House Training
My message to her, "I need some help on the house training front. Ein frequently goes to the bathroom outside on her own (we have a doggy door) and I use the positive marker "good" every time I happen to see her, but she stills goes both 1 & 2 in the house at least 2 times a day. Every time I catch her I use the negative marker "uh uh" and sometimes I even grab her in the process and put her outside to finish, but it doesn't seem to do anything but make her more sneaky about it. She rarely does it in front of me anymore. She usually does it when I'm out of sight. Like, if I'm in the kitchen she'll go in living room or visa versa. I'd hate to have to block up the doggy door, cause Philo is house trained and he loves going in and out and spending time sunning himself in the backyard. What can I do differently to solidify in her mind that the outside is the place to go?"
Her reply, "The whole goal during the housebreaking process is to eliminate any chance for failure, and set the dog up for success. In order to do so, you have to really prevent any accidents from happening. Whenever you can't keep 100% focus on Ein, you need to ensure that she will not potty in the house. Whenever you're taking a shower, cooking, etc, you need to make sure she cannot sneak off to potty. You have a couple of different options: If you crate train her, you can put her in the crate frequently throughout the day (provided she is not using the restroom in there), or I find it is much more effective to tie her leash to your belt loop so she is forced to be in the same room as you. This way, you can pick up on her cues and teach her to let you know that she has to go potty. Another SUPER important aspect of potty training is to control the intake. If you keep the food and water picked up, your pup cannot run over, drink, and have to pee without your knowledge. You can give her water 100x per day if you want, but what is going to happen is that when you give her a chance to drink, you will make a mental note and subconsciously watch for potty cues later. You have the reward part down, and even the corrections too, but we don't want Ein to think potty needs to simply happen "away from the humans" but rather "outside only". Check out the potty training doc and let me know if you have questions. If you are really diligent, potty training should last two weeks max."
I am completely overwhelmed by this. It changes everything. It breaks my heart to think of restricting her movements like that, and I know she is not going to be very happy about it either. I'm going to start off by shutting us in our master bedroom. That way she's not pulling at me and I'm not pulling at her on a leash, but we're still in a room where I can keep my eyes on her at all time. The thing that mainly overwhelms me is that I'm going to have to crate her when I can't give her my undivided attention, and that seems too much. I know it has to be done, I guess I just wanted to vent about how upset I am about. I should have nipped this in the bud sooner. Thanks for reading.
Heather
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I have frequently used the leash to me technique for many reasons. House training is a good reason to do it when you can not watch every moment. I have not found it to be any problem and the dogs don't seem to mind either. You need to change the way you are thinking about ( I sound like Cesar!) the dog doesn't see it that way. It is a temporary trainig technique. She will get the idea pretty soon. My experiance has been that the females are are little slower to catch on to the no pottying in the house idea. Just be persistant! Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Heather, your trainer is right and I agree with her 100%, read and re-read this. A dog will get the idea of potty train and have the physical maturity to hold by 9 months, fully "potty trained" and reliable by 1-2 yrs. It is still way faster than a human child. Apply the principal and stick with it, you'll get there in no time! We've all been through it :)
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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Marie O'Bryan on
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she gave you great info and she is exactly right but you must remember she is still a tiny pup. it will be a year before she has no accidents. just to have 2 in one day is great sounding lol but like she said. if you cant watch her to clean, etc. put her in the crate with a yummy teat/toy. pups need to have an eye on them at all times at least until they are 6months when they have more control. its a tough time but you will get through it. keep her on a feeding schedule so you know ten mins after she eats she has to go out and poop and ten mins after she drinks/plays take her out and pick up the water at 8pm
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Permalink Reply by Chris West on
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I agree with your trainer as well. Your dog is NOT going to be mad/upset if you crate her or keep her on a leash with you at all times. Dogs just don't get upset like that. She will not be resentful against you for restricting her movement. If fact, she will be thrilled if you keep her on a leash with you because she will be getting lots of extra attention! She is a dog, not a person. Stop thinking of these methods as some sort of punishment for the both of you. The more positive you are about using these techniques, the happy you both will be, and the sooner she will learn and you can stop doing it. Stop feeling like you are a bad person!
