House Training Nightmares

GoldenGait

GoldenGait

Citizen of Zooville
A place for sharing stories of torment and grief associated with house-breaking a puppy. You’re not alone! I’ll start…

One time I was doing a little stretching on my living room floor and playing with the puppy at the same time. I was lying on my back and he started tinkling as he was trotting across the carpet. I didn’t notice until he hopped over my head and tinkled right across my face.
 
I've had great experiences raising my boys. The worst thing that happened was I left Boots unattended in his pen for a little, and when I came back he had pushed the entire thing over to the carpet and chewed up a pretty large portion of it. He had plenty of toys, but I suppose a little mischief is unavoidable.
 
I've had a few over the years who seemed like they were never going to understand, but in each case one day it just clicks and thereafter they become reliable like a switch had been flipped. I had one girl who would go to the door, pee, then whine to go out; that lasted until she was around 8 months old.
I've also had the other extreme and had a dane who was house trained and reliable by about 9-10 weeks.
 
KnotSock said:
I've had great experiences raising my boys. The worst thing that happened was I left Boots unattended in his pen for a little, and when I came back he had pushed the entire thing over to the carpet and chewed up a pretty large portion of it. He had plenty of toys, but I suppose a little mischief is unavoidable.
Click to expand...
Hah! That’s awesome. What a crafty little bugger.

egoldstein said:
I've had a few over the years who seemed like they were never going to understand, but in each case one day it just clicks and thereafter they become reliable like a switch had been flipped. I had one girl who would go to the door, pee, then whine to go out; that lasted until she was around 8 months old.
I've also had the other extreme and had a dane who was house trained and reliable by about 9-10 weeks.
Click to expand...
8 months, that’s rough! How did you undo the habit of peeing at the door?
 
GoldenGait said:
8 months, that’s rough! How did you undo the habit of peeing at the door?
Click to expand...

She just finally seemed to get it. I've had two pups take far longer than one would expect, but both becaome reliable. I think both took around the same amount of time. I've raised a large nuber of pups (not all mine) and most were pretty easy with only these two standing out as memorable. I find that the whelping environment seems to have a significant effect, those whelped in a home tend to house train faster. Both that took a long time were whelped in outdoor kennels.
I mention them mostly for those who might have a similar pup and they're wondering if they will ever "get it", hang in there and keep rewarding when they pee outside. Neither of them were dull dogs and were easy to train in all other aspects. Both also would hit and miss, for the last few months, sometimes being reliable and then suddenly reverting back.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
egoldstein said:
She just finally seemed to get it. I've had two pups take far longer than one would expect, but both becaome reliable. I think both took around the same amount of time. I've raised a large nuber of pups (not all mine) and most were pretty easy with only these two standing out as memorable.
Click to expand...
Wow! I have been around a ton of dogs, but only raised 2 myself from pups. Both of them were asking to go outside before they could even use the stairs. I think I had a pretty good set up for training, but I am going to chalk part of it up to luck after reading that. Little Red was feral when I got him, and did have quite a few mistakes in the house before he understood I wanted him to always go outside. It took even longer to get him to stop "marking" in the house but he did get it finally after a couple of years, and TONS of scrubbing. Now that he is getting older, I've trained him to pee off the deck so he doesn't always have to use the stairs. He did pick up on that very quickly, but he has also calmed down quite a bit with his age.
 
My pup has never asked to go outside. I trained him to use a doggy door early on so he’s just always been able to go in and out whenever he likes without asking. That’s probably going to come back to bite me eventually, if I’m traveling with him or he goes somewhere for dog-sitting. Maybe I should work with him on that somehow.
 
Beignet said:
Haha right now we're working on going outside reliably, and not waiting to come back inside before laying a massive mess on the rug
Click to expand...

I have found engaging in play and getting them to run around a bit, going for a walk, etc can help greatly.....and don't forget to reward for it, make it a deal, so awesome, yay poop! Make sure pupper learns that shitting out on a walk results in something positive.
 
Mine was a little older when I got him but had not been housebroken yet. He's technically still a puppy but he's a big boy who was raised outside. He had two accidents in the first couple days and then figured it out right after while we took him out every hour on the hour. He's been great ever since and we don't have to take him every hour anymore lol.
 
CanineCarouser said:
Mine was a little older when I got him but had not been housebroken yet. He's technically still a puppy but he's a big boy who was raised outside. He had two accidents in the first couple days and then figured it out right after while we took him out every hour on the hour. He's been great ever since and we don't have to take him every hour anymore lol.
Click to expand...
I did something similar with my pup. I set an alarm for every 45 minutes and took him out. If he didn't pee, I'd take him out every 15 minutes until he did. Very exhausting but once you get in the groove, it's fine. I wish I had known early on that's what I had to do. You did a better job than me lol.
 
I have a pit bull puppy and he’s always getting into everything but the worse part is that he s very pro biting so he’ll try to nibble on everything and his favorite thing to chew are fingers noses and facial hair. It’s tiring but sometimes he can be very cute with it.
 
jackel102 said:
I have a pit bull puppy and he’s always getting into everything but the worse part is that he s very pro biting so he’ll try to nibble on everything and his favorite thing to chew are fingers noses and facial hair. It’s tiring but sometimes he can be very cute with it.
Click to expand...
Saaaaaaaame.... my lil Golden boy is 3 months now and verrrrry much a furry ball of teeth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top