Pets
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Potty training help
So I'm sure you know about my dachshund by now. It's caused a stir on here.
So please lend some potty training help. Thanks.
Re: Potty training help
Ok we got him at 9 weeks. At about 10 weeks he developed pancreatitis and was hospitalized for a week straight. His organs were failing, he wouldn't eat, drink, and yet he was still throwing up. The Dr. actually called to tell me she didn't think he would make it through the next night, but we kept telling her to try all she could.
He finally got better by this time he was about 13 weeks fully recovered. We were still giving him medicine up to about 4 months. The Dr. wanted to wait until he was off meds to give him his vaccines. So up until this point we couldn't take him out. We live in an apartment and she was afraid of lepto and other diseases.
We had to administer his vaccines about one at a time and by January he was fully vaccinated so we started taking him out. (Up to this point we were using potty pads) He's only 9 -10 lbs and it's been snowing and the way our apartment faces keeps the snow on the ground for much longer than other areas. Plus it's been very chilly out and he gets cold extra easy.
He cries if it's too cold out and won't move when taken outside. We've tried jackets and even boots, but the boots make him even more upset.
Inside we still use the potty pads because he won't go when it's too cold. I can say go potty and he runs to the pad and pee's. It's been hard to get him to poop on them routinely.
Overnight he is crated about 8-9 hrs. Which I've been told is too long for how old he is (7, almost 8 months). He pees and poops overnight every night. It's ridiculously hard to get him to go outside at night. He will make you drag/ carry him outside and he'll come to my feet and sit no matter how long I wait.
I tried what someone said on the other thread about this. They said try naked crating and check him overnight. Well I checked him about 4 hrs in and he had already peed and pooped and mushed it everywhere. I had to put him and the crate in the shower to rinse them both off. It was terrible.
The crate is the right size for him. He can stand up and turn around but there isn't a lot of extra space.
He has been pottying in the crate since we got him. He does not mark. And I catch accidents in the house most of the time, but not usually in the crate. As most of those accidents happen while I'm asleep.
I don't know what to try for the crate. That is really my major problem right now. I've never had a dog and so I do need a lot of help in this area, but I have been reading up on it since we got him.
What I can tell you is that housebreaking is significantly more difficult when dogs are trained on pee pads and when they are desensitized to eliminating in their crate. The latter is a common problem in dogs from pet stores and dogs that come from mills. I have found that hounds and small dogs can be difficult to housebreak as it is, so you definitely have some challenges you'll be facing. I'll be honest that I have never had a dog that eliminated in the crate or that used pee pads, so I'm not going to be able to provide the best advice for dealing with that. It is definitely a difficult situation and hopefully someone who has dealt with this can advise you.
When my dog was a puppy he definitely had difficulty holding his bladder through the night and didn't last all night until he was maybe 6 months old. I'd make sure to do a late night potty break and also pick up water an hour before bed.
To be honest it is surprising to me that the vet didn't want you to take your dog outside before vaccinations are complete. It is such an important age for socialization and I think that needs to be weighed against the risk of exposure. I do think it is a good idea to avoid high risk areas like dog parks, pet supply stores or other areas with lots of dogs. We have always taken our dogs outside right from the beginning even though they weren't done with all vaccinations. I'm not saying it was your fault, you were following advice from your vet. I just don't think that is consistent with advice most vets give.
Thank you. The vet said we should keep him in because we never knew what caused the pancreatitis. She wasn't sure if he was going to be a really sensitive dog or not.
Thank you. The vet said we should keep him in because we never knew what caused the pancreatitis. She wasn't sure if he was going to be a really sensitive dog or not.
Your dog sounds really confused. For the crate:
For the puppy pads you have two options:
Puppy pads are in generally really confusing to dogs. Keep it simple for him, it's a lot easier to learn that it is never OK to go inside than that it's OK to only to go here inside on this thing that keep getting taken away and replaced.
Other tips:
If you're still having trouble, enroll in a local pet training class for house breaking. If you haven't already, it sounds like you could really benefit from enrolling in some general obedience training classes. The classes aren't for the dog, they're for you to learn how to communicate with your dog, which it sounds like you're having trouble with.
His paws are fine with the cold, they're designed to stay warm, but they're not designed for salt, so be sure to clean them when you bring him back inside.
Edit: To clarify (and try to give you consistent advice with other posters), when I say "don't feed or water him in the crate" I mean don't put him in the crate for the night with his dinner and a water bowl and expect him to know that he needs to wait until an hour before you're planning to take him out of his crate to eat that tasty meal. (We may have done this with our dog when learning crate training.)
I was just thinking that the most likely reason he'd go four hours after you put him in the crate is either that 1) he didn't go right before you put him in for the night or 2) you put him in for the night with his dinner.
Ditto PP on using Nature's Miracle or another enzymatic cleaner (like GotPee) to clean the crate after accidents. Other typical household cleaners might get rid of the smell to your nose, but his nose is a million times more sensitive, so he'll still smell areas he's peed and pooped. If he still smells stuff, he'll continue to go there. So if he's had accidents elsewhere in your apt, soak those is the cleaner as well.
When you take him outside, it sometimes helps get things "moving" if you walk or run him around a bit. This is why most puppies will need to go out right after playing, because everything gets churning inside and BAM!, the urge to go hits them. When he goes outside, say whatever command you want him to learn to associate with going, and then praise him and give him treats. He'll learn he gets good stuff for going outside but not when he goes inside.
