Please share your housebreaking experiences

[StunnedMonkey]

Not the procedures. There are 100's of threads on HOW to housebreak a puppy. I'd just be curious to hear from those who have already been successful (or are still working on it) how the process went for you. How long did it take until you felt comfortable that your dog was reliably housetrained? How old was the dog? How many accidents were you having along the way? That sort of stuff.

Guess I'm just a little disheartened as Darby pooped twice on the carpet this morning. She's been averaging about one pee accident per day, but this is the first time she's taken a dump inside. My fault of course, as the first happened at a time when I really wasn't expecting poop, and the second was only 10 minutes later. What's up with that?

Anyway, please take a few moments and share your sucessful experiences and whatever frustrations you had along the way. Unless of course your dog was housetrained in two days or something. Then just keep it to yourself.

 

[Bomgardner]

Snickers is still a work in progress...the first few weeks were really bad. I wanted him to be out of the crate to play a lot, but he would potty like every hour, not always with a warning. It would just start coming out! I think it was because he was sooo small. In the second week we got more into a routine. He could hold it in the crate for 4 hours while I was at work if I made sure he ate early enough to poop it out before I left. But no matter how early he ate dinner I would still have to get up 3 times every night to let him out. I realized that if he was out of his crate I would just have to take him out every hour while I was there until bedtime. It was so frustrating and he really spent a lot of time in his crate those days. Plus, I love my sleep, so I was pretty tired! His free time in the mornings ended for awhile since EVERY time I got out of the shower the toilet paper had been transformed into confetti and he had pooped. (Now he holds it so he gets his morning free time again). I had that happen where he would poop 10 minutes apart, too. I guess it's like when you poop and then 10 minutes later more falls down ready to go lol. Anyways, he didn't make it easy for us to give him play time. We couldn't trust him during cooking, eating, or showering. Those were times when we couldn't stare at his hiney waiting for stuff to start coming out.

3 bottles of Nature's Miracle later...things got better! Gradually, his bladder grew stronger and we could let him out to play more. Snickers knows he should hold it inside and go potty outside (most of the time). He can't be home alone outside of his crate yet, but he holds to his schedule like a champ and sleeps through the night too. He is almost 5 months old now. I just got puppy gates yesterday, so we are going to try letting him free-roam the kitchen during the day soon with a bed in there. Hopefully we can start leaving him home by himself with no gates and such after a few more months.

The most successful plan was when we kept to the same schedule, then adapted it to his new bladder skillz when he got them. In the last 2 months, all of his accidents occurred when the schedule got messed up a bit from various things going on. Anyways, I hope that knowing other people are on their knees cleaning up poopie makes you feel less alone in your frustration I'm sure your puppy will housetrain wonderfully and those unexpected morning poops will subside.

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Well, I'm even more distressed. I took her out to do her business at 10 AM, and watched her pee. I brought her back in and placed her in the crate with a couple of chew toys while I ran to Office Depot. I arrived back at 11 AM and SHE HAD PEE'D IN THE CRATE!!!!! After only one hour! She's never pee'd or pooped in the crate before, and certainly never so quickly.

THis is really discouraging. The crate was the onle place we could count on. I can't believe she pee'd in the crate that quickly after she'd been outside at least 5 time already this morning.

 

[Scooter]

We had great success with Zoe, but of course she's unusually smart
We got her at 4 months, and she was not house trained. It took us about 3 weeks before there were no accidents and we felt 100% safe. The biggest test was on Christmas Day. She was about 5 months old, and we took her to my husband's parents house for the day. She was an angel- had no accidents! We were so proud.

I will say, we were quite vigilent over the 3 week training. I work from home, so I took her out almost hourly, and at least once during the night.

 

[Herschel]

Well, I'm even more distressed. I took her out to do her business at 10 AM, and watched her pee. I brought her back in and placed her in the crate with a couple of chew toys while I ran to Office Depot. I arrived back at 11 AM and SHE HAD PEE'D IN THE CRATE!!!!! After only one hour! She's never pee'd or pooped in the crate before, and certainly never so quickly.

THis is really discouraging. The crate was the onle place we could count on. I can't believe she pee'd in the crate that quickly after she'd been outside at least 5 time already this morning.

Don't be too stressed. Herschel had a couple of accidents in his crate during very short, unexpected intervals.

Be consistent and take it in stride. I've posted a write-up of the log book technique here so you can dig that up if you're interested.

We started leaving Herschel alone in the house outside of the crate by 11 or 12 weeks. We gave him free roam by the time he was 5 months and he was 100% reliable.

 

[girlbuffalo1]

Wrigley was a dream to potty train we got him at 10 weeks (he was under 5lbs) and I would say total up until now (he is a few months over a year) he has maybe had a total of 8 accidents--maybe. We were dilligent about the crate--every single moment he was stared at or with us or in the crate! If I went to the bathroom myself I either took him with me or put him in the crate--we kept the crate partitioned off VERY small just enough room to lay down and he only had a mess in their once and that was because he was sick!

I would say around the 5 month mark I considered him reliable enough to be in the other room for a minute or two alone and by the 8 month mark trusted him completely--we caught him each time during the accidents (DURING not after) I would pick him up by the scruff say NO and put him outside to finish and then clean the spot with enzyme cleaner.

Honey (who we just got last week) was pad trained GAH how horrible! I was dreading it! It has been around 5 days and we have only had one accident--she watches Wrigley and gets it to go outside. I wish no one would ever pad train it's the most horrible thing ever! LOL!

 

[StunnedMonkey]

Don't be too stressed.

How could I not be stressed! THIS IS MY PUPPY!!!!!

