We’ve had Gromit now for about six months, and he’s just about housebroken, but I still don’t trust him all the way. We crate trained him, and we put him outside in our fenced backyard during the day, or when we need to leave the house.
He hasn’t had an “incident” for months now, except, of course, for yesterday. Mr. Athena had put him in the house while he did some work in the garage and the yard. He was inside for at most 3 hours. He made a HUGE mess in the spare bedroom - very runny, like diarrhea. I’m not worried about the diarrhea per se, as he recently was neutered and the vet warned us that we may see some diarrhea. What I am worried about is when this #!#@$!@# dog will be housetrained!
So is this normal? I would think that at 6 months old, he could hold it for 3 hours. We haven’t left him at home inside much, because we do worry about this kind of thing. He hasn’t soiled anywhere else for months, but then again, he’s mostly either right with us in the house, in his crate, or outside. So is this dog housetrained or not? What can I do to get him the rest of the way?
I think the diarrhea was a product of the dog’s uneasyiness to mess inside the house, and indication he is housetrained. My large dog usually has nice, firm stools, but if he’s inside way too long (electrical storms keep him in), he sometimes does this.
We are also housebreaking a puppy that we’ve had about 6 months – a notorious slow-training Bichon Frise.
After 6 months in our home, our dog is about 95% perfect with his housebreaking. When he has had diarrhea, he has had a hard time holding his stool. So, when Gromit had diarrhea, I’d say it was 10O% normal that he could not hold it appropriately.
But that’s not a typical situation – your dog was ill (even if mildly). As I understand it, dogs never get 100% housetrained – though many get to 99.8%, maybe. That means that even a “perfect” dog will have blemishes on his housebreaking record. These blemishes usually only occur if something is amiss, however: illness, a change in the dog’s routine or food, etc.
Conclusion: Gromit is A-OK, amd sounds like he has indeed mastered house training. IMO, a 6-month old dog that has had no incidents in months is pretty amazing!
If your dog had diarhea, it isn’t a marker that the housetraining hasn’t worked. Diarhea brings it’s own sort of imperative to that act.
Training is an on-going process. Any kind of training. For housebreaking, feed at the same time as much as possible and withing an hour let the dog outside to do it’s business. Let the dog out periodically to pee, also. Everytime it does it’s business, heap praise on it. Maybe even reward it with a treat. This will go a long way to keep your dog house broken. But be advised that some accidents will happen anyway.
I have had many dogs over the years and have worked as a vet tech for a long time. Now many people will disagree with me, but I believe female dogs are much easier to housebreak than males. Some breeds are more difficult than others. It sounds to me like your dog is pretty much trained. I also think it was because he had diarrhea. If you were in the house he probably would have let you know he had to go. One more thing, it might be helpfull to put him on a long grainwhite rice and hamburg diet for a day or two till the diarrhea is gone. Then slowly return him to his regular food, a little bit at a time.
What everyone else has said seems spot on. Diarrhea, as already noted, changes things a bit.
I’ll second this. I too have a 6.5 month old puppy at home and she is mostly housebroken. That said she still has the occasional accident (twice) but in each case it was my fault. She actually did try to let me know she needed to go out but I was too stupid to clue in quick enough (although it was obvious in retrospect). The second time she had an accident I did pick up on her clues but was finishing dinner and figured she could hold it for a little while. Apparently by the time she got around to letting me know she REALLY had to go and the ten minutes I made her wait turned out to be 30 seconds too long.
As an aside here’s a nightmare potty training story for you. Take a 2.5 month old puppy and give her a bladder infection. If any of you have ever had one you know that it makes you want to pee constantly. Throw in a young, un-housebroken pup and you have a perpetual mess on your hands. My wife and I got up every 1.5 hours (or less) to walk the dog (24/7) for a little over a week. At three in the morning it was sometimes hard to remember it wasn’t the poor girl’s fault and keep your crankiness to yourself.
Could be that wee Gromit was a bit unsettled by being confined to the spare room (not your fault, and it’s amazing what seemingly trivial things upset them - she may have imagined that she’d done something wrong, or even that you were going to move house or otherwise upset her routine in some way!) and that the diarrhoea was a mild stomach upset that unfortunately coincided.