House Training Trouble!

[aurora2000]

Hi folks,

We recently added a purebred Great Dane pup. She is now just over 17 weeks old and we got her from the breeder at 11 weeks of age. 

 

She has settled in to our lifestyle very well and is generally a very delightful dog. She is very food motivated and so easy to train in obedience. Aside from some usual pup problems (chewing with teething etc.) we haven't had issues - except for getting her house trained!

 

We have a decent sized, safe and high fenced yard and ideally she would be an inside/outside dog. This isn't the first time we've had a puppy and we knew accidents would happen and were prepared. Initially when she went in the house she was told "no, bad dog" and then taken outside for a few minutes. She was praised heavily when going outside. However despite it being 6 weeks since we have had her she has shown no changes to her behaviour. We have made sure she has easy, constant access to go outside should she need to whenever she is in the house but often times she will be allowed inside and within 2 minutes of coming in the house will do a wee on the floor (usually the carpet)! She isn't at all affected by being 'told off' and instead seems to relish the attention. We have tried ignoring her when she does something bad but this has not seemed to help at all either. This has been happening about twice a week since we got her.

We are not expecting her to be perfect yet but the fact that it seems like she will often try to come inside to do her wee is getting extremely frustrating! Has anyone had any issues like this with a dog before or have any tips on how to stop this? 

 

Anything is appreciated! Thank you

 

[Diva]

Something to try, when you bring her in turn around and take her straight back out again. For some reason that is when some of them go. Keep a handful of treats in your pocket and give her a treat when she goes outside. Stop telling her off, as you recognise yourself attention can be rewarding even if it is meant negatively. Lots of attention for going outside. 

Edited November 6, 2018 by Diva

[Rebanne]

at that age I would still be taking pup out to wee, giving a food treat and then let her inside. If she has been out for a while either do as Diva says or, what I do, is walk around the back yard for a few minutes with the pup and they usually go then. If you are not outside with her you don't know when she last went, a little exercise encourages them to go again.

[Tassie]

6 hours ago, Rebanne said:

at that age I would still be taking pup out to wee, giving a food treat and then let her inside. If she has been out for a while either do as Diva says or, what I do, is walk around the back yard for a few minutes with the pup and they usually go then. If you are not outside with her you don't know when she last went, a little exercise encourages them to go again.

Agree .. with the emphasis on 'take her outside'  .. so pup on a light leash .. person goes out with pup and wanders round a bit and waits till pup has toileted .. big party.   You will discover if there are particular surfaces she likes to wee on, or particular parts of the yard..     I would just be treating her like a new little pup who knows nothing about appropriate toileting, and work from there.  And as Diva said, please don't tell her off .. apart from anything else, she's not a bad dog if she doesn't really understand where she should be toileting.

 

Just as an aside, an added benefit of the "take puppy outside on leash and stay with .." strategy, is that pups become comfortable toileting on lead wiith the human close by, and when you know which sirface and location they prefer, it makes it much more comfortable for everyone when you're out and about.

[RuralPug]

Another thing to remember is that you need to clean up any mistakes inside with an enzyme product like Urine Off or similar because otherwise she will continue to use the same places inside.

Sometimes a puppy develops a preference for a particular surface, if you can imitate that surface outdoors it can help the learning process a lot. For instance, if she seems to prefer carpet then a cheap car mat or similar placed outside can encourage her to start using it for toileting - which means that you will have the chance to enthusiastically reward her for using that spot! Gradually cut the mat into smaller and smaller pieces over a week or two, until she is using the spot where it used to be but the mat itself is tossed out.

The most important thing at this stage is that the puppy is accompanied outside so that going in the right spot can be instantly and enthusiastically praised and treated. Eventually habit will set in and she will go outside by herself. 

[Dogsfevr]

So pup is told bad dog Why ?

Better saying bad owners & telling yourselves off for presuming pup should know better & not setting pup up for better success.
Door open yes BUT that means nothing to a pup unless you make sure the pup is taught the reason why the door is open & you making going outside fun & awesome for toileting .Pup has too much access at present & little focus on what is right .
Toilet training failures is human error not pup error go back to basics ,place on lead ,stand outside & really make the effort to set the pup up for success

[aurora2000]

Hi guys, 

 

Thanks for your help. 

We have implemented some of your tips such as taking her on a leash outside and praising (verbal and treats) when she does go as well as limiting any unsupervised inside time to a play pen which has seemed to be helping. Haven't had an accident inside for a few days! We'll see how we go though :D

 

In regards to her being told "bad dog", I would like to clarify that this isn't being yelled at her in any abusive tone at all but more a stern "no this isn't okay". I would agree that this is no way to house train a dog if this negative reinforcement was her only feedback but as it is, we are teaching her that it isn't okay to go in the house, and that going outside is a rewarding, happy experience. As Dogsfevr pointed out, she obviously cannot be assumed to know going inside is wrong and we aren't making that assumption at all. We are simply telling her firmly but un-threateningly that it is not okay to go inside. 

 

Again, thanks for all your help guys! She is making leaps and bounds and while the journey isn't over yet, I'm confident that we're a fair way there

[persephone]

this may be of help

Sounds as if things are heading in the right direction  
well done !.
may I just side track ..THIS article has info which should be of interest  on all things aussie dane 

we really do need photos of this girl , too   Bragging is allowed!! ;)

 

13 hours ago, aurora2000 said:

We are simply telling her firmly but un-threateningly that it is not okay to go inside. 

 

and , unless you catch her actually urinating ...it will mean absolutely nothing . Actually ..it will still  mean not a lot ....and she has no understanding of what BAD is . 
quietly removing her to the outside  and praising her for  any drops of urine produced THERE  ..that will mean more to her