housebreaking
 

Hi -- I don't post very often, but I'd love some advice. Back in July I had a fifteen-month-old yorkie named Zoe and decided to get her a playmate. I bought a yorkie who was only a week apart from Zoe in age, named Coco. The woman who sold her to me told me she was housebroken. She's not. When I asked her how Coco asks to go out, she said that she doesn't b/c she has a fenced in yard and they just let her out every now and then.

She has lots of accidents. I've tried everything. I live in a condo, so there's no yard to just let her out in. I don't want to train her to use pads b/c I want her to go outside all of the time, and don't want to confuse her by making it OK to go inside or outside. So I bought bells for the door and tried to get her to use them, but she won't. I take her out every two hours when I'm home, and she still has accidents. When we go outside I give her a treat everytime she eliminates and I praise her. It's hard for me to catch her in the act and correct her because I can't watch her constantly. It's funny because when I'm at work and I leave her for six hours at a time, she hardly ever has accidents.

A month or so ago, I took Coco to the vet to see if she had a UTI, and she doesn't. Besides, sometimes when she has accidents, she poops inside. I don't know what else to do. Does anyone have any suggestions? I love Coco so much -- she's adorable -- and so does Zoe. I could never give her up. Sometimes I think maybe it's harder for an older dog to learn new tricks, but I don't know what to do next. Any suggestions?

I am going to have to say that this is your number 1 problem. If you really want to get this puppy trained you are going to have to be ever vigiliant in watching her every move. So you are going to have to take time for a few months to watch her all the time. When you absolutely cannot, you are going to have to crate her or contain her in an area small enough so she does not have room to go potty. I recommend:

1. that she be tethered to you at all times that you are home so you can catch her in the act to stop her before she has a mistake. The only way she is going to form a good habit of only going outside is when you prevent her from having the bad habit of going in the house. You have to eliminate the bad behavior all together. This is your job, not hers. Hers is just to know what your expectations are of her and she won't know if she is allowed to pee in the house, and yes you are allowing her to.

2. Confine her to only one room at a time, when you can watch her. No free roam of the house.

3. You have to adopt an attitude of Puppy Boot Camp You just have to assume that she was NOT housebroken when you got her. (She really wasn't, no matter what the other owner told you.) Also you have to know that the new dog just does not understand what you want from her. So it's back to puppy basics!

4. Crate training is a great tool in teaching a dog how to hold their potty for several hours. There are multiple threads on this and also you find good articles on the internet on how to accomplish this.

5. To train her to use the bells, I would recommend that you make her ring the bells everytime, no exceptions, you take her out. I would put some liver spread or peanut butter on the bells so that she is attracted to them. Everytime she puts her nose up to it, give her a treat. Then work to when the bell makes a noise, and then work to when she puts her paws on the bells to swing it. All this will take a few weeks or days, depending on how committed you are to training her. I would also set some time aside to train her just on the bells. Make it a game. Every time she does the required behavior, depending on what step you are on, treat her and open the door. So she associates the bell ringing with the door open. After a while you will open the door and walk out with her, on a leash, and start the process all over again. (Clicker training is great for this).

Those are just a few suggestions. Hope that helps.

I agree! You need to constantly watch her every move! It makes a huge difference.

How about crate training? Why not try that?

:goodpost:

Sounds like you need to get back to the baiscs and do crate training. After taking your dog out, put back in the crate when you can't keep BOTH eyes on her. Take out every few hours for potty, then play inside a few minutes then back to the crate.

I hated the thoughts of crate training myself, but its so much faster to train them. Its also faster to use pee pads too, althought you said you didn't want to use them.

My ginger is almost 12 weeks. She is very smart and doing tricks. When we got her, after one day, she was walking to the other side of the kitchen and going on newspaper/pads etc.

Now the relapse. She is missing the pads/paper by a mile now. Back in the crate and when she is out, just when I turn my head she is peeing on the floor (rather then the pad).

She was sooooo good for a few weeks. I know she is young but just curious why she relapsed. The pad and paper have her urine already on them.

We were taking her out when weather permits also but she got a cough and the weather got cold. I took her out the past couple of days again and back in the crate. Cannot do this all the time of course so we have her in the laundry with a pad in there close by. For most part she uses that one but sometimes jumps over the board in there and poops behind dryer etc...

Hi there! I wouldn't worry about Ginger at all. She's so young. I've heard that a good rule of thumb is six months for being fully trained. Just keep doing what you're doing. I'm sure she's going to be just fine. My Coco is nineteen months, so I think her problems are a result of improper training when I got her at one year. It's harder to housebreak if the puppy wasn't trained properly in the beginning.

ONe thing I have found that helped was the Doggy diapers/panties. I moved from a house with a fenced in yard to a condo myself and had to train Gracie to use a pee pad as well as being let outside. So I used the diapers because when we had a house she was use to being able to run around because she knew to use her doggy door and go outside to potty.

Now there is no doggy door and she has to learn to let me know when she needs to go out or to use the pad.

Maybe to help with the accidents put a panty or diaper on her til she gets "it" :)

As for the training I say the crate is a good method...thats what I plan to do with my new puppy Chloe.

:thumbup: Thanks, its just frustrating cause she was so good almost right from the start. I watch her constantly and put her outside (which she goes fine) or on the paper now which she just runs off. Just a few minutes ago she went and peed right at my feet. Darn mutt! Oh well, yes she just teased me at the beginning I guess.

Diapers, hmmmmm wow. Ill keep doing what Im doing for now though, thanks all.