I think I made a mistake...

[Love_Capone]

I tried to look for similar posts with no luck, but could someone give me advice. I have trained my wonderful little Capone to use a litter box (to save money on pee pads). He does #2 on it every single time, we're still working on #1. But the problem I'm having is he will not go outside. I will take him and walk him for an hour and he will not use the bathroom. I wouldn't really mind, but the problem is when I'm visiting friends or when he is boarded and his tray is not available, he pees and poops anywhere. When I was training him to use his litter box (UgoDog) he would always run away and have accidents by the door, but he wouldn't tell anyone he wanted to go out he would just run and use the bathroom immediately. I feel like I should have used that time to teach him to alert me to take him out. Hind sight is 20/20. I've tried crating him and taking him outside immediately, but he holds it until he gets back inside to his tray. How can I teach him using the bathroom outside is ok? Please help.

[RoxyLuv]

You don't say how old he is or how long you've had him, but he'll get it eventually. It took Roxy awhile. In fact she didn't get the 'outside' part of this until I took her to day care for an afternoon. After her second time there, she got it. She completely ignores her pee pad now. Yea!!! Now I have to devise a way of teaching her she can go somewhere beside home or day care. Once Capone has had all his shots, try to set up some play dates with other trained dogs & see if that helps. Good luck & have patience. : )

[TresCutePiggies]

Originally Posted by RoxyLuv

You don't say how old he is or how long you've had him, but he'll get it eventually. It took Roxy awhile. In fact she didn't get the 'outside' part of this until I took her to day care for an afternoon. After her second time there, she got it. She completely ignores her pee pad now. Yea!!! Now I have to devise a way of teaching her she can go somewhere beside home or day care. Once Capone has had all his shots, try to set up some play dates with other trained dogs & see if that helps. Good luck & have patience. : )

My girls both use pads and go outdoors. That being said, even though they'll go outdoors, I still put a pad down when we are visiting someone, etc.

When Rory was a puppy, we'd go for a long walk and then as soon as we got in the door she'd rush to her pad to go, poor thing. Just like you, both of my girls proudly go outside and on walks now thanks to doggie daycare. The first time Rory went in the grass was in the front yard of daycare on the way out and she almost looked at me like "yes, this is allowed!"

I second the idea of putting him around other dogs who go outside. The dogs at daycare did all the work for me.

[Rooziedoo31]

Im new to this but had a thought. What if you have his litter box outside when you take him out to gradually get him used to going outside of the house. Once he gets that, you can try taking the litter box back in.

Also everytime you take him out tell him to "go potty" (or whatever you want to say) and when he does tell him "good boy! Good go potty!". After a while he will figure out what go potty means and will do it when you tell him to.

My puppy will squat even if she doesn't have to go whan I tell her to go potty and I've only had her a week.

Just some thoughts!

[Love_Capone]

Originally Posted by RoxyLuv

You don't say how old he is or how long you've had him, but he'll get it eventually. It took Roxy awhile. In fact she didn't get the 'outside' part of this until I took her to day care for an afternoon. After her second time there, she got it. She completely ignores her pee pad now. Yea!!! Now I have to devise a way of teaching her she can go somewhere beside home or day care. Once Capone has had all his shots, try to set up some play dates with other trained dogs & see if that helps. Good luck & have patience. : )

Capone is about 8 months old and I've had him 5 months, so I've been kind of working at this potty training thing for a while, but he's doing good. I didn't think about having other dogs show him that it's ok. He is all the way vaccinated and neutered so I should try to find some of those doggie daycares around here. Thanks for the advice, please keep the ideas coming, I'm desperate.

[Love_Capone]

Originally Posted by Rooziedoo31

Im new to this but had a thought. What if you have his litter box outside when you take him out to gradually get him used to going outside of the house. Once he gets that, you can try taking the litter box back in.

Also everytime you take him out tell him to "go potty" (or whatever you want to say) and when he does tell him "good boy! Good go potty!". After a while he will figure out what go potty means and will do it when you tell him to.

My puppy will squat even if she doesn't have to go whan I tell her to go potty and I've only had her a week.

Just some thoughts!

Thanks, at one point I think he did know what "go potty" meant, but I stopped using it as much when he got the hang of it so now I'm trying to jog his memory on what "go potty" means. I tried putting his box outside and he just looks at me like I'm crazy for moving his potty, but I'm going to keep doing it. It just takes time. Thanks for your advice.

[RoxyLuv]

Come to think of it, I did put a pee pad outside the door as well as the one inside. She used both, but wouldn't go to the grass until after daycare. Have always said 'go potty' every time I see her go or want her to go. I don't want her to forget those words ever. Roxy's first trips out on a leash after spaying was the first time she ever peed while on a leash. Yea!!!

Oh, I think the next big kick for her was putting a doggie door in the sliding screen door. Didn't take her long at all to catch onto using that. Now she thinks she's a real hot shot coming & going without us opening the door for her. 'I'm a big girl now!' : ) She'll wait for me to close the screen door now so she can go out through her own door. (Thank you very much!) lol

I'm planning on leaving the pee pad down till I see how she handles this next winter. We had a really bad/cold one last winter. She's not appearing to have a prissy bone in her body, so maybe she won't mind the cold as much as I do. If she continues to ignore the pad & goes out into the cold then I consider myself done w/the pads. I really don't care which place she goes as long as it's one or the other. lol We celebrate every step she makes with the pottying issue. Keep working at it. We'll get there.