Toilet Training

[Toby71]

Does anyone have any great hints for toilet training that they'd like to share? I'm keen to hear any ideas.

Thanks in advance.

[Kylie and the black Lab]

Patience and persistence!!!

we just kept taking Jedda outside - like every half and hour and saying "pee pee's" until she went. After 10 mins outside and she hadn't gone, we would bring her back inside and immediately do a u-turn out again. We repeated this process until she did "pee pee's". We didn't play with her or praise her until she had gone. Pretty much the same process for "poo poo's". You will soon learn your own dogs habits of when they go.

Now we just have to say "come outside for pee pees" and she comes. There are still a couple of accidents every few days and she still enjoys sh*tting in the front room when no one is watching. But we are getting there.

Jedda is 17 weeks now and honestly up until about 2 weeks ago we were at a loss as well. Everything sort of clicks over with time as they get a bit older. Just pick one way of training and reinforce it all the time.

Good luck,

Kylie

[sas]

Perhaps you can tell us exactly what you are currently doing to toilet train your dog. Also let us know how old your puppy is.

[musik]

I'm having some trouble with our pup in this area and need some advice also, we have a Golden Retriever boy who is nearly 4 months old, we do as was mentioned before, take him outside for his 'wizza' and he always goes fine. (gets praise after he does it when we say the word wizza)

The problem we are having is that his 'room' is the kitchen as we can block it off easily from the rest of the house, we don't put paper down across the whole room like when he was really little, now we put paper 5 sheets thick in a big square which most of the time he is good at going on.

We take him out right before we go to bed and then we get up with the alarm without fail each morning at 7am to take him out and sometimes if I get up overnight I take him out also. During the day he is taken out every hour or so.

Problem is he still thinks its OK to wizz inside, I will get up at 7 and it will be fresh as anything and being a big dog now even as a pup his wizz is not small!

We growl at him and take him outside and make him wee again out there, we don't let him back in until he does one, no matter how small it is, just to prove that this is where he needs to go toilet.

It's starting to drive me nuts because sometimes he will go nearly a week without doing it or we can go out for 4 or 5 hours and come back and he has held it, and there isn't anything that is stressing him that we can see, he actually has a dang good life with us

People have said to me to rub his nose in it, but thats just unhygienic and disgusting. ;)

Any ideas on what to do now for him, or where are we going wrong in our house training for him?

Help pleeeease

[sas]

I believe you need to go back to step 1. At 4 m onths of age puppy should be able to go through he night.....you may need to wait until 5 months.

Don't rub your dogs nose in it, it's old fashioned and it's doesn't work.

This is what we do with the foster dogs, have a read through and see if there's anything in there that you feel may assist you.

GOING BACK TO STEP 1.

Take the dog outside every hour when you are home and give the dog the command word you have choosen that means to 'toilet'.

When the dogs starts to toilet give calm priase using your command word i.e. "Good Toilet: (don't get excited yet as you'll most likely distract the dog and they'll stop toileting).

When the dog finishes toileting, give a lot of praise, get excited for the dog.

After you have praised the dog, pick up a toy and have a play for a few minutes, show the dog that outside is a fun place.

If the dog has an accident inside which you did NOT see you can NOT punish the dog, don't even give it 'that look'. Simply clean it up and ensure you use a special 'accident spray' that gets rid of the smell that indicates to the dog they should toilet in that spot. If the dog poos in the house, we pick it up with a papertowel and take it outside and place it on the lawn so the dog can gain an association.

If the dog has a accident in the house that you DO see, give a firm NO, but don't yell, don't raise your voice, don't run towards the dog. Take the dog outside in a positive manner as you do not want to associate going outside as a bad thing, when outside give your command word and follow the above steps.

You really don't want to be taking your eye off the dog whilst it is inside.

I'm not sure why I understand you have your dog sleeping in the kitchen overnight? Have you considered using a crate?

Take the dog outside before you go to bed and allow a good 5 minutes out there, sometimes dogs are lazy and only do a little wee because they'll want to go back inside, they know the routine that they have to toilet before you go back inside.

