Help. Housebreaking puppy.

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Help, please! My puppy is 4 months old, and is not housebroken yet! Anyone have any advice. Please! DH is getting freaky about it all.

 

[hereyago]

Puppies have small little bladders and kidneys, so it does take awhile. But in the mean time, do you have a schedule, such as: 30-40 minutes after puppy eats, you take puppy out to the bathroom? As soon as puppy wakes up, take puppy outside? Do you crate train?

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Crate the dog when you cannot watch it. Leash the dog and keep it with you at all times in the house.

Free roam is not allowed until the dog is potty trained, period.

Your dh has to participate in the care & training of the dog. It makes things smoother when the entire family devotes themselves to training.

What kind of dog is it? Some dogs take longer than others.

 

[WDWisOurHappyPlace]

Crate the dog when you cannot watch it. Leash the dog and keep it with you at all times in the house.

Free roam is not allowed until the dog is potty trained, period.

Your dh has to participate in the care & training of the dog. It makes things smoother when the entire family devotes themselves to training.

What kind of dog is it? Some dogs take longer than others.

What she said. That's what worked for our dog.

 

[okeydokey]

My friend had a hard time training her Yorkie. He was still peeing in the house at 4 and 5 months old so she started to leash her in the house at all times. The dog was never more than a few feet away from her at any time so she could watch her closely and catch her just as she started to squat and get her outside. It has worked, she is doing better.

 

[monkeybug]

Crate the dog when you cannot watch it. Leash the dog and keep it with you at all times in the house.

Free roam is not allowed until the dog is potty trained, period.

Your dh has to participate in the care & training of the dog. It makes things smoother when the entire family devotes themselves to training.

What kind of dog is it? Some dogs take longer than others.

Crate training is the BEST!!! I have trained two Goldens and a German Shepard this way and we had very few accidents. (those breeds are kinda' "easy" when potty training though)

 

[Jennasis]

crate training! Saves the day every time.

 

[dollydell]

Having them on a set schedule is important. Our new puppy is pretty much trained, but if his schedule is interupted he gets will get upset and will have an accident.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Freaky doesn't help.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

freaky isn't the norm, luckily. he is a cairn terrior. He is crated at night and when we are gone. I think we need a daytime schedule, though. Will talk with the kids about it. He has had too much free roaming time.

Thanks, all.

 

[cabmom]

We were told if you scatter their food where they've had accidents they will not go where they eat.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

that would be funny. not that i won't try it, but I can imagine a puppy and kitty eating frenzy!

 

[Deb in IA]

We have a 5 month old chocalate Lab. I agree with the above.
Other tips:

1. Set a schedule, and WRITE IT OUT. Feed puppy at the same times every day. Take puppy out to poop/pee within 15 to 20 minutes of feeding.

2. Watch puppy at all times when he is out of the crate. The SECOND he starts to go in the house, immediately yell NO!, grab puppy, take him out.

3. Use an enzyme solution to clean up accidents, so puppy won't smell it.

4. REWARD poop/pee outside IMMEDIATELY with a puppy treat.

5. Take puppy out to pee every 2 hours initially. You can go longer as puppy gets older.

6. CRATE whenever you cannot watch puppy. CRATE overnight. Puppy may not be able to hold it all night until they are 3 to 4 months old, and you may have to schedule a middle-of-the night outing until then.

7. Take puppy out IMMEDIATELY first thing in the morning.

8. Make the crate only big enough for the pup to turn around. Too big a crate will let puppy have room to go in the crate, and you don't want that.

 

[gracie1]

I have always crate trained mine. Remember...they don't like to lie in their own mess. Also, make sure when you have the puppy out of the crate....to keep taking it outside...do it every 1/2 hour or so...then it will get used to it

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Deb, thank you. Scheduling is where we dropped the ball. And, as I said allowing him to roam.

 

[Deb in IA]

No problem.

We wrote out the schedule and put it on the refrigerator, so that everyone knew when puppy had to go out, when he ate, etc.

 

[erincon23]

We adopted a 6-yr-old dog that had obviously not been outdoor-trained -- she would go if we took her out, but didn't know to let us know when she had to go out. (Frankly, if the shelter had answered their phone, she would have gone back -- 6 months of this was too long!). The Petsmart trainer told us to teach her some way for her to alert us -- put a bell where she could reach it or something like that. We hung a bell from the doorknob by the back door, and when we would take her out, we would stop by the back door, pick up her paw, bat the bell, say, "good dog!" and then let her out. She never did get the hang of the bell, but she learned to nudge the vertical blinds at the door, adn that does the same thing. My cousin's dog uses the bell system very well -- frantically rings the bell when there's noone around to hear a quiet ring!

And this dog was never crate-trained (we think the old lady she lived with either had a litter box or took her out on a schedule), so she sleeps in our home office -- we gate off the doorway so she can't roam at night or when we're not home, adn we put down the puppy pee pads for her to use then or when we're all upstairs (she doesn't have the run of the house) and not able to let her out. She's learned pretty well to use those (although she's an "optimal pooper" and pee-er -- I laugh every time I hear that commercial) and doesn't see so well any more, so if she's used a couple of the pads, she still pees on the floor...

- Erin

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I have never had to housebreak, and neither has my husband. I have to say in his defense that he does help when he is home. Last night we picked up the hall carpet, and there were probably 30 pee stains, and I ddin't even know he had gone there at all. Dh is worried our whole house is like that.

 

[yoopermom]

In order to limit her "roaming", tether her to yourself or one of the kids, preferably with a 6 ft leash, so you can't help but see what she's doing.

And from past experience, I've founds hounds and terriers to be the slowest to train. Until our two youngest dogs were a year old, they really weren't totally trustworthy.

Terri

 

[Jockaroo]

Help, please! My puppy is 4 months old, and is not housebroken yet! Anyone have any advice. Please! DH is getting freaky about it all.

Honestly, give it a couple of more months. You can't expect this baby to be completely potty trained until around 6 months. What you can do is monitor his every move when out of his crate. The best thing to do is to walk him on schedule (as already discussed). Start with hourly, as he has success, move to every 90 minutes, then 2 hours. Use the umbilical leash method. I can't recommend this strongly enough. Get a carabiner clip and hook this to your belt loop. Attach the loop of the leash to this clip. Clip the leash to your dog's collar. This will let your pup always be at arm's reach. In an emergency, you can grab the dog and get outside without fumbling to hook the leash. You will be able to monitor him and keep him from wandering to a corner to eliminate. When you can't watch him, put him in his crate. When he has an appropriate elimination outdoors, make sure you reward him with a treat and lavish praise--we actually called this the "pee-pee dance of praise".

I also recommend getting pet enzymatic cleaner (such as Simple Solution or Nature's Miracle) to clean the accident spots. You can buy it by the gallon. Try to find all the spots he has used the bathroom. You may need to treat multiple times, but you must remove the odor or he will try to urinate in these areas again.

Housetraining is a challenge. A puppy's bladder muscles just aren't matured enough to be reliable until around 6 months of age. Keep working, and if your husband is starting to get freaky--hook the carabiner clip to his belt loop and let him take some charge of the housetraining. (And offer him the steam cleaner!) Every member of the family must participate in the dog's training.

Edited: I see you said your husband is helping. That is great. If everyone participates in the training, the dog will respect all family members and know his status in the family. To find all the urine stained spots, you may need to get a carpet steamer (use the enzyme cleaner in it), or get on your hands and knees and smell the carpet. Gross I know, but you have to get the urine stains out. Also, dried urine has an odd slightly crunchy, greasy feel. This will help you find the spots.