Housebreaking a puppy...
 

Does anyone have any great advice on housebreaking a puppy? I am having a horrible time getting Jersey to go outside. She can hold it, I know. She sleeps through the night and holds it in the crate when we are gone. She just isn't going to the door when she needs to go out. She just pees wherever she feels like it. If we take her every half hour or so, she's usually OK. But she is 4 months old now and should be able to hold it in a little better. I don't expect her to last all day without going out, but an hour or two would be nice!! Sometimes she goes 10 minutes after we bring her in. It's getting frustrating now. If she were going to the door and we ignored her, I could see her going inside, but she doesn't give any warning. Sometimes she sniffs around and I take her quick...but most times she just walks up to a spot and pees. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puppy Pads! They give off a "smell" that's supposed to attract the Dog. Lay them on tile somewhere. It's a great seller at PetSmart. Also... Reward your dog everytime it uses the bathroom outside rather than in. Great habits!

Ryan

She eats the puppy pads. Shred's them like an Enron file. LOL. I like the idea of the treat when she goes outside...I sometimes do that but I usually forget to bring a treat with me when we go out. I think I'll start keeping some with her leash.

What Ryan said, except the puppy pads. I never got those to work. My puppies just liked to shred them instead.

4 months is really too young to 'get it', despite the fact that she would be physically able to hold it for a while.

First off, you need to get rid of her pee smell in your house. Dogs like to go where they went before. So, when you see her sniff, she is looking for one of her spots. When you clean it up, use an enzyme cleaner like 'Natures Miracle' (petco and petsmart have those) to get rid of the smell. Even though we humans cannot smell it, doesn't the smell is not still there. The puppy WILL smell it and use it as its bathroom again and again.

Then, start over and consider her not housebroken at all. Crate her when she cannot be completely supervised and/or only allow her roaming access in a limited area (kitchen for example - use baby gates to keep her confined). Keep an eye on her at all times. Reward her BIG time when she does go outside, so she associates puddle on the grass with reward, she will want to do it again. Piddling outside must be sooo much more fun and worth it for her than piddling inside!

Some people train their dogs to ring a bell when they need to go outside. Basically what you do is take its paw to ring the bell everytime you go out to piddle with her. She needs to associate the ringing of the bell with piddeling outside. I have not personally done that. My last dog would just sit in front of the door, waiting for someone to notice him - when he wasn't noticed, he'd piddle in front of it (which was good because it was wood - easy cleanup).
Here is a link about training a dog to use a bell: http://www.clickersolutions.com/arti...setraining.htm
Ringing a bell, though, means the puppy understands that it should be going outside vs. inside. As long as she finds opportunities to go inside, she won't really 'get it'.

When she does come back from outside and goes inside pretty much straight away, did you make sure she went outside? If she didn't go outside, don't take her back in until she did her business. Do not make potty break a fun thing in the sense that you allow her to play. It should be strictly business until she did her business - then its rewards and fun galore.

Finally, make sure she goes after meals, after naps and after a little play session. Those are the times they always have to go and won't want to hold it until later.

Raising a puppy can be tremendously frustrating (like when mine ate my ottoman and my custom made jaccuzzi cover), but so is raising a child and in retrospect it never seems that bad. Plus, for every frustration, you have a really fun memory.

Indeed... Crate training has been proven so effective. A little more detail into doing it. Make sure the crate is small enough to where she can't really lay down in one corner and go to the bathroom in the other. That won't teach her anything. I prefer the metal wire crates simply because they are more durable than the cheap plastic kind. A small crate can run between 35-65 dollars.

Ryan

I $@#@#$@ can't assemble them!!! :(

4 months is not too young, our puppy learned to "hold it" at 4 months. Took him a week to realize how to do it.

The rewarding is very, very important. Let her know when she does the right thing. And if she does it inside, never punish her, act like nothing happened. And if you look at the puppy, you'll learn to see when she wants to go outside. Get her out as fast as you can and reward her well.

And the crate training is a cruel and unusual punishment.

Ice

Just a quick tip , if you want to get rid of the pee smell use good old fashioned baking soda .Its far better than anything else plus its very cheap

It ain't very nice of a dog to pee indoors!

And they are supposed to be our best friends.

You make your dog sleep in a crate?
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Etpope/minia...n/crate-03.jpg

Harsh.


Try a dog basket instead?

http://www.animalhealth.bayer.ca/con...Dog-Basket.jpg



Also, may I recommend a good sticking every time it pees on the floor? That'll sort it out.