You can safely lift the waterbowl at bed time until the morning so your dog is drinking throughout the night and therefore filling its' bladder. However never be tempted to lift the water bowl at any other time, your dog always needs to have access to fresh water apart from when it's sleeping of course.

[musik]

That is fantastic advice sas, thanks so much for taking the time to write it up for us.

Going to print off for hubby and start today.

He has a bed in the kitchen area which is pretty big and has lino so easy to clean up any mess. This is also where he hangs out sometimes when we go out for a few hours if we can't take him with us (usually shopping), most other places he comes along too.

During the day he is outside or with us in our home office.

I've heard about crates, but am not familiar with their use. Could this be useful in helping him become house-trained/house comfortable quicker?

[sas]

Yes, will definately help! A dog won't want to soil in their bedding which is what a crate is

[musik]

sas: This sounds like a great idea! They stay in their crate all night with the door closed, yes?

[Miranda]

I'm having some trouble with our pup in this area and need some advice also, we have a Golden Retriever boy who is nearly 4 months old, we do as was mentioned before, take him outside for his 'wizza' and he always goes fine. (gets praise after he does it when we say the word wizza)

The problem we are having is that his 'room' is the kitchen as we can block it off easily from the rest of the house, we don't put paper down across the whole room like when he was really little, now we put paper 5 sheets thick in a big square which most of the time he is good at going on.

We take him out right before we go to bed and then we get up with the alarm without fail each morning at 7am to take him out and sometimes if I get up overnight I take him out also. During the day he is taken out every hour or so.

Problem is he still thinks its OK to wizz inside, I will get up at 7 and it will be fresh as anything and being a big dog now even as a pup his wizz is not small!

We growl at him and take him outside and make him wee again out there, we don't let him back in until he does one, no matter how small it is, just to prove that this is where he needs to go toilet.

It's starting to drive me nuts because sometimes he will go nearly a week without doing it or we can go out for 4 or 5 hours and come back and he has held it, and there isn't anything that is stressing him that we can see, he actually has a dang good life with us

People have said to me to rub his nose in it, but thats just unhygienic and disgusting. :D

Any ideas on what to do now for him, or where are we going wrong in our house training for him?

Help pleeeease

Look up threads on 'Crate Training', buying a crate will make the whole business of house training soooo much easier ;)

Oops this has already been mentioned, I should have read the other posts before replying, sorry.

Edited March 30, 2007 by Miranda

[Kavik]

Something that may be contributing to your problem - which is mainly in the area he sleeps? Since you have been putting paper down since he was little and it was OK for him to go on the paper - you have shown him that it is OK to go to the toilet inside. (in your case - in the kitchen overnight).

Like Sas I think going back to step 1 would certainly help, and removing water before bedtime. A crate will give the dog less space overnight and he is not likely to want to toilet where he sleeps if he can help it. At the least, I would remove the paper and not give the dog a reason to think that it is OK to toilet anywhere inside.

[musik]

You guys are awesome, seriously.

We've just ordered a ex-large crate for him which he can use now and when he is full size. This is great because we can use it at home and also when we go away overnight.

We had a feeling somehow we'd made it (not on purpose) OK to toilet in the area where he is kept overnight.

Hopefully now he will understand that going inside is not OK.

We are back at step 1 from yesterday and hopefully the crate will arrive Monday or Tuesday so we can go forward then.

Just a quick side question, would it be OK to leave him in the crate during the day when we go places for around 2-3 hours MAX - the only place I find I generally can't take him is when I go shopping as I dont want to leave him in the car during that time.

[sas]

In regards to the extra large crate you will want to partion some of it off because the puppy may feel comfortable about toileting at one end if it's further enough away from the end it's sleeping at....sneaky buggers eh LOL

Just remember to read up on crate training and learn about all the do's and don'ts

2-3 hours is fine to leave a dog in a crate, just make sure the dog has toileted before going in.

