Recent Potty Training Issues - Page 1

My husband and I have had our 11 1/2 week old GSD puppy for about a month now. We had gotten him used to going outside to go to the bathroom with very few accidents. However, a few days ago, we got about 5 inches of snow and potty training has completely gone down hill since then. Our puppy loves to go outside and play in the snow, and will usually pee outside, but he has yet to poop outside. He has resorted back to pooping in the house. Or, he has also started to pee and poop in his cage. He never used to go in his cage and the last few days it has become more of a regular thing. Is there anything that we can do to get him back on track with the potty training? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

He may think he is going outside to PLAY... you need to help him recognize the difference.  I train mine by giving them a key word (I use "hurry up"... but use whatever you want) and rewarding the peeing/pooing. 

IF he does his business first.. then he can play... and not until.  Say the words until he goes... everytime.  Consistancy is the key.  (oh.. btw.. that means you actually have to stand out there in the cold with the dog lol).

I still tell my older girls to "hurry up" and they will try even if they dont have to.   I am raising a pup myself right now and after the first 5 days he was good as gold.  I hope that helps.

Are you SURE that neither you nor your husband have inadvertently punished him, scolded him for going in the house thereby in his mind saying DONT POOP IN FRONT OF ME.  You think you are telling him not to poop in the house but what he understands is if he poops in front of you (or hubby) he will be punished.  That starts they cycle of pooping when you are not looking and esp in his cage where normally they would never want to go.  I would bet that is the problem.  I can tell you how perhaps to fix it if you think it might have been what happened.

Since I posted this, we basically went back to watching him 24/7 and like the first comment said, standing outside in the freezing cold with him until he does his business. He has been pooping and peeing outside for the last few days again with very few accidents inside the house. I know that we have both punished him for going in the house, but we make sure that we give him a treat and lots of praise for going outside. Someone had mentioned to me that I need to make his cage/space smaller and that will prevent him from going in his cage? We bought the extra large size cage since he is going to be a 100+ lb dog. However, currently he's only about 32 lbs. The cage did not come with a divider so I'm not 100% sure of what to wven use, if anything, to make his space smaller. Any suggestions on that?

Having house trained at least 14 dogs (including rescues) and it NEVER taking more than one day....I can say unequivocally that you should NEVER punish a puppy for going inside.  You can save yourself weeks or months or more of headaches by simply making sure your puppy or dog plays and walks outside with you until he/she goes, gets praise by using a consistent phrase (good outside poo/pee).  I also use in the house, as in, lets go in the house, and outside , as in lets go outside.  In less than a day they will know what poo is, what pee is and the difference between outside and inside.  If you watch the puppy you can tell by the circling behavior or going back and forth as well as the feel of the tummy if they need to go and take them outside, saying the words and praise.  If they are caught going inside, scoop them up and just, in a low voice say no inside poo/pee as you simultaneously take them out (mid potty if needed) and say good outside poo/pee in a happy voice and praise lavishly.  

Soon they will know exactly and even can go, if they need to, kind of on command.

Never hit, yell, rub nose, or anything else to punish the dog for going inside..ever.  I guarantee that is the one thing that will absolutely assure that the whole process will take MUCH longer than a day. 

I have never kept mine in a crate and they still have never taken more than 24 hours to house train, so going in the crate means something else is wrong and I bet it is what I stated earlier.

You can use a cardboard box (flaps towards the back of the crate or taped closed); plastic storage cube, anything really, to make crate temporarily smaller. There is a risk that some chewing will happen. I've used cardboard boxes for that reason but they grow so fast it's usually needed for a fairly short time. Definitely make the crate smaller for house training.

As H4J wrote, have a "party" (treats, excited voice praise--happy, happy!) every time there's a potty outside. I use different cues for each: "hurry up" (liquid) & "get busy" (solid) in the hope of getting what is due faster during busy times or bad weather. Seems to work for my 2.5 yo rescue. Really have a party when he does good & he'll quickly get the idea. Inside accidents:  quietly remove him outside until he does good & then have the party, even though you may still have a pile/puddle to clean up inside, so keep the happy voice outside. You need to get 'confirmation' every single time for awhile, which means you have to WATCH him. The usual advice to take him outside after every drink, meal, sleep time, play time, etc. still holds too.

gail

Brought our puppy home at 7 weeks. Never had an accident in the house (7 months now). We took ours on leash outside, say "go potty", walk around letting him sniff (slack in leash, just follow his lead), until he would go. Reward and immediately go back inside.

We didn't let him out to just "play" until after he had "go potty" down. Now, goes out within 5 minutes after eating and will "go potty" within 5 minutes outside.

We let him out to "play" at different times, even after he just comes in from going potty. Just kept it all separate and have never had a problem.

We used a "medium" sized crate (bought on Craigslist and disinfected really well) until he was about too big for it, then went to the extra-large size. Never has gone potty in a crate either.

Hope this helps give you some ideas!

We seem to have all potty training issues under control now. Thanks for all of the advise!!

Wow - Great advise...Things I never thought of.   I have always used the "go potty" command, but never thought about making potty time and play time 2 separate events.

I will start that right away with my rescue lab mix.  That should do the trick to finish out the house training.

I will use that for the "hopefully" soon to be puppies coming.