Its been a few weeks since I last posted and things steadily going well with Brody, however we have one problem not sure how to solve! He now goes to garden no problem, and always go to the back door when he needs a toilet. He can hold on without going throughout the night, and at the moment we can leave him for around an hour (all we have tested so far) without incident. However as soon as we take him out, he just won't go. I was a football tournament yesterday for 7 hours, and he refused to go despite walking him around places where I would of thought he could go. As soon as he was back in the car heading home, he wee'ed in the car Not his fault and only thing i can think of doing is to try and train a command word for "going to the toilet". We have a summer trip to Scotland planned and involves a long drive and we need to make sure he can go when we stop. Any advice on what we can do to help? Thanks all in advance! Stu
Hi again Stu. I don't think this is all that uncommon. I didn't have any issues with my two, but I've seen the question asked before, so you're not alone. Do you let him out as soon as you get up in the morning? Maybe, rather than letting him into the garden, take him straight on a short walk to somewhere there is grass, if that's what he's used to going on. If that doesn't work, you could try bagging up some of his poo and maybe trying to get some wee, too - even if it's on a bit of kitchen roll you use to wipe where he's been - and taking those with you to place where you'd like him to go, so he knows it's OK. I vaguely trained a toileting cue. Simply, whenever they were going, I'd say "go wee wees" in a chirpy voice (I have no idea where that came from, because it makes me cringe to be overheard saying it!) and then treat afterwards. Now, if I want to hurry them up, I'll say that and, if they need to, they will go. I give them a treat every time they "perform" when I've asked them, and every time they go on walks. They still do use our terrace a little bit, but they never get treats for that anymore, so they tend to hold on until we're out.
Hey SB.... Thanks for the reply. Yeah i had read about the "wee scenting" trick, someone mentioned it to my girlfriend this morning as something to try. Think we will give that a go. We do let him straight out in the garden as its the nearest bit of the garden to us but maybe we need to take him out for a short walk in the morning. Trying to work out how we would "scent" an area while travelling, other than bagging up something and then scenting when we have stopped. Not sure on what cue word to use! Girlfriend favours "hurry up" but maybe we need to treat him and see if that works. Will take a look in the archives if the question has been asked before
Oh, I think pretty much every question has been asked before at one time or another, but it's always great to have them asked again, because you may get people who have dealt with the same issue more recently chirping in with their experience and tactics. Do you have any rough bits of grass near you, however small? Even if it's just around a tree in the pavement? A smaller patch would make it more likely that plenty of other dogs have been on it, and you can simply go along there and drop your bag. You probably won't need to empty it, just open it up so he can smell it. It's worth a try, anyway! I do think your best bet is to try very first thing, without letting him out into the garden.
That is true regarding the questions. Out of the front we unfortunately have no grass and would need a good 5-10min walk to get to grass, which I think i will try it tomorrow but obviously when you are restricting his exercise (with the 5min rule) we are limited to around 20mins total for the day. Maybe try and see if he goes any maybe for traveling we try and get some of his wee on a kitchen roll and see if that works.
I always understood the 5-minute rule to be for twice in one day. So at four months, he could have 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. It's only a guide, though, not scripture. And the time spent sniffing for a good spot to "go" doesn't count
Interesting, my interpretation and that of my breeder is 5 minute per month of age per day of walking exercise, plus play of course. According to Juno's breeder walking exercise should be restricted to 30 minutes per day up to 12 month of age, something I didn't go with but applied the 5 minute rule.
Just to chip in.....I don't have a toilet cue, but DO have a dog that likes to wee on grass and if none is available she can get pretty agitated waiting for "someplace suitable". If you are going to train this, consider introducing different surfaces too at some point. It's not always easy to get to grassy areas at stopping points.....although your trip up to Scotland should be fine
Thanks all Yeah i guess the 5-minute rule is a guide for all. Will give the morning walk a go, and to be honest we need to do it as 3 weeks he will be in Scotland and we won't be able to use a garden. He once did a wee on concrete, but like yesterday, i think it is when he simply cannot hold it in any more. Thanks again, think we will try the "scenting" and maybe during the outside walks (if he doesn't go).
