Doggie Housetraining Help

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last summer my husband and I adopted a rat terrier puppy, Neptune. He’s now a year old, and to my shame, only partially housetrained. I have never had a house dog before Neptune, and my husband was in elementary school the last time his family housetrained a puppy, so I know our own inexperience is contributing. We are moving to a new house a in about a month, and I really want to get Neptune over this last bump in the road.

There are some things in our favor, I think:

  1. Neptune is crate trained. He’s never pottied in his crate, and within a few months after we brought him home, this extended to an exercise pen we have set up in our living room. Our apartment isn’t really set up to make using baby gates easy, and while Neptune is good with our cats, we prefer to have some separation when we aren’t home to supervise. If he is in his x-pen while we’re gone, or if he’s in there while we are otherwise occupied (taking a shower, making dinner, etc), we can trust him to hold it 100%.

  2. Neptune has only had two urine accidents in the last three months or so, and those were at least a month ago. He holds his urine until we take him out.

  3. We feed him at the same time everyday, and he does have a fairly predictable potty schedule: he does both first thing in the morning, pees around 3-3:30, eats at 3:30 (sometimes he doesn’t pee until after this), poops after his meal at around 3:45 to 4, pees in the evening, and then does both before bed (after his “snack”).

However, the issues are this:

  1. While he holds his urine, he still has poop accidents in the house once every week to two weeks.

  2. He never, ever, signals to go out. Doesn’t go to the door, doesn’t bark, doesn’t whine, just silently slips away to his two secret spots (behind the sofa and behind the dining room table). I’ve doused these spots in gallons of nature’s miracle. I’ve put potty pads there - mostly he poops next to the potty pad, not on it.

Mostly I can predict when he will have to go and take him outside. But no one or no doggie is perfectly regular 100% of the time, so if he needs an extra poop or pee, he doesn’t know to signal that to us.

So his accidents are about 75% having to go at an off schedule time, and 25% when mommy and daddy slip up and don’t get him out on time, or don’t notice that he’s gone to his “secret spot.”

If he doesn’t “go” when given the opportunity, and I know it’s close to time he would generally have to go, I will put him back in his pen for 15 minutes, then try again. Repeat until he’s pottied, and then he can have freedom in the house.

I verbally praise him when he goes and give him a treat when we get back inside.

He’s such a a sweet, handsome boy that it kills me we can’t get this right. He is a little scared of the outdoors; he hates inclement weather and when he’s outside he is easily distracted by smells, squirrels, children, cats, cars, etc.

Some things I’ve tried that haven’t seemed to have any effect: I’ve caught him in the act several times and rushed him out to finish, which hasn’t seemed to make an impression. I’ve tried leashing him to me inside so he can’t slip away, but it’s a small apartment and inconvenient; putting him his pen when I have to get something done is much better. I’ve hung bells on the door we use to take him out, but the sound meant nothing to him.

Any tips? Any glaring mistakes we have made? Am I overreacting in thinking this level of potty training is unacceptably low for a one year old dog? What I really, really want is for Neptune to have an obvious way to signal to us that he needs to go out - but I think he’s lacking the connection between outside and potty, at least for number 2s.

(We are on the ground floor, so we do get him out fairly rapidly - no stairs to navigate.)

2

Ok, does he understand the word ‘out’? Are you using it a lot in association with his activity? Do you reward him for doing his business outside? Scold him for doing it indoors? Sounds like you’ve been living in an apartment, how often does he get out? Does he get to go in the same place every time? Does he have to share the outdoor facilities with other dogs?

3

I’m not sure if he understands the word out, but he absolutely knows what it means when I grab the leash - he heads straight for the door and waits for me to clip it on. I reward him verbally and with treats for pottying outside. however I know I have not always been the most consistent about it. I’ve read that its useless to scold a dog for going indoors unless you catch him right at the moment, so he’s only been scolded a few times for that. He gets out maybe 5-6 times a day - my husband and I work nearly opposite hours, so he’s rarely home alone. I’m a teacher, so right now I’m always home.

No other dogs use the yard, and when he does potty outside he definitely has his territory lad out - he potties along the perimeter of the yard, which is a square bordered on three sides by a driveway, the street, and an alley. We live in a two story duplex; we just got a new upstairs neighbor with three outdoor cats. Neptune doesn’t want to chase the cats, but he does want to greet them and sniff where they’ve laid in the grass. He adores cats. One of our (indoor only) kitties is his best friend in the whole world; they will climb into the dog’s bed together and snuggle and lick and mutual groom each other. When they’re not doing this, they’re wrestling and chasing each other. I like to supervise this not because either one has murder in his heart, but because of the potential for cross-species miscommunications.

