Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

If you remember, my dh got us a puppy back in April. I was working and taking shifts at Hospice while my mom was there so I was not home to train the puppy. Now, 7 months later, he is still not trained. DH told me he would take care of the housebreaking if I said ok to the puppy. Yeah, that didnt happen.

I've tried crate training, wee wee pads, a ton of things and nothing seems to work. He will go outside for a few HOURS and play with my other dog, and come back in and go either on the floor or in his crate within 2 minutes

So, I need to get this puppy trained. The main problem is that he is in the crate all day while DH and I are at work. I'm talking 6-8 hours, which was one of my concerns when getting a puppy. I get home and the crate is filled with poop and pee and it takes a good hour to get him bathed and the crate cleaned.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to train a puppy that is already used to bad habits and that is alone for most of the day? Please? I am probably going to stop working in February and if this is still a problem (which it hopefully wont be anymore) I can work more closely with him. The thought of giving him up just broke my heart so I could really really REALLY use some help!


UPDATE: We left him gated up in the kitchen last night with the crate inside and open with wee wee pads. Well, he actually ended up getting out of the kitchen (he knocked the gate down - my DH didnt put it up right!) but the ONLY place where there was poopr/pee was in the crate! So he had full run of the house and didnt go anywhere else. I was so proud of him this morning Obvisouly, I dont want him using the crate as a potty forever, but I'll take this as a small step in the right direction (and hopefully it wasnt a fluke! )

UPDATE #2: So my little boy was consistently going in his crate on the wee wee pads so we let him loose in the house and he was still doing it So sometime last evening, we put the crate outside and left just a wee wee pad inside a tupperware tray in the kitchen. He went on it a few times, but also went in the living room and the bathroom once. He DID eat in his crate, so I cannot figure out why he thinks the crate is his potty. Either way, he's still better than he was a few days ago - I think he saw how frustrated my DH was getting and realized he better shape up

Message edited 11/22/2009 10:47:07 AM.

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

I just bought a 5 month old puppy and what I do is bring him out on a leash as soon as I get up in the morning. I walk him until he goes - while I walk I give him a command like "Be QuicK" - once he goes I tell him "Good Be QuicK" and bring him in the house. I feed him breakfast and then take him out about 30 minutes later and repeat the same routine. Then I'm off to work.

He is crated while I'm at work and in the crate is a blanket and a weewee pad towards the back end of the crate (crate is not too large for the puppy to roam around in, just enough room for the blanket and the pad). Also, there is no food in the crate just a water bottle attachment.

When I get home, I repeat the same thing that I do in the morning - take him out - feed him - take him out again.

Before bed - i take him out one more time. (I do have a weewee pad in the kitchen in case I don't catch it that he wants to go out and occasionally he will go to the weewee pad). But, for the most part - when I see he is circling or going to the door - i catch him in time and take him out.

Good luck - it's a hard task but eventually he will catch on - you just have to stick with the routine.

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

i know what i did was probably bad but my yorkie was hard to train and after cleaning his crate and him (way too many times) i decided not to crate him. i gated off an my kitchen and left him with his weewee pad there. he would go on the pad and sometimes on the floor right next to the weewee pad. it took about a year and a half to fully train him. hes 3 now and still sometimes has an accident but only when im home.

when you take him outside, try giving him a treat after he does his business and praise him.

is he on a regular schedule? do you feed him after walking him and then leave or leave food with him?

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

A regular schedule is very important. You might want to consider having someone to come in midday to walk your dog for a while to keep the reinforcement of pottying outside. Eventually once the dog realizes he shouldn't go in the house, it should be fine to stop that midday visit. I would be taking him out as often as possible at first so you can constantly reward him for pottying outside so that could be instilled in him. Every hour! That's how I started and then I gradually increased the time. I think he's pretty much got it at this point. We haven't had an accident it almost two months. He's just over 6 months old now.You may want to consider putting him in an exercise pen instead of the crate so he isn't getting so dirty. It's like a big play pen for dogs so he could have a little more space and he could stay away from the excrement. We keep our pup in an ex-pen and the few times early on when he had accidents he was clean, just the floor needed to be cleaned. Dogs will naturally stay away from it if possible. At the very least that is one less thing you have to do and your dog will be happier not having to be dirty. Good luck and I hope this helps!

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

If he is going to play outside and then coming in and having an accident, it sounds like you need to teach him the difference between going outside to play and going outside to do his business.
I would take him out on a leash to a spot in the backyard and walk him until he goes. Praise him as soon as he does. Do this first thing in the morning, when you get home and at night.
By 7 months, I think he should be able to hold it for 6-8 hours. Is he going in the morning before you leave for work? How big is the crate? I didn't crate my dog so I can't help too much with that.
Good luck! It will get better!

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

my dog hardly ever goes when she's playing in the yard... I take her out in the front on the leash and say "go potty." our trainer has a housebreaking package that he does - www.beyondpetsittingny.com

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

Do you have anyone that can come over during the day and let the dog out? I know it is hard to train a dog. We were lucky with otis the wee wee pads worked and he was trained in no time. Maybe blocking him in the kitchen and not in the crate would work. Does he sleep in the crate also?

Give the dog treats when he does go outside everytime

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG)

To answer a few questions.....

The crate is actually pretty big for such a small dog. He has WAY too much room in there. I do stick a wee wee pad in one corner but he shreds it up! I'm thiking of getting a smaller crate but I feel terrible because he's in it so long.

He does mostly sleep in the crate. If he has a good evening with no peeing and pooping in the house, I sometimes let him sleep out of the crate - but almost always wake up to pee/poop somewhere.

We dont have ANYONE to stop by during the day to take him out. We are pretty much by ourselves where we live and our neighbors are moving (they would have helped us in the past!)

We take him out about 30min - 60 min after he eats on the leash but he still doesnt go. So, after trying for 10-15 minutes, we let him run loose.

I am going to try again to keep him penned up in the kitchen and leave the wee wee pads IN his crate (and leave the door open) He seems to think thats the place to go. We tried this a few times and it didnt work but maybe I need to give it more time. If I can at least get him to go in one place in the house and on wee wee pads, I think I could eventually get him to go outside.

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

Bump for my tiny update

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

my yorkie use to shred his wee wee pads too. we had a litter box for dogs that i use to put the wee wee pad in because i didnt like it right on the floor. try it for your dog, maybe because he'll have to go onto it, it might remind him of his crate sorta. mine was kinda like the one in the link.

http://www.petco.com/product/110111/PETCO-Contour-Dog-Litter-Pan.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGooglebase-_-Dog-_-PETCO-_-1231901&mr:trackingCode=B3707C8D-4C8D-DE11-B4D4-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

also , have you tried feeding your dog in the crate? Maggie pooped once in the crate when I first got her. I fed her a few meals in there and it stopped...

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

Bump for 2nd update

Re: Need help with housebreaking (LONG) - Small UPDATE

What helped us is that when I would get up in the morning I would run outside with him so he could pee. That got him into the habit that when we wake up we go pee. I also take him out before bed. We walk to the same tree every morning and night. It just needs to become routine.

Do you scold him for having accidents?