potty on the floor?

[Dahitman44]

Copper (one-year-old intact male) still seems to go on the floor. I don;t think he has the concept of standing by the door yet. You would think he would pick it up from my 10-year-old, but I guess not.

When he goes lately he seems to have a long trail going all over the house. What does that mean?

When I discipline him i catch him in the act talk loud -- bad dog type stuff, put his nose in it and put him outside.

Am I doing it right? Worked for my first dog.

[giddyup99]

When are the accidents happening? Especially the long piddle trails around the house, is it when you get home to let him out of the crate for the day or is it just random?

I have read your posts here today and your dog sounds a lot like my beagle when she was a pup. She was difficult to house train, had a stinky crate after a day or so, and would not go to the door when she needed to go out.

Stinky Crate = eliminating in crate, and then probably "cleaning up" after himself. Do you have anything else in the crate with him, i.e. Blankets? If so remove them and allow for less room for the dog to manuever inside the crate. He won't want to eliminate where he beds, so if you cut down the amount of free space he has that should take care of going in the crate. A one year old dog should be capable of "holding it" for an 8-10 hr period.

I got my beagle to go to the door by controlling the bathroom sequence. When she ate breakfast/supper I would bring her to the door and make her sit. I then put her leash on and brought her outside to go potty. Use whatever word you want, but make sure he associates that word with going to the bathroom. Praise is HUGE at this point. If he goes, make him feel good about it. If he doesn't, back in the crate and in a half hour or so do the same thing over. My beagle was attacking the door after about a week of this. Praise and positive reinforcement for doing the right thing works much better than trying to punish the dog for doing the wrong thing. Unless you can get him at mid stream, he probably won't associate the punishment with the crime.

Definatly get Copper a kong. They are great for keeping dog's busy and working off steam. At this point do not put water in his kennel, unless you are going to be gone a long time or if it gets hot in the house.

Hope that helps. I am not a dog trainer, and there is probably better advice to be had, but these worked for me and my stubborn beagle.

[Dahitman44]

I think one of the problems is that I let my old dog out too early and the puppy wants to play and forget to go and do his business.

Yeah, his crate gets stinky early on and he stinks right now. BAD.

Thanks for your info -- i will give it a try.

Hitman.

[fishtrapgirl]

Quote:

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When I discipline him i catch him in the act talk loud -- bad dog type stuff,

put his nose in it

and put him outside.

Am I doing it right? Worked for my first dog.

---

No you are most deffinatly not doing it right. What is it that you think putting the dogs nose in his urine teaches him? I think it might teach him that he should drink it maybe? Punishment at this point is not the way to solve problems. Maybe try taking the dog out alot more often than you do, and praise him big time when he goes outside, and if he goes inside and you catch him yell a stern no, and bring him out right away. If you don't catch him in the act keep your mouth shut, and by all means don't push his nose in it. That has got to be the dumbest thing anyone has ever come up with.

[Dahitman44]

I have heard some people say that. I guess I did it because we did it with the last dog and it worked.

I have a trainer friend and she told me not to do that as well.

Thanks for the advice.

[Eric Wettschreck]

One thing I did that really worked well is, and this may sound kind of silly, but when I brought my dog outside to do the poo I'd say, quietly,"Go potty go potty go potty go potty." Over and over and over again.

Now, when it's raining and cold and wet outside, if I say, "Go potty," there is no wasting time sniffing and rolling and looking around. He makes a lawn sausage and back in the house we go!!!!!

[walleyemkr]

I agree w/ boilerguy... My yellow lab is now 6 months old and from day 1 it was "go potty Tucker, go potty..." in the yard as the command, followed by a pretty excited "good potty Tuck!". Seemed to work well, haven't had an accident in more than a month (knock on wood)... Still to this day, whether I've told him to do so or we're out in the woods, every potty outside gets the "good potty Tucker!" excitement.

[Captain B.R.K]

I like the concept and it makes sense to keep repeating the "potty" word while the dog is at it. How often do you take your pup out to go to the bathroom? Are you talking about every 30 minutes, every hour?

[walleyemkr]

When he was truly a "pup" (vs. 6 months now), I was taking him out to go after playing, sleeping, or eating ...so yeah, it was about every hour, sometimes more frequently than that. He also only slept overnight for about 2-3 hours at a time back when I first got him at 8wks. before waking up to go out. After sleeping was the biggest one from about 8 weeks until about 20 weeks where he HAD TO GO INSTANTLY after waking. Now, at 6 months, I don't have to LEAP out of bed to fly outside, but still try to get him out within 5 minutes of getting up.

[Vickie]

I am taking care of a 4 month old black lab for my nephew. I have had him a little over three weeks now. When can/should I expect no more accidents? He is doing really well but occassionally, every 2-3 days or so, he goes on the floor just a little - without warning (or maybe I missed a small sign). I tell him "no, no potty in the house" and then bring him outside and he goes pee out there. Of course, I praise him after that. I know every dog is different but is this the norm? He isn't giving consistent " I want to go outside to go the the bathroom" signs either. I'm working on it.

He holds it all night in his kennel.

Thanks- Vickie

[walleyemkr]

What you're describing is right inline w/ where my yellow was at that age, a couple of months ago. He was/is good at giving 'the signal' though, but other than that, yeah, he was still having a MINOR accident once every couple of days or so when he was that age. Now, at just over 6 months, I definitely don't expect ZERO accidents in the future, but there hasn't been one in about 3 weeks. Honestly, just in this last month have I felt like he might be pretty close to officially understanding the housebreaking concept.