NEW PUP - House training ideas????

[DCF]

Getting a new pup - a yellow pointing lab. Need some ideas on house training the pup. Never did this before. Other dog was an outside dog. Any ideas or good websites to read let me know. Thanks

[Powerstroke]

Look up kennel training. Its the best way I can think of. You teach your dog to use the kenneland it teaches the dog a routine and self control.

In short you have a kennel for the dog. If you get a larger kennel, fill it iwth boxes etc. until theres just enough space for the dog to lay down. The dog ahs room to sleep, but not enough room to create a potty area in the kennel. Only rarely will you hear of a dog going in its kennel and its usually too bog of a kennel space or the owner left a puppy in there too long.

Still let your pup out every hour or two. As soon as you let your pup out of the kennel direct it outside to go potty. Develop this routine. Then you can play or feed or do whatever, but not until they go potty.

This method taught my pup (he just turned 1 year last week) that coming out of the kennel means time to go potty and it also taught him a place to go every time. I always let him out the same door and brought him to the same place.

They still have accidents, but I blame myself for not paying attention and letting too much time go by.

The big thing with the kennel is your pup needs supervision. If you can't provide it, he should be in the kennel. Otherwise dogs will learn habits, good and bad on their own unless you nurture them to do the ones you want. Also the dog will learn to like their kennel as a safe place. You get the security of an outdoor kennel with a more inside dog.

[metrojoe]

I can't remember where I read this but the best advise I got was to take the pup out after they eat, sleep, and play.

As mentioned above crate training is a great tool for potty training. Plus you get the benefit of a crate trained dog.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Do yourself a favor when you put the dog out. This may sound silly but it works well, over and over and over again keep repeating,"Go potty go potty go potty," as soon as you let it out. Then, after it lays a lawn sausage give it tons of praise.

This creates the Pavlovs dog type response, sometimes. This way when it's raining out or nasty, if you say go potty it will stop goofing around and go.

[Powerstroke]

I totally with boilerguy. Even when my pup is wound up and running around. If I say "go potty" he will find a spot and do his business quickly. It works.

[TProGuy]

I love the go potty command. My GSP is almost 11 weeks old now, and still has occasional accidents in the house (maybe once, on a rare occasion, twice in a day), but he has already learned the go potty command. Even if he has just gone, if I say go potty, he will make another attempt to go.

[SDbowhunter]

I have heard from some people that to not do what i did with my dog but it worked. If i caught him going in the house I would raise my voice scream no and grab him by the scruff of the neck and toss him outside. When i didnt catch him i would rub his nose in it or near it again shout no and put him outside. I would also use the go potty command like mentioned above. He quickly learned to fear me when he did that certain thing in the house. Of course all of the dicipline was backed up with tons of praise whenever he went outside. And after putting him outside for a minute he would be allowed back in and all was forgotten. Took me 1 month to house train him with maybe 20 or 30 accidents at most.

[fishroger]

Crate training is a good idea . They dont like it at first, but now he loves his crate and he sleeps in it every nite. Its no use beating the pup if he pees in the house. Take him out as soon as he is done eating. I did get a carpet steamer to clean up all the pee spots.

[311Hemi]

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When i didnt catch him i would rub his nose in it or near it again shout no and put him outside.

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No disrespect to the poster, but:

I would not recommend doing this. If you do not catch the pup in the act he will not associate why you are punishing him (even a minute after). It's your fault he pee'd in the house, not his. You should be watching him all the time....if not then crate him.

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He quickly learned to fear me when he did that certain thing in the house.

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The idea is not to train the pup with fear....you want the pup to learn house training with positive reinforcement.

[SDbowhunter]

311Hemi, Like i said before some people may disagree. I personally believe that your not giving dogs and even puppies enough credit. What you are saying is that dogs do not have memory. Dogs will bury bones and hide objects in the weeds so that they are not found by their other only to retrieve them hours or days later. A dog will see a bird go down down wind from the dog it will run through tall weeds almost to the exact spot it went down with out smelling the bird. Dogs mark territory and definately know what thier excrements smell like. My parents had an irish setter when i was a kid. If we left her home alone for more then 4 or 5 hours she would shred the garbage and then sit out in the field when we came home. She definately remembered what she did. She knew it was wrong but so was leaving her home alone I would like to say that I was not overly harsh while scolding him after the fact and i live in small house so accidents were found within an hour at most. I guess it that it may be i got lucky with a really smart dog. But I think if a person can house train any puppy in 1 month between the age of 8 to 12 weeks old with only a handful of accidents you must be doing something right.

