Potty Training

[madisonweber17]

We’ve had our border collie/blue heeler mix for approximately 3 and a half months and he’s 7 months old. Any tips to help potty train? We’ve been trying and he still keeps going in the house even though we take him out frequently, reward him with treats when he goes outside, etc

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello,

Welcome to the forums!

 

At 7 months, we expect a dog to have developed enough bladder and bowel control to be capable of holding it. We need to do a little troubleshooting here therefore to better understand what may be going on. Just a few questions:

 

1) Is he neutered?

2) Is he peeing or pooping in the house? or both? How many accidents a day?

3) If he poops, are the stools nice and solid? Sorry, but this detail helps a lot!

4) Does he pee/poop shortly after being outside? What does he do once outside?

5) Does he get easily stressed? Is he ever scared of things in the yard?

6) Have you noticed if he pees at certain specific times (like when he sees you? when you pet him? when you give him attention? when you use a certain tone of voice?)

 

Any additional details are certainly helpful for some troubleshooting,

Thanks,

Adrienne

Edited November 24, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[lhaner]

Soon as your pup wakes take out doors soon as you feed take out doors and play with the 🐕 I left the water out doors be cause there bladder is small so water in pea out

[jgphelps]

I’m having same problem. We got our Rotti puppy at ( months due to owner not having time, we are told. We take her out first thing in morning, after playing, eating etc. she now barks at door, we let her out incessantly every 4-10 minutes and then she just squats and pees inside anyway. So frustrating, a full time job. We reward her endlessly, have hardwood floors and have mopped them. Is this ever going to change?

[JMFS]

It will, jgphelps, it will. :) How old is she now? When she goes potty outside do you praise her? We have hardwood floors, too, and my husband's dog, Brownie (he passed 3 years ago), destroyed them in several spots - we'll have to refinish them when we sell. Now I hit them with an enzyme cleaner in an effort to reduce repeat offense (our senior dog sometimes can't get to the door quickly enough).

 

Here's the article about putting potty time on a command, and it really does help: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/potty-on-command/

 

Also, has she been checked by the Veterinarian to rule out any bladder infections or other root causes? Does she doe it directly on the hardwood or does she seek out a rug or mat, or perhaps even a corner? That's what our senior dog does - the softer the better - so I put puppy pads on top of our mats in hopes her aim will be true and we'll have less clean up.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Ha-ha! (well, I laugh now, back then it was very frustrating!)-this reminds me of my female Rottweiler Petra when she was a pup. She did the exact same thing. Would go to the door repeatedly, then once out, she would space out only to potty once back into the house. At some point, I realized she didn't really have to go all the time, smart pup only wanted to go out to have some fun and quickly learned that every time she went towards the door, she would grab my attention and be sent out. Also, once out, she would forget all about going potty (either because she really didn't have to go or she was just too distracted), so she would only remember to tinkle once back in the home where things were a little more 'ho-hum'... boring and less distracting.

 

How did I work on this? Well it took several strategies:

 

-I would take her out and not let her back inside until she went potty. Of course, initially this was easier said than done because out of all the trips outside, only a few were due to a real need to tinkle, the others were just for exploring and fun. So it took an eternity for her to go potty. It helped initially taking her on a walk (I didn't see your pup's age, so if she still hasn't finished her vaccinations just walk her in the yard), then when she finally did the deed, she got praise and a reward and we went back inside.

-It also helped taking her outside on a leash to the same area where she previously went potty. The leash was to prevent her from wandering around exploring and helped her focus on the area where she went potty previously reminding her where the 'bathroom' was.

-I made sure to keep the outdoor trip matter-of-fact. I took her to the area, let her sniff and gave her the chance to go.

-While I was at it, I used capturing to train her to go potty on command. Jennifer already provided you the link for how to train that.

-Once she went potty, she also got some minutes of off-leash freedom to satiate her need to sniff/around burn some energy.

-At the same time, I also made sure to make being inside the home more fun so that she wouldn't always think about going outside. So she got to do fun brain games right upon coming back inside which kept her busy for some time.

-As Jennifer also pointed out, an enzyme-based cleaner to neutralize odors when your pup happens to go potty indoors can be extra helpful.

-Oh, one last thing: when you praise and reward when she goes potty, make sure to start your praise right when the stream of pee has ended or is right about to end. If we praise too soon, the dog will get distracted and not empty the bladder completely leading to a pup who finishes up indoors.

 

 

The biggest challenge for all of this is distinguishing when she really has to go out to potty from when she just wants to go out to explore/sniff around. It helps to keep track when she goes so that you know that you have some time. Make a little chart with the time of the outdoor trip and make an area to check mark yes or no if she goes. Also, post there when she has indoor accidents-so to keep track of them and measure whether she is progressing or regressing.

 

So if she pees like every half hour, once she successfully goes potty outside at 10:00 AM you know she is likely fooling around if she asks to go out again at 10:05 and most likely at 10:10 as well, (unless she is guzzling water like crazy or she has a urinary tract infection--in which case you may notice her dribbling a bit of pee here and there that often. Things may get more real when she asks to potty at 10:20-10:30.

 

Now, if you have taken her out every handful of minutes when she goes to the door and now start to ignore some of her requests, you may expect some extinction bursts along the way. Basically, she may try harder to get your attention. With Petra, she started barking louder or going away from the door and then rushing back to it. If you ignore these, you should see a reduction in asking to go out, so she may learn to go to the door only when she really needs to go. If not, you will have to be her ambassador, taking her out when she's due for a potty break so to prevent an indoor accident. Keep her in an area nearby the door so that you can swiftly take her outside and keep an eagle eye on her for any pre-potty signs (sniffing, circling, abruptly stopping from playing). Keeping the area clear of large furniture helps you track her easily, versus a room full or furniture which may block your view of her.

 

You don't want her behavior of going to the door though to totally extinguish, so when you know she is close to the time she might really need to go, as soon as she's at the door barking, snap the leash on and take her out.

 

-If she is very young like in the 8-16 week age bracket, please provide more details on her age, as thing may vary slightly. Also, if she pees when you pet her, loom over her or talk to her in a certain tone, please let me know as sometimes frequent peeing is due to submissive/excitement urination which is different from a true need to pee.

 

As Jennifer pointed out, a vet visit may help rule a UTI out in case that may play a role in her behavior. Watch for her peeing frequently (like every time she asks to go out), licking her privates and presence of blood in her urine, but some pups don't always present these signs so always good idea to rule it out. Female dogs have shorter urinary tracts so they are more prone to this compared to males.

Edited January 6, 2020 by Adrienne Farricelli
Forgot to mention extinction bursts!

[AnneL]

On 11/23/2019 at 6:54 AM, Adrienne Farricelli said:

Hello,

Welcome to the forums!

 

At 7 months, we expect a dog to have developed enough bladder and bowel control to be capable of holding it. We need to do a little troubleshooting here therefore to better understand what may be going on. Just a few questions:

 

1) Is he neutered?

2) Is he peeing or pooping in the house? or both? How many accidents a day?

3) If he poops, are the stools nice and solid? Sorry, but this detail helps a lot!

4) Does he pee/poop shortly after being outside? What does he do once outside?

5) Does he get easily stressed? Is he ever scared of things in the yard?

6) Have you noticed if he pees at certain specific times (like when he sees you? when you pet him? when you give him attention? when you use a certain tone of voice?)

 

Any additional details are certainly helpful for some troubleshooting,

Thanks,

Adrienne

 

[Adrienne]

Hi AnneL,

It looks like your post didn't come through. Can you please post here again if you have any particular questions or start a new thread ? Thanks

Adrienne