Potty Training Nightmare

Piper is having a very hard time being potty trained. She is almost 5 months old and is not picking up on it very well. I have tried taking treats outside with me and rewarding her immediately for using the bathroom outside, and this seemed to work for a few days. Now when I take her out she will frequently just lay down in the grass, or sniff around and not use the bathroom. I am giving her plenty of time and opportunity to go to the bathroom, but when I bring her back in after her doing nothing she will pee in the floor in just a minute or two. I immediately put her in her crate after she goes to the bathroom inside. I'll then leave her in there for around 20 minutes and then take her back out again. Sometimes she will use the bathroom, but sometimes she won't. It is getting to the point where she is using the bathroom inside 5 and 6 times a day. Help!! What can I do to help this potty training nightmare!? She has no problems #2ing outside, just #1.

 

Putting her in her crate after she toilets inside isn't going to do anything, so there's no point in doing that.
Are you using an enzymatic cleaner to clear up where she goes? Regular household cleaners don't do the job, and dogs can still smell the scent that tells them this is where I should be going.
Other than that, if you really know she needs to go for a wee but she hasn't taken the opportunity, put her in the crate when you bring her back in, then take her outside again after fifteen or twenty minutes. Rinse and repeat until she goes - and she will go eventually. Then give her lots of fuss and treats. As she's going, give her a cue word, "toilet", or "hurry up", etc, and consistently use this every time she's peeing for a couple of weeks. You should find that you can then start giving it as a cue to get her to go.

 

There is no possible medical reason? UTI? Inverted vulva?

A trick you can add to the good advice from @snowbunny is to put her food bowl or her water bowl at the places she pee'd inside last, after cleaning the places. Most don't want to eat or drink in the same place they pee, or poop. It's awkward to have the bowls sitting out in the middle of the floor but it's worth a try?

 

We used to make a huge fuss of Stanley when he went. Everytime he went we'd either go "wee wee" or "poo poo"/hands clapping/huge fuss made and lots of treats and praise. Neighbours probably thought we were crazy! We were taking him out every 20minutes or so, then gradually increased the time. If he didn't go, we'd come back in and either go back out in 10minutes or if we saw any suspicious sniffing we were straight out.

Now I just open the door and if he's playing rather than going I just say wee wee or poo poo and he goes. Still always make a big fuss though.

 

I always heard that putting them in their crate after they mess in the house reinforces that it's not a good thing to do. I will try your suggestion though. Thank you!

Also, yes I am using an enzymatic cleaner. She pees in different places in the house, but occasionally around the same spot.

 

I don't think it's a medical problem. I adopted her 2 weeks ago from a place where she ran free in a fenced in area the whole day. She has never really been on a leash for most of her life until I got her. Wonder if this could be why she's having such a hard time?

 

Totally agree with snowbunny. Crating her afterward doesn't teach her anything at all.

We had exactly the same problem with Molly (now 5.5 months and clean) Not easy I know but for a few days you just have to be aware of her ALL the time. If she hasn't been out for 20 mins or so, take her out, play, do anything but stay out until she pees (or in/out as JenBainbridge says), then huge rewarding fuss. Sorry, but you'll have to do that constantly and believe me - been there, done it - it works eventually.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

I had the same problem with olly so I bought some stuff called out stain and odour remover and it has been 2weeks without him doing #1in the house and also I leave the back door open unless we go out and the he is in the crate and when we come back I open the door and let him out of the crate and he now goes outside

 

We didn't crack house training til 6 months...we did a cue word every single time she went outside from day one, and used the treat method too, which we phased out when she started not finishing her pee for her treat and going again in the house. Around 4.5-5 months we reverted back to taking her out every 20- 25 mins because we couldn't figure out her double pees (would go outside then again in the house within half an hour). If she didn't go when we brought her out, we would do 10-20 mins in the crate, then back outside, repeated until she went outside. To make sure she wouldn't pee en route to or from crate, I carried her to and from the front door (she was pretty heavy!). That method worked pretty quickly, but I also think age helped...it just clicked.

Treat for going outside, ignore accidents. She is pretty solid now - will pee on cue which is helpful for car rides or if we need to leave her.

 

I reckon she just doesn't know what to do.
I think previous advice in this situation is to treat her like a tiny puppy. Crate her unless absolutely supervised, and take her out every 20-30 minutes to toilet, obviously big reward if goes outside, pretty much ignore and clean up quietly if she doesn't.
A little more to it than that, I know, but best way to try and solve it i think.

 

I agree with Jacqui ^^
If she is used to running around in an enclosed area all day, she is used to going to the toilet in that area hence the reason she is able to distinguish where she should/shouldn't go now. It will take a few more weeks at least until she is house trained. You need to keep watching for signs she is about to go and quickly pop her outside and really, really praise her.

 

The point of using a crate for house training is not to punish a dog, it's to stop the dog going in the house when there is a risk it might.

Always use treats to reward your dog when it goes to the toilet outside. If your dog is distracted by the treats and might not be having a 'full wee', then do some work around them not being distracted around food (that's useful for impulse control anyway), make sure the treats are out of sight and you are not giving of any unconscious 'about to give you a treat' cues, and stay out longer if your dog might go a second time. But not using treats for going to the toilet outside is making life much harder for yourself in the long run.

