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Boston Terrier owners
in Pets
DH and I are considering a Boston Terrier for our next dog, and have read in a few different sources that they are easy to train, but sometimes hard to housebreak. I'm interested in hearing some real-life experiences from Bostie owners. Specifically, regarding trouble with housebreaking, does this mean it took a while for the dog to "get it" but once they learned, they went outside consistently, or does it mean they continue to have accidents even once they understand they're supposed to go outside? Thanks for sharing any experiences!
Re: Boston Terrier owners
::Coming out of lurker status::
We adopted a female BT when she was about 5 months old, and she was pretty well potty-trained at that point. However, we did continue the training that her foster mom had begun and were very consistent and routine-oriented in our approach. She rarely had accidents in the house once we got her.
I can't recommend this breed highly enough. We adore our girl and firmly believe she is the best dog on the planet. With that said, she's a good girl because we trained her well. She obeys basic commands, walks well on a leash, calms down quickly with a firm "that's enough", and plays well with other dogs & cats. We do not have children yet, but we will be sure to prepare her well for a baby coming into the house. Right now she pretty much ignores children, but that's because she's not used to them.
I do strongly suggest you consider adopting an older dog, though. Petfinder.com has tons of adult BTs in need of good homes, and contrary to popular belief, most of them don't have special needs or are poorly behaved. Puppies are usually easy to place; adults, not so much. If we ever get another dog, we'll definitely adopt an adult. Our pup sort of joined our family unexpectedly; otherwise we probably wouldn't have gotten a puppy.
Whatever you do, DON'T buy a dog from someone claiming to be a breeder. If they advertise with signs or flyers or post ads in the newspaper, chances are they are a backyard breeder who is in it for the money and not the betterment of the breed. Or they just had an "oops" litter they need to get rid of and figure they could make some money in the process. In addition, professional legitimate breeders usually have a list of interested buyers before they even breed. Anyone selling BT puppies who have already been born is most likely a backyard breeder.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Mine were easy to train and easy to housebreak. The older one had it figured out in less than a week, and I think we had a total of 4 accidents in the house (none of them poop). I was very consistent about taking him outside 30 minutes after he had anything to eat or drink and gave him a treat each time he went potty. Easy Peasy.
My little girl was more of a challenge, it took her more like 2-3 weeks, but I think it was because she was only 8 weeks old when we got her. I barely had to train her though b/c my older dog showed her the ropes for a lot of things.
My little girl does have some poop accidents occasionally, but I honestly think she doesn't know she has to poop ahead of time b/c they are usually quite explosive (sorry, TMI) when she goes in the house. Even so, that has only happened 4 times since she was potty trained and we have had her for 4 years.
ETA: The only training problem we had (and continue to have) is getting my male to not jump on people when they come over. Nothing has worked. And he pulls on his leash when we start a walk, but I didn't try very hard to train him not to.
We found our little peanut - Dyna Mightie - online and had her flown to us since the local Bostons were $$$ and we weren't planning on breeding her. This option cost us, with flight, $550! I couldn't have picked a cuter or sassier Boston!!
Dyna definately has a quick learning ability but can be very stubborn as well. We crate trained and still have her crated during the day. On occasion, though, I've accidently left the crate open and lost a pair of shoes...
We potty trained with a bell at the door. Everytime she needed to go out, or we took her out, we nudged her nose on the bell to associate. Over nights were a bit tougher. We would go to bed at 10pm and take turns like with a newborn (excellent training btw). For example
wk 1 - bed at 10, get up at 11:30, get up at 1am, get up at 3, get up 5 and stay up - we stayed here about 10 days
Wk 2 - bed at 10, up at 12, 2, 4, 6 - we'd stay here maybe 12 days as she was growing bigger and could hold it longer.
eventually we were either goign to bed a little later and began eliminating the getting up in the middle of the night. The puppy class instructor told us it would take about 1 yr to get her trained but she did it in 3 months.
Dyna is uber smart - she knows every morning when to 'go to bed' with out me telling her and that's how I know when to go to work! she tells time, I swear!
Good luck! I love my munchkin so much and couldn't imagine not having her around!
Uh, OP, don't go this route.
Just that short paragraph had a few red flags that what you found was not a reputable breeder.