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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Good advice from your trainer, but worthless unless you are really diligent in following through. As your trainer points out you need to work at making your puppy successful and eliminating ANY chances of failure. What you are doing now is teaching your smart puppy to do its business when you are out of sight and it feels safe. The puppy is confused and must meet its physical needs. If done right, housebreaking does not take long, but reliability takes longer, so take your time before giving too much freedom.
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Permalink Reply by Carrie Ritter on
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That is perfect advise, and what I tell others too. It isn't harsh, and it will take adjusting. But he will learn quickly, it will only be temporary. When we got our pup at 9wks old, I had to "train" the husband to take him out frequently so the pup wouldn't fail. I set an egg timer to remind him. We went out like every 30min (they have no bladder control at that age) and gradually increased. I never let him out of my sight and we crated when we left. But now he is an adult and I can leave the dogs in the house for hours and be confident we won't have accidents.
They always say you get out what you put in, so go with it, it will be worth it in the long run.
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Permalink Reply by Allie Christie on
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Hang in there. Our Ein did the same thing. He grew out of it though. All we did was reward the good behavior, giving potty commands on walks, and constantly let him go outside. Corgis are smart. Listen and watch for clues. You and your puppy will learn to communicate.
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Permalink Reply by Alex on
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Potty training was a nightmare for us so I would like to assist you as much as possible.
Umbilical cord - Get a leash and wrap it around your stomach. This will keep Ein next to you at all times. When you see Ein sniffing the floor, go outside and see if she will go potty.
When in doubt take Ein out - Take Ein out after EVERY feeding, drinking and playing. Also take Ein out before and after every naps. If Ein has yet taken a number 1 or 2 and it has been a couple of hours, take her out to make sure. Reward her when she goes potty at the correct location.
Crate training - If you're unable to watch Ein, crate her. Ein should love her crate and you should reward her for liking her crate. You can always reward her when she goes into her crate by herself. It's your task to associate her crate as a positive place to be. If you're sad in crating her to begin with then you will have a harder time in getting this done. Example; Kenji sleeps on the floor next to our bed at night. When we're gone for work and out of the house in general he is crated. Bring crated for him is a way of life and is a rule that he must follow given that we let him free roam when we're home. We know that he doesn't mind because when he sees us getting ready and after he gets taken outside for a potty break he runs straight to our guest room where the crate is located. He gets into his crate by himself and waits for us to turn on the radio and treat him.
Hang in there!!
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Permalink Reply by The Geek's Wife & her Corgi Ein on
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Ein is crate trained, and she sees it as her safe place, but the thought of crating her a lot made me sad cause I know if given the choice she would rather be running and playing and burning off some of that puppy energy. I just had to stop thinking negatively and just try it with a good attitude and it worked out really well today. By the time she goes to bed at 11pm she'll probably only have been crated to a total of 6 hours today. In a 14+ hour day (up around 8:30am) 6 hours is still less than half, and I can live with that number. I know if and when I go back to work that number will probably be higher, so I might as well get her used to it. I also only had her in there for about 2 hours each time. So she pretty much just napped the whole time. It went much better than I anticipated. Thanks for the advice.
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Thanks for the firm hand and encouraging words everyone. I needed that. After reading everyone's posts I took a deep breath, dove in, and have been giving it 100%. I have found a system that is working really well for us right now. When she's out of her crate I shut us up in the master bedroom, leave the sliding glass door to the backyard open during the day, and shut up the doggy door so she can't get in to the main living areas. She loves spending time outside and this gives her the freedom to do that, and have a place to come into and play too. When she's in the bedroom I give her 100% of my attention and we have great play sessions. When I need to do something I just put her in her crate (she is has been crate trained since 10 weeks old). I will probably use the leash tether system at some point, but haven't really needed to yet, cause we've been spending a lot of time outside. Yesterday we went on a hike, and today we went to a park with a pond. Having her outside a lot has given me the opportunity to reinforce the good behavior of going outside. So far today she only attempted to pee in the house once, and I immediately snatched her up and put her outside so she could finish. This isn't going to be so bad after all. Thanks again for all the responses.
Heather
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