House Breaking

[maryjaneah]

I have a 3 1/2 month old puppy. For the life of her she can not stop going to the bathroom inside. I know she is still young, but it is SOOOO frustrating. I'll take her outside and she'll go just fine, then 30 minutes later when we are inside she'll go off and pee somewhere. She just got off of antibiotics for a UTI and I was hoping that when that cleared up she wouldn't go as frequently. She can't go more than 3 hours without going. Going in her crate doesn't seem to phase her either..she'll just lay in it. Any suggestions???

 

[Donna1969]

She's still quite young. I remember my pups at that age and they were going pee about the same time frame. If I remember correctly, they can hold it for about an hour for each month they are. 3 hrs was about the max they'd hold it.

As for the peeing in the crate, how big is it? She shouldn't have any more room that it takes to turn around. If its too big, she can pee in one area and lay in another.

If she's going outside and peeing and then coming back in and peeing 1/2 hr later sounds like she's not emptying her bladder. You need to confine her to an area that you can watch her. If she's allowed to go somewhere you can't see her, she can pee w/out you knowing it. If you confine her and grab her when she starts displaying those "I gotta pee" signals, like circling around, sniffing etc, you can bring her out so she equates peeing/poo to going outside.

 

[tianthai]

My dog is now 17 months old and he is house broken. I understand how frustrating it must be to house break a puppy. This is what I did:

1. My dog is crate trained but he had no problem pee-ing or poo-ing in the crate if he had to. He also had no problem sleeping on top of pee or poo. So I crate trained my dog for his own safety.

2. I tried very hard to bell-train my dog but he abused the bell so badly that I gave up (after a couple of months)

3. I took him out the first thing in the morning (before anything else), after each meal, after active play, before nap, after nap, last thing in the evening.

4. At the age of 3 months old I took him out practically every 30 minute. If he did not do anything after 5 minutes I took him back inside and sat him on my lap for another 10 minutes and took him out again. From 30 minutes, it became 45 minutes, then an hour and etc.

5. I wrote down the diary, trying to figure out his business. I wrote down the exact time and what he did (poo or pee), after a month I could see the pattern, such as what time he poo-ed and the frequency of it.

6. He was supervised all the time. If I was not home I put him in the crate (I made sure that he did everything before, and I never went more than 2 hours) for his own safety.

7. I cleaned the accidents with vinegar to get rid of the smell.

8. My dog was completely house broken when he was about a year old. House broken for me is when he can hold and wait until I take him outside. There is no such thing as "almost house broken", your dog is either house broken or not.

9. You need a lot of patience and consistence.

It sounds like crazy thing but I am sure you can do it. You might be luckier than I am as yours might be earlier house broken. I praise him even today if he does something outside.
Good luck!

 

[Biff]

Buttons is 3months old now. She can go all night (most times) without needing to go potty appicon

However, through the day, we have to watch her like a hawk, and make sure we direct her outside after naps (as soon as she open her eyes ), after meals, and every 20 minutes or so, when she has been playing. (Usually, she is fine whilst in full play mode, but the minute she stops and looks around her, that's when we take her outside.

Our puppies are still very young, and don't yet have full contol of their bladders, she it's up to us to tell them when they need a pee

Good luck!

 

[gmacleod]

I don't think that sounds especially unusual for a pup of that age - especially one whose bladder has been battered around a bit by a UTI. Even if it's fully cleared up (which it may or may not be), the effects on her bladder muscles may take a little longer to repair.

Thing is, if you KNOW she's going to need to pee again 30 minutes after the last trip outside - well, that's how often you need to take her out. She isn't going to learn to potty outside otherwise. Frustrating as it may be, it's her individual actual needs that you have to work around - not the length of time you might hope she could last.

3-4 hours is the maximum you could hope for with a pup this age crated during the day (so if you're getting 3, I don't see anything terribly unusual or concerning). But it really all boils down to individual limits - know what they are for your pup, and ensure that she gets a proper potty break before her limit is reached. In the long run, it's better for both of you. Unpleasantness aside, every time she ends sitting in her own pee will lower her inhibitions about doing so - and you can finally end with a dog you've actually trained to potty in the crate. That's far more frustrating than slow potty training and is actually very diffficult to untrain. So better to just bite the bullet now and get her outside a little more often than she seems to need.

On the upside - it will get better. UTIs are an absolute curse when you're trying to potty train - but if you think about it, it's no surprise that the pup doesn't learn much when pottying is such an uncomfortable and unpredictable (even for her) event. So, you've had that setback, and it may still be having some effects on her ability to control her bladder. No big deal really - you just have to treat her as you would a slightly younger pup. But if the infection is now treated, she will be able to begin to learn. And her bladder will be getting bigger as she grows too. So things can start to look brighter - you just have to get through the initial stages first