[Rem&Silkmom]

Originally Posted by spikey

It seems to me she is pee pad trained by the previous owner. She is used to pee in the breeder's house on a pad. She might not understand that when you take her outside, you want her to do her business. It takes a lot of patience and work to potty train older dog (it is possible).

A friend of mine rescued a small mutt when he was 1 year old. He was also pee pad trained but she wants him to do his business outside. She said it takes a lot of patience to finally get him to potty train. She puts him in the crate for 1st 2 weeks when she got him. Every morning at 7 a.m., she'll take him outside and put a pad on the ground and wait till he pee or poo before she takes him in. She'll feed him and after his meal, she'll take him outside for a walk. Before they go inside the house, she'll put a pad on the ground and tell him "go potty". Again, she waits till he did his business, then they go inside the house. She'll let him walk around the kitchen/family area for an hour (that's the time when she eats her breakfast and read her newspaper). After that, she will put him in the crate for 3-4 hours (maximum). She'll take him out again and tell him "go potty". Once he is done with his business, if the weather permits, she will play with him in her yard for a while. Of course, after playing, she makes sure he pees before she let him in the house. Then he is the crate for another few hours. She usually feed him around 6 p.m. (her dinner time too), after his meal, she'll take him outside for a walk again and she repeats the same routine. At around 10 p.m., she'll take him outside for his last business. Then he sleeps in his crate till morning. She did this routine (putting the pee pad on the ground for 2 weeks), then she gradually reduce the pee pads. She said after the 2nd week, he knows once he is outside, he is suppose to do his business. He has been with her for 6 months now. She has reduced his time in the crate shorter and she also leave a pee pad near the door in case he needs to go. So far, he has not had any accident in the house.

I told her about your situation, she said a lot of people thinks it is hard to train older dogs but she said if the dog is 1 or 2 years old, he/she can still learn. However, if the dog is 8 or 9 years old, then it is harder. So there is still hope for your dog. She said it just needs lots of patience if you want to change their habit. However, she said if you love the dog so much, you'll want to take the time to train her rather than giving her back to the breeder. She said you'll also need to spend the same time to train a puppy. The process is the same except you just take the puppy outside and not putting the pad on the ground. She said in fact you need to take puppy outside more often than a grown dog.

Dogs like routine, as long as you repeat the routine with them, they will feel secure and they'll learn fast. Moreover, they don't just pee and poo without showing us signals. The times when they pee are : 1) wake up 2) after a meal, 3) after you play with them. Most grown up dogs only poo once or twice a day (depends how often you feed them). So, if you know their timing, just take the dog out during those time.

My suggestion is if you have the time to train her to do outside, try my friend's suggestion, if you don't have the time, then let her do her business on the pee pad (her old method). Well, I guess if you don't have the pee pad method, then the last option will be give her back to the breeder.

My friend and I hope the above method will help you.

Thanks, I do love Silk and I do not want to give her back so let me tell you what I have been doing everyday since I got her. First I put pads down but she never used them...for just incase.
Every morning we get up at 6am after sleeping in a kennel. First we go outside to pee and poop. Silk always had to poop first thing. We don't come back into the house unless we pee and poop. I give her and Remmy fresh food and water. She usually eats from 6am till 6:30am. Then I take her outside to pee again at 6:30am sometimes she pees sometime she don't. I try to make it that we dont come back in till she pees but I can't wait all day for her to pee. then at 7am before I get into the shower to go to work we go outside one more time. Then (this is where I could be messing up) I usually let her stay in my room if she went pee the last time, because I work and so does my husband and she is gonna have to be in the kennel from 8 till noon. So for instance this last time she went out at 7am to pee then sometime one of the kids come into my room to talk to me when I am taking a shower and out goes Silk...runs upstairs and pees. But usually after I get ready one more time she goes out. Then she is in her kennel (m-f) till noon when my husband comes home from work at lunch to let them out to go potty. She ususally poop and pee then also. Then have a little lunch. then back into the kennel until 4-5pm when we get home from work. then first thing we do is go outside to potty when we get home. Then I do not want to put her back into the kennel as she has been there all day. That is when my watching her comes in contantly watching her calling her name so I know where she is, following her around. And inbetween all that we go outside a whole lot. Sometimes yes...she goes to the door because she wants out to run around....not to potty. But if she goes to the door I always let her out and tell her to go potty so she knows that going to the door means I need to pee. we finish up around 9:30-10pm and by that time I'm ready for bed. My weekends are spent watching her from 6am till bedtime. I kennel her if I am going out. if I am going out for a short period of time we have a sunroom that we keep the dogs in with thier kennels and food and water.