My puppy is now five months old and despite praising her every time she pees outside she is still peeing in the house at lease three or four times a day even when the back door to the garden is open. It's driving me to distraction and ruining my flooring. To make matters worse my older dog has now started peeing in the house too! Any advice would be appreciated.
The most basic question is........how do you clean up accidents? You really need to use a special enzyme cleaner like "Simple Solution". No matter how carefully you may clean with an ordinary cleaner there may be a smell left behind which tells the dog 'This is THE PLACE to pee". You won't be able to detect it, but your little furry friend will. It would be the first thing I would try. People often think that they have cleaned up adequately because they have a hard floor, but tiles, laminates etc can be slightly porous. Good luck. Simple Soloution is available at most pet shops. It is a very common problem.
We had an issue with this a while back and it's easily solved. Because you are leaving the back door open all the time, there is no distinction between inside and outside for your pup. You need to make the inside totally separate from the outside. Pups instinctively will not soil their crates or sleeping areas, so you need to make them see the inside of the house as their sleeping/crate area, and the outside as their soiling area. In order to create the distinction, you must keep your back door shut at all times and regularly let your pup out to toilet and reward them well for doing so. Once they are in, shut the door, don't leave it open. So after they have eaten, drunk, played, been inside for a while etc... this could be every 30 mins to an hour to start with. Take them outside and wait until they've toileted - then reward. Come back into the house and shut the door. If they start sniffing around at any point then again, encourage them outside. If they go, reward, come in and shut the door. If your pup doesn't soil after about 5 minutes after they've been let out, let them in again. And then try again a little bit later. It's a bit of a hassle to start with, but totally worth it. Good luck! Lou x
Thanks guys. I will run out tomorrow and get a more effective cleaner. I thought leaving the door open would make things easier but I can see how that would confuse her. Thanks so much!
You might want to have your lab checked at the vet for a UTI. Mine was a peeing machine. He knew he was to go outside and would be fine for a while but still leave large puddles in the house. Took in a urine sample and sure enough, he had a UTI.
Also, give a really yummy food reward for peeing outside (as the last drop of pee is falling). You have to make the choice to pee outside as rewarding as possible.
Normal cleaners have ammonia in them which smells of wee to dogs! Yes, I would close the door or put a barrier there if it's hot, so that he knows inside from outside. You could also try putting a cue there for weeing. We use 'busy busy' for Twiglet and 'Hurry up' for Tatze. For the first couple of weeks of teaching you say it as they wee, then just before for another couple of weeks - then they will wee on cue, even just a few dribbles. So you can check they are empty
update on peeing nightmare. Have been much more structured about going outside and yesterday we only had one accident which was entirely my fault because I got distracted by a telephone call
