# Unusually difficult to house train! Need help!



## Cpulley1 (Mar 14, 2011)

Hey folks! Sorry for the long post!

We received our puppy at 9 weeks old. Her name is Mocha and she is now 4 months old and is still not house trained. She is crate trained, we take her out every hour and a half or so, keep her on a strict feeding schedule, use enzyme cleaner, praise her excessively when she goes out side, etc.

She sleeps in her crate but will cry around 6 am when she needs to go outside. From 6-8 she roams our bedroom freely. Our bedroom has a door to the backyard. When it's time for her morning pooper she will sit at the door, cry, and scratch it occasionally like we've tried to teach her. She rarely makes a mess in the bedroom.

When we are in our basement apartment and she has access to that door (and we can see it from our living room) she will go to it and sit if she needs to pee. She won't cry and she won't scratch. If she needs to take another pooper, she will do it in the living room behind the recliner. It seems she knows she's not supposed to do it in the living room and hides it. 

When we are upstairs with our room mate she will neither cry nor scratch no matter how she needs to eliminate. If we take her out upstairs and walk her to her usual eliminating area she will hold it till we're back inside. <10 min later she will eliminate in the same spot. We mop the area with enzyme cleaner every day and spray it each time we have to pick up her waste.

We have tried teaching her to use a bell, but she KNOWS how to tell us; she tells us every morning! It's as though she prefers to eliminate indoors! My upstairs roommate got a 5 month old boxer puppy the same weekend we got our puppy. The boxer is VERY poorly trained and eliminates all over the house. (Again, Mocha isn't attracted to his spots, she always goes in the same place) Mocha has learned the come, sit, down, go to your crate, stay, get down, drop it, and leave it commands, but hasn't learned to go outside! I NEED HELP!!!!!

Thanks folks!


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Your puppy is way too young to expect her to reliably let you know that she needs to go out. It's up to you to watch her like a hawk for signs that she needs to go out and to let her out at very regular intervals.


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## zyppi (Jun 2, 2006)

Until she is trained, you need to be able to watch her when she's out of her crate.

If you catch her 'in the act,' pick her up and say "outside" as you take her out to pee/poop. Do not scold.

After the fact - when you find a mistake, she has no association with the act. That's why you have to watch, act etc... at the exact time she needs to go.

I would not have her upstairs where the other pup has gone willy nilly until she knows and can control herself.

You may be taking her out more than necessary (she doesn't need to go each time) so she has less connection with outside and potty. 

When she does go outside, praise and bring her right back inside so she understands why she was taken out.

Let outside playtime be a whole 'nother thing.


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## Cpulley1 (Mar 14, 2011)

I was told by 4 months of age that she should be house trained. When is a good bench mark then? I'd agree with you Elaine if she hadn't shown she's capable of telling us. I'm not even sure her behavior is situational since 1 room over she just craps indoors.

I know a young puppy's bladder isn't fully developed, but to go <10 min after having gone outside seems behavioral, not developmental.

This is the youngest dog I've ever owned so I know I'm inexperienced. I do appreciate your opinion


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## Cpulley1 (Mar 14, 2011)

Zyppi, good advice. I will have to pay more attention to her, but I don't think she looks at going outside as playtime yet. When she doesn't need to go she sits at my feet for several min until I bring her back in.

Thanks, I'll think on it.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

She is still a baby and can not be held responsible for telling you she needs to go out. She is learning, but isn't there yet. Your attitude that she's doing this on purpose is part of the problem. You still have to be taking her out and watching her all the time. If you don't, it's your fault she's continuing to potty in the house and the more often she goes in the house, the more she doesn't see anything wrong with it.


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## GSD_Xander (Nov 27, 2010)

If she always go in the same spot, behind the recliner, can you move it so she can't get back there?

She does still need to be watched closely in the house at 4 months old. 

I think the boxer not being house-trained can't be helping the situation - even though she isn't going in his "spots" to her the house/apartment still probably smells a little like a potty area. 

I would make sure you associate taking her out with going potty. When she goes potty outside make a BIG deal out of it with lots and lots of praise. 

Inside you could also keep a long leash on her so that you can always have her in sight. That way if she starts looking for a spot to potty you can take her outside and have her go out there. 

She still is very young and every dog learns at a different pace.


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## vat (Jul 23, 2010)

I agree she is still very young to be reliable. I think I read somewhere when they can go 21 days in a row and not potty in the house you can consider them house broken. With our pup we would get to day 7 several times then fail and start the count over again. Gosh I do not even remember now what age Max was when he was totally house broken.

Just follow the advise you have been given here and be consistent it will happen.


