14 Month old STILL not housebroken

[ltldevil]

My 14 month old boy Joey is a wonderful dog. He's 23 inches, around 61 lbs, playful, always happy and ready to play.....however:

He refuses to be potty trained. I feed him at the same time every single day. Take him for walks the same time every single day. Here is the schedule and what happens...

I wake up at 8:00 and immediately take Joey for a walk. Get home, put food and water down, he grazes at it, and eats maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of a cup of food and leaves the rest. Drinks about 6 oz of water. I put him in his crate (which I HAVE to do, otherwise there is a 100% chance he'll pee, poop, and shred ANYTHING he can get his mouth on) and leave for work at around 10:00.

I come home on my lunch break at 1:00 and take him for a walk, and play with him for about an hour. I put him back in his crate at about 2:30 and leave for work. I get back home at around 6:15 to 6:30 and take him for another walk, eat, top off his food, which he'll finish (total of about 2-3 cups for the day) and then drink another 8 oz or so of water.

At about 9:30 we go on yet another walk (meanwhile, he go's pee AND poop on ALL of these walks...sometimes poops twice).

Then at about midnight, we go on one final walk before we go to bed...and he WILL go again.

Now the reason for taking him on all of these walks during the day is because I've learned that if we don't... he'll definitely at least pee in the house... and he has NO methods of telling me that he needs to go.

So when we go to bed, I close the baby gate to my bedroom, because I've also learned that if I don't, when I wake up... there's pee and poop in the living room wating for me..

Now not all the time, obviously, but at LEAST once a week, when I come home from work, either for lunch, or when i return home at the end of the day, there's pee and poop in his crate... it happened yesterday.... and today, Saturday, when I'm home with him all day, about and hour after our 3rd walk, I left to drive 2 BLOCKS to the 7-11 to get some sodas... I didn't put him in his crate, because I knew I'd only be gone for less than 10 minutes... when I got home, there were 2 poops and a pee in the living room and dining room....

HE KNOWS that he's not supposed to, because it only happens when I'm gone or sleeping, when he knows he can get away with it. Why can he hold it most days, and choose not to on others? He gets the same amount of food at the same time every day...

And one more question: I take hime to work with me once, maybe twice a week if I know I won't be incredibly busy... but when I leave him at home in his crate..although I'm splitting up the hours, is that too long during the day to crate him? And why hasn't he figured out how to tell me he needs to go if he has to? That's why I have to keep this crazy walk schedule...

Thanks everyone,
Alex

 

[Angelika_23]

Have you tried feeding him in the crate? I hear they don't like to eat where they pee and poo. We did it with our puppy and had good results. We have a friend who had a dog who had "accidents" in the house. He started putting the food dish in the (cleaned) area where the "accident" happened. This involved several rooms over several days. He said it took about a week, but his dog stopped peeing and pooing in the house after that.

Also, our puppy had separation anxiety, and she would have accidents in her crate because it stressed her so much to be there. We worked hard at making the crate a "happy" place, and teaching her that we will come back. We had to crate her several times a day, while we were at home, to get her kind of desensitized to the crate. We played "crate games" with her and gave her treats. Now she goes in on her own and lies down when she needs a break.

Good luck!
Angela

 

[sgbtab]

try not letting him free feed. feeding him 2x a day is good and if he does not eat at the time you feed him then pick it up and feed at next feeding time.
if he has acsess to food all day and night then it would be harder to stop him from pooping at night. if you know what goes in and at what time you will be able to control his bowel movements.

 

[CharlyFarly]

The only things that stand out are the fact that you feed him after the morning walk so that he goes into the crate without having a last minute potty. My pup always has to go after eating - no matter if he gets a walk before. Then you play with him for an hour at lunch and then put him back into the crate. I find that my dog has to go potty after a play session. For example when we go to the dog park and he is playing with other dogs he won't go potty cause he's having too much fun but will have to go as soon as we leave (Before we even make it back to the car which is maybe 20 feet away).

Also I wasn't clear whether you let him eat when you come home for lunch. I think it's normal for dogs to be weaned down to two meals a day around 6 months but for sure by 14 months. I think grazing feeding (leaving a bowl of food available) makes potty training near impossible because you won't ever be able to really 1) set a schedule and 2) figure out the dogs habits.

In regards to leaving to drive the two blocks. He might have a bit of separation anxiety which could get the bowels moving. Anxiety can do that. I do think - and this I did with my older dog too - that going outside for a potty reminder before you go out for any length of time is a good idea. Until your dog is trained he's going to have a hard time letting you know because he doesn't know that he needs to go outside until it's too late. He isn't doing it on purpose to drive you mad (thought it may seem like it sometimes )

I hope you find something that works for you both!

I think in regards to crate times - I think it's an hour for every month of age (which of course really applies to puppies - 8 weeks means two hours etc.). Personally I wouldn't want my dog in a crate for longer than 4-5 hours.

 

[Cami]

HE KNOWS that he's not supposed to, because it only happens when I'm gone or sleeping, when he knows he can get away with it.

I read your post TWICE and no where does it mention how it is that he is supposed to KNOW? All of the walks are wonderful but that is NOT potty training. Forgive me if I am wrong but just taking a dog for multiple walks and he manages to potty on those walks doesn't TEACH him that doing his business outside if the preferred method.

They don't do things out of spite, or only during times when they won't get caught because they know it is wrong. Their brains don't work like humans. They pee and poo outside because they are taught that great things happen when they do, (treats, praise, play after etc...).

The other posters have given you some great advice about feeding schedules etc.. Just thought I would toss in my 2 cents too.

 

[mia625]

Have you thought of bell training? With our boxer, when we were training her, everytime we took her out to go, we'd ring a bell by the door. Then tell her to go potty and when she did, we'd give her lots of praise. Now when she needs to go, she rings the bell and we put her out to go. That has worked well for us. Hopefully you find something that works for you!

 

[AJsMom]

In response to your "is it too long to leave him in a crate" questions - it sounds like 4 hours is the most he's in the crate. I say no - that's not too long.