It isn't at all unusual - Charlie wouldn't "go" outside the garden at first - which made car trips with a not yet fully immunised puppy a right old faff of service stations and puppy pads - swiftly gave that up and just put my foot down. But really, this was only a problem about being on lead. Let him off lead with a load of older puppies and teenagers, peeing and pooing on every vertical structure within reach, and he was soon eager to join in. Just let your pup off the lead to play with other suitable dogs and he'll be peeing and pooing for England in no time.... I have very reliable pee ("peep peep") and poo ("have a poo") cues - they are life savers when you have to get to work on time. Well worth training. Particularly with the boys who soon learned to "hoard" pee and poo - it's valuable stuff you know, to be carefully eeked out over several thousand lampposts. Particularly when he knows YOU HAVE TO GET TO WORK!
Thanks Julie... yeah the letting of the lead is fine in the right areas, but more concerned about the times when we are out a bout or travelling through service stations or stops on the way. Think we need to really work on the training cues as you said we need him to go when we want him to go As with everything, it will sort itself out just wondering if you guys went through the same problems
It's a very temporary thing. Your pup will soon be happy to pee and poo anywhere - more than happy. Very soon, you will really wish he wouldn't see any vertical structure - posh flowers, benches, your neighbour's new Aston Martin car tyres (yes, Charlie, that was you) as fair game....
That's very true (and something I touched on the other day). I'm very fortunate to be able to do mainly off-lead walks, and I said I'm not sure if either of mine has ever done a poo when on their lead. They certainly didn't wee on-lead for quite a while. Maybe it's the pressure of not being completely free to choose their exact spot. But, both of mine will now have a wee if they're on lead when I first take them out. It just takes me a while still to recognise the signals as being different from regular pulling; I think this is probably why they were more reluctant to go on lead, because I was trying to keep them to heel the whole time and that didn't suit where they wanted to wee! So, if he has to be on his lead, I think there's a fine line between keeping him from pulling and letting him have enough freedom to feel he can go to the loo. It's not something I have any real experience of, but maybe someone else can help!
That's exactly what Charlie said! When my neighbour turned the ignition, "beauty, soul, power" was displayed on the dash. Charlie thought that a few droplets of his golden wee to anoint the tyres was entirely consistent with the spirit of the occasion...I agreed. Very fitting. I can take Charlie anywhere.
If you're used to mainly off-lead walks, I can see how a dog might get a bit persnickety about where they go, but Maisie has primarily on-lead walks and from day 1 was taken out to pee on a leash as we don't have a backyard/garden. She has zero issues peeing or pooping while on her lead (although sometimes it takes her forever to decide where to poop!). I use the phrase "do your business." Not too embarrassing to say!
Well first morning walk outside of the house and no success, on and off the lead. Didn't use any scent and just wanted to see if he would go without any help. We have always done on-lead walks until last week where we were confident his recall was good enough to be allowed off. Thankfully, with the whistle (Breeder apparently used it from early on with them), this is really good and he comes back immediately. So tomorrow will be a drive to a better area and will take some scent to see if that encourages him
Second walk with scent, and even with rubbing it on a tree, laying it on the ground, with no success and the little man just wants the luxury of the garden lol. We have started with the cue words so maybe that will work. Taking him more to a park tomorrow morning, where it is a bit easier to roam around as current walks are more a remote path.
I have completely the other problem....Dexter WON'T go in either of our gardens.It's not the end of the world as being a boy I don't have him cocking his leg on anything in the garden .I'm lucky as I have a park ( and lamppost) opposite my front door so we just run him across the road....the problems arise this time of year with the heat.Road surfaces get HOT when it's 45 degrees! The time last year I was trying to teach him to go in the front garden...all we achieved in 10 days was Dexter demonstrating he could hold a wee for 10 hours during the day !I was even inviting neighbours in to toilet their dogs in our front garden to put their scent down....nothing!So it beat me on the end and we just cope through the hottest times x
