I have a yellow lab we rescued from hurricane Katrina. We got her in November and have been trying to break her potty problem since. She is 1 1/2 years old and seems to know that the outside is for "doing her business". She has never popped in the house, but we have a problem with her peeing in the lower level family room. She can be left alone for up to 6 hours and not pee anywhere, (we gate off the lower level) but if we forget to let her out every two hours when we are home she will sneak downstairs and pee. I have restricted her acess to the family room, and that seemed to help, but with four kids ages 8,6,4,2 they often forget and leave the gate open. There are times when we have just let her out and 20 minutes later she has peed. The problem is, she is rarely every caught in the act. I was told it doesn't do any good to scold them if you don't catch it right away. She has no signal to tell us she needs to go out, although she has learned to bark to come in. What can I do next to help her?? or at least get her to give me a signal that she has to go outside to pee. Help
Potty problem
- Thread starter busymomof6
- Start date
R
Sorry, but you are going to have to manage supervision MUCH better if you are ever going to get her trained.
She should not have ANY opportunity to sneak away, or go downstairs out of sight to eliminate.
She should be rewarded with food EACH time she empties outside.
Look in this topic for my piece called "HOUSETRAINING..How to teach your dog to go on command" and follow the directions in it, esp. the last paragraph.
She should not have ANY opportunity to sneak away, or go downstairs out of sight to eliminate.
She should be rewarded with food EACH time she empties outside.
Look in this topic for my piece called "HOUSETRAINING..How to teach your dog to go on command" and follow the directions in it, esp. the last paragraph.
Thanks, she is following me everywhere now, and I also bought a watch to go off every hour to remind me to take her out, or have one of the kids take her out and watch her go. She was going out, but not eliminating all the time. I guess squirrel watching was just more important. We are getting a puppy on Saturday, and I hope that the two can train and retrain together. The watch really helps though, because sometime with all the kids you get busy and distracted.
Not really, but in the exact same area like she does outside. Outside she will only pee near the north and west fence. Downstairs, she would only pee along two sides of the family room in about a 4 foot wide L shape. I cleaned with enzymatic cleaner, but it still smells - any suggestion on that would also be helpful - I was using Nature's Miracle but was contemplating Urine B Gone any suggestions would be helpful. The only thing I can think of was during the hurricane maybe she wasn't allowed to go outside because of water contamination and they taught her to go on the lower level of the house. She acted like it was natural for her to do, and she hasn't gone upstairs at all. Is there anyway to teach her a signal to go outside. I always say "Let's go outside" before we go potty but she doesn't seem to even get excited or register what we are doing until I get to the door. Having her with someone constantly is helping and she seems to be improving, I just wish she would whine, bark, or scratch to go outside. She barks and scratches to come in.
I have a little contraption called "Poochie Bells" little bells you hang on the door they use regularily to go outside.
It's fairly easy to train them to use the bells. Everytime, and I do mean everytime, before you open the door, make her muzzle bump the bells so they jingle then open the door.
She will soon get used to the fact that the bells go off before the door will open and will eventually start smacking the bells with her nose herself.
When you see her do that praise like you're a crazy person, then open the door for her.
It may take a week or two of constantly directing her nose the the bells but it's totally worth it. You can hear the bells from everywhere in the house, and you never know, maybe she is already going to the door when she needs to but just has no way to signal it already.
My puppy picked it up in about 3 days...so when I said a few weeks, I was just trying to look at the long range of it.
Good luck!
They do have a website for poochie bells, you can just google it. Although if you aren't particular about the looks of it, you can always make your own by tying a few jingle bells to some string and hanging it on the knob.
Just look at the site for an idea if you want.
It's fairly easy to train them to use the bells. Everytime, and I do mean everytime, before you open the door, make her muzzle bump the bells so they jingle then open the door.
She will soon get used to the fact that the bells go off before the door will open and will eventually start smacking the bells with her nose herself.
When you see her do that praise like you're a crazy person, then open the door for her.
It may take a week or two of constantly directing her nose the the bells but it's totally worth it. You can hear the bells from everywhere in the house, and you never know, maybe she is already going to the door when she needs to but just has no way to signal it already.
My puppy picked it up in about 3 days...so when I said a few weeks, I was just trying to look at the long range of it.
Good luck!
They do have a website for poochie bells, you can just google it. Although if you aren't particular about the looks of it, you can always make your own by tying a few jingle bells to some string and hanging it on the knob.
Just look at the site for an idea if you want.
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I have a question about training using bells for going outside.
Chester is 6 months now, and while he has few accidents, he doesn't really have a signal for going outside. So we've thought about using the bells.
I see 2 problems with it:
1. My cats will love it & want to ring them all the time (or try to eat them) -- and my cats are larger than Chester.
2. Won't he ring it when he just wants to go outside, but doesn't necessarily need to do his business?
He will sometimes run to the back door when he wants to go out -- but sometimes it's just because he wants to go out, not because he has to actually "go".
Of course, when that happens he only gets to stay out 5-10 minutes & we come back in, so I'm assuming eventually he'll only do it when he really needs to go, as then he gets rewarded with treats.
Chester is 6 months now, and while he has few accidents, he doesn't really have a signal for going outside. So we've thought about using the bells.
I see 2 problems with it:
1. My cats will love it & want to ring them all the time (or try to eat them) -- and my cats are larger than Chester.
2. Won't he ring it when he just wants to go outside, but doesn't necessarily need to do his business?
He will sometimes run to the back door when he wants to go out -- but sometimes it's just because he wants to go out, not because he has to actually "go".
Of course, when that happens he only gets to stay out 5-10 minutes & we come back in, so I'm assuming eventually he'll only do it when he really needs to go, as then he gets rewarded with treats.
I've heard about the bell thing, and thought I would try it when we get the new puppy on Saturday. Do you think she'll catch on being older (1 1/2)??
I tried leashing her to me but come on 4 kids and a dog tied to me - I would be crazy!!!. The watch thing is working well, and she isn't allowed to go into the family room unsupervised - the kids have been really good about closing th gate since I said whoever leaves it open cleans up the pee - everyone undstands this but the two year old and he can't open the gate by himself. Will get some bells and give it a go.
I tried leashing her to me but come on 4 kids and a dog tied to me - I would be crazy!!!. The watch thing is working well, and she isn't allowed to go into the family room unsupervised - the kids have been really good about closing th gate since I said whoever leaves it open cleans up the pee - everyone undstands this but the two year old and he can't open the gate by himself. Will get some bells and give it a go.
