Is this ridiculous?

[Southpaw]

Is it totally ridiculous that Lucy is 1 1/2 years old and nowhere near being housetrained? *rips hair out*

I don't get it. It's like she knows she's supposed to go outside, she'll usually pee every time I bring her out, even if the last time she peed wasn't long ago. But she doesn't know how to tell us she needs to go out, or she just doesn't see the problem in going in the house...she doesn't even try to tell us she needs to go out. She'll just wander over to the next room and go.

With peeing it's not such a huge problem, I just know to let her outside every 3-4 hours. It's pooping that's tricky because it's so unpredictable when she needs to poop. Sometimes it's in the middle of the afternoon...sometimes later in the evening...other times, she'll poop a couple times right away in the morning and that's it for the day.

It's not that she's having accidents in the house, as far as I'm aware of. I'll find poop in the house maybe once every few weeks, and as far as I know she doesn't pee in the house because she's on a schedule with that. I'm just SO SICK of having to keep track of what time it is, and God forbid I accidentally forget to take her outside. Or if I'm outside with my family playing games or whatever, and we're not watching her, it gets really frustrating if we don't know if she peed when we were out there. And then just the fact that when I do let her out, I have to sit by the window and make sure she goes. Which gets a little annoying if she spends 10 minutes barking at the neighbors and eating rabbit poop.

I just don't know what to do anymore. I thought if we got to the point where she wasn't having accidents we'd be okay, but apparently not. How do we teach her to tell us she needs to go out? We had bells tied to the door for a couple months but we got nowhere with that, they basically just turned into a toy for the cat lol.

Arghhhhh. I was expecting her to be housetrained a YEAR ago! :yikes:

[squirtsmom]

I take my dogs out at least every two hours when I am home. I always monitor their activity outside to keep them out of trouble. I feed them on a schedule so I am able to gauge when they need to poop. If I don't do this, there are accidents in the house. I am sure you will get better advice than this. HANG IN THERE.

[Alisha2324]

I use a cow bell hanging off the door they go out to go potty, so when they have to go they just ring the bell. It works pretty well, no matter where you are in the house you can hear it!
My older dog tells us he has to go , but my little one rings the bell and waits at the door to go out. The only issue I have is I have a kitten that also likes the bell :0)

[elegy]

have you actively *taught* her a way to signal you that she needs to go out? that doesn't necessarily come naturally. of my three dogs, only one will ask to go out.

i would also TAKE her out, on a leash, and make sure she goes before she gets distracted with other things. when she goes, you can release her to play as her reward.

[MafiaPrincess]

I have a parrot bell on the door. I wouldn't be giving the dog the house freedom to be able to wander away and poop though. Dog hasn't earned it.

[M&M's Mommy]

Sorry, but an 1 1/2 year old dog who's not potty trained IS ridiculous. Fortunately you can still potty train her, though. It requires lots of patience, and some works, but it can be done.

First I think you should get rid of all the smells she left around the house. A casual clean doesn't do it, and the smell lingers long after the carpet/floor is cleaned, which triggers the dog to go there again the next time. I would get a professional cleaner to give your house a complete clean over.

Then, train your dog to go outside by choosing a place you want to be her toilet. Take her there (on leash) every time, and allow her to go. Praise her like crazy when she does. I taught my dogs to go on command ("Go pee", and "Do your business" :). At first, I'd wait until they pee or poo, said the command over and over again, then praised. They caught on very quickly. All three were potty trained within a few months & never had any accidents since (well, except for the only one time someone peed on our bed, which Chazzers had successfully convinced me that it was my hubby!!!:lol-sign: )

My dogs stay outside in their kennel during the day, they choose to release themselves at the far corner away from where they are eating, sleeping & playing. When they're not in their kennel, they decide that the area under the lemon tree is their toilet, and have been going only there ever since we moved. I'm sooooooooooo very happy they did that, because I don't have to worry about accidentally stepping on their poops when roaming around my yard :). If they're inside wanting to go, and the door is closed, they would stand next to it for a few minutes hoping someone would see them and let them out, if not, they would bark. We are going to install a doggie door, so they can go whenever they please, and we don't have to take them out anymore.

Once your dog knows where she's supposed to go (by means that it is the only place that has "the smells" :) you can rely on the doggie's door, if you have a fenced in yard, and don't want to have to take her out every time.

Follow her like a hawk when she's inside, and if you caught her in the act, stop her & bring her outside to finish the job. A firm "NO" & a stern look would help, too.

[~Jessie~]

Do you have carpet in your house?

The first thing that I would do is buy a blacklight, and a good stain remover. A dog's urine contains pheromones, which is the scent responsible for a dog continuing going to the bathroom in the house. If the scent of the urine is not removed from the house, a dog will have the tendency to continue going to the bathroom in the house.