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## Cpulley1 (Mar 14, 2011)

Glad to hear everyone say she's still too young. I haven't owned a dog that was younger than a year before we got them so it's new to me. Our childhood dog wasn't house trained but picked it up within a month. I thought after 2 months something was just wrong. She learns everything else so quickly!

Thanks folks!


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## fam07 (Apr 17, 2011)

With one of our dogs we used the long leash so it could we watched at all times. The key was to prevent any indoor accidents so that it was not reinforced. Just being contained in the same room didn't work b/c it was so quiet and would get up and eliminate before I had a clue what was going on. The leash helped us to know when it was moving and we would immediately take it out. It was a pain but seemed to really speed up the process.


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## Franksmom (Oct 13, 2010)

I'm not sure at what age I would count Frank house broke, he hasnt' had an accident in the house since before 4 months, but he was over 8 months old before I allowed him to be in one room and me in the other room where I couldn't see him. So I dont' know when he was actually housebroke or I just was able to catch him first.
I think the key is to be constantly watching them for a set pattern the pup does before going potty ie sniffing or circling then take them out right away. 
At 4 months I was still taking them out pretty much every hour.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Cpulley1 said:


> I was told by 4 months of age that she should be house trained. When is a good bench mark then? I'd agree with you Elaine if she hadn't shown she's capable of telling us.


There really is no benchmark. The more diligent you are about preventing accidents in the house, the faster it will go. The more successes that you can reinforce with praise and treats, the faster it will go. Each accident in the house slows down the process, so it's best to either keep her tethered to you or close her in a room with you where you can actually see her at all times that she's not confined in a crate. Make sure you thoroughly clean spots with an enzyme cleaner or she'll be attracted back to them over and over again. 

And just because she will tell you that she needs to go out some of the time that does not mean that she fully grasps the concept. As vat said, I wouldn't consider a puppy fully housebroken until they've gone several weeks without an accident and are consistently asking to go out every single time. It's best not to relax your vigilance until then - we've made the same mistake that vat did, thinking that no accidents for a week/week and a half meant that we didn't need to watch as carefully, only to have an accident and have to start the count over again. Dena took about a month to housebreak but she actually would have been a week or two earlier if we hadn't made that mistake. Keefer took around 2 months, and Halo took around 3 months to housebreak.


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

If you take her to the same spot and she just checks it out then goes and sits at your feet, you need to stay outside until she potties. Say nothing to her except" go potty" or whatever word you use and then just stand there and wait. she needs to know she can't come back inside until she has pottied.


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## dazedtrucker (May 2, 2011)

I know I'm new here (just got my 1st GSD in 6 years) but have spent my life around dogs. A schedule of feeding, confinement, and "working at it" when you take her out will help. If you know when she ate, you will have an idea when she needs to poop, and ALOT of dogs need to be encouraged to exercise a bit to get the bowels moving. Take her out and keep her moving...give it a good 20 minutes of stimulation, she'll probably get it all worked out.
Try to avoid giving her opportunities to have an accident (I know, hard to do), but alot of the other suggestions say alot, it's like having a new baby...constant attention will raise her right 
I've been doing laps in my back yard, at 3 am, in the rain, for the last week, to potty my new baby...and it's cold here, LOL!
you cant just stand there...if she lays down, get her movin'!
hope this helps


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## Cpulley1 (Mar 14, 2011)

Thanks for the advice folks. I'm glad to hear so many people agree that her behavior is normal for a pup her age.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Totally normal!! It's so important too to keep her strictly monitored so that you can always interrupt her and take her outside if she starts to potty in the house. Part of the equation is learning to go outside...the other part is learning not to go inside.


I also agree with this...


wyominggrandma said:


> If you take her to the same spot and she just checks it out then goes and sits at your feet, you need to stay outside until she potties. Say nothing to her except" go potty" or whatever word you use and then just stand there and wait. she needs to know she can't come back inside until she has pottied.


Puppies can be such dingbats and forget what they were supposed to do. If you do this and consistently reinforce (if my puppy didn't potty outside I would put it right back in the crate...no house time until potty outside!) you'll get a dog that will try to potty even if they're empty.  My dogs will lift a leg or squat whenever we tell them to go potty.


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## zyppi (Jun 2, 2006)

summing up all the replies... it's about the owner being trained to watch and monitor pup!


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## pipercub (May 2, 2011)

I have a 4 month old puppy who potty trained very quickly, it only took her about 4 weeks so she was potty trained by 12 weeks and believe it or not has had not one accident in the house since! I did "bell" training with her and highly recommend sticking with it. I had to be consistent and I am also crate training her. She sleeps in her crate all night and we let her out first thing in the morning. I would suggest alway's letting your dog out at the same times and the same door if possible. Good Luck to you!


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