I have a 6 month old chocolate lab that has had three UTIs since we got her... first one starting after 5 days of having her. It has completely ruined potty training. She will Go potty outside no problem, but will come inside and pee 30 minutes later on the carpet. This is my third lab puppy and potty training has always been a breeze.. I know what to do! All classic suggestions like 30 minutes after water, take out after play, take out every hour... I do it all And she still has accidents and doesn’t cue me at all. I’m going to take her back again to see if she still has a uti, but even if it is still present, she should at least understand by now to stand by the door to let her out. Not happening. Just runs around the corner and pees. How do i teach her to cue me?
Confinement, confinement, confinement... Pup goes in crate, comes out - goes outside immediately and pees. If she doesn't, she goes back in the crate for 15mins more - then another attempt. After 30mins playing - back outside to pee - if not, in the crate. And so on. Without confinement, it is pretty impossible in difficult cases to make any progress at all. Be sure you are cleaning up the areas she has toileted inside thoroughly. If that much pee is happening inside on a regular basis, it is pretty impossible to adequately clean up - which means it continues to smell like a toilet, which in turn leads to the pup going there again - and so on. Carpets and mats and absorbent materials are notoriously difficult to clean so that they smell clean to a dog (whose noses are millions of times better than ours), so the carpet likely smells like a giant pee pad to her now. Ideally, she should be confined to one room of the house with a cleanable floor (kitchen?) and stair-gated in there, with a crate also in the kitchen and any accidents should be cleaned up with enzymatic cleaner you can get from the pet store to break down the smell of pee for the dog. You might also want to put her on cranberry powder to prevent UTIs. They are very common in female puppies (probably because their vulvas are so close to the ground when they pee, that bacteria gets in there) so all female pups should be on cranberry powder as a preventative until 6 months IMO. (This is also Avidog advice - avidog.com )
I have a 4 month old male black lab. The first week I took him out every hour and started a consistent feeding schedule. I kenneled him at night, placed in my bedroom and slept on opposite end of bed to calm him. I've had people letting him out of kennel 2 times a day while I'm at work, with no accidents. When I get home,at about 3:45pm, I take him outside right away , feed him then take him to a place and have him fetch a ball and a deer antler. He pee's when I let him out after work and poops when I take him to excercise. But i have also had him pee in the house , usually within that hour after being outside. Even started "rationing" water. He weighs 20lbs ,so give 20 ounces of water, but only when I'm home and he's out of kennel. He doesn't give any warning that he has to pee. Taught him to ring a bell, with a treat, but only if I am there to reward him. Now he's pooped in the house 2 of last 3 days, one day was raining the other snowing, Wisconsin weather. Both times he pee'd but than sat down next to me and wouldn't poop, so took him in. Half hour later he pooped in the house. I'm getting to wits end here. Could this be UTI also?
Several things here, one is that if you ration water, when the dog next has access to water, they 'tank up' and need to pee more often for the next hour or two. Less likely to be a UTI with a male puppy, but not impossible. However, with a UTI, your pup would probably be having accidents when you are at work, and you say that is not the case? I suspect 'tanking up' is your problem. Especially if you are rationing water in the kennel during the day. Most puppies give little warning that they need to pee. The secret is to make sure you take the dog out after a long enough gap that they will need to pee, but not so long that they can't wait. At four months old that gap is likely to be somewhere between two and three hours. If you see your puppy taking a long drink, take him out again after twenty-thirty minutes or so. That will likely stop the accidents after you get home. Success breeds success and accidents generate more accidents, so prevention and rigorous cleaning up is everything (see jo's post above re cleaning up). Changes in weather often cause accidents. Many puppies don't want to be outside when it's raining or snowing. So, they will be fine and clean all summer, and the owner thinks they have 'cracked' it. Then a bit of bad weather comes along and everything falls apart. Four months is very young. I have a six month old pup here that has only just got to the point where she can last three hours without a pee. Some pups will do better, some worse. House training is a long process from no control, through some control, through control with occasional accidents, to reliable control somewhere between six months and a year. Guides implying that you can potty train a puppy in 7 days or whatever, are very misleading. All you can do in 7 days, is create some good habits and management strategies. The rest takes time and your little guy will get there
I have a 17wk pup at the moment. I would never even consider crating a puppy from 8-9am until 3.45pm - even once. Let alone daily. Excessive crating is cruelty, pure and simple. When a dog's bladder is very full, it won't empty fully when they first pee. Human bladders work the same way. If you get up to pee at 5-6am because your bladder is full, I can guarantee you will have more pee about an hour later... Please don't do this. As Pippa suggests, it will only backfire. If you want to make anything a valuable resource, make it scarce. If you make water not freely available, it will be very valuable. And that's why the puppy will drink a lot of it, when it is there. And this behavioural problem can then last the rest of the dog's life. Besides it just being cruel to ration water. Exercise creates poop, so if you want him to poop outside, take him for more exercise. But please, overall, learn more about a dog's needs and how you can meet them, because there are some very concerning things in what you've said...
By "rationing" water I'm giving him a couple ounces at a time. Not giving unlimited water. When he goes outside to pee I bring him in and give a couple more ounces. Trying to give plenty of water but not more, at one time, than his bladder can hold.But still have to take him out every half hour to 45 mins. When he actually does give me any kind of notice that he has to relieve himself, he pees on the floor while I'm getting my sweatshirt and boots on. Again I live in Wisconsin so I need to get my cold weather gear on before I take him out. Guess I just need to know it'll get better. Have had labs before and never had this much trouble house training.
First of all, by saying I " ration water" I'm giving him a couple ounces at a time instead of giving unlimited amounts of water. Second, I crate him from 6 am to 3:45pm with someone stopping by 2 times a day to let him out to relieve himself and run around. And I am confident that this is happening because it's my parents doing it. Plus I take him to my land after work and throw a deer antler and a ball to fetch, and just let him run around. And he's out of the crate till 6 am the next morning, he sleeps on my bed. Third I have tried to "read" his behavior but he has pee'd or pooped on the floor within 20 minutes of being outside. Even have had him pee while I'm getting my boots and sweatshirt on while he's standing next to me. I've tried the bell trick but he'll only ring the bell if I'm standing there asking if he has to go potty. He won't ring it any other time and won't whimper or stand by the door and whimper. And people say to keep house clean! Today I was cleaning the carpets, because he's relieved himself on them, so he doesn't think it's a place to "go potty", and he pee'd on a freshly cleaned carpet after being outside 20 minutes earlier.