 

Sparky isn't quite there yet himself, but it's mostly our fault for missing some signs when he needs to go. For example suddenly turning on me when he's happily chewing away at his chew toys, if I turn around and do a no, I turn around there's a pee. I forget playtime shouldn't be so long and I need to break play and take him out to potty before he needs to do that. Sparky has had zero issues with poo inside the house. He holds it until we go outside. (i hope i don't jinx myself). We were treating him when he pee/poo outside, but now he mostly ignores the treats after going.

 

Why is that? It is extremely inconvenient for future training to have a dog that isn't motivated by food. You could work on him earning food, or try better treats. Or, perhaps there is a reason why he is reluctant to take treats from a human - I've seen this a few times, but I don't think it's all that usual. In the times I've seen it, it is because something unpleasant has happened when a human has held out food. Eg being rushed by another dog or something like that.

 

Its just with potty. Trust me he loves treats. He sits at attention when the treats come out. Maybe the kibble got boring or he's full at least the way I reasoned it.

 

We're having more problems with timming. Wuki doesn't seem to have a regular potty time EVER since he came home, and this makes training quite hard, since we work. I'm still going home at lunch, stay a good amount of time whith him, but it's still a mess. He won't do it then, and when i get back it's a mess...

 

Is he crate trained yet? What do you do when you leave for work? Do you leave him in the crate or a pen?

Our work day routine works like this. My wife wakes up at around 3:30 am to get ready for work. She says Sparky is awake at that time so he gets taken out for pee/poo from his crate. He will definitely pee, but not always poo, so he goes to his pen after and she leaves his food in a bowl when she leaves for work at 4:30A. I wake up around 5:00 am, and I take him out right away, he usually pees and poos now at this time. I pop him back in his pen with a milk bone and I go get ready for work, and then I take him out again shortly before leaving for work around 6:30. I leave a pee pad in the pen just in case he wants to use it, otherwise he just rips it up. The sitter comes either 11 or 12 to let him out and play with him for an hour, then feeds him when she is leaving. My niece or someone else gets home and lets him to go pee, sometimes he poos. I get home and let him out again and he will go outside. He's been very good holding his poo/pee when we are not home, and had zero accidents inside his pen/crate when we are not home.

Only accidents lately were caused by human error, such as, failing to take him out after playing or playing too long (longer than 20-30 minutes). Sometimes I will just break play just to be sure. He will try to tell me he needs to go but I always took it as nipping so when I turn around he makes a puddle.

I make sure I take him out before we go to sleep. I've been crating him earlier at 10 PM since my wife wakes up so early. I think this helps with waking in the middle of the night or too early in the morning, since he doesn't have to hold much overnight.

Make sure his crate is only big enough for him. That helped alot with him not making a mess inside his crate.

 

No crate, i think the damn thing is too narrow for a dog, imho. Worse than a prison. We have him in a closed area of our garage. It's not a normal garage - i've done a music studio in there - quite clean and really good temperature controlled ambient. We are only two and have simmilar schedules so we cannot have a schedule like yours. But our nights are somewhat like this...

Wuki gets cleaned and pampered and goes to bed at 10PM. At 1:00 AM he calls and we take him to the garden, when he usually pees.
At 6 AM, he calls again for a pee, and gets back to bad. Usually I stay awake and start to get ready for work. At 7, he calls again, and eats. If this goes ok, he will poo about 7:30 or 7:40 AM. I'll leave for work at 8:15, and he stays alone untill 12:15. At that time, i come home, give him his meal (wich we're reducing now since he is 4 month old, as per advice from the Vet - objective is to get to 2 meals a day), and have a stroll with him in the garden. Sometimes he does his thing... Others he doesn't... If he does it, he copes untill 6:30PM when i arrive home but most times he doesn't and does it in the pen, then does a mess with his feet...

Anyway... The day ends with one of us cleaning before him, and the other taking care of him, washing his feet, and so on... Gets fed again at 8PM, a 20/30 min walk...

What is really odd, is that the frequency is really big... How can a little 4 months lab (and Wuki is on the thin side, he is only 10 Kgs) do such a mess...
Most times i arrive home and he has 2 poos, another one in the morning and another in the evening... and pee... in the pen

 

Well the other method i read without a crate, is to make a small pen. one side big enough for his bed, and the other side big enough for a pee pad. feed him his food or in kongs in his bed so he learns not to soil it.

I'm no expert in this, but from what everyone else says it will take longer to potty train your doggy if you give him too much space right away.

My Sparky impressed me today. It's raining outside all day. I figured I'll rush him outside to the backyard no leash. He ran outside, I yell go potty, he pees and runs back in. I didn't even have to get wet.

 

That's nonsense. Crates are extremely helpful, and if you used one properly, you would have a toilet trained dog or well on the way to one. You can't use one properly though, if you are leaving a puppy alone just about all day - and this is why your puppy isn't toilet trained.

Well, that's because you aren't there to let your puppy out to the garden when he needs to go, and reward him when he does go. So, if you want a toilet trained dog, then you are going to have to arrange things so he doesn't have to go from lunchtime to early evening without the chance to toilet. If you can't come home yourself, then that means friends, family or a paid dog walker/puppy minder.

Plus leaving a 4 month old puppy 8.15 to 12.15, then until 6.30pm is absolutely terrible for both his general training, and physical and mental well being. His toilet training is probably the least of the worries, really.

I'm sure you think this is blunt - well, I'm sure you do. That's because it is, of course. It's also true though - you need to arrange better care during the day for your baby pup.