from day one - big stairs leading out into the backyard that if she fell through she wouldn't recover from, putting newspaper down etc. The newspaper was a disaster, she would sometimes pee there but then turn around and shred it all to tiny pieces so that I had urine soaked newspaper everywhere. Very gross!

After MANY accidents, a ridiculous amount of paper towel and bottles of vinegar later, she is now much better. Mind you, its been a long road, a hard slog and it's only now starting to pay off. I got a little lazy there for a while too, which didn't help.

One day I decided to buy her a nice new plush mat for her to be able to lay on on the hardwood floors. It cost me $40. She decided that that's where she'd like to do all her wees. So it now sits just next to the back door and when I get home from work now there's not a puddle on the floor anywhere. I clean the mat and she's good to go for another day. Mind you, I didn't encourage her to use the mat, she just decided all on her own that it was a good idea! lol. They're funny little things. It's also the one mat that she doesn't try and rip to shreds.

Jak is still inside the house all day and will be until she is desexed and microchipped (which should be occurring within the next 3 weeks). I believe that if she was outside during the day the housetraining process would have been ALOT easier.

The Spotted Devil gave you great advice, only use the "go wees" association when he's actually in the act of weeing. Otherwise he will think it means to run around the yard haha. I'm now using the word "toilet" with Jak and the Doggie Daycare lady does the same, so she's receiving a consistent association which is great.

You'll get there, so will Charlie :p

[Falling_dawn]

I walked him for 20 minutes on leash around the backyard saying 'go wees' (what I have been saying from day one) exitedly before I sat and tied him.

Hi deltron - I just picked this up.....I don't want to be pedantic BUT....dogs have an association time frame of a half to three seconds so if you are walking around the yard saying 'go wees' then puppy has not learned what 'go wees' actually means! I would suggest that your puppy thinks that 'go wees' means 'walk around the yard for a bit'....I think you should only use your command when your puppy starts to squat, then follow with lots of praise/treat/both. It does take them a while to specifically relate the command to the action but if you are consistent, puppy will get there. I still give a 'quick, quick' command when Zig actually toilets, just to reinforce and practice the command. Then when we are out and I specifically want him to toilet then all the practice pays off.

Summer pups are soooooo much easier!!! Keep persisting!!!

this is so right just like Rhi said it really hard in winter and frustrating the same as toilet training a child some get it right away some are more work

I tryed everything you have and went through what Rhi has but we have finally clicked it was changing saying "go toliet" when she went out side to saying when she acually squwated that did the trick we are by no means all the way there yet but we are getting there now I say "go toliet " open the door and most off the time its works right away

hang in there yes its cold and wet and boy do I wish I had waited and gotten her in summer ha ha ha :p