House Training

[CashCountry]

So, i know this is a pit bull talk forum and i have a handsome blue brindle pit, but we have also got an 8 week old female boxer who is not house trained. Our pit, Cash, did not take long at all to catch on to the fact he was supposed to relieve himself outside. However, our little girl does not get this concept at all! Cash never had a poop accident in the house since he was 6 weeks old and the little girl, Penny, does all the time. She even will poop and pee outside, then come back in and poop again. We have tried lots of thing, pee pads, rubbin her nose in it, yellin no, taking her out before and after she does anything ( eat, sleep, play,etc.). We areat a loss and very frustrated and would appreciate some in put on how to solve this problem. thanks!

[mnp13]

Skip the nose rubbing - all it does is scare them.

Is she crate trained?

[CashCountry]

yeah we stopped that after i read it willmake them scared of you. and yes she is rated trained. y husband and iboth work and both dogs stay in cages while we are at work and they love thir cages so much they sleep in them at night

[mnp13]

Does she mess her crate?

[CashCountry]

She still pees in it occasionally but has never pooped in it. She just for the first time went to the door and whined to go out. Maybe thats the begining of a little progress for her.

[CashCountry]

his a good picture of her.

[BullyLady]

Okay, so a couple of things, at eight weeks old you can't expect for her to hold her pee for more than three hours in the crate. So if you are gone for longer than that don't be surprised if you come home to pee, even if her crate is the correct size. The usual formula is the dog's age in months plus one, is how many hours they can hold it.

Second, make sure that her crate is ONLY big enough to stand up, turn around and lay down in, otherwise she will designate part of the crate as "bathroom" and part of the crate as "bedroom". If they have to lie in their own mess they are less likely to do it.

Next, as far as the punishing, yelling, rubbing nose in the messes while you are home, just don't do it. Just don't. The only acceptable thing is if you catch her in the act then very firmly say "No" and pick her up (even if she is still going) and take her outside to finish up.

Also, any time she goes potty outside, make a BIG FREAKING DEAL of it! Praise her and tell her how good and wonderful she is, give her treats, all while she is peeing or pooing outside. That way she knows what is expected of her.

You will need to take her outside at least hourly, but also after she eats, drinks, wakes up from a nap, or gets done playing. If you are finding she is messing in the house alot then tie her leash to your jeans so that she is always in eyesight. You will get to know the signals that she needs to potty, then you can rush her outside and praise her like CRAZY for going in the correct place.

[Malli]

8 weeks is pretty young for Potty training, or at least thats my impression

my $.02
take her to the same spot to potty outside. For the first little while I remember carrying my dog out to his spot. And tasty treats and like has already been mentioned "throw a party"

But again, IMO, 8 weeks is quite young to expect much. Wait a month and then see...

[CashCountry]

thanks very much bully lady all of that was very informative and we will put it all into practice today!

[TheRedQueen]

Cathleen!

Just to add a note about why punishment in housetraining is so wrong...(rubbing their nose in it, yelling at them, smacking them, etc). This very often just trains the dog to avoid you and the punishment...so the dog becomes one that "sneaks" away to potty in the house. They avoid you, so you miss the signals...and they go somewhere that you don't see them...to go potty instead. Praising, treating, etc is the best way to go...because the pup/dog has NO idea that peeing/pooping on that fabulous absorbent surface (carpet) is wrong. You want to encourage the pottying outside, and ignore inside accidents unless you catch them in the act, like bullylady said.

[jnreem]

Also, this worked really well for Buddy, I put a bell on the back door (where he goes out) and whenever I would see him sniffing around like he was about to do something I would call him over to the door have him hit the bell or i hit the bell and did that everytime he went out and he caught on veryy fast. We haven't had any accidents since. Just make sure you do it before you go out everytime so they know thats what they do when they have to go outside. But beware that once they get it, they will also ring the bell whenever they feel like going outside which for buddy tends to be every 2 minutes sometimes.

[CashCountry]

thanks jenn thats a real good idea. also, thanks to ll the advice. we have already put these suggestins into effect and she has done soooo well today. only one poop and one pee accident! so were making progress!!! thanks again all!