Housebreaking Question . . .

[cooper22]

Ok so it has been 3 years since I have had a puppy in the house and I think I forgot how long it takes to house break them. I have had my new puppy for 5 weeks. He is 15 weeks old. He is perfect in the crate and goes potty outside everytime I take him out after being in the crate. I take him outside every 30 minutes when he is lose in the house under supervision and isn't allowed back in until he goes. So he definetly understands to go potty outside when he is taken out. My question is for those with puppies recently what was the magical age when they finally went to the door or better yet out the dog door to go potty? He knows very well how to use the dog door to go outside and get water or toys, but not to go potty. He will once and a while but I think he just finds himself outside and then is like oh I could go. It seems like with my other two they were pretty much housebroken by 4 months but maybe my memory is failing me. This is my 6th boxer so I am not new to this breed but this one seems to be taking a lot longer to house break than I ever remember. . . . Any thoughts? (He has been vet checked and does not have any medical problems that are causing housebreaking problems). Thanks in advance.

 

[ehayes21]

You are looking at 6 months...it's when their brain is fully equipped to understand the concept of housetraining, but even then your job isn't done. They usually tend to relapse around the 9-10 month period when they hit their terrible teens...so my advice to you is to stay one step ahead of your pup and never give him the opportunity to mess in the house. You might also want to note that some dogs never let their owner know they need to go out...

 

[esabbott]

We have had alot of dogs in our lifetime also--seems they are all so different. We had some that would scratch at the door, some would wine at the door or bark. Maggie is our first boxer. I was home with her when we first got her at 7 weeks old she is almost 1 year now. We never crate trained her because I would just take her out it seemed every 15 minutes in the beginning. Then every 1/2 hour. I think she was about 4 months when she was trained, but I think it was more that she had me trained to take her out so often! We always used the word "potty" with her. It seemed like it took forever for her to realize what she was out there for and to relate to the word. Then she started to go right after I would say do "potty" She never barked, wined, scratched or anything. We would just guess. As she got older she did have a few mistakes in the house, I think because we waited to long to take her out, and she never had to give us any signal that she needed to go. Well we decided to just wait one day to see what she would do. It is the funniest thing to see! She jumps up and down like a kangeroo! Then we say--" Do you have to go out" and she will go to the door. But sometimes she does this and we ask "Do you have to go out" and she does not go to the door. Then we are trying to figure out what it is she is asking for. If I have to go somewhere and will be gone for awhile, I will bring her out, tell her to do"potty" and she usually goes on command. HaHa I think she has me trained!! Good Luck

 

[NicksMom]

Patience, Patience, Patience, with some more patience piled on top. Make sure you are going out with to reward the potty habit. 15 weeks is still pretty young when I am house training a new pup even though I have a fenced yard we still go out on a leash to the potty stop and I stand and wait. Puppies have ADD they run, jump, play and totally forget to go while they are outside and then get two steps in the house and remember they have to go. Potty time and play time should be two different things. But I would suguest that you make sure to take some treats out with and reward the potty business the instant the pup is finished. Clickers work well for potty training to.

 

[jboboxer]

Ok so it has been 3 years since I have had a puppy in the house and I think I forgot how long it takes to house break them. I have had my new puppy for 5 weeks. He is 15 weeks old. He is perfect in the crate and goes potty outside everytime I take him out after being in the crate. I take him outside every 30 minutes when he is lose in the house under supervision and isn't allowed back in until he goes. So he definetly understands to go potty outside when he is taken out. My question is for those with puppies recently what was the magical age when they finally went to the door or better yet out the dog door to go potty? He knows very well how to use the dog door to go outside and get water or toys, but not to go potty. He will once and a while but I think he just finds himself outside and then is like oh I could go. It seems like with my other two they were pretty much housebroken by 4 months but maybe my memory is failing me. This is my 6th boxer so I am not new to this breed but this one seems to be taking a lot longer to house break than I ever remember. . . . Any thoughts? (He has been vet checked and does not have any medical problems that are causing housebreaking problems). Thanks in advance.

Glad to hear it's taking 4 months on average as when mine took about 4 months I heard other people telling me how theirs only took 2 weeks to be house trained and rarely had a slipup. Roxy is 6 months old now and she took about 4 months, but she is my first boxer. She never has a slipup unless she's at another person's house and doesn't know what to do or where to go.

