Dog Community

How long did it take your dog?

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:20:04 PM

How long did your dog(s) take to become reliably housebroken? By reliably, I mean they'll typically ask to go out yet still may have an occasional accident.

Right now I'm still working on Rita, my three and a half month old swissie and I'm not seeing much progress being made. I'm pretty sure she knows she's supposed to go outside, as she'll often urinate when I put her out even if she hardly has to go, but she's still constantly having accidents in the house and she doesn't ask to go out. I feel I'm doing a fairly good job in crate training her, but am getting a little disheartened by the lack of results. My memory's foggy but I seem to remember my brothers AmStaff being very good about asking to go outside within just a couple weeks of bringing him home.

How long does it take the average dog? At what point should I begin thinking that maybe I'm not doing a good enough job with her? I had a pug who was never truly housebroken his whole life and I know how frustrating it can be to live with a pet like that. I'm hoping not to have to do it again!

NicoleS

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:26:10 PM

3 1/2 months is young, but from what I understand it can take 2-4 weeks or more with consistant training. How often do you take the dog out? I would think Rita would have to go eveyr 3 or 4 hours, so try making sure she's out sooner than that, I guess. But, when we adopted our dog he was already housebroken. there are many other posts on the topic, though - I've seen several just flipping through.

But as for letting you know when the pup has to go out - we've had our dog 6 weeks and he's about 13 months old, but he does NOT let us know when he has to go out. we just take him out every 6-8 hours. Only had one accident, and it was after 2 hours at the park and drinking gallons of water, so our fault there. But, there is some info on the internet abotu training a dog to ring a bell when they need to go out, and it seems fairly easy to train so we're going to try that. I'll post how it works out if we get anywhere with it!

Good Luck!

buddy DaMitz

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:33:50 PM

Hi all, I'm new here so I hope I am doing this right. My question is how may times do you take your puppie out to potty. My snydoodle is 4 mts old and doing great on going to the door to go outside. My problem is he goes to the door every 15 min. He doesn't have a problem he just loves it outside. How can I know when he really has to go and when he just wants to play. I'm afraid not to take him, but this is gettin old. Thanks in advance,cdamitz

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:37:28 PM

Our older dog (we got him when he was 6 weeks old) was going out through the slider when he was about 3 to 3-1/2 mo. old. Max was estimated to be between 3 & 5 months when I got him. I started easing him through the doggy door the morning after I got him home & in less than a week he was reliably going in & out himself - no more accidents inside. I really think that maybe his original owner was working with him on that because he just caught on awfully fast. []

Joyce

jones

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:43:19 PM

ORIGINAL: bgfield
How long did your dog(s) take to become reliably housebroken? By reliably, I mean they'll typically ask to go out yet still may have an occasional accident.

I think this is actually a misunderstanding of what it means to be housebroken or reliably housetrained. What it really means is that the dog does not potty indoors but waits to be taken out. The dog does NOT need to "ask to go out" to be housetrained.

Mine wasn't 100% reliable until I think 6 months old.

To answer the second person's question, at four months my puppy absolutely had to go pee once every hour. Individuals will vary. If it helps you can actually write down how often and when the dog urinates. If for example you try to wait an hour but he pees indoors after 45 minutes, then you know he can only wait 45 minutes or slightly less.

Brett

Posted : 7/10/2006 12:44:10 PM

I also forgot to mention - occasionally she'll pee while sitting or lying down. She did it just now; gave no warning of needing to go out, wasn't sniffing the floor or anything. She simply sat there and started peeing. I'm going to be taking her to the vet in a couple weeks anyway for her shot so I'll be sure to ask him about that, but does anyone here know what that could mean?

Alessandra Zylberkan

Posted : 7/10/2006 10:30:37 PM

I agree with jones... My puppy is 3 1/2 months old and I'm lucky when she can hold it for 2 hours. She is now holding it for 1 1/2 hrs to 1 hr and 45 mins. At first I was taking her out every 45 minutes and since her bladder infection began to clear every hour. I have had her for 6 weeks. slowly but surely, it will get better... be patient. I know it's easier said than done - I'm going throught the same thing with my chloe.

***Try and take a urine sample to the vet when you go just to make sure. My puppy would pee in her crate when she was sleeping, sitting, lying down and she ended up having a bladder infection. Does your puppy pee all in one shot when you take her out or does she go a few times a little at a time? Is she licking herself alot? Drinking alot of water? These could all be signs - better to be safe.

buddy DaMitz

Posted : 7/11/2006 7:08:17 AM

Hi, I don't know if this will help but when I got my puppie I googled puppie housebreaking on the net. There is a whole lot of info. I was waking up my puppie to go outside. In one article it said a puppie could hold its urine 1 hour longer that it was old. So my 4 month puppie could go 5 hrs in the crate without peeing. But afer reading the posts here I don't know what to do. I am getting real tired of getting up to take him out, but he is not messing in his crate. What do you all think about this method? I would love to stop getting up to take him out, but I don't want to have a backslide either.

angelamarie

Posted : 7/11/2006 8:00:15 AM

If you are talking about waking the dog during the night to take him/her out, I would disagree with that idea. If his crate is near your bed and he has to go during the night, he will whimper and wake you and then you need to get up and get him out fast. Same during the day, if he's sleeping in the crate, let him be, but when he wakes, get him out good and fast. That is, unless he is asleep in his crate and you need to go out for a while, wake him and take him out.

I think waking the dog in the night to go out teaches him to expect a trip outside at night, and he may not need it now. My dog stopped needed a trip outside in the middle of the night at about 4 months old.

jode88

Posted : 7/11/2006 9:32:53 PM

My puppy is 15 weeks old. We got him at 10 weeks. I've been lucky to only have about 5-6 accidents since we got him. I usually take him about about every 2 to 2 1/2 hours while he is up (more often when he was younger). We just introduced the bell system about 2 1/2 weeks ago and just in the past two days he has started to ring the bell for potty. He goes right out and does his business. I would say he is NOT house broken but I am certainly starting to see the light at almost 4months.

jones

Posted : 7/12/2006 10:14:24 AM

Jode88, SSHHHHHH! [sm=lol.gif] You are one of those lucky ones.... My friends and I took our puppies to puppy K at the same time. Their puppy was housetrained within a couple of weeks, unlike the vast majority of puppies, and they barely had to do anything. In class introductions they just happened to be the first to go, and when they mentioned their puppy was 12 wks old and had only ever had about 2 accidents, everyone in the class just about had a stroke on the spot. I swear at least one person was on the verge of tears just hearing this. It's not fair!! [

]

jode88

Posted : 7/12/2006 11:42:02 AM

He is my first puppy ever and I am very fortunate he's making it easier for us. My friends had to rip out their carpet and replace it with flooring cuz they had such a hard time with potty training.
Now if i could just get him stop herding the cats!

erin thom

Posted : 7/12/2006 1:30:09 PM

Hey there.....STOP waking the puppy up to go in the night! You were right, they can hold it for their age in months plus one, but that rule does NOT apply when sleeping. A 4 month old should be able to hold it during the night. Mine was doing so at 2-3 months. Just take 'em out right before bedtime and as soon as you wake up. My puppy is now 5 months old. She goes to bed at 10 and I take her out at 5:30 or 6 in the a.m. She holds it all night. Also, dont give her/him water after 7 or 8 at night. That helps too.

Stefanie Prinsloo

Posted : 7/12/2006 6:14:41 PM

What up!!!!!!!!!!
what do ya'll think is the hardest dog to train????
persenelly I think sheba inus are ....

glenmar

Posted : 7/12/2006 6:44:43 PM

Ummmmm, welcome to the "hood"?