[Puppy Training] Puppy House Breaking Regression

Waffles or whatever

Meet Remus! (Remy)

I bought Remy from a breeder a few weeks ago. When I first bought Remy I had done my dog research for years and thought I had everything planned out. When I brought him home, things went well at first. I had him restricted to the bathroom and was quickly house broken. I slowly, but surely gave him more freedom, and within a week he had full house freedom because he was mostly accident free. However, a few days ago when the fiance came into town he slowly, but surely regressed, and fast. He began having more accidents in the house, began to rebel, and before you know it he stopped listening to my commands all together. At night he began to growl, howl, and whine for hours and learned how to open his cage. We began to tie the cage shut with 5/50 cord as a result to keep him in. This resulted in him pooping in his cage and rolling it all over his toys and bed. During puppy play time hes grown increasingly hostile, biting hard, trying to tear clothing, and nipping the upper arm areas. When we would put him in "time out" (IE, a section of the apartment where there's little to no social interaction) he urinates and defecates everywhere. I guess today was the final straw for me. After the fiance left today he altogether refuses to potty outside now and prefers to sit and eat in the grass. When people walk by is the only time he comes out of his stupor and then begins to bark at them in an attempt to get attention and pets.

I guess overall I don't know what to do anymore and need advice. I'm not looking for criticism about how I'm a terrible dog owner. I'm looking for legitimate advice on how to break that independent spirit of his and make him a good puppy once again.

In the meantime I can't take him to doggy obedience school because my leave date with the military to move got pushed up by a few months so I'm now leaving in a few weeks instead of months, which was originally planned. (Move includes him coming with so he won't be able to take classes until we get to our new home)

Disclaimer : I also don't condone the use of violence against animals so please don't tell me to beat my dog.

Muddypaws

Has he been left alone more since your ex came to town? How does he get on with your ex? Small changes are a big deal to a small pup.

Kalgareth

This sounds to me like a puppy that isn't getting nearly enough physical activity. You need to burn off all of that excess energy. Putting him in the yard so he can bark at passerbys is not a solution. Take him on a long walk (miles not around the block) or get him to a dog park and have him run around for an hour or so at least. Daily. He doesn't sound keyed into you since there is no interaction with physical activity that bonds pets with their owners. It is never to early either to start getting him socialized with other dogs and people.

Also, "Time Out" means nothing to a puppy and can't really be used as a form of punishment once they reach a certain age. They won't care as much about being left alone.

Creagan

There are a lot of things that could be causing this behavior. The puppy may not be exercised enough, or may be challenging your for dominance.

I found this website to be extremely informative and very helpful.

Evigilant

Does your crate have a separator wall? If not, get one fast. The puppy should only have enough room to lay down in. This will help discourage waste in the crate. You need to do this one fast, because otherwise the puppy will learn to associate the crate with it's waste area. As the puppy gets larger, you start moving the wall further and further back in the crate until you can remove it completely.

Put it back into a secluded, newspapered area and restart the house breaking. The area should be large enough for it to roam around a small bit, but not too large that there's a huge amount of space. A kitchen/bathroom is perfect. Take it's crate, put it in the area with the door open, newspaper everywhere else. Take a piece of newspaper, soak it in the puppy's urine and put it far away from the crate in that area. Put it's food on the otherside of the area. This establishes waste area, food area, sleep area. As the puppy becomes more consistent with only going in the waste area, start reducing the newspaper coverage. Everytime you come in and see the dog had pooped/peed on the newspaper, and if it's outside of the area you designated, repeat the process again and move that soiled piece of newspaper back into your designated area. If there's an accident, just expand out the newspaper area and restart the process.

The bad thing about this is that the puppy learns that it's ok to poop/pee inside and as the dog gets older it will look for areas it can go inside. In order to combat this then once the puppy continually goes only on the paper in the area, you start moving that paper gradually towards the door then gradually outside until the puppy is only going on the paper outside then you remove the paper. Now the puppy has learned that outside is where it's time to poop/pee.

You need to burn off a lot of the puppy's energy. Take it for long walks, not just around the block. Mentally stimulate it with teaching it some obedience tricks, like sit, bark, lay down, etc. Get a clicker and reward the puppy for the appropriate action. This also helps in teaching the dog to only do these things when you command it. Don't let the puppy bite or put it's mouth on you or anyone at all. Period. Not even playful biting. It associates biting with playing, and you want to stop that behavior. Get it toys that are thick and durable, so that the puppy can chew away on only those toys.

Also, dog's don't know what 'timeout' is. If you want to put the dog into a secluded area, put it in it's crate. If you're scolding the puppy, which people will do, and it runs to the crate, don't continue to scold it. The moment it enters the crate, leave the dog alone, that's it's safe area, it's sanctuary. You want to reinforce that the crate is a good place. Additionally, if it's an open cage (not covered) then take a blanket and wrap the crate in it.

If the dog whines or barks while in the crate, don't respond. The dog is looking for attention and any attention, even negative attention, will suffice. Leave it alone, let it calm down, THEN get the puppy's attention. That reinforces that calm behavior is rewarded and will help mellow out the dog.

A good way to discourage behavior you don't want is when the dog continues to do it, like biting, you just turn away from the dog and put it in it's crate. Let it bark it out, let it whine it out. The moment it stops, you try again and then reward good behavior. Positive reinforcement, rather than negative reinforcement, will teach the dog obedience faster.


TL; DR: Get a separator wall for the crate, get a clicker, get some really durable toys, restart house breaking, and don't respond to the puppy's barking or whining.