 

[RoccoNYC]

Our Rocco is 4 months now. We have been getting him into a daily routine with walks now that the Vet cleared him to run free on the streets of NYC since getting all his shots. He knows that when he had to use the potty, he would go on the paper we had set up at the front door. When I take him on walks, he will potty outside no problem. Our problem is, how do we train him to realize, stop pottying in the house. Plenty of times, we come back from a walk, where he just peed, and we are in the house 2 minutes, I turn around and he is peeing on the paper again.

Thanks for any help

Patricia and Jason

 

[ehayes21]

Unfortunately this is one of the pitfalls of letting your dog go inside the house. You've essentially taught him it's OKAY to potty in the house and now you have double the work cut out for you trying to teach him the opposite. You can imagine how confusing this is for the poor dog, too.

I would pick up the paper and up the amount of potty breaks you take. Also keep an ever watchful eye on him. Don't give him the opportunity to soil inside the house. If you see him sniffing immediately take him outside. Also, is there a food or a treat he really flips for? If so I would reserve this treat for when he goes outside. The second he's done, start praising and shoving the treats in his mouth. Basically you want to drive home that outside is the best, most rewarding place to do his business. If you reinforce this behavior by giving him good things, you will make your job a lot easier.
Lastly, at four months old, accidents are bound to happen. If you catch him in the act just interupt him with a sound and hurry him outside.

Good luck!

 

[RockyCody]

Are we lucky or is the worst to come?

Our boy Rocky, who will be 14 weeks tomorrow (just over 3 months now) has been perfect with house training since we got him. Obviously the first few days until he knew where to go out he would start sniffing around and we'd catch him mid-squat and take him out to the grass area that is within our fenced yard.

Since the 2nd or 3rd day we've had him - he's been going to the door when he has to go. I bought some bells to hang from the door and now he'll go ring the bell whenever he wants to go out. Obviously with the weather being nice up here lately he's been ringing like crazy and going out fine. Everytime that bell rings, he goes out whether or not he meant to ring it or just ran into it. At first he'd ring all the time, now it's just when he has to potty.

I'm so comfortable with his understanding of when/where to go when he has to go I never take him out now unless he rings (with the exception of before putting him in his crate overnight).

Is anyone else's boxer this easY? I feel like we only had to really watch him for a half of a week. And it's not like he's walking off and going - he's constantly by us cuz he needs all the attention of course - so he's not sneaking off and going anywhere.

Thoughts? Are we just lucky with our rescue pup or will he relapse?

I highly suggest bell training - just make sure that when he rings, take him out and wait until he goes for the first week or so. That way bell = outside=potty.

 

[Jpep]

Just because a dog wants to go potty outside doesn't mean he'll tell you when he needs to go, that will take training, I have 3 dogs and none of them ever tell me when they need to go out. I have a schedule and I know their bodies so there never comes a time when I expect them to tell me. its not like on a Sunday when I'm watching football and drinking beer I'll wait for them to give me a sign. Just like every day I let them out enough times that I don't need to know, If your letting your dog outside every few hours regardless there will be no need for them to give you a sign, I will say that almost every time my boxers go out they poop and pee, my dobby only goes morning and night, but once your in tuned with their bodies and you have a schedule there's no need for them to tell you, I alway thought the bell ringing or barking at the door was training for a dog that is not getting let out enough on their own.

Thats not saying that training your dog to do something is bad, I just trained one of my dogs to carry my poop bags to the outside trash and drop them in, and all 3 of my dogs are trained to go potty on command, but I know if i had a bell by the door they'd be ringing that thing non stop to go out, not to mention if tey ever figured out that barking and/or pacing by the door gets me to take them out.

 

[raguilar]

real talk, I think it took 4 days. we bought a lil kids swimming pool prolly about 4 feet wide, filled it with dog litter and left it in front of the sliding door. we put him in it before and after he ate and when he woke up constantly repeating "go potty" until he did then praised him. he's been dog litter trained ever since. we have since moved the pool to the laundry room. he's had a memory relapse last week or somethin just recently but has since corrected himself. what is even more cool, is that we had decided to to take bogard with us on vacation this summer and we stayed at a few dog friendly hotels. since we couldnt bring the pool with us, we bought the paper pads and laid them on the floor we dropped a few dog litter pellets over them, and he instantly knew that's where he had to go! We were so surprised and in awe.