[gonefishin11]

I house-trained my chocolate lab, 18 months old now, with the same type of technique as SDbow... and we stopped having accidents about 12 weeks. There have been less than a dozen accidents since she was 12 weeks old.

Everyone has there own techniques but this one seemed to work perfect for me. Again, maybe it was just luck or this specific dog.

[DCF]

Thanks for the ideas. Training has been going pretty good. We are crate training and he respects this. The problem now is I can take him out, he goes, we play outside, go back in and he will go in the house 5 min. after we went in. How do you break him of this. At night he can go from 10:30 to 5:30 in the morn. in the crate without any accidents. We want to be able to let him run around the house when we are there. I have a yellow lab that is 60 days old.

[311Hemi]

Well...to each their own and wasn't calling you out. Just trying to offer advice to a new puppy owner.

I could get my lab to quickly respond to any training by using a heavy hand for the quickest results....doesn't make it right.

I still think a pup should not be left alone to do this....but thats also my personal opinion. If the dog is not being supervised it should be crated.

[Harmonica Bear]

This probably going to come out wrong being that I am at work and have to do this very quickly.

You are on the righttrack with crate training. Stick with it. There are enough tips and articles on-line to find out how that is done. However, when it comes to letting the dog out, it goes potty, you praise it, do everything by the book, then when you bring the pup in he goes potty right away or 5 minutes later, right in front of you...I always have been rather old school in those instances, maybe not as far as rubbing their nose in it, but it most certainly wouldn't be confused as positive reinforcement.

[Harmonica Bear]

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I still think a pup should not be left alone to do this....but thats also my personal opinion. If the dog is not being supervised it should be crated.

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Absolutely.

[311Hemi]

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I always have been rather old school in those instances, maybe not as far as rubbing their nose in it, but it most certainly wouldn't be confused as positive reinforcement.

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Well....don't get me wrong when the pup is found in the process of peeing inside a stern/loud "no" is required as you grab the dog and bring it outside. The positive reinforcement comes routinely after completing their job outside.

If your paying attention to the dog in the first place usually you can keep this from happening (can kind of tell when they are getting ready) or catch them in the act.

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We want to be able to let him run around the house when we are there. I have a yellow lab that is 60 days old.

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As said above...at that age you should always have an eye on him.

[Harmonica Bear]

I knew that would come out wrong. I am pretty much in agreement. And at 60 days, accidents are going to happen.

[trailratedtj]

just to add my input...

Pretty basic but, after he eats, after he plays, after he wakes up, and of course if he's running his nose hard in the house get him outside. Just helps with eliminating those incidents.

My pup is 5 1/2 monthes now and has been crate trained. I got him when he was 7 weeks old and he was potty trained by 9 weeks. He did have occasional accidents but that was my fault and it took me a couple incidents for me to pick up on his pup signal that he needed to go out. In the crate at night you will hate it for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 weeks as he's gonna wake you up about every hour and a half to two hours to go out and its usually right when get that nice good deep sleep going.

My fiance couldnt take it with our dog the first 2 nights, he was crying and scratching at the door all night till he tired out. Anyways my fiance breaks and grabs him out of the kennel carries to the bed and lets him sleep with us. The next thing I know he took a "big one" at the corner of the bed and my fiance has rubbed her toes, our blanket, and smeared our sheet all over it......Not cool. Needless to say it took two times for this to happen and my fiance finally broke and left him in the kennel.

[fishroger]

you arent going to have a dog housebroken at 8-9 weeks. They basically have no bladder and bowel control. They go when at the moment they feel they have to go no matter where it is. My lab is almost 6 months and I have had him in a crate in the garage for almost 3 months. I cant have him in the house very long. He smells everything and will eat it if he can get a hold of it, garbage especially. He can stay in his crate now from about 9pm to 7am if I walk him at nite before we go to bed. He lets me now if he has to eliminate. Feeding them at set times also helps. It can be a challenge when their 9 weeks old, But I would recommend keeping out of the main living area as soon as you can, once they pee and poop in the house they want to do it again, they are creatures of habitat. I am getting a kennel soon, he needs a little more room.

[SDbowhunter]

A co-worker taught me another great tip when using the go potty command the dog will typically go number one first. If you bring them back inside the house they will then have a number 2 accident or vice a versa. Bring the dog back in the house after it goes # 1 and 30 seconds later bring it back outside and use the go potty command again. Their attention span is so short that they forget what the need to do untill the uncontrollable urge hits again. This will help prevent many accidents.

