What makes the dog want to stop??

[ralfano]

Hello all, this is my first post, I have been reading alot and there are some questions i can't figure out.

My story is we got a 8 month Yorkie, that was left in the kitchen with pee pads all day and sometimes longer, when the owner was home, he took her out every hour (I can't say for sure, but i don't think he rewarded any, for the outside pee)

We have had her for 3 weeks, she has a crate and has peed in it only once, I think it was a fluke, It was after about 2 hrs. She has been in the crate much longer other times, with no problem.

Since day one, every time outside, huge praise and treats for every pee and poop, (we go out same door and same spot every time)

Since day one, she also has slept on our king size bed with one pee the 2nd. night, but nothing since.

She has had her share of accidents, One a day and it seems to average an hour after going pee and poop outside, sometimes we catch, her sometimes not( boy can she pee fast)

Here is a question of confusion, We know she can hold it (at night and in crate) But what is teaching her to go outside all the time? This is how i see it through her eyes, "I go potty outside i get treats, I go inside someone startles me with a loud voice, then I get brought outside and get treats! (the only thing that changed is i didn't get a treat inside, big deal) (oh yeah but when i am being taught tricks inside, I get lots of treats)

It seems there is no real incentive to go outside (to me anyways)
Are we just dealing with a "whenever the dog feels like it, is when it will stop going inside?" (I read about the 8 to 12 week puppy being taught in a week or two, and can't grasp that)

And how about, how the dog tells you it wants to go out, I read "It barks, whines, scratches door, sits and stares at me" Are we left to the individual intelligence of each dog, to sooner or later come up with something? because I don't see much talked about this. And i don't like the bell idea, it seems foolish to me, i don't want to mount a bell to my wall, and what about when your not home, I am not going to travel with a bell.

So for know i have sort of 1 main question of confusion above, thanks Rick

[puppylover2007]

LOL sorry had to laugh, my pups took just over a month to train outside.. it was very long hard nights LOTS of 1am potty breaks LOL, here is what i did maybe it will help you ..

when we first brought them home we slept in our living room ) fyi we have a 3 bedroom rambler it has a back door to the backyard) and we would let our pups our every hour on the hour to go potty, even if they did not need to go, we did it, we took them out 2 hours after they ate or drank anything. after a while Thunder got it real quick, he would start by just going to the back door and sitting there, and if we did not get there he would come up and lick our faces and do the " i need to go Potty mamma" growl, and we would get up and take him , we only rewarded him with "good pup for going potty outside and tons of kisses and loves. Cinni was kinda easier she was rescued from a home that had her almost trained, now, she whines and scratches at the back door.


as far as it goes to me, it will take alot of late nights and early morning rises, we also took them out everytime they woke up as well. within a month they had full rane of of the house, they sleep thru the night and everything.

good luck hope this helps.

[Cessena]

To me sounds like your dog has had a lot of time to "practice" going potty inside. What with the pee pads for 8 months. So now, not only do you have to teach her"Going potty otuside is good" you also have to break his habit of going potty inside. So that's why this is probably taking longer than it would if you had gotten her at 8 weeks. She's had a lot of practice doing the wrong thing.

Dogs do have a sense of "manners" they understand that some behaviors are not allowed, or polite. So you don't have to provide your dog an incentive to go outside, as much as you have to teach her that outside is where we go potty. She doesn't always have to have a reward for going outside, (though that is nice) she just has to get enough practice at going only outside so that she understands that inside is not the place for potty, outside is.

Interrupting her when he goes potty, and taking her out when she starts looking like he might be interested are probably the best ways. I have started making my dog sit before we go out, so now sometimes he will sit by the door (or look at it alot) to let me know it is time to go.

What helped me a lot was watching my dogs behavior when we went outside to pee. (He sniffs a lot and his tail is in the air, which it usually isn't, he also circles a lot with his tail in the air.) So when we were inside I would keep an eye out for that kind of body language, and if I started to see it I would take him right outside. That way he didn't have the opportunity to go inside.

I also made sure that if I SAW him start to go I would make a big loud noise and stop him, and then take him right outside.

Also, I saw a show once where the owner had a potty training problem and they kept the dog attached to her on a leash when indoors (or in a crate) for a few weeks, so every time the dog started think about going it went outside. That way it couldn't get away to pee in some unnoticed corner and that helped break the cycle of going inside. That might help you avoid her peeing when you aren't looking. (I know they are sooo speedy with that. Mine kept pooing right after our walk in some other room when I wasn't around.)

Oh and also make sure you are using a special pet mess cleaner on his accidents. (I use Nature's Miracle) If there is any left that they can smell they will return to that spot, so you have to eradicate it completely.

[2BlackDogs]

I was able to potty train my pup in 2 weeks. She was 10 weeks old when i got her. Basically I would watch her body language. She had a routine before she would potty on the floor. When I noticed her doing her routine, I'd tell her in a really happy voice "you gotta go potty? Lets go outside" I'd take her out the same door everytime we went out. Mostly because it was the back door and closest to where she spent most of her time. When she went potty outside, she'd get a treat and praise. In just 2 weeks we was completly house broken with no accidents after that and she's now 9 months old. She will go to the back door and sit when she needs to go out and if you don't pay attention to her needing to go out she'll whine.

My mother in law would put aleash on her dog before taking him outside. And that was his routine for going out. So when he needed to go out, he'd get his leash and bring it to you.

Since your pup was taught it was ok to potty inside, you just need to break that habit first.

When we go out other places and visit people, I use the same routine as when I was housebreaking my pup. Watch her, ask her if she needs to go out and take her out. She picked up quick and even when we are not at home, doesn't have a problem with accidents.

[MonChiChi]

I had the same thoughts you did when I was potty training my Corgi. I thought "he just pees when its convenient, whenever he feels like it and if he doesn't get a treat, oh well, he feels better coz he peed". Like he had no real motivation NOT to go out. The only thing I can say is he eventually just 'got it', I kept doing the same things and he put it together. I know it's hugely taboo, but if I just missed him and couldn't stop him in the act, I did give him some gentle scolding. Nothing physical or violent, just a firm "ah-ah" so he knew I was upset about it. A trainer told me "ah-ah" is better than "no" because its phontially a startling, uncomfortable sound.

About the bell - it may seem foolish, but it works. I can't say for sure, but once I got to that same point you are, where you are feeling like you can't study the dogs tail 24-7 to notice a 'symptom' and there is no negative motivation to stop herfrom going inside I decided to give it a shot. I think all he needed was a definitive way or signal to tell me that he needed to go out. He picked up on the ringing that bell in literally two days. Maybe you could teach her something else besides the bell if you really don't like it, perhaps to scratch at your door if that's what you want, but either way you would probably just use the same 'technique' as w/the bell. EVERY time you take her outside, hold her paw in your hand and use it to scratch the door. Warning though, once she associates the scratching or bell or whatever you choose, she associates it with GOING OUTSIDE, NOT peeing. There will be a week in there where she 'signals' EVERY 5 minutes. That is yet another frustrating stage. To stop the 'abuse of the bell' as we called it in our home, we limited the amount of time we gave him outside. If he started playing or eating at grass or otherwise just messing around, we took him right back in. He started to realize that he wasn't going to have all day outside, so if he needed to go, he'd better get busy fast.

I'm no expert, just sharing my experience and what seemed to work for me. One thing though - even though it's terribly frustrating, keep your patience. I'm telling you, once you can trust her to go outside, and say that you've beaten this potty training obstacle, it's SO REWARDING.