Dog Community

Housetraining Problem (long)

Posted : 7/18/2006 6:32:28 PM

Hello, I tried to look around and see if there was any answer to my question, but I didn't seem t osee it. Sorry if its already been posted, if so could somone direct me to it...

I got an 8 week old chocolate lab almost 6 weeks ago. So he is almost 14 weeks. I am crate training him and also home with him during the day. When I am not watching him I try to put him in his crate. He has had a couple accidents in his crate, which was obviously my fault, so I try to make sure I get him out enough. He has been going through the night ok with no mistakes. around 7:30am I take him outside and he does his business. I take him in, start making my coffee and then give him his breakfast. About 15-20 minutes after he eats I take him out to relieve himself. I take him out another 1-2 times before lunch and crate him when I am not able to be in the kitchen with him. Around 12:30 I feed him his lunch and take him out 15-20 minutes after (I also take him out before I feed him). He gets the run of the kitchen for now and if he is doing good (and after I have taken him out to relieve himself) I let him explore in the other rooms a bit, closely supervised. I usually take him out again mid afternoon and again at 5:30. I sit down with my family in the diningroom and let him stay out of his crate while we eat dinner. Once we are donw, around 6pm, I feed him and take him outside to do his business. I end up taking him for a walk soon after that. I take him out to relieve himself again at 8:30-9pm. Then once more around 11-11:30 and then he goes in his crate for the night.

There is so many time where I have just taken him outside and then he comes in and pees all over the floor. He does not do anything to tell me he is about to go he just lets it flow. Tonight after he ate(which has prompted me to post something and get some advice) he started having and accident right in front of me and this was most likely because I didn't get him out in time. I yelled "HEY!" and he did end up stopping, so I took him to his pee spot and he finished, so I praised him like crazy. I was so happy that I didn't leave the room and I was able to catch him in the act. However, when I brought him back into the house and he was in the kitchen I went to change my shirt to take him for a walk. I walked back in the kitchen (and I was gone for less than a minute) and came back in to bring him outside I saw a HUGE puddle on my floor.

I have no idea why he peed again. I had JUST taken him out and he went a lot. I guess I am looking for a suggestion or some kind of schedule to keep a 14 week old puppy on. I keep getting the old advice of "stick his nose in it and then he'll learn". Well, everything I have read says not to do that. So what am I suppose to do? How do I approach this? Is there a way to get him to at least make a noise when he needs to go? I mean he doesn't even squat down sometimes, he just is walking and starts peeing or is sitting and oops! starts peeing. I know he is still young but he can learn how to sit, stay, laydown, and give paw. I know they say that their bladders need to mature, but aren't they suppose to be able to hold it for a few minutes? Should I talk to my vet about this?

Anything to help me out would be great. Thanks!

And yes this is the first dog I have had that I am housetraining myself. [

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inne

Posted : 7/18/2006 9:03:50 PM

I just wrote a basic "how to potty train" thing in the "Need help" thread that you might want to look at. Your schedule sounds great. The place things seem to be going wrong is that he has unsupervised time in the house, even if it is only for a few seconds. If you go to change your shirt, bring him with you or put him a the crate for those few seconds if you won't be able to watch him. It seems like a hassle, but it's worth it. 14 weeks is still really, really young and it's unrealistic to expect puppies to be entirely reliable at this stage. Watching them like a hawk is just party of puppyhood

Going to the vet to rule out a UTI or other problem certainly wouldn't hurt.

Angela Occhipinti

Posted : 7/19/2006 10:29:30 AM

Thanks. How do you know exactly when they can have a moment of unsupervised time in the house? I will definetly start either taking him with me or putting him in his crate for those few minutes. I know he can physically hold it because there have been times during the day that I have had to leave him for three hours or so(crated of course)and he has held it. I try not to slip and yell at him because I know it will do no good. If I keep up with my part of training him I am sure that he will eventually realize what he is suppose to be doing. But it definetly gets frustrating at times!

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mudpuppy

Posted : 7/19/2006 2:13:57 PM

"How do you know exactly when they can have a moment of unsupervised time in the house? "

eight months old or even older for some dogs. Certainly not at his age. At his age he shouldn't even be loose when you can't pay 100% attention to him--even the distraction of watching TV can be enough for your pup to piddle on something or destroy something. Tether him to you, put in x-pen, put in a dog-proofed room, put in the crate.
The peeing without any notice while walking/sitting should go away shortly. It's a very-young-puppy thing. Try either staying out longer on your potty trips, or at least try being very active on your potty trips, both should stimulate full bladder emptying.