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Comment by Jane on May 24, 2012 at 12:14pm

Please don't rub his nose in it...unless you actually catch him IN THE ACT, trying to correct him for something he did at an earlier time does nothing. Well, maybe it will teach him to eat his own crap since he doesn't get why you're shoving it up his nose later, yummo. Dogs live in the moment, they don't feel bad for something that happened an hour ago. If the puppy is having accidents in the house, the owner needs to be watching him closer.

Comment by GPN on May 24, 2012 at 9:10am

Dipper passed 21 days without an accident a few days ago which according to my dog book means he's trained.

You can figure one hour of "holding time" for every month of age.  But I note that my puppy, at any rate, is able to hold for long periods when he is crated and especially overnight can go for 7 to 9 hours, much longer than one hour per month.  During the day the one hour per month rule seems to hold, but when he's crated he can go four or five hours.

A crate works because dogs, as hunters, don't like to have a strong smell that gives them away.  So when crated they tend to hold to avoid saturating themselves with urine.

No one wants to leave a dog crated but all the books say it is OK and the way to handle absence from home where there are house training or other behavioral issues.  

All the contemporary dog training books emphasize positive reinforcement training ONLY.  I note that back in the 60s dogs were house trained with negative reinforcement and tens of millions of them were happy loyal animals.  My own take on the situation is that the old style technique of rub-nose-in-pee combined with the new style technique of lavish praise and a reward for going outside are not mutually exclusive.   What took me the longest time was to find a treat that my dog REALLY LIKED.  I must have spent a hundred bucks on worthless "treats" from Petsmart that he didn't like.  Then I discovered CHEESE (cheddar).  Not human sized cocktail cubes but small little cubes of cheese maybe 1/4 inch to a side (or less).  

With the cheese outside and the rose nub inside there was a huge discrepancy which Dipper caught on to very fast.  I don't think I had to do more than two or three nose rubs before he "got it."  I still give him a cheese cube for an outside pee and a big hug.   I think that the main problem with only-positive reinforcement is that he gets a lot of love and praise and so getting love and praise outside isn't such a big deal, he pees where he wants inside and the only result is that he gets taken outside and given love and praise.   That message seemed to have become:  "If I pee inside I'll get to go outside, smell things in the yard, maybe pee again, and get a big hug."  The positive-only must surely work because dogs get trained that way but I must say the rapidity with which the lesson got learned using "both"  was a welcome relief because the positive only approach had made no headway in my case.  

I note that on most matters touching upon the care and training of dogs, there are "very very strong feelings" out there about what is right approach and I wills say that in other domains particularly leash training the positive reinforcement approach has been super.  

One thing that was nice in the training process was that once he understood pee outside = cheese all I had to do was wave the cheese cube under his nose.  There had been a problem with him peeing at the door entryway while I put on a coat or looked for the leash etc.  But with the whiff of cheese under the nose he knew what to expect and became very eager to go outside, pee, and get his cheese. 

Mid-size crates can be bought for about $20 off craig's list.  They cost about $50 to $80 new.  I bought one for my office at school, one for my bedroom, one for the kitchen.  Dipper now spends less and less time in the crate.  I usually use child gates to confine him to the kitchen and when I'm out of the house for two or three hours but the crate is useful when he gets too excited and we still use it for sleeping.  In my office I have too many books on the floor and I don't want him chewing them.

It's been a real chore because I have had to do a mix of coming back from work to walk him and also taking him in to campus and in that situation we have an uptown and a downtown campus and I leave him downtown and have to leave uptown to go let him out, etc.  

But it has been worth it and he is definitely getting better, because as the "holding time" gets longer my day gets more flexible.     

I thought about pads but I need to be able to have him overnight at other people's houses from time to time, and I think you get fewer takers if people think they have to do inside cleanup, even if confined to a pad.

regards

GN 

Comment by Sam Tsang on May 24, 2012 at 8:50am

Hi Calvin, forget about pee pads, they only delay the potty training process, read and re-read the FAQ.

Comment by Jane on May 24, 2012 at 8:34am

I'd do like Emily said and buy a piece of scrap linoleum to put under the pen. I think potty pads really confuse a puppy, and teach them that going potty inside is okay. I'd definitely get up earlier and take him for a walk in the morning too if you're going to be gone for a long period of time.

Comment by Emily & Scout on May 23, 2012 at 10:34pm

You could buy some cheap linoleum and put it under his entire pen (leaving a border on the outside of the pen so he doesn't tear it up) That way, if he does go on the floor, it is EASY cleanup

Comment by Calvin Tandi on May 23, 2012 at 10:21pm

The thing is the entire floor in my house is carpeted so I can't really use newspaper. Yeah I figured he's probably just bored and trying to do something fun. I've been quite busy with college and sometimes I get up late and don't get a chance to walk him before I leave although at night after I get home I walk him for almost an hour, trying to tire him up. I thought about that artificial grass thing but I haven't tried it.

Comment by Bev Levy on May 23, 2012 at 9:21pm

Use newspaper, it is cheaper. Also, since you are gone so much he is probably amusing himself by tearing up the pads. Try freezing some peanut butter inside a Kong and giving it to him when you leave. It will give him something fun and harmless to do. Also, you should be walking him at minimum a half hour before you leave him and also when you get home. Corgis are smart and need stimulation, if you don't provide acceptable outlets for his energy he will find stuff to do that you might not like.

Comment by Emily & Scout on May 23, 2012 at 8:42pm

I don't like the potty pad idea either.  Newspaper (which is sooo much cheaper) on a hard floor will work for truly housebreaking him (He will eventually be able to and want to hold it long enough to not make a wet spot on the paper).  If you must use an indoor potty area, they make these things that are like real grass that they can go on.  Or someone on here has a mulch-type material in a box that can be scooped out and cleaned.

Comment by Snickmom on May 23, 2012 at 6:59pm

Sounds like he needs to be under constant supervision when he is not in his pen, so you can quickly move him to the pad when he starts acting like he needs to go. There are a couple of good potty training articles in the FAQ section.

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