Toilet Training And Dog Doors

[alessia]

Hi everyone.

We have a 6 month old cocker spaniel (Ellie). Ellie has been mostly toilet trained for about 2 months now. We are pretty good at knowing when she want to go, and she sits by the door otherwise. Up until the last couple of days she has slept outside our bedroom in a small area and never peed/pood there overnight. We got a dog door last week and she is great at going in and out, and we've been telling her to 'go to her door' when she needs to pee and she will go out, pee and then run back in. Our issue atm is, we have started moving her away from our bedroom door and more into the family area without confinement as she can use her doggy door if she needs to go to the toilet! Yeah I wish! Last night she pee'd inside during the night! When I got up this morning i took her out to pee. She then came in and when I got oout the shower she had poo'd inside as well!!! We have taught her with positive reinforcement and ignoring mistakes, but I think I might have to start growling at her if she goes inside.

What does everyone else think? Anyone else had these issues with a dog door??

Cheers,

Ellie's mum.

[poodlefan]

You've changed the criteria for toileting so now you have to retrain it. She knew to sit at the door but now you have to train her to use the dog door.

She won't have formed the habit of using the dog door so you need to go back to your toilet training regime and get her out the door under her own steam for reward. Until she is doing this reliably, keep her confined in the house as before.

No point in growling at a dog who clearly doesn't understand that a closed door is not a barrier to what she's been taught to do.

Edited February 23, 2011 by poodlefan

[melinda10786]

We had the same thing with our cocker spaniel puppy. We were blocking him in at nighttime when we went to bed after we'd all trekked out for a toilet break, then he would go outside when my OH got up in the morning. Most nights he wouldn't go until the morning, or he would let us know if he needed to go out.

We then decided seeing as we had a dog door that he quite happily would use during the day, we would train Monte to go out at night time if he needed to after we'd all gone to bed.. We ended up having accidents everywhere, as he didn't associate the door with access outside at night time to go to the toilet. And he ignored the door during the day too. So he was locked back in at night time again with toilet breaks before bed.

We tried to the process again two weeks later after some re-training with the dog door, to get him to associate that going to the toilet outside didn't require all three of us to stand outside and watch. No point in getting upset, we were getting frustrated when he didn't work it out, and really over cleaning up, and then one day it just clicked.. A lot of positive reinforcement works, and just getting into a routine. Monte will still go outside at 6 because that's when I get home from work and used to take him out for a toilet break.. Same thing before bed and in the morning when my OH leaves for work.

It takes patience and a lot of re-training to make sure he knew that he didn't have to let us know if he had to go (which was what he was doing at night time, the 3am wake-ups were a killer!).. Mind you, I still get the early morning nudges to let me know he's going outside but that I don't need to tag along!! Good luck!