Yet ANOTHER Housebreaking Question

[Laverne]

I know everyone and thier dog has housebreaking questions, and I have looked through tons of the archives, but I still have a question.

We got Winston a month ago, and he's four months now, and he's still not consistent with housebreaking. I know he's not supposed to be reliable until he's about 6 months old, but our longest streak for him not going in the house has been 2 days. That's it. Usually he has one day with no accidents, and then lots of accidents the next day. Then he's clean again for a day before going in the house all over again.

I think that there are a number of things which might contribute to making him harder to housetrain, including that we found out he was left in a kennel a lot as a puppy and so he might have "dirty puppy syndrome" (which, despite my best efforts, I have been able to find only very little on). We're also trying to train him to urinate in a litter box on newspapers while we are at work this summer (in the fall my boyfriend and I will have different class schedules and won't need the litterbox, but we still would like him to have it as a backup plan). I know that puppies can regress in housebreaking, but because he hasn't ever actually been housetrained, I doubt that's it.

I've been telling my family about Winston's progress (or lack thereof) and they insist that I'm teaching him that he can go in my house and that I'm solidifying the behavior by allowing it to continue. I was raised to use both positive and negative reinforcement to train a dog, with Winston I'm only using positive reinforcement, and my family members insist that my boyfriend and I are failing at housebreaking Winston because of this. I kind of just think that Winston's a harder dog to train because he came from a kennel environment and started learning at three months instead of much earlier.

I guess my main question is: Should I be worried about his lack of progress? Is getting housebroken only a matter of Winston being taught when and where to relieve himself, or does it also have to do with his age, maturity, and prior housebreaking experience? For example, is it possible that at this stage in the game he is actually incapable of grasping fully what we want from him? Or is it just that I'm actually not training him right?

 

[Maxy24]

Your doing fine, and THANK YOU for using positive methods especially with house breaking even though your family is fighting you on it. Are you crate training? I know many people do not like the idea of putting their dog in a crate but as long as you are not constantly gone I don't see it as a huge problem, plus most dogs sleep while you are not home (or they destroy your stuff ). If I were you I would keep a MUCH closer eye on him, he should not be able to go to the bathroom in the house without you noticing so you can quickly interrupt him and bring him outside. And of course make sure you give him a treat as soon as he finished going outside so he knows when he is right. If he truly is a dirty puppy then you will need to take him out a lot, even if it seems like an absurd amount. Right a list of every time he pees or poops (inside or out), right them down for about a week so you get an idea of when he goes.

I personally don't like puppy pads/litter boxes but some people do have success with them. To me they seem confusing for the dog.

What is his breed or mix? some breeds take longer, like most small dogs take a longer time while my dog was house broken before 4 months. My uncle's dog on the other hand seemed house broken around 8 months but still peed while uncle and my aunt slept or when they were not home (but that is probably because they hit her when she peed inside). She was not fully broken of this until about 1 year.

Don't worry she'll be house broken eventually, just be more vigilant and don't let any accident go unnoticed, interrupt and take out. Try to learn what she does before she pees some dogs have very subtle signs they are going to "go" but I would rather you take her out even if it is a false alarm than not and have her pee inside. Also don't let any good peeing in the right place go unnoticed, make sure she gets praise and a yummy treat EVERY TIME.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[MamabearX3]

This is just my opinion based on my own experience. When I had to give my rhottie away due to a neighborhood restriction. I wanted to get a new puppy as soon as possible. But I waited until I could be home with him every day. I have never had any luck with training a dog when I couldn't be home with it to let it out every 30 minutes. And with your dog possibly having dirty puppy sydrome, I think it is even more important that he has the opportunity to go outside even more often than usual.

I know that it is possible to housebreak a dog at any age, it's just the older the dog gets to more important it is to make sure you are getting him outside before he has the opportunity to go in the house and making sure he goes. If the consistency is there then he will naturally prefer to go outside. I would seriously monitor the water and food intake and as a general rule always take him out at least 20 minutes after consumption. Always take him out after he wakes up, and try not to play with him until he goes pee.

Chance use to pee in his kennel during the day even if we only left him in there for 1 hour. It was a little sep anxiety thing I think. But I noticed that when I just left him in there with no paper or bedding he never pee'd maybe that might help you too. I don't know keep up the hard work good luck and maybe you'll just have to give it your best shot until your class schedule changes so you can be there to let him out more often.

 

[Laverne]

Are you crate training?

