House training woes

edited April 2012 in General
Hi guys, It has been a while since i posted on the forum. I recently got a new comp and will be back in full force. But on to my question lol Breezy is now 5 months old and we are still having house training issues. When I am home with her she does not dream of going in the house..But if I leave and do not put her in my bathroom she will pee and poop numerous times around the apartment. I dont know what to do. I know that you cannot punish a dog if you do not catch her in the act but what do I do if i never catch her. other than that she is a great dog i just dont know what to do about her potty training issues.

Comments

  • Don't give her the opportunity to have an accident. She's just a puppy and she doesn't have as much ability to "hold it" like an adult. She's already gotten used to going inside, so she doesn't have much reason to want to hold it either. So just like a much smaller puppy, take her out for very frequent potty breaks. Don't leave her unattended and without access to a place to potty for prolonged periods of time. Also work on crate training her, because dogs hate to mess in their dens. She probably doesn't consider your whole house her den, but a small, comfy crate would be.
  • I second the notion of crate training. Shibas are very neat dogs. They want everything as clean as possible and hate making a mess where they sleep.

    When potty training Sasuke, I would say, "potty" right before he went outside. Later, he associated that term with going potty outside. Sometimes he would go on cue, which is helpful when we travel.
  • I agree with the crate training. Like I said I leave her in my bathroom most of the time and she dose not go in there. Isint that essentially the same thing?
  • Might be separation anxiety?
  • Crate training is more than just helping to housebreak a dog, it is a means of keeping them safe when you are not around.Usually drugs and medicine are stored in bathrooms, so she may easily get into them and eat a bottle or two of the stuff. Toothpaste, dental floss, soap and mouthwash can also be enticing for a puppy to eat. She may also get bored and destroy toilet paper, q-tips, napkins, wash towels, shampoo, etc. In a crate, she won't be able to have the opportunity to eat any of these things.
  • I'm a huge advocate of crating dogs when left alone after my dogs jointly ate an entire 1,200 mg bottle of aspirin. They spent two days in the ER to the tune of $3,800 and only the fact that Gryphon (adult AA 70lbs) ate most of it saved Gojira (puppy JA just 20lbs at the time).
  • edited April 2012
    leaving a dog in the bathroom is entirely different than leaving her in a crate.

    If you decide to go the crate route, start by leaving her in there 80-90% of the time, at least for the first day (since she is a puppy, she will be sleeping most of that time anyway). Set her up for success, and gradually increase her free time as she earns it. The general rule of thumb is for every month old, plus one, equals how many hours she'll hold it... so 6 hours is the longest. (however, i've found this to not be true with my akita puppy, so it is different with every dog). But at first, take her out every few hours so she will learn she will learn to trust that you will let her out to pee and run around. In my opinion, it seems that any kind of training is dependent on trust.


    good luck with your potty training! Don't give up, she'll grow out of her bad potty skills :)
  • I found that putting the dog's crate close to the back door is best. It gives less time for accidents to happen. If it is separation anxiety, putting a blanket in their den helps. There is also DAP that can help if needed.
  • Ugh, Conker was like that when I got him. No warnings at all, he'd just unleash whenever it suited him. It was understandable, since he was born in a mill and spent the first four months of his life in a cage and a kennel in a shelter so he thought that eliminating in his living space was the thing to do.

    I started by crating any and every time I could not watch him like an eagle, even if I was home. When I was gone, he went into the crate (and later the kitchen, when he decided it was not a bathroom). Every time, without fail, that he whined or barked while in the crate, we went outside. Even if nothing happened and all he did was romp around. He did it constantly for the first few days but soon learned only to do it when he had to go, which he only peed in his crate once. At least he understood that going in the crate was bad, so that part was easy.
    The really hard part was trying to time when he had to go, which I found out, was completely unpredictable. So I just took him out every 20 minutes (and after eating, drinking, and every play session) and stayed outside until he went or I had to go back in for some reason. 20 minutes later, I tried again. Every time he eliminated outside, he got a lot of praise and a treat afterwards. I was able to lengthen the time to 40 minutes, then an hour, then two hours, then five, and eventually, he learned to go by the door and sit when he had needed to go out. Sometimes he just wanted to romp around, but I didn't want to compromise what he had learned and took him out every time he sat by the door or whined in the crate no matter what.
    He was four months old when I got him and he was not reliably house-trained until he was nine months old. And when I moved, I had to do it all over again, but only for about two weeks since he got it a lot the second time around.
  • Ok..So after I start crating her how do I get her to eventually make the connection that it is not ok to go inside the house..She is really smart so I know that this is my mess up. I've had her since she was 8 weeks and I should have had her potty trained by now.
  • edited April 2012
    no! don't say "i should have had her potty trained by now" cause every doggy is different and potty training (to me) is the hardest thing to learn, so be positive! :))))

