# House Training Woes



## Cakegirl (Mar 28, 2014)

Hi all!

We are having a terrible time house training. Dakota is nearing the 5 month mark and still has accidents every single day. He's been checked by the vet, and there's nothing physically wrong with him. We are crate training him.

Today, for example, he was in his crate, I let him out, took him straight to potty. Then I decided to let him be out in the house for a bit (a new adventure for us) while I cooked dinner. I got him a bone and directed him to his pillow. He was fine for about five minutes and then I noticed he peed next to his pillow and pooped in the other room. Gah!

Any advice would be great - we are so frustrated!


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## redd (May 25, 2014)

Hi Cakegirl-

Our last dog, lab/pit mix, was horrendous with house training. She would literally pee in the car on the way to the vet, peed in the crate, all over the house, peed every 15 mins. It was awful. 
She was diagnosed with uti(but urine always negative), diluted urine, psychgenic drinking. We did not allow her to drink at will. We took her to the vet many times for it. 
By 15 months, we took her to a vet specialist, who thought she could have ectopic ureter (so ureter bypasses bladder and goes to urethra) so set her up for IVP kidney dye test. 
2 days before test, she went 8 hours with peeing. !!!!!
Then she was fine. The suspicion was that she had a "pelvic bladder" meaning her bladder was stuck between her pelvic bones and finally dropped when she got big enough. 
That's what we were told at least, 
So perhaps you could ask your vet about possible bladder issues?


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## Cakegirl (Mar 28, 2014)

No, I don't think so. Partially because he can hold it all night in his crate, and he also poops on the floor so it's not just pee.
I've been very diligent, I just don't know what to do.


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Just keep at it. Some dogs take longer than others, though it sounds like he's not ready to be left unsupervised while you're cooking or in general. Crate him or tether him to your waist. 

One of our members, Ozkar has this method where he soaks up the accident with some paper towels, takes it outside on the grass, and praises the pup when he sniffs it. It reinforces in a positive way where the pup is supposed to go.


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## mlwindc (Feb 8, 2013)

Wilson was a slow potty trainer. He was good in his crate all night, but had house accidents until he was 8-9 months. Not regularly, but every few days just when I thought we were done, he'd pee somewhere and really annoy me. 

I finally realized after he tired/excited peed on his dad's foot (yes foot!) that he was just an over excited doofus... And age would sort it out, eventually. I'm not sure if it was age or what, but he never had an accident after 10 months or so, when we finally let him sleep with us. I comment that once we let him in bed, the house really became "his" and he didn't want to soil it in anyway.


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## MCD (May 4, 2013)

Dharma is 1. We still occasionally have accidents when no one is paying enough attention.(Usually dead to the world asleep). She will use the rec room old carpeting or if she has the runs(I can't blame her if she can't hold it). Dharma generally has been slow to do everything. It has gotten better lately but she was the runt of the litter and has probably been behind her litter mates.


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## dextersmom (Oct 29, 2013)

Dexter took a while to potty train too. The breeder did a great job with him and he preferred to go outside from the start. The minute he hit grass, he pottied. But it took a long time to get him to realize he had to _ask_ to go outside and not just pee inside if there wasn't any grass around.

I'm not sure this would be recommended or not, but this is what worked for us: we use the sound "eh eh" if he does something we disapprove of. It's not really a reprimand, more of a "make another choice" reminder  One day he went to squat and pee, so I looked at him and said "eh eh" and then carried him outside and praised him for finishing his potty out there. It was like I literally saw a lightbulb go off in his little head. "Ohhhh, so she doesn't want me to pee inside either!" I knew right then he was potty trained and he's never had another accident in the house since. It only took the once. I know you're not supposed to punish them for potty accidents, but Dexter is not a very sensitive V, so this type of reminder doesn't upset him, just makes him think a little. I'm sure it wouldn't work for every V, but it certainly did for us.


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## Cakegirl (Mar 28, 2014)

Thanks all for the suggestions. It's been a couple of weeks, and we spoke to our trainer about it. He basically said to be very strict with the crate, and then have some extra special treats (like shredded rotisserie chicken, hot dogs, etc) for when he goes outside. So that's what we've been doing and he's only had one accident in the house since. But that could be because he has just about 0 opportunity to have an accident. The one he had was because I tried to give him a little more freedom one afternoon for literally 10 minutes. 
I'm thinking it is just going to take him awhile longer to mature. I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, though.


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## rkbetz (Apr 4, 2014)

I thought we would never see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our girl would go out and potty and then 5 minutes after coming back in go potty again. She had more trouble in the evening. Thankfully she only pooped in the house a few times, but potty was terrible. It has only been one week with no accidents, but it's been ONE WEEK with no accidents which is awesome! We went out camping for a few weeks and were hoping that when we came home she would be used to going outside. The first night we got home she went potty in the house. We were pretty vocal about it and she knew we weren't happy. She hasn't done it since. She still isn't to the point where she is asking to go outside. It is warm so we have our back door open as much as possible and we still invite her out and tell her to go out and go potty often. She will be 5 months old on Monday and it seems like it took longer than our other dogs.


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