Once your dog is crate trained, it'll take themselves to their crate by themselves.

Edited March 30, 2007 by sas

[Mil]

We have just brought our 10 week old bichon home today woohoo

But we are finding that reading about toilet training and doing it are completely different. Everybody says to wait with the puppy until he goes...but Herwin won't stay there. He just trots off where ever he wants. I've tried just picking him up and putting him back in the spot but he doesn't stay there for a second.

Not a success yet...

Please help we have no idea...

[Abbie]

Hi There.

What I teach in my puppy classes is that you need to get up before your pup, so if your pup gets up at 5 you need to get up at about 4:30, just to make sure that the pup dosn't have an accident. As soon as your pup wakes up put him on the lead and walk him out side. Keep the pup on the lead. You only wait about 2-3 min. If your pup goes then reward and praise and take back inside. The reason why you keep him on the lead and stay out there with him is because if he goes to the toilet you're there and can reward him and wont miss him doing it. If the pup won't go bring him back inside and then go back out on the lead about 10-15 min later. Take pup out to pee 10-15 min after all meals and before bed time. Make sure that the pup has acess to the loo 24/7-wether that's a doggy door or you leave the door open just so when your dog gets the idea of what he has to do he won't get to the door and it's shut so then he goes back to peeing on the carpet or somewhere where you don't want him to.

Hope this helps.

[musik]

In regards to the extra large crate you will want to partion some of it off because the puppy may feel comfortable about toileting at one end if it's further enough away from the end it's sleeping at....sneaky buggers eh LOL

Just remember to read up on crate training and learn about all the do's and don'ts

2-3 hours is fine to leave a dog in a crate, just make sure the dog has toileted before going in.

Once your dog is crate trained, it'll take themselves to their crate by themselves.

Well we got the crate today, it's big but he is pretty big now too so I think he should be fine in it (we'll see how he goes tonight), found a good link from this site to a crate training website, started him on some training for about 15 mins or so and now he knows 'Crate' means to go in his crate and then to come out is 'Wait' and 'Come Out'. Smart woofy he is

Tonight will be his first night in there, we have put it in the family room with a blanket on the top and sides leaving front showing - today again he pee'd in the kitchen when we took our eyes off him while having lunch. At the pet shop I also got some of the stuff you recommended which will (hopefully) take away the scent he can smell where he has been going (we can't smell it as it gets cleaned with disinfectant but am told he can).

We are avoiding leaving him in the kitchen now as he still thinks its OK to go in there - so keeping him with us whenever possible or else in his crate. He doesn't seem bothered by being in the crate so far as when I first set it up I got in there with him.

Still back at step 1.

Fingers crossed

[musik]

Make sure that the pup has acess to the loo 24/7-wether that's a doggy door or you leave the door open just so when your dog gets the idea of what he has to do he won't get to the door and it's shut so then he goes back to peeing on the carpet or somewhere where you don't want him to.

This is very difficult to do especially with a large dog and winter approaching (doors can't be left open because of drafts) and a huge doggy door might allow unwelcome visitors to enter instead.

Regular visits outside (every hour) seem to do the trick, where we went wrong was to allowing our dog to go inside over night on paper too long instead of putting him in a confined place to sleep where he would not pee in his sleeping place.

Patience pays off in the end though!

[musik]

Just a quick reply to let you know how Bob is going with his crate training, he took about 10 minutes to learn the commands 'crate' and then waiting for the command 'come out'. He loves his crate its dark and cosy with a blanket on top.

He has stopped peeing at night and waits until morning now (yay!) and we also pop him in his crate when we have people over who are afraid of dogs or are too dressed for his jumping on them (heh) and occasionally if we pop out he goes in there for a while till we get back and he cant get into mischief.

Best investment we ever made, it cost $200 as we needed the biggest one as he is a big breed, but he doesnt pee elsewhere in the house now either. It's also so easy to keep clean with a bunch of towels in there which get washed regular and the floor is plastic and can be cleaned over easily.

Thanks for all the advice!