    As far as the answer to your question, my approach would be to ridiculously praise her with food and words every time she pees outside, which, she'll understand that peeing outside is okay. Right now, she doesn't understand that peeing inside is not okay, she just thinks outside AND inside are good things. So when she pees inside, be angry and take her out immediately mid-pee, (don't rub her face in pee! just have an angry tone of voice, but you don't have to yell), and then ridiculously praise her peeing outside just as if the mistake never happened. She'll learn to associate happy things with peeing outside and not-so-happy things peeing inside. She'll make the connection, even if right now it is frustrating, and every dog really does want to please their owner, even a stubborn nihon ken :)
  • edited April 2012
    If you can catch her in the act, scold her and take her outside immediately. If you can't catch her in the act, its okay, just don't give her the opportunity to potty inside. Take her out of the crate to potty very frequently. Its better to err on the side of too frequent than not frequent enough. Stay with her when you take her out; don't just put her in the yard and leave her there. When she goes potty, praise her a lot and give her a high value reward to take back into her crate with her (favorite toy). If she clearly has no interest in going potty after a minute or two, put her back into the crate with no fuss. I typically do this on leash for two reasons: it teaches the dog to potty on leash (great for walks, travel, etc) and it prevents the dog from wandering off and getting sidetracked instead of doing its business. Make it clear that you're outside to do one thing only, and if she doesn't want to do that one thing, its back inside.

    I find with most things its more effective to use both positive reinforcement and corrections, with more emphasis on the positive. You can train a dog with only one or the other, but its slower. Without corrections she doesn't learn that one behavior is bad, only that another behavior is very good; if she isn't given the opportunity to do the good behavior (go outside) she has no reason not to do the bad one (go inside). Using only corrections she doesn't learn the good behavior that she should be doing instead of the bad one and may become confused or anxious. (eg. "I need to pee, but he yells at me if I pee. What do I do?!" She doesn't know that peeing outside wont get her yelled at, and is actually a good thing.)
  • In general, I'm a positive trainer only, and I think it works better for my dogs than a combo of corrections/positive reinforcement. But I do use some of the very mildest corrections, which in our case is pretty much just a quick verbal correction (nah/nah/nah) if they are caught in the act of doing something (like right now, when my male Shiba just jumped up to steal my breakfast!).

    I might make the "nah/nah/nah" sound if I saw the dog peeing in the house (at the same time I was picking up said puppy to take outside) but mostly I just pick pups up and take them out, then praise and treat them for peeing in the appropriate place. I would be very careful about even raising my voice, because often dogs are quite sensitive, and they think that the correction is because they are peeing, not because they are doing it in the house, and then they get anxious about peeing, and may either start to try to hide it, or worse, start to pee because they are scared of the raised voice. That's even harder to train away then just regular doesn't get the housetraining thing.

    And it is something to consider with dogs that are a bit harder to potty train. Does the dog pee out of excitement? If so, it's really critical to just ignore it, and work on praising the dog for peeing in the appropriate place. My male Akita is nearly 2 and every now and then will STILL dribble a little when he's really excited. He got the housetraining thing in a relatively normal time span (as in, it felt like it took forever, but he was pretty reliable in the house by about 4.5 months) but he did have excitement pees for quite awhile.

  • I'm experiencing the woes Dx. Feels like it will never end - I must've blacked out the memories of potty training Taki because they were so horrible! (lol) Akita puppy is a leaky faucet! When I let her drink, she drinks SOOO much :(! I'm not depriving her of water by any means, but after she gulps down half the bowl she'll pee 10+ times afterward (I wish I was exaggerating Dx). Even if I catch her mid stream, I make loud "ack ack!" noise to startle her, scoop her up and rush her outside and tell her to go potty, and even if she just pees droplets I still reward her. But she'll pee inside every 10-30 minutes if she isn't in her crate :(.

    Crate training is love/hate for me. I hate confining her most of the day, but she lasts so much longer when she's in the crate. And @jellyfart, I think you're right.. since she's between 2&3 months, 2-3 hours seems like the max she'll hold it although last night I think I got a full 6 hours of sleep and we actually made it outside this morning! (victory!).

    I have to say one thing, though.. potty training is SO much easier with a yard - glad to be out of the apartment Dx
Sign In or Register to comment.