[trailratedtj]

i do know a dog doe not have full control till around 5-6 months, some dogs longer...but you can train the dog to intisipate. When you were a kid and you pissed your pants becuase you couldnt get to a toilet fast enough, did you feel bad? Did you feel that you didnt have control?, Did you know where you needed to go and what you needed to do??? I bet you did but you couldnt help it. What did you do wrong? you know you needed to piss but you under intisipated when! So yes if you can train a dog to try and intisipate when it needs to go, hince taking him outside after he plays, eats, or wakes up to do his duties then you are traching him that after doing things that are stimulating his bowels or bladder that he needs to go outside. How is a dog that knows this not trained or house broken? It only builds or lengthens the time the older he get as he can then actually start holding his bowels longer. I dog not being able to hold it and then just going around pissing or pooing all over the place is not house broken. A young pup that goes to the door or is going to the door and has his mistake there or along the way is a dog that is broken but not old enough to hold it. Now your saying that a dog cant be trained to anticipate his movement?....The mistakes my dog did make were in fact in front of the door or on his way to the door.

Now that fact that you cant have your dog in the house is your own fault. Your the one not socailizing the dog with the house and I bet and soon as you do let him in the house and he does something wrong he gets scolded for it and gets shoved right back out to garage back in that kennel. Right?

Oh yeah, " once they pee and poop in the house they want to do it again, they are creatures of habitat." Wrong!

How many people in this forum have had there dog pee in there house when they first got them? How many people still have their dog inside the house still peeing becuase "there a creature of habitat"? How many people trained their dog not to do it again? How many dogs that were trained are still doing it inside the house?

So you telling me if a dog pees in his kennel becuase he was in there to long then the whole crate training thing is gone out the door right?, Since like you said once they pee or poop in a certain place its all over for them and their gonna keep doing it.

You can train a dog to take a dump anywhere and if he does it in a place he should have he can be trained to not do it again.

sorry for blowing up but give your dog a chance. Its not all instinct, remember they have a brain too.

[trailratedtj]

my spelling sux by the way

[LundExplorer]

Anyone tried the jingle bell method?

I used this with our lab and was surprised at how few accidents he had as a pup. Granted there were some but fewer than with my golden.

Get a 1" jingle bell - and tie it to a short string, around the door knob or handle where you let him out. Every time he goes out to do his thing, ring the bell.

It will soon become his way of signaling you that he has to go. After a few weeks I saw an improvement in the # of accidents. My lab is 2 now and it is his "I gotta go" call.

[311Hemi]

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Anyone tried the jingle bell method?

I used this with our lab and was surprised at how few accidents he had as a pup. Granted there were some but fewer than with my golden.

Get a 1" jingle bell - and tie it to a short string, around the door knob or handle where you let him out. Every time he goes out to do his thing, ring the bell.

It will soon become his way of signaling you that he has to go. After a few weeks I saw an improvement in the # of accidents. My lab is 2 now and it is his "I gotta go" call.

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Now that you mention it, yes...I did this also and it worked pretty well once he was trained to it. I eventually removed it though because it became an "I'm bored, let me out" ring.

[fishroger]

Chill dude. Ask any trainer of dogs. They get used to certain habits, good or bad. If you want a good hunting dog they can train it to do certain things. If you want it to crap in the house you can train it to do that. Hope you have a better day.

[Wormdrowner]

DCF,

I did the bell from day one, (7 weeks) with my Lab, every time she went out I said "go potty". She learned that in a few days, but like you said, five minutes later she would have an accident in the house. I don't know exactly what age she was, maybe 15-16 weeks, there were no more accidents. It's been (5) accident free month's now. Hang in there it will happen, just stay consistent.

[trailratedtj]

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Chill dude. Ask any trainer of dogs. They get used to certain habits, good or bad. If you want a good hunting dog they can train it to do certain things. If you want it to crap in the house you can train it to do that. Hope you have a better day.

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sorry but i took it as you saying that it couldnt be done when in fact it was done with my dog. I get you saying that the dog is gonna have its days and its gonna poo and pee all over the place. My tatic was to train for the anticipation.

like i said i came off a little hot and i apoligize.

[tipup]

Got my pup at 7 weeks, house trained by 10 weeks. All I did is let her out about every 10-15 minutes and now she goes to the door and asked to be let out. Kind of time consuming at first but it works!!!