When can he be trusted?

[paterson3713]

My dog is almost 7 months old now, and we ogirnally trained him on pee pads, which he surprisingly did quite well on (eventually 80% hits, 20% misses). After he was about 4 months old wemoved from an apartment to a new house.

At the new house we eliminated the pee pads immediately, and trained him to go outside. We used the crate training method until he got to the point where he would sit by the door if he had to go pee. Now he's at the point where he's okay to be out of his crate as long as there is someone around to keep an eye on him.

He has only had like 5 accidents in the house, (only 1 pee, the rest poo), and 3 of these accidents has been in the past week. We found that we were giving him too much freedom and letting him go whereever he wanted in the house. It seemed to be that if he was left unattended for too long, he would decide to go poo/pee infront of the nearest door, rather then coming to find us.

So I guess my question is, how do you know when your dog is ready to be trusted not to go in the house, and to either find you, or hold it until you let him out. It's almost like when he thinks he has to go, he'll wait like 5mins and if he isn't outside yet, then he'll go wherever he is.

I would love to be able to run to the grocery store or something and not have to crate him up when I'm gone.

 

[mamasobuco]

Not to sound like a broken record to the regulars but you may want to try training him to ring a bell when he has to go outside. Hang a bell by or on the door. Every time you take him out, ring the bell with his paws. He will eventually get it and start ringing it on his own letting you know that he has to go outside.
As far as trusting him in the house alone, I waited two years to let my 2 older dogs out of their crates when no one is home. But, that was more because of distruction issues.
Trust yourself. You'll know when the time is right. All dogs are different.

 

[patience2]

Before Jade was able to be fully trusted in the whole house. I used a gate
so she had to stay in the area of the house where we were. That way
we were sure to see the signs of when she had to go out, She would do
a little pacing or whine a little and we knew to let her out. If shes able
to run the whole house, you might miss the little signs that she gives you.
I'm sure she will be trained in no time, good luck

 

[Rubylove]

He's just a baby. Keep doing what you're doing, reinforce outside pottying with reward and keep an eye on him so you know when he's by the door!

I would say that mine weren't reliably trained until 12 months of age. I mean, they were 90% fantastic but the odd accident here and there. We have the very occasional accident these days but its really very rare. Maybe once every two months if that.

Sometimes there is just no way for them to get outside and then they go inside - not because they're being naughty but just cos they can't hold it in anymore!! But be careful not to let it become a habit with your little guy. You may have to go back a step or two and revise your training from that point onwards again. A little remedial training is not unusual with a dog your age.