House training woes
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
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.
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 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.
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
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.)
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.
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