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Poopy Puppy
JLM-AWP
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
About 4 months ago, I got an (at the time) 11-week-old little lab/pointer mix. Her name is Ripley. She is now about 6.5 months old. And just so you can see who we're dealing with, here she is:
Don't let the sweet, serene look fool you. She is crazy in the head. In a good way.
Since we got her, my two roommates and I (all in our mid-late 20s) have been splitting the responsibilities of walking her/feeding her, etc, however I am the official owner/caretaker/wallet for her. Unfortunately, Ripley is not taking to house-breaking as well as 2 of my previous dogs (both are no longer with us), which were much easier to train in this department.
We have, in recent weeks, taken up a new, more hardened initiative to get her officially house-trained. Though we have made some progress, we are coming up short of our mark of a poop and pee free condo. We have paid extra-close attention to her habits and digestive timing. For instance, she goes #2 on a walk within 20 minutes of eating, without fail. We have made her feeding times the same EVERY DAY in order to get some digestive consistency. Additionally, she tends to have to go after we play with her quite a bit, or when she does self-entertaining laps around the place on her own accord.
I have checked to see how much food I should be giving her daily. It turned out I was giving her a bit much (but she didn't really gain any weight), however I cut her food down to about 66% of what it had been. She isn't losing weight either now, so maybe she is just locked into her built (skinny, lean, built for running...she is amazingly fast).
We have gone as far as to get a timer that rings every 2.5 hours, and one of us HAS to take her out at that time. She always goes #1, but it's hit or miss with #2, for obvious reasons. She has a cage that she goes in when we are not home, or when I leave early in the morning for work (because my roommates won't be up for a bit). Note that she is walked when I wake up.
With all of this, she STILL GOES in the house. And I mean she does it at the most annoying times. There have been many time one of us has been out with her for 30 minutes or more, and she will not go. Only to enter the house and poop on the carpet within minutes. She has more rarely done this with peeing, but that has happened as well. It is like no matter how much we try, she isn't quite "getting" it yet. The weird thing is, she's a very intelligent dog in all other areas, which leads me to believe this is something WE are doing wrong and not her. She gets yelled at for going in the house, and is put behind a gate...which has become routine. Now, when she goes, she runs away, hops over the gate, and lays down. She knows what she is doing,and knows that it is wrong, but she does it anyway!
My question to all of you is, are there any things I haven't tried yet? For example, I tried doing the "bells on the door" thing with other dogs, but it never worked too well. Am I not being vigilant enough? For the sake of my nice hardwood floors, I will try anything. Perhaps I should chalk some of it up to her still being young?
I'm really at a loss here, and it's really, honestly (I promise) not out of laziness! I love the crap out of this dog, and I really want to be able to keep her around for as long as I can...which means she needs to poop outside!
Don't let the sweet, serene look fool you. She is crazy in the head. In a good way.
Since we got her, my two roommates and I (all in our mid-late 20s) have been splitting the responsibilities of walking her/feeding her, etc, however I am the official owner/caretaker/wallet for her. Unfortunately, Ripley is not taking to house-breaking as well as 2 of my previous dogs (both are no longer with us), which were much easier to train in this department.
We have, in recent weeks, taken up a new, more hardened initiative to get her officially house-trained. Though we have made some progress, we are coming up short of our mark of a poop and pee free condo. We have paid extra-close attention to her habits and digestive timing. For instance, she goes #2 on a walk within 20 minutes of eating, without fail. We have made her feeding times the same EVERY DAY in order to get some digestive consistency. Additionally, she tends to have to go after we play with her quite a bit, or when she does self-entertaining laps around the place on her own accord.
I have checked to see how much food I should be giving her daily. It turned out I was giving her a bit much (but she didn't really gain any weight), however I cut her food down to about 66% of what it had been. She isn't losing weight either now, so maybe she is just locked into her built (skinny, lean, built for running...she is amazingly fast).
We have gone as far as to get a timer that rings every 2.5 hours, and one of us HAS to take her out at that time. She always goes #1, but it's hit or miss with #2, for obvious reasons. She has a cage that she goes in when we are not home, or when I leave early in the morning for work (because my roommates won't be up for a bit). Note that she is walked when I wake up.
With all of this, she STILL GOES in the house. And I mean she does it at the most annoying times. There have been many time one of us has been out with her for 30 minutes or more, and she will not go. Only to enter the house and poop on the carpet within minutes. She has more rarely done this with peeing, but that has happened as well. It is like no matter how much we try, she isn't quite "getting" it yet. The weird thing is, she's a very intelligent dog in all other areas, which leads me to believe this is something WE are doing wrong and not her. She gets yelled at for going in the house, and is put behind a gate...which has become routine. Now, when she goes, she runs away, hops over the gate, and lays down. She knows what she is doing,and knows that it is wrong, but she does it anyway!
My question to all of you is, are there any things I haven't tried yet? For example, I tried doing the "bells on the door" thing with other dogs, but it never worked too well. Am I not being vigilant enough? For the sake of my nice hardwood floors, I will try anything. Perhaps I should chalk some of it up to her still being young?
I'm really at a loss here, and it's really, honestly (I promise) not out of laziness! I love the crap out of this dog, and I really want to be able to keep her around for as long as I can...which means she needs to poop outside!
JLM-AWP on
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Instead, when you can get her to do it out side, praise her ridiculously.
