Is this possible?

[cynthee8441]

My puppy Jake has been really good about house breaking. But he started this yesterday with me. He goes to the door and I get up and take him out. Well after about 5 minutes he went to the door again. So we went out. He did nothing. Okay went back in and about 5 minutes later he was back at the door. He basically had me going all afternoon thinking he had to pee...but he just wanted to go outside. Is this possible that he can be that tricky? By the way he just did it again and I didn't get up and HE PEED!!!!!! Any advise?????

 

[max&lilly]

We ran into this with Max when he was about 4 or 5 months and beginning to get the hang of potty training. Basically, our trainer told us that this is what happens when you let your dog tell you when he needs to go out rather than you telling him. However, I think that it is a positive thing when they learn to communicate with you.

We just started ignoring him unless we felt like a reasonable amount of time had passed. That worked for us, but it might seem like sending mixed messages.

 

[Jill's boxer]

Gracie has been doing the same thing, she is now 5 months old and for the past month she she rings the bells to go out whenever she feels like playing, etc--not just to pee. While I don't want to discourage her from alerting me when she needs to go potty, I don't want her to think she can have me up & down at her beck and call for no reason! If she rings to go out and I know she recently went potty I will tell her "not now" and wait--if she really needs to go, she will continue to fuss by the door and I know she has to go. If I let her out, I tell her to "go potty" and if she starts to go off to play instead I call her back in so she realizes that ringing the bell to go out means potty or she stays inside. However, the weather has been great here, so I have been leaving the sliding door open during the day so she can go out and play whenever so it hasn't been an issue. Its tough because you want them to tell you when they want out to pee, so discouraging them from doing so can confuse them. I would say if you let him out and he doesn't need to go, immediately bring him in so he realizes that if he's not going to potty, he's not going outside. Hopefully he will catch on that ringing the bells only lets him out to do his business, not play...

 

[RonaldMM]

We had the same situation with Drake at that age. We tried to bring him out on a schedule and that seemed to do the trick! Patience and consistance is really needed at this age.

 

[cynthee8441]

Thanks for the info....I will try it.

 

[Indy B's Mom]

Ty went through the same thing. I took him out every time he went to the door-very frustrating sometimes . If he did potty when I took him out, I praised him and treated him. If he didn't potty, we quietly went back in the house. I didn't want to ignore him and have him start going potty in the house, so I kept taking him out. Thankfully, it was a short phase and he only goes to the door when he really has to potty now.