Housebreaking help needed

pjcarbone

Inactive Member
OK, I'm officially going crazy!! We have had quite a few dogs in our 37 yrs of marriage, and I have to say that Gabby is the hardest I have ever seen when it comes to housebreaking. Going to PetsMart today to get a very long gate to block off the den & see if that helps. She is totally impossible. We got her on 4/23, and she is now 16 weeks old!! HELP!!
 

NessaM

New member
Pat where is she having accidents? In the house or in the crate if she is crated? Is she clean in the crate if she is crated? When are the accidents happening? Does she give you any warning signs before squatting or does it seem to take her (and you of course) by surprise? Are you home or do you work during the day? How many hours do you usually wait between potty trips? Could she have a UTI or some other physical concern that might be causing incontinence if she is messy in her crate as well?

I would take it back to basics as much as possible. She'll learn best if she is set up to succeed, so if you can - during the times when she is out of her crate, tether her to you with a 6 foot leash clipped to your belt and/or keep her enclosed in whatever room you are currently in. That way she's always within sight and sound of you and you will be able to spot any warnings she gives before squatting. Don't scold her for any accidents she has that you don't see, but do tell her no if you manage to catch her, and scoop her up and bring her outside to finish. If she does finish outside, even if it is only a drop, praise her til you're blue in the face!

Having a solid schedule will also help her - do you feed and walk at around the same times daily? With Nanook, who took about a month to train, I actually kept a log of when he ate and when he napped and when he was let out to potty - it helped me keep track of how often he was going so I knew what to expect from him and it seriously cut down on accidents since I was able to look at the chart and say "it's been three hours since the last time you went out! To the lawn!!!" Always try to go out the same door, and to the same area of the lawn to potty. She should get the idea and start trotting to that door whenever she wants to go out. It is important when she DOES trot to that door, that you open it immediately with praise and take her out. That will help her put two and two together. But that means you really have to keep an eye on her until she's trained so that she can be rewarded with an open door when she does what she should. It might also be that she has a smaller bladder than the other dogs you've had in the past - maybe she can't go as long as some of them did when they were puppies. It's amazing how different they can all be!

Try to encourage a behavior that lets you know she needs to go apart from the puppy "circle and sniff" - teach her to bark at the door, or to paw or nose a set of hanging bells on the doorknob so that you can hear she needs to go out even if you are in another room. To teach the bells we hung them on the door we always went out of to potty and cheerfully smacked them whenever we opened the door. We made it seem like a fabulous game and tried to encourage Nanook to hit them too. He's nose-expressive so he was soon nudging them all over the place with his face. Any time he nudged them, even if it seemed like it was by accident, we opened the door immediately with lots of praise and then took him out to potty. We made it obvious that bell-ringing meant potty time, not play time, by taking him out on lead and then not moving from his potty area until he'd gone. THEN he got to romp around a bit with us and play as a reward for pottying, and then back inside for a small cookie. Even so you might get what we've got - a puppy that rings the bells whenever he's bored and wants to go outside to play! Sometimes they're too clever for us...

Pooka is almost 13 weeks old now, and he's been ringing the bells for about three weeks or so consistently. He learned almost immediately, (he actually rang the bells for the first time his first night home with us), but his performance was inconsistent to start. He's been much easier to train than Nanook was, (he's only had two accidents indoors since he came home - compared to Nanook's 18!!!) but I think Nanook has been helping us to teach him too.
 

nikkimd7

Inactive Member
Aw.....Penny just stick her in the crate :
:, it only takes a couple of weeks if that for a Newf to 'get' it...our obedience instructor, said you should have them on a leash attached to you at all times so they don't have the opportunity to go and sneak off to do there business, but we all know with a newf that's not always possible, so we crate trained ours.and when they weren't in the crate it was every 30 mins out side!
 

Sound Bay Newfs

Active member
16 weeks is still very young to expect perfection. It doesn't sound like she is in a crate and that could be the problem. Gating her in an area which is too big will only teach her to go in the house. In a crate she should only have enough room to turn around, so get a divider or you can make one with slats of wood or plastic milk crates. Restricting her space and taking her out often should do the trick. ;)
 

Brody the Newf

New member
Brody was 5.5 months old when he had his last accident. I thought I'd lose my mind considering I had trained dogs and humans before. Brody was a challenge though. One day, it just finally clicked. Then it took another 4 months for me to relax.
 

Bojie

New member
Crating Bojie was the best thing that I did for both of us. My biggest mistake in the beginning was not putting the divider in and making it small enough so that he could only get up and turn around in it. Before I made that change, he was having accidents in his crate because he could get away from it. Once I fine tuned the crating he was housebroken in just a few weeks, and at 5.5months, has been doing great and is now just in the kitchen behind a baby gate during the day when Im at work, and on the floor of my bedroom at night. It did wonders for us! Good luck!!
 

amyk

New member
Eloise seemed almost potty trained at 16 weeks, but she was crate trained. She didn't have accidents in her crate, so her only accidents were when I wasn't paying attention. I really liked using the crate to train her. I'd never done that with any of my dogs growing up and it seemed like the crate was a big help to speeding up the process.
 

puppylove1

New member
Skylar took some time to train, and sometimes I wonder if she is trained yet. She will ring the bell when she wants to go out, yet there are times if she goes downstairs to get water she will make a pit stop in my family room! And she is 11 months old!
 

najlaa

New member
Ramses is almost 5 months now and he didn't have an accident for about 1.5 months, he is not even crated...he wakes me up -with kisses thank you very much- at around 8.00 am now, does everyting outside, the easiest dog to potty train ever!
 

Mrs Beblo

New member
(Mrs B is afraid of repercussions, but here goes)
Mr B and I "reverse" crate trained Buford.
Yup, it was his 'litter box'. (Baby gate at the kitchen door.)
We brought him home Dec 20th, and on March 24th, I took the crate away.
Mr B was *most* fearful
(he suffers from 'hardwoodflooraphobia').
We've not had a problem since.
Now, trying to let Buford remain 'gateless' has proven a bit more challenging for Mr B.
Personally, I don't understand it. When Buford was teeting, he ate the kitchen (linoleum) floor.
Mr B said that didn't matter as he was planning to replace it anyway....
Yesterday, Buford ate the side of the couch.
Mr B stressed, I said "It doesn't matter, I'm planning to replace it anyway!" :D
 

dblsr

New member
Yogi was very hard to train. It was 5 1/2 months, right when I thought I would loose it, he stopped. like Magic! Montana is 17 weeks but I have it good this time. She goes out the doggie door with yogi. I think he is potty training her. She has an occasional accident but heck, she's still a baby. She is at the gallery all day and she has only had 2 accidents there ever. I take her for a potty break about every 2 1/2 hrs.
 

pjcarbone

Inactive Member
Every other dog has learned by example of my other dogs. Gabby, nooo way. She will wake me up at night to go out, it's during the day that is the problem, but I can see little, tiny baby steps forward. Thanks everyone.
 
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