We rarely catch her in the act...she always secludes herself....I have the spots I check when something smells funky.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, I seem to have much more luck with her going #2 outside than my roommates. It could be something with the way they walk her....however I am usually the one doing the scolding when she goes inside.
Forgot to mention the praising. We take treats with us on every walk. In fact, the leash is wrapped AROUND a tub of treats for remembering. If she pees (which she tends to do first), we give half of the treat. A poop will prompt the other half. Not only does she get a treat, but there is a lot of verbal praise as well. She trots away feeling pretty good about herself after a nice poop outside. It's like she struts.
It might take some time, but you can associate a word/command with poop and train her to go when you tell her. Seeing Eye Dogs have to be able to go on command, on pavement. You dont need her to be quite so rigid, but its convenient to be able to tell her what you want her to do. (If you do that just make sure you both reward her and that its not always the end of the walk, or she might avoid pooping because she wants to stay outside)
You might have to keep her at the hip for a day or two, and just make sure she cant seclude herself if shes going while your home but cant see her.
Not sure if this is true or not, I've never had to resort to it.
Also, if she isn't pottying on walks they maybe too exciting since you seem to think that she is okay with pottying in front of you. Are there more boring routes? Maybe walk up and down the same block several times so that she has smelled all the smells and seen everything and can get bored enough to poop.
With that said, I trained my dog in like a week when he was two months old. I used positive reinforcement. I took the dog outside, and every time he pooped, I gave him a treat. Really, just some extra kibble, but it took him no time at all to associate pooping outside = good = treat. He literally stopped messing in the house.
So maybe start thinking more in that direction rather than trying to punish the dog. She has no idea why you're scolding her and rubbing her nose in poop.
Restricting her play area to the one room that you are in (or whoever is willing to take responsibility for her for an hour or so) will make it much harder for her to just poop when the urge strikes her. Close doors, buy bigger gates, just make sure she can't leave your line of sight. It's like having a toddler, if you let them just careen around the house they're going to stick forks in electrical sockets and break your favorite vase. They get a play pen with no sharp objects and a watchful guardian. Likewise your dog only gets to be in a room you can watch her with no dark corner to poop in until she's old enough to know better.
Alternatively, you can crate train her. You didn't mention what she sleeps in so I assume it's not a crate, or if it is, that she only sleeps in it and doesn't spend time in there during the day. Dogs are less likely to eliminate in a crate than in your house at large. To make crate training an effective housebreaking tool, any time she can't be explicitly supervised she needs to be in the crate. At regular intervals (once every two hours or so) she goes outside and is given at least 20 minutes to sniff, pee, poop and do her thing. Obviously she will also need regular walks and supervised play time with you. After these breaks she goes back to the crate. As the routine takes hold, you gradually increase the amount of time spent unsupervised outside her crate until you have a fully housebroken animal. The other upside to crate training is that if she needs cage confinement for a medical problem, it will be far less traumatizing because she will have been trained to accept the crate as her den.
edit: err... pretty much what the guy above me said.
Last night I tried the "boring block walk" as Kistra suggested. It seemed to work well, but like I said, she never really has trouble pooping with me in the first place. I let her sniff around, but I make sure she knows why we are outside (it's still cold enough in Chicago that I don't want to stand around out there).
I think I'm going to start by making sure all of the humans in the house are on the same page first. I'm going to take them with me on a couple walks to show them how to get her to walk correctly (which I don't think they do), and where I go/how I get her to poop when outside. Maybe once they know the tricks, or at least correct way of walking her, thing will be a little better without her having to learn anything. She is still a very hyper and curious puppy, so reigning in the excitement and extra energy is a priority when taking her for walks. We'll see where this goes...
Dogs are like kids, as someone else wrote above, they need exercise (and for a hyper puppy, more than most) and structure. Rules, strictly followed, make all the difference and are actually healthy for a dog. Breaking routine for dogs (and many pets) causes problems, so establishing a very predictable routine helps.
And yeah, open access to a space before they're fully potty trained is a bad idea. Everything I've read and seen on the subject (and used myself in training our puppy) is that until they learn to do it correctly, 100% of the time, they aren't allowed out of their training area unless you can keep your eyes on them 100% of the time (even typing a leash to your belt when you move around). Watching TV with them in the same room doesn't work since you're not paying attention. You need to be able to interrupt them as they're preparing or just starting to go (or ideally, notice the signs that they have to go before they do it).
If she just ate, and should poop according to your experience with her, then she stays out on a walk until she goes. #2. If 30 min isn't enough, then you stay out longer.
And the treating should be sufficient for the importance of the task. Don't stop at half a treat - stuff her mouth with Bologna or something
Finally, if she's still having accidents at home, you remove her freedom. At home she's either in the crate or leashed to a persimmon. This basically makes it impossible for her to fail, making the training lessons 'catch' in her brain faster.
Cute dog, btw. Our rescue had been trained by the previous owner to only shit IN THE BATHROOM. She had no connection between the outdoors and bodily functions when she came to live with us. And we used the above method to great success.
Keep a close eye on it when you are home, keep it in the kennel when no one is home. take it out in the morning, once or twice during the day and before you go to bed (and make sure you pick up its food and water at some point in the night so it doesnt eat a bunch at 8pm and wake up at 4 having to poop). One trick that I found helpful was that if the dog didn't poop and I was pretty sure she had to I would put her in the kennel for 20-30 minutes and then take her out again.
Hope this helps. It really shouldnt take long if you stick with it.