No Potty Signal

[littcoheat]

I have a 6 month old boxer male, Hooligan. Since the day we got him, we have taken him outside to go potty through one door, on a pretty predictable schedule. Our problem now is, when we don't take him out on schedule, he just pees wherever he pleases. (inside)
He doesn't go to the door, he doesn't bark, he doesn't sniff around- he just lets it out. He can hold it for hours at a time in his crate, so this is frustrating.
We praise and treat him when he eliminates outside, we sharply say "OUTSIDE" we he has an accident and put him out, I don't know what we are neglecting here...
Am I expecting too much from him at this age? Will he get it eventually or do I need to change something in our approach?

 

[Net45582]

I know with my 6 month old it's usually me who tells him when to go potty. He can hold it in the crate for hours but once let out I do have to watch for signs. He will go to the door about 2 seconds before he can't hold it anymore sometimes. You just have to put him on a schedule as well as watch for the signs. My Sev'n is getting better at letting me know before hand. I touch the bell hanging on the door before we go and say potty. I also praise the heck out of him when he does go outside also repeating "potty". I'm not surprized he doesn't think his name is potty-LOL. Keep working on it. Reward him for doing his biz outside-he'll soon catch on.

 

[littcoheat]

Thanks, phew.

I just needed to know if that's normal, and apparently it is. We'll keep working with him!

Thanks!

 

[My Boxer]

Scooter is 10 months old and still doesn't get it!

 

[Lola's mum]

There is light at the end of the tunnel folks
Zeb was a little slow to say the least and didn't let us know when he needed to go so if like you say we didn't let him out regulary he'd pee on the floor. Our fault entirely I know but Lola was so good and cottoned on quite early, she'd walk in the lounge, look at us and walk out, she'd do this a couple of times then we realised she was telling us she needed to go pee.
Zeb was a year old in January and I don't want to tempt fate but by jove I think he's got it He now walks to the door and stands there and will keep walking up to us and then back to the door to let us know appicon

 

[lirpa23]

My boy is 6 months old, and does pretty good most of the time. He still has the occasional pee accident, usually because I think he gets excited or distracted. When he wants out, he has learned to paw the front door. You have to realize, learning to pee outside and learning to tell you he needs to go outside are two entirely different things. Not all young dogs are going to be able to put two and two together on their own.

We started out by teaching the "paw" command to Rocko with treats. After he learned that command well, we started taking him to the front door and giving the paw command, while tapping on the front door with our hands to get his attention to the door. Sometimes we would literally pick his paw up for him and paw the door, and then praise and give a treat. Then we would open the door and take him out, let him potty, and give more praise and treats. Now he paws whenever he wants out, even if he wants out to play. He has even figured out that he can come over and paw me on the arm or leg to get my attention if he needs out. You should see him when he really wants out on a nice day to play. He will literally run and jump at the door, clawing it with both paws, nearly to the ceiling.

Some people on this board have had success with bell training, so you may want to do a search on that. Not everyone wants a dog using its claws to scratch the front door, but for us it isn't a problem, and it was easy to teach, since boxers are already prone to use their paws to play and communicate.