We have been, but we took Winston in the car in his crate and he urinated in it and after that he started going in his crate much more. We didn't want it to become a habit so we folded up towels and put them in the back of the crate so he was really cramped, but they soaked up any liquid and he didn't care. Then we tried taking all toys and bedding out but he would just go in the crate anyway and scream hysterically when urine hit his feet. We thought that maybe the crate might remind him of the litter box because sometimes he would sit on the clean newspaper in the box like it was his crate. So we took away the crate and the litterbox for a few days, positively SCOURED the crate, and put newspaper in one end of the bathtub without the litterbox so he could get used to the newspaper again, which he's been pretty reliable about. We're planning to put the paper back in the box once he seems to re-grasp the paper idea. We tried to re-introduce him to the crate again earlier tonight, and he was fine when the gate was closed. Once we opened it he got up, urinated, and walked out. We cleaned it, now he's sleeping in it like normal. We're monitoring the situation. If you have any solutions to what seems like dirty puppy syndrome (or maybe simply him developing a bad habit), feel free to offer it!

Winston is actually really good about going where we want him to go - he has gone outside everytime we have taken him since about the second day we had him. It's just that he goes more than just outside. He has improved, I just don't know if he'll hit the 6-month mark for being totally reliable. And he is a small dog, a Yorkshire Terrier. Also, one of us, either my boyfriend or myself, is able to be home all the time from Wednesday to Sunday. Monday and Tuesday our schedules overlap for about six hours, so that's why we've set up the litterbox. Chris is looking for a different job, so hopefully this won't be the schedule all summer. Winston is only allowed out of the tub when one of us is watching him closely, but I think sometimes you can blink and he's that fast about it.

 

[Herschel]

Start over.

Stop confusing him. Get rid of the litter box and the newspapers inside. Those are confusing him.

Keep a notebook of all of his bathroom behavior. Log anything that he eats, drinks, or excretes. You'll get a better idea of his schedule so you will be better able to predict his potty behavior.

Your family is right--letting him go to the bathroom inside at all is just solidifying this behavior. Don't use positive punishment (what you call negative reinforcement) to try to teach a behavior.

Prevent as many accidents as you can. Even if you have a sneaking suspicion that he needs to go out, then take him out and walk him until he pees.

PM me if you need more help. Good luck!

 

[Laverne]

Start over.

Stop confusing him. Get rid of the litter box and the newspapers inside. Those are confusing him.

I don't think that we can get rid of the litterbox, though, because on Monday and Tuesday we're not home for 6 hours, and although he's always been 100% reliable at night, I don't think that we can expect him to hold it for 6 hours during the day.

However, we do seem to have a working system set up in the bathtub, so I'm not that concerned about the papers. When we got him it was between classes and jobs, so we were home everyday for the first two weeks. We started putting newspapers down all over the bathroom floor where we kept his food, so when he had an accident (which happened a lot the first week, especially when he was eating) it happened on the papers. We crated him when not playing, eating, or training him, and had virtually no accidents in the crate. We then slowly reduced the amount of papers on the floor by his food, and he continued going on the papers instead of the tiling, even walking across the room to go to the papers and use them. When we started working we put him in the bathtub for the days we were gone with papers at one end and food at another. Admittedly, he's gone on the bottom of the tub instead of the papers about twice since we've been working, but about 95% of the time it's on the papers. I'm actually quite pleased with his progress.

I also think I might have figured out the crate thing. Is it possible that Winston could be submissively urinating when he comes in contact with the crate because he remembers the bad car ride? Like, perhaps he wants to submit to the crate so that it doesn't put him through another bad experience? We don't punish Winston when he goes inside, although we might make a noise to distract and interrupt him, but he went in his crate while I was watching him, and I interrupted him and took him outside, but he looked at me and put his ears back and sort of cowered submissively as he was going. He is not very submissive, and neither Chris nor I punish him, so I doubt he's afraid of us.

 

[Dog Diggler]

I really think you should stick to one method. If you introduce him to all at once he's gonna get confused and feel ashamed and stupid. maybe it's hard to choose one and stick with it if it doesn't work perfectly or your own schedule varies. But you guys seem real nice, maybe too nice.

 

[Mcpie]

I don't think that we can get rid of the litterbox, though, because on Monday and Tuesday we're not home for 6 hours, and although he's always been 100% reliable at night, I don't think that we can expect him to hold it for 6 hours during the day.

Is there no way you can get someone to take him out on those two days? I'm sure he can hold it for 3 hours, so just one visit during that break would do the trick. Of course a quick walk would be desirable, but a potty break would suffice.