4

Lack of consistency is a big problem. You need to be verbally communicating with him, although from his side it may not seem so verbal, he may just be reading you in other ways, but you have to communicate with him. Rewards can consist of nothing more than praise. Whenever he does something positive say “Good dog”, and be enthusiastic about it, then do that every time he does his business in the proper place. You can scold him anytime. Drag him over and stick his nose in it and say “Bad dog”, and make it sound like you mean it. Take him to the same spot every time. Even if you’re scooping it he can tell, and if you have to clean up something indoors, take it out to that spot with him and put it there. When you get to your house put up a fence. Go out with and walk around the property everyday to give him a territorial sense. A male dog should be marking his territory. I assume he’s been neutered, how old was he when this was done?

5

If you want your dog to signal, you need to help show him how. An easy solution is a set of bells on the door that you take him out through. (These can be bought at a pet store, or my wife made a set from some cheap fabric and bells from Jo-Anns.)

Hang them on the door, then each time you take him out, jingle the bells before you open the door. He’ll get the idea sooner or later, and will begin to jingle them if he needs to go out. Once he does, you need to be quick to get up and take him out so that the connection is reinforced.

6

Neutered at six months old. Luckily our new yard is partially fenced; between that, the garage, and the alley he will have another well defined square to claim as his own.

So, I’m going to stick to his current feeding and pottying schedule as much as possible, but add in verbally telling him “outside” and praising him when he goes there. I’ll scold him for indoor accidents, and I think I will try scooping it up and taking it outside. I like that idea because then he still has to go outside, and I think part of our problem is is reluctance about the outdoors. He used to suck it in and wait us out when we took him outside and then potty in the house within five minutes of returning inside. Using the 15-minute increments in his x-pen broke that habit.

I am expecting behavior problems when we move as he adjusts to the new environment, but we plan to set up his pen (which has his own area rug underneath it and his blankies) exactly as it is here, and hopefully with that, and us, and his cat pack he’ll feel comfortable. Oddly enough he has stayed overnight with us at my parents house several times (for Christmas and other extended visits) and never had an accident there, and he loves their dog.

7

Time with another dog will be good for him. It’s the easiest way for dogs to learn, he may have detected that your parent’s house was unspoiled. If he does something indoors make sure to clean it up with something like ammonia or bleach. When he does do his business indoors is it often in the same spot? Also, the cat’s indoor procedures may be confusing him.

Six months sounds ok for neutering. Doing it too soon can lead to problems. There may be an ideal time frame for specific breeds.

8

He has his two secret spots that he likes to use. I’ve cleaned them using nature’s miracle. Since one of those spots is very near the litterbox, I wonder if he is confused. I’m just looking for some assurance that we’re aren’t too late, that we can get him to be more trustworthy in the house even if we’ve taken a long time to get there.

9

You reward/praise him after he comes back in? That’s too late - praise him as soon as he does his business outside. Rewarding him when he comes inside is teaching him that coming inside gets him a treat. You have to reward a positive action within a second basically.

10

It’s not too late. The new environment may make it easier. Isolate the litter box somehow.

ETA: I don’t know if Nature’s Miracle is effective, but ammonia and bleach cost a lot less. You don’t just want to clean a spot, you want to leave an offensive odor there.

11

I’d always heard ammonia was a bad idea for pet cleanup, what with being a component of urine. Don’t want to put the idea in his fuzzy head that someone else peed in that spot, so he should. :slight_smile:

12

That does sound like a problem. We usually don’t have ammonia in the house and use bleach. You’re right, it could leave a residual odor that doesn’t bother the dog, and may trigger him.

13

Yes, I wondered about that. My parents housetrained their dog very quickly and they waited until she was back inside to treat her, but it may have worked for them because a) she was already a few months old when they got her b) they have a wide patio glass door that allows the dog to clearly see the outdoors c) she’s a highly trainable toy fox terrier.

Neptune does pick up tricks quickly when motivated by treats. Today I’ve made sure to take the treats outside and pop one in his mouth as soon as he goes.

I’m also wondering if I should take over most of the potty breaks, at least until he’s got it down better. I know he responds better to my commands over my husband’s.