I think Murphy is doing pretty well with his toilet training. He can mostly last 7 hours overnight in his crate, occasionally he will bark earlier than this and il go down and he will go straight out to the loo and then back to bed, which is fine. In the day however, if the back door is open he will always take himself outside to go to the loo, but of the door is shut he will just go in the kitchen without making any noise at all. Is there anyway I can get him to ask for the door to be opened rather than just go in the kitchen? The only time this happens is usually when I am distracted by something else and don't follow him into the kitchen and open the door, or forget its shut. Thanks in advance
Re: Toilet training issue Its a tough one because in summer we do tend to leave doors open, which then poses the question , Have they learned to ask or do they do it outside because they are outside at the time, if that makes sense ! I think the way to reinforce is to watch Murphy when he is outside and ever time you see him perform, make a really big fuss of him , praise him up like crazy . I always found it helpful to use a word like wee or poo or even just toilet , say this when you see them taking the appropriate action and they will soon connect . Murphy sounds to be doing very well though , especially at night
Re: Toilet training issue Yea I totally agree about the being outside anyway thing. He has got a word which he seems to know which is 'hurry up' which is what Pippa uses. And he seems to know what it means, when I literally take him outside even when he doesn't look like he needs the loo when I say hurry up he nearly always goes. It's just if I'm not that proactive he just goes in the kitchen. I will try and give him loads of extra praise when he goes outside and see if he gets the message that way! Thanks
Re: Toilet training issue Charlie is a rescue dog that we got at 9 months and he couldn't let us know when he wanted to go outside, so I hung a bell on string tied to the backdoor handle inside and out and taught him very quickly to 'touch' and everytime his nose even slightly touched it I treated him and within no time at all he was ringing the bell with his nose and he does it all the time now when he needs to go outside. Just a thought Murphy is doing brilliantly at night, well done Murphy Helen xx
Re: Toilet training issue There was talk of teaching your dog to ring a bell to go out in another thread you may find something useful in those threads.....do a search on bell and they should come up, they were a while ago. I think it tended to be more to fix not noticing your dog wanted to go out rather than them not asking at all but it may be useful.... Other than that all I can think of is that you reduce the area murphy is allowed in, I found with Riley that as he grew up he gradually toileted further and further from the house. I think they only increase the area they don't want to toilet in gradually, you may need to keep him in a smaller area until you're sure he always wants to go out. The night time is going great guns though and shows you he can do it
Re: Toilet training issue i did what barbara says, the first week we got him at 8 weeks i sat at the breakfast bar for the full week, every time i thought he needed to go i put him outside, within a week he was trained .......he as only had 2 accidents in the house since then may be i just got lucky
Re: Toilet training issue I had ambitions of the bell ringing thing - even bought some cow bells in preparation for Charlie's arrival! But it just seemed a bit of a faff to put them up, and couldn't find a nail etc. so ended up not bothering. Charlie soon got into the routine of going when I take him out - we're down to 6 times a day now, and I don't really allow him to wander in and out as he pleases unless I'm outside anyway. I leave him in the garden for a bit on his own sometimes (if I think he's not in a digging mood), but only after I have seen him have a pee or a poo.
Re: Toilet training issue A good bell to use is a shop bell. You know the little ones that sit on a shop counter and that have a little upright knob thing that you tap?