Since he seems to desensitized to eliminating in his crate, set your alarms more frequently, like every 2 hours. At 2 months old when we brought out Boxer puppy home, we'd pick up her water bowl by 8 or 9 pm (at the latest), let her out for a final potty before bed around 10-ish, then wake up every 2-2.5 hours after that to let her out again. She might not have needed to go, as in alerting us, but by taking her out we avoided any potential crate accidents and she learned fast that going outside = good things. As she got older and better at holding it, we were slowly able to extend the span of time between overnight breaks. Yes, it was a fairly sleepless couple of months, but it was in her best interest, so we sucked it up and did it.
I get that it will be more if a PITA for you to do these overnight breaks, being in an apt and having to bundle up and go outside, but just bear it out. It won't happen overnight, and he's got some bad habits to unlearn first, but it will eventually start to click; the key is to stay consistent. Any inconsistency and he'll get more confused.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
I'm glad that you are going to work through this together. It's not easy as he has had a pattern and now you need to start from the beginning to get the pattern that you want.
A few things to start with. I absolutely agree that you need to clean the crate with an ezymatic cleaner. I use the one from gotpee.net because it's much stronger than ones like Nature's Miracle. You want to follow the directions and let it sit for awhile on every accident (including the crate) before you clean it up.
It sounds like the crate is appropriately small for him (you don't want too much space). Do you feed his meals in the crate? Or give yummy treats like stuffed kongs in his crate? Usually it helps to feed in the crate because they don't want to potty where they eat. If you have more than one crate, consider feeding in both for a bit to help this.
He should be able to hold it at night, but he has to learn to hold it vs. going whenever he wants. What is your feeding schedule like? I just want to make sure that you aren't feeding too late. Usually dogs will need to potty after eating.
In order to get him on a better potty schedule and to avoid taking him out and him not going, consider taking him for a walk. It sounds like he is cold outside and just stands there but the movement of a walk and the smells on a walk will usually stimulate the bowels. Use a sweater or coat on him, but then the movement will help keep him warmer too. You can coax with a treat or run around making exciting noises to keep him going. Also, you can start getting him going in the house with practicing some recalls or playing a hide and seek game to get him running around inside and then take him outside immediately to potty (this will shorten your time in the cold).
As for accidents in the house, you want to treat him like a very young puppy and not give him any privileges. Keep him right with you at all times so he is not given the opportunity to potty. You can tether him to you on a leash if you need to but this way if he tries to go, you can stop him immediately (calmly, not a in a mean way), immediately take him out, and then praise like crazy and treat when he potties outside. When my dog was a young puppy, I looked at it like any accidents were my fault because I wasn't taking him out frequently enough or was letting him get too far away from me.
Also, if he is having crate accidents during the day, I would highly recommend that you get a dog walker or friend to come let him out during the day. He can't be allowed to potty in the crate at some times but not at night - that's confusing so the rules need to be consistent.
For general puppy information, I highly recommend Patricia McConnell's Puppy Primer. It's an excellent resource and I think would be very beneficial for you as you want to work on training and socializing your puppy. I would also look into a puppy class at a local training club or school to help both you and your puppy.
I feed him at 7:30 every morning and 6 in the evening. I usually put him up about 9 o'clock. He never has food or water in his crate. We just put him in there with a towel and toy. We don't ever leave him with anything to eat tho. Not even snacks.
I'm gonna start Waking up every 2.5 hrs to let him out for a while and slowly widen the gap.
I don't have to crate him during the day because I'm home. Well, unless I run to the store. We walked around for 15-20 minutes before I left to the store today actually and he wouldn't go. He just kept trying to lay down.
So I put him up and went to the store. When I got back he went in the crate. The thing is, I've tried taking him about 30 minutes after he eats and he NEVER goes. So usually I wait an hour or two and take him and most of the time he will go then. I'm not sure what his deal was today.
Also he really hates the harness. We've tried 2 harnesses and a collar and we had the vet check how it was fitted. He runs every time I take it out and whines while I put it on, has anyone run into an issue like this?
I'm going to try and taking him to classes as soon as I'm done with school. So sometime later this year. Thanks for all the advice. I tried to cover as much as I could remember from reading everyone's posts. lol
Gloria isn't a fan of her harness, either. She still runs from it, but now it's more of a game, because she likes going for walks more than she dislikes the harness. If I don't want to play, I just put her in a sit and a wait and go put the harness on her.
Hopefully, as you get on a set schedule (and the weather improves) your pup will start to like walks more and will associate the harness (negative) with a walk (reward). You could also give him a treat when you put the harness on, increasing the positive association with the harness.
Treats are your second best friend. If you dog doesn't like something, giving them a treat when they nicely put up with it will usually solve your problem.
PPs have covered pretty much everything, but I just wanted to lend some encouragement. Puppyhood can be incredibly frustrating, as can any transitional time (like if you adopt an adult dog). What I have found with both of my dogs is that patience and consistency are the keys to building a strong, positive bond with your dog. Sometimes you will want to cry/scream/whatever. Don't beat yourself up for feeling that way. Allow yourself to recognize that you're frustrated and take a break.
On a related note, if there is any way to get into training classes sooner rather than later, I would jump on that. Just the basic obedience class I took with each of my dogs helped me make huge amounts of progress (much more than I would have on my own). GL!
You could try feeding him his meals in the crate - dogs typically have an instinct not to go to the bathroom where they eat.
I wouldn't leave his food in there when you leave the house or overnight, but just put him in his crate to eat for 10-15 minutes (however long it usually takes him).
And are you throwing a "potty party" anytime he goes outside? If he goes even a little bit, you need to lose your mind with excitement, praise & treats! Basically you want to teach him that the most awesome things will happen to him if he goes potty outside.