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JAG1999 · 07-12-2005, 01:03 AM

Dutch is about 6.5 months old. He was doing decently on housetraining, mostly because I don't give him a chance to have an accident. If I leave him in the kitchen, he goes on his pad 100%.

However, I have recently begun taking him outside so he learns the optimal potty place. He gets tons of love and treats when he goes outside, nothing but a pat on the head when he goes inside, and a stern "No!" usually followed by a bath when he goes inside. He's just begun to squeal and squirm when he needs to go out, which is good.

Since I've been rewarding him for going outside, in the last 3 days he has committed his 2 worst mistakes in months. Once he peed all over the place right in front of me on the kitchen floor. And just moments ago on his way to bed he hopped up onto a pile of dry cleaning wrapped in plastic and peed everywhere. Of course when I said "No!" he ran to his crate but managed to dribble all over the place during his short journey.

My question is, is it possible that he is now associating the reward with peeing in general rather than peeing outside in particular? If this is the case, which I suspect it is, i definitely need to mitigate this notion. Is my best bet to simply continue to scold when he goes inside and give tons of praise and food when he goes outside in hopes that he will eventually figure out that the floor = nono, the peepad = okay, outside = great...?

Interested in comments from anyone who has dealt with this. Thanks in advance.

07-12-2005, 01:03 AM	#1
JAG1999 Yorkie Talker Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 24	misunderstanding the reward? Dutch is about 6.5 months old. He was doing decently on housetraining, mostly because I don't give him a chance to have an accident. If I leave him in the kitchen, he goes on his pad 100%. However, I have recently begun taking him outside so he learns the optimal potty place. He gets tons of love and treats when he goes outside, nothing but a pat on the head when he goes inside, and a stern "No!" usually followed by a bath when he goes inside. He's just begun to squeal and squirm when he needs to go out, which is good. Since I've been rewarding him for going outside, in the last 3 days he has committed his 2 worst mistakes in months. Once he peed all over the place right in front of me on the kitchen floor. And just moments ago on his way to bed he hopped up onto a pile of dry cleaning wrapped in plastic and peed everywhere. Of course when I said "No!" he ran to his crate but managed to dribble all over the place during his short journey. My question is, is it possible that he is now associating the reward with peeing in general rather than peeing outside in particular? If this is the case, which I suspect it is, i definitely need to mitigate this notion. Is my best bet to simply continue to scold when he goes inside and give tons of praise and food when he goes outside in hopes that he will eventually figure out that the floor = nono, the peepad = okay, outside = great...? Interested in comments from anyone who has dealt with this. Thanks in advance.