House Breaking - Page 1

Hello,

Im at my wits end I have a five month old male puppy who cannot be house trained. I got him at 10 wks and it has been a continuous stuggle to house break him. He just will constantly use the bathroom in the house. I take him out every 30 minutes to an hour. Sometimes it might be longer than that. I pick up his water dish and he only eats at certains of day so food is never left in his bowl. Ive tried disciplining him and Ive tried ignoring him when he does it and just clean it up. What do I do? I have never had this problem with my other dogs before. The 14 month old female I have has been house broken since she was 12 wks old she has had a couple of accidents here and there but she was not even remotely close to this guy. Is it just harder to house train males?

Thanks everyone

i would crate him, and take him from the cate to potty. He has to big an area, he is not peeing on his bed, but the rest of the house is fair game. I would take some of his stool and put it where you want him to go, so he can smell himself there. when he goes make a big deal of it, try and catch him just as he finishes or you will interupt the flow of things.

For sure. Put a long line on him and supervise him whenever he is in the house with you. Grab him right away and take him outside if he looks like he is going to go to the bathroom. When outside keep telling him to "go potty" or whatever you'd like to say. When he does, praise him up and down. Whenever he is in the house and you cannot supervise him put him in the crate. Whenever you take him out of the crate go right to the potty area and again encourage hime to go potty and praise him when he does. Do this for awhile and he will get the hint.

I would keep him on leash with you if he is out of his crate.  You will know when he has to go and he can't sneak off to potty.  He will learn to come to you to go outside.  myne will run to me and then the door, and whine.  This also teaches them to stay right with you all the time.

I have had two males and no problem with housetraining.  I didn't make a huge deal when they started to go, just would say "uh, uh, uh" scoop them up and place them outside.  Lots of praise when they comply, don't bring them back in until they go outside (this can be a real waiting game, suggest getting it handled before winter sets in LOL).  Leave him in the crate and then take him out after an hour or so.  After going outside and praising, play with him let in the house for 15 min then back to the crate until he "gets it".  Punishment will probably just make it worse, try to stay upbeat when he does well and low key when he's not.

i have always found females to be harder to potty train than males....all the males ive ever had pretty much did it on their own, they WANT to go outside and hide in the edge of the woods to do their poo.....but my dog daisy still has accidents....she goes in and out freely all day long, so theres no problem there...but she seems to save her pooing for night time..(guess shes embarrassed, waits till all the boy dogs are sleeping)....but since i am sleeping, i can never catch her at it to break the habit......

one thing to think about...start trying the leash thing, great idea.but i also know how hard it is to walk around with a 5month old GSD tied to ya!! ruckus! ..but either way i dont think it will last forever...all male dogs i have, seem to get futher and futher away from their 'living area" with their poo....i havent 'seen' my 10 year old ratty, poo in years...but i see when he comes back out of the woods afterwards, he likes to get as far away from home a possiable....boss started out pooing at the front door, ugh...then the porch...more ugh....then right by the front steps/ front yard...then on to the neighbors front yard (thank goodness the are relatives!) then to the edge of the garden..(fertilizer..lol.)...now he goes in the back field...every few weeks, as he gets older he gets a little futher from "his space"....tho male dogs like to piss on everything in sight...i dont think they like their own poo....as they get older, and their idea of their own territory expands...the poo spot will expand with it....maybe you pup needs to spend more time outside?...so he can get the sense the 'outside' is his area to, not just inside the house? then maybe his male instinct will drive him to mark this area also..........

gimme10mins, I answered your other identical post, I'm lazy........
check that one too Thanks!!

Important thing is catching him in the "act" so he knows it's wrong and praising him when he does it outside. Using the above posted method I had my male showline trained in about 3 weeks and my female working line trained in about 1 week.

It didn't take long at all to housebreak my 6mo old male pup.  I got him at 4 mo old and the breeder had not had the pups in her main house quarters but kept in the basement so we had a little bit of a challenge on our hands.  When I first got him he had a few accidents in his crate until he and I got on the same page and routine.  I'd get up around 7am, let both dogs out to potty and go start my coffee.  By that time they were done handling their business and I got their food and water out to them.  If the weather was nice, not too hot I'd leave them out for a good while.  The pup finally started to get it that he goes from crate to yard to do his business.  I only recently started giving him time in the house when I can supervise his every little move and we've never had an accident yet.  Feeding them early on in the day is best I found.  Gives them plenty of time to go to the bathroom before it's time for bed and he should be in good shape until the morning again.  I usually bring them in for the night around 10pm and it's worked out well for me in housebreaking.  He WILL let me know if I am late letting them out in the morning that HE'S GOT TO GO RIGHT NOW! lol  He'll bark and it's a distictive kinda bark to let me know hey, you got 5 minutes to let me out or you're gonna have a mess to clean up and it's not gonna be my fault.  Depending on your daily routine you may wanna try what worked for me and see if it helps.  Good Luck and let us know if it's working out.

Drake is going to be 9 months on the 15th and he hasn't even had an accident since he was 11 weeks!  Link, my sweetie that I lost in March only went inside once or twice and that was it.  Drake goes to work with my hubby at 9 am and holds it all day until he comes home at 5, never complains!  There is an outside place at the shop if he must go but never does.  Did I pick exceptional (bladder-wise) dogs or had anyone else had it this easy?  Actually, before that (20 years ago) I had female GSDs and I don't remember having any housebreaking issue with any of them either.  But these latest two have both been males.