I would also be very diligent about bringing Lucy outside to do her business, and when you can't watch her she should be crated. Put her on a leash in the house and hold on to her if you have to.

Also, praise her when she goes pee and poo outside. We STILL say "good boy/girl go pee pee!!!" when our dogs go to the bathroom (and they've all been potty trained since they were puppies)! Do the "pee pee" dance and get excited if you have to :lol-sign: And you can reward with a little treat as well!

She will eventually learn that she needs to be going to the bathroom outside.

[doberkim]

I have to second something elegy said - this dog has not EARNED freedom in the house. She is not housebroken 100% because she has the OPPORTUNITY to be unsupervised in the house! She doesn't know how to ask, so if you aren't around, she doesn't know to FIND you!

[Baxter'smybaby]

If you don't take the dog outside with you and your family--crate her or contain her somewhere until she is reliable. She may want to be out there with you at those times! Do you crate her at all? You may need to start there-since that will really restrict her freedom in the house--something to think about.

[fillyone]

Do you free feed or specific meal times?
If you free feed try moving to feeding x number of times a day instead.
This can put many dogs on a poop schedule as well.

[Herschel]

I have to second something elegy said - this dog has not EARNED freedom in the house.

I think MafiaPrincess said that...

[Baileys]

Your dog should be a 1, 2 max poop-a-day dog..The free feeding is something I would definitely look at altering if you're having the issues you seem to be. Every time I've house trained a dog, I usually start with leading them out every time on a leash, and when they go potty (#1 or #2) I identify it, and tell them good dog. That way every time they go outside, they get used to hearing "Go Poop, Go Pee", and eventually automatically go do that first before they play.

Gracie was an outside, unhousetrained dog when we got her (she was nearly 8 months old)..I did this with her every day for about 4 weeks..she has had 1 accident in our house in nearly a year and a half. It seemed to work best with her in the mornings as well..she'd hold it thru the night, so when we got up first thing, I'd take her out on the leash and let her go.."Go poop, Grace.", or "Go Pee Grace."...or just Go Potty.. she identified with it and to this day if she's going bonkers when she first goes outside, and I tell her to go potty, she'll go potty then go back to being psycho-dog out there.

Good luck!

[adojrts]

I agree.

You have to take her back as if she was a pup and completly retrain her....its not her fault that she has learned to 'go' in the house.
There is no quick fix, but dedicated and understanding of why she does this.
What is she being fed? Does she receive one or two meals a day or free choice?
She needs meals (no free choice), no unsupervised time in the house, crate trained, someone to supervise her very closely that will learn what her signs are, someone that will take her out every 2 hrs and praise for going, someone that WONT punish her for something that has been learned.

Lynn

[Southpaw]

Thanks guys.

I try really hard to get this dog trained but it seems near impossible when my mom wants to baby her.

She does get crated. If I let her outside and she doesn't do anything, then I'll crate her for about 20 minutes, let her out again, if she still doesn't go then back in the crate, etc. etc. until she finally does something. Which, goes back to my mom, and there have been a few times where she'll just let Lucy out of her crate because she thinks it's cruel. Does she take Lucy outside? No, of course not, she just lets her loose in the house (and I'll put her immediately back in if I see it, but sometimes I'll be in the shower, etc). It's been a while since she's done that but ughhh it's frustrating, especially because I'M the one who has to clean up accidents and I'M the one who gets blamed for them.
If we leave she gets crated too.

Yes, she is free-fed...
And I can guarantee you if I tried having it any other way, my mom would NOT let it happen. I think if we didn't have Molly, and we would have gotten Lucy on a schedule as soon as we got her, then it would have been okay. But I know my mom thinks it's "mean" because my sister's mother-in-law has her dogs on a schedule, and my mom and sister have talked about how mean they think it is that she gives the dogs 20 minutes to eat and then she puts the food bowls up. And if we put Lucy on a schedule, then Molly would have to be on one, and my mom doesn't want to do that to her poor dogs...:rolleyes:

I can try taking her out on a leash but I don't know if she'll want to pee then. When we bring her to our cabin I have her out on a leash and a lot of the times she won't pee then, but I don't know if that's because she's on a leash, or if she's just weird about being in an unfamiliar place.

One thing I'm worried about is that if she gets treats as a reward, if I phase them out she'll stop going outside or whatever. For most dogs it's probably not a problem lol, but she's just...argh. Even with commands such as sit or lay down, she KNOWS what they mean but I have to at least pretend I have a treat or she won't listen.

Whew, before this gets too long: I know she doesn't have to pee any more frequently than every 3 or so hours. So if I let her outside, and she pees...does she still get no freedom? Especially if she pees and poops, I know I don't have to worry about her for a while so I'd kind of hate to give her no freedom then. I mean if that's what it takes then I can do it, I just need to know if she really gets NO freedom in the house then, period?

I hope that all makes sense...:p