:lol-sign:

OK, I'm kidding. Sort of. Actually this reminds me a lot of when we had our first child and had poop charts and feeding records, monitored every movement and generallly assumed that things were always horribly wrong. With the second kid we were calmer of course, and generally just left her lay on the sidewalk to eat pebbles and dirt. No big deal.

 

[Scooter]

You left your kid on the sidewalk to eat pebbles and dirt?? Boy I need to relax about this puppy! :lol-sign:

 

[MamabearX3]

LOL! I posted earlier about my puppy not being interested, and well I just got online, I had to sit out with Chance while my husband drew a bath for our children, by the way with the first we were so neurotic and with our 2 yr old we basically do the same as you just leave him to his own pleasures, and he does have a stange desire to play with dirt and we once caught him trying to eat a earth worm. Any how. So yeah when he is out of his crate we keep eye on him, we crate him for cooking dinner shower laundry, anything we can't give him full attention with. And we still have accidents. But, as I am sitting her typing, my husband said Chance keeps walking towards the back door, acting all shy. I said maybe he wants to take care of business, so my husband opened the door.......................................and out he went and business was accomplished. Just thought I'd share.

 

[Zoom]

I can't say anything, Sawyer was housebroken 100% in about a week and a half...but he was also 1 1/2 years old when I got him and I wasn't working at the time, so I could be with him 24/7. His foster home had started housebreaking him, so he had about a week's worth of practice by the time I got him.

 

[J's crew]

I find that the very first dog you get is the hardest to house break. As long as you always own at least one housebroken dog it's pretty easy. All dogs or pups have learned within a couple weeks because they go out with the dog that is already here and just do their thing.

For young puppies or even new older dogs, when you are home take them out at least every half hour. It may be a pain for a couple of days but it's worth it in the long run. That's what I've always done and it works everytime.

 

[YellowLabMom]

Housebreaking

Our lab, Max, was not too difficult to housebreak. We have been very fortunate in that he does not want to poop in the house. We got him when he was 7 weeks old and were very careful to take him outside shortly after eating and other than that he would just kind of poop every time he was out. As he got older, he would have occasions when he would pee in the house without letting us know he had to go, but he would always bark or whine when he had to poop so we've been very lucky in that respect.

As for the peeing in the kennel during short intervals, I wouldn't worry. Max had very severe separation anxiety for about the first month we had him which would cause him to pee small amounts in his kennel no matter how long or short his stay was in the kennel. He still has anxiety about some things, but his bladder control has improved so he doesn't pee in the kennel anymore. Then we went through a phase where he would deliberately pee in the house to show us he was mad about something we did. Fortunately, that phase only lasted a couple of weeks. I think he was fully housebroken, to the point where I didn't worry, by about 4 months old. He is almost 6 months old now and we just started leaving him out of his kennel at night and so far we have had no accidents.

I think what worked the best for us was that we did not shuffle him outside every 2 hours. We waited, and watched closely, for him to give signals that he might be ready to go again. That way, he learned that outside was the right place to go and that he needed to tell us when he had to go. I think that if dogs get taken out on a regular schedule, say every 2 hours, it takes longer for them to understand why they are going outside. If they don't understand why to go outside then they won't get the hang of telling you the need to go.

 

[Spirit2010]

Well, I know my puppy is just 6 weeks of age, and I have only had her for 3 days, but she has had accidents, don't get me wrong, most of them, my fault, because she was doing what was natural of course, and now, I take her out every 15 min. or so, and she goes everytime I take her out. But, every puppy is different! Keep this in mind. But she is still very young, and I am sure I will have troubles when she is older!

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I started this thread, so I guess I'll update it. Darby is driving me crazy. She's 11 weeks old now. A short while ago she had three consecutive accident-free days, and went until early evening of a 4th day. Then she proceeded to pee FOUR TIMES on the carpet that evening. Now we've just had another accident-free 3 day stretch, and yesterday would have been the 4th. But when we got into the evening, she again pee'd THREE TIMES on the carpet.

All of these have occurred within minutes of a successful outdoor pee. It's making me nuts.

 

[Cazian]

We got Buddy at 8 weeks old.
When we got him he had had no jabs so we didn't let him outside at all.
We get a lot of Foxes and I just didn't want to take the chance of letting him go in the back yard so we started potty training inside on news paper.
At first we just put him on the paper when we thought he wanted to go.
We used the command "Get Busy" all the time he was on the paper and as soon as he went he got lots of praise and attention. Lots of "Good Boy" and treats, keep a treat bag next to the potty area.
If he made a mistake we would ignore what he had done and place him on the paper again. He soon learnt that potty on the paper was good.
Three weeks later he was fully protected so now started the job of house training. It took about two days for him to understand that it was now OK to "get busy" in the back yard. We took some wet paper from his potty area and placed that on the ground to let him sniff. Now every time he needs potty he lets us know he wants to go in the yard.
The only problem we have now is he will only go in the back yard.
If out walking and he wants to go potty he will stop and refuse to go on until we turn around and bring him home to the back yard to go potty.
This is fine by me as far as poop goes, who wants to be seen picking up poop to take home with you ? lol But I of course would if he did start to go poop in the street, its all part of being a good dog owner but I do wish he would get the idea that its OK to pee while out walking. He is a dog and he should be marking out his territory.
But all in all I am over the moon with how he is doing with all his training.
This is the first puppy I have ever had that has not so far had me pulling out my hair, I truly believe this is due to reading great forums like this.
The training methods used here work. Just give them time, some dogs pick things up fast, some take a little longer. I was lucky with Buddy, he is very smart. Main thing I have learnt I think is to stay cool, do not lose your temper. All your new puppy wants to do is to please you.
If you are at this time thinking of getting a new member of the family then get one and expect to get your house chewed and messed. It takes time.