Please Help!! 9 mo old boy...CONSTANTLY PEEING in HOUSE!!!

[kellera4696]

Hi all...its been awhile since I have posted here, but I need some serious help. We have a 5 year old female, who convinced us we needed to get her a friend. So, at Christmas, we surprised the kids with a puppy. He's great. Super sweet, goofy, not too hyper...overall, a GREAT boxer. However, he is horrible with peeing.

We are pretty simple around here. The word "field" is ALWAYS used when they want to go out. If anyone yells "field" they immediately run for the door. He loves going out, much more than our girl, and totally knows what he is supposed to do! If he wimpers, we take him out. I even try to take him out hourly. We put the water up in the early evening. We feed in the morning. But, it never fails...we find pee in the hall, or in a bedroom. Tonight, we took him out and let them stay out for like 30 minutes. He came inside, went down the hall, and 10 minutes later, I found pee in my room. I am at a loss!!! He KNOWS its wrong, because when I turned around, he was cowering by the door.

What do I do??? Also, my carpet is ruined!!! I have a carpet cleaner, and I ALWAYS clean... even have a bissel formula soap designed for pet odors...but I can still smell the urine. Is there a solution? We love him so much...I know the puppy stage is hard with boxers (he's our 5th), but I am at a loss and need some serious help. Thanks!!!

 

[gmacleod]

It probably wouldn't hurt to have him checked over by a vet just to be sure he hasn't got a urinary tract or bladder infection. One of those would make it near impossible to housetrain effectively (aside from being quite uncomfortable).

On the assumption that he hasn't though, then I think you need to make a few household changes if you're to be successful here. I know you have kids, and it might not be that easy, but... you CANNOT allow a dog that is not yet housetrained to have the freedom to wander off and pee somewhere unseen. If you don't see him do it, you cannot give him effective feedback about his action (later is worthless - as you should know by now, since it's made no difference - it HAS to be whilst he's in the act). And if he doesn't get negative feedback at the time, he'll keep on doing it.

As long as he has the freedom to wander off to a bedroom, hallway, or whatever without you to see what he's doing, the odds are stacked solidly against you ever managing to housetrain him. Freedom to roam the house is for housetrained dogs only. So quit giving that freedom to your untrained dog That's the pre-requisite here.

If your household setup doesn't allow you to close doors (or if its impossible to keep them closed with kids), then the dog needs to be tethered to a person. That is a very common technique for housetraining adult dogs, btw. You simply have the dog on a longish line, tied to your waist. And when you need to do something else without the dog, he gets tied to someone else.

Point being that he is ALWAYS in someone's sight, and never has the freedom to wander off and pee without someone seeing him (whereupon he'd be told that's not cool, and immediately taken out, then praised if he pees outside). That WILL solve your accident problem, and hence give you a fighting chance with the actual housetraining.

The housetraining doesn't need to be too different from what you're doing. Just as for a young puppy, you take him out frequently. Take him - do NOT just send him out with the other dog or on his own. The reason for that being that if you're not right there when he pees outside, you can't give him feedback about what a GOOD thing that was (as opposed to the negative feedback he'll get if he does the same thing inside). He won't learn without the positive feedback, so take every chance you can get to give him some.

The above should be implemented immediately. But do take him along to a vet for a check up. You might also think about neutering him, if he isn't already (in case there's a marking aspect to this).

 

[jrackow]

I definitely agree with the vet thing. We haven't had the exact same experience, but I did notice that all of a sudden Mojo had back-slid in his house training. I took him to the vet, and sure enough, he had a UTI. once he had the antibiotic, he was back on track.

 

[Cami]

I agree 100% with what has already been said.

He KNOWS its wrong, because when I turned around, he was cowering by the door.

I do not agree with this however!
He absolutely does NOT know that he has done something wrong. He is reacting to YOUR reaction. Nothing more. How do you react when you see the "evidence"? Be honest. Are you upset? If so it is perfectly natural BUT he is reacting to THAT not that he knows he did something wrong.
If you don't react AT ALL he will not "cower."

 

[dmcmahan]

i agree with all said as well. my mini schnauzer had a uti and backsled horably in her potty training, but once cured, she has been super great! also i agree with the cowering, and if you ever try to just ignore it, you will not see him cowering, so that instent in him was tought by your reaction. the bad part of that is you are teaching him to be afraid when you are upset or mad at him, and that gives him bad behavior and habits. you should never scold, and even if you catch him in the act, distract and remove, move him to where he needs to be, dont punish.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

In addition to everything else I'd recommend you hire a professional carpet cleaning company (I personally like Chem Dry) as they have special pet stuff and ways to get the smell and urine out otherwise he'll keep going where he has gone before because he smells where he has gone before. At this point your carpets probably need to be professionally cleaned, or at the very least rent a rug doctor and do it yourself.

Also you say you put up the water in the morning....does it stay up all day? I would not advise limiting your dog's water intake at his age, it can be very dangerous, it won't help with house training and all you're going to end up with is a dehydrated dog with a possible UTI from dehydration. Now sometimes people will pick up water 2-3 hours before bedtime (at night) when potty training a young puppy, but your dog absolutely needs free access to water during the day.

 

[ZigZags]

Also you say you put up the water in the morning....does it stay up all day? I would not advise limiting your dog's water intake at his age, it can be very dangerous, it won't help with house training and all you're going to end up with is a dehydrated dog with a possible UTI from dehydration. Now sometimes people will pick up water 2-3 hours before bedtime (at night) when potty training a young puppy, but your dog absolutely needs free access to water during the day.

I think you miss read what was said. The Author said that they pick the water up shortly before bed time.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

I think you miss read what was said. The Author said that they pick the water up shortly before bed time.

I will say I did misread what was said however re-reading it says "early evening" to me that's 4:00-5:00 which depending on what time they go to bed coudl still be way too early. Personally I wouldn't pick water up anymore than 2 hours before bed MAYBE 3 at an absolutel maximum.

 

[ZigZags]

I will say I did misread what was said however re-reading it says "early evening" to me that's 4:00-5:00 which depending on what time they go to bed coudl still be way too early. Personally I wouldn't pick water up anymore than 2 hours before bed MAYBE 3 at an absolutel maximum.

I know my boxer pup can suck down some water. So I agree 2 to 3 hours at a max.

 

[mikroma]

Same thing happened with Nero, he had a bladder infection. One of the symptoms of that is they can't empty all at once. They go and the shortly after they have to go again. And the whole time were were like, are we loosing it or were you JUST outside??!!

Have your vet test for a UTI and bladder infection. The bladder infection can have a longer course of antibiotics or it will reoccur. That happened to Nero, and again, we took him back to the vet. We ended up switching vets because they didn't treat him properly several time, they kept treating for a UTI, not bladder infection.

Good luck!