dog potty training problems?
Please help! I have a 4 month old french bulldog who I love so much and he has already learned “sit” and “shake a paw”…so I know he is a smart dog but potty training has not improved at all. I have had him for 2 months now.
I just cant figure out his schedule. I feed him around 7am-8am every morning and then 10-15 mins later, I take him out but he doesnt poop. The reason for this i think is because when I wake up he has already pooped in my dining room. Do I have to wake up in the middle of the night and take him out? When will he learn to hold it all night?
The good thing is that Im not working at the moment so I have lots of time to train my dog and I am willing to put in the time and effort it takes, I just dont think I know what I’m doing because this is my first dog.
I also feed him again around 5pm and then take him out again. Usually the afternoon walk is successful and I always reward with a treat and praise him.
I have read online a lot about training. And I know that if you dont catch your dog in the act of it, then you shouldnt punish him. So what do I do about night time? I cant stay up all night waiting to catch him!
I think I can handle during the day because i just watch him and when I see him sniffing around, i quickly take him outside the apartment building.
Im just feeling like one day if I’m not home watching him, that he wont wait for me to get home. I just can’t imagine him potty trained because he’s had so many accidents! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
thank you everyone for your advice…im interested in crate training but does that mean i can never trust my dog alone in the apartment unless he is in a crate? how and when does he graduate from crate training? i dont understand how this works?
Tagged with: Potty • problems • Training
Filed under: Dog Potty Training
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1. Put everything on a schedule including food and water. Don’t give less water, just schedule when.
2. When you can’t closely supervise him, he should be in a crate. Crate training will help with house training as well as having other advantages. Alternately, at times you can tether him to you.
3. Take him outside on a regular schedule, every hour if you need to, including once during the night at this age if he needs that. Be sure to take him out immediately before bed. Then set your alarm for 4 hours and take him out then. If he’s already done something, set it earlier the next night. Gradually set it later and later until he’s sleeping through the night. Again, here’s where crating helps.
4. Thoroughly clean up any accidents with an enzyme cleaner such as Nature’s Miracle to destroy the odor at the molecular level.
5. When you take him out walk back and forth in the potty area repeating a word or phrase (such as get busy) over and over until he finishes his business. Then praise and treat. Some dogs need to move to get things moving, so if he seems to be one of these dogs, play a game with him first and tehn take him to his potty area. Don’t play games if you have to take him out during the middle of the night of course.
6. If you catch him in the act correct him each and every time. Here’s where constant supervision, tethering and crating help.
I agree with the crate training. I was skeptical at first, but I inherited a miniature schnauzer from a friend. He was a year old already. I could not get him to “go” outside! Then he started chewing up a lot of things. The crate was my last resort, and it has been such a blessing! For the first 1-2 weeks, I had to clean the crate and the dog every day! Then, he stopped wetting in the crate, but would poop in there. Now? Well, I was told not to leave water in the crate with him and I wait until I get home to feed him. I first take him out to pee, then he goes back in the crate to eat, then I take him back out 1/2 hour later. The he spend the rest of the day out with me. If I am doing something that takes my attention away from watching him, he goes back in the crate. He did not like it at first, but now when I take him out in the morning before work, he goes back into the crate all by himself!
house training is very annoying, when i first got my lab i thought he would never get it. All i use to do is just before i went to bed i would take him for a quick walk and i wouldn’t go inside until he went to the toilet. i know its a pain but once he went we would go to bed, then i would wake up at about 3am and take him out again and wait again, then i would do the same as soon as i woke up. soon he will get use to the routine of going when you wake up at 3 and when he has mastered that then maybe wake up at 4 and then 5am so he gets use to holding it until your ready to let him out.
also when you catch him in the act you need to smack him on the nose and say no in a mean voice then put him outside so he will soon know that he needs to do it outside. when you dont catch him, i know this sounds mean (i thought so too until someone explained why) you need to rub his nose in it, if you dont have the heart to do it (like me) i use to just hold his nose close to it so he could smell it.
this means that he smells it and to put it simply goes oh!! thats mine and then you smack on the nose say no and put outside in time out.
they say that you shouldn’t punish them when you haven’t caught them in the act because they dont remember what they have done wrong. so making them smell it reminds him so you can punish.
hope this helps, chin up, he will learn eventually, you just have to stick with a routine.
To first off answer your crate training question… Crate training is a house breaking aid. It doesn’t mean that he has to be in a crate for the rest of his life. Once he is house trained, you can get rid of the crate although your dog may learn to like sleeping in it.
Crate training stems from the dog’s instinct to not want to soil their sleeping area. The crate should just be big enough for them to stand up, turn around and lay down. Since they won’t want to go in their sleeping area, they learn to hold it. That way, you don’t need to wake up to poop in your dining room.
When you can’t be supervising your dog, he goes in his crate. That means at night or during the day if you need to run an errand or are just busy around the house and need him somewhere where you don’t need to watch him. Before you put him in his crate, take him outside and when you take him out, take him outside. This will also help him hold it because he will learn that when he is let out of his crate he will be taken outside.
If you catch him in the act of going inside, make a loud sharp noise (“Ah Ah Ah”) and scoop him up and bring him outside. Reward him if he finishes outside. Whenever he goes outside, treat and praise! If he has an accident inside and you didn’t see him, don’t give him any attention for it at all. Don’t let him see you clean it up either (Believe it or not, that is like giving him attention if he sees you clean it up and is rewarding to him). The crate will prevent the accidents over night. If needed you may need to set your alarm and let him out if you don’t think he can hold it all night.
Honestly with our pup, we did the crate training, we would watch him while he was in the house, take him out often, but he would still have the occasional accidents. They are puppies and learning and are going to make mistakes. What worked best with our dog was a bell that he could ring to go outside. It is seriously a great way to train your dog and now me and my boyfriend tell everyone about it and it has worked for many of our friends to.
What you do is hang a bell (we got a cowbell from a craft store and ribbon to hang it) next to the door that he goes out of when you take him to go to the bathroom. Whenever you take him out to go to the bathroom, take his paw and hit the bell and give him a treat. He may be scared of the bell at first but he will get very used to it. Our dog was scared at first but now whacks it! Take him outside and if he goes to the bathroom, treat and praise! Do this every time you take him outside to go. Our dog caught on extremely quickly. If he rings the bell on his own, take him outside right away. Do not give him a treat for ringing the bell on his own, only if he actually goes bathroom (to stop him from ringing the bell just for treats). Honestly, within less than a week of introducing the bell to our dog (around the same age of yours at the time), he didn’t have any more accidents. We are now at the stage with our dog where we are taking away the bell at certain times during the day to make him learn to hold it a little longer instead of going out at any and every urge to go. Even with the bell not there, he doesnt have any accidents.
Good luck and if you have any questions feel free to contact me