Please help me.....having trouble with dog training....

In My Humble Opinion
1

We got our little puppy Cinnamon about two months ago. She’s a boxer, and so far has seemed smart enough, except in the area of potty training. We’re using the crate, so we’ve been following the guidelines on that to train her. Still, she has accidents in the house and has (for the last two daysJ) been peeing in her crate as soon as we walk in. It makes no sense.

The worst we ever do is talk to her in a stern voice, which is what I was told to do. I was also told that the dog will never go where it sleeps. Not only will she piss there, she’ll lay in it. Help me dopers, this is my first time as a dog mommy and I really want to love and play with her, but I can’t do that if she’s stinking up the house with her excrement.

Edited to add, we think she was about four to six weeks old when we got her, but they weren’t sure. She’s a shelter dog. She’s tripled in size in just two months.

2

How long is she in the crate before having an accident?

I’m not sure which guidelines you are using, but when we trained our pup the routine was:

crate -> backyard (successful pee or poop) -> run of house for a while -> crate
crate -> backyard (with no pee or poop) -> crate

Because he only had house privileges when he had successfully gone outside, it greatly reduced the chance of house accidents.

The peeing when you walk in, could be submissive peeing. One of our dogs went through a phase of that. I don’t remember our approach, but googling it should find some good information.

3

Our dog wasn’t the fastest to get house trained, but taking her outside about every hour when she was really little and not going back in until she’d piddled and copious praise for outside piddles seemed to eventually work. When she seemed to be trained, we had the carpets cleaned professionally, both because it was due anyway and also to make sure there weren’t odours still lingering to cue her that peeing in the house was okay. We used a special spray on any mistakes after thoroughly blotting, as well. Any time she’d play vigorously for a few minutes, she’d need to go, so I’d take her out, piddle, and then come back in to play some more. She did a little bit of excitement peeing, too, but that seems to be over now.

What I’d like her to do is make it more obvious that she needs to go out. She just hangs around by the front door when it’s time, and has only whined once. I’d like one short bark or a whine, but at least we can see her go to the door when she’s ready to pee/poo.

Take Cinnamon outside often, really often, and praise lavishly for every outside pee/poo. Pick a command that means “go” and use it consistently outside. We stuck with a simple “go pee”, then “good girl!”

4

If she’s peeing in her crate when you walk in, it’s possible that what you have is not a house training issue but one of submissive urination.

Submissive urination is an expression of fear or anxiety. It is possible that you’ve reprimanded her for peeing inside after the event? Say you’ve come home, seen that she’s had an accident and given her the stern voice? For a sensitive, intelligent puppy, you’d only have to do it once to create a problem.

If that’s so, your puppy won’t associate the stern voice with the peeing, because that happened in the past. But if you come home and go, “bad puppy, you peed in your crate AGAIN!”, your puppy is hearing, “we’re home and we’re going to tell you off in a STERN VOICE for no reason”. And your puppy is thinking, “holy shit, I’m in trouble again, maybe if I act really submissive as soon as they come home they won’t be mean to me”.

Puppies don’t have a lot of bladder control, and some puppies are quite slow at developing good bladder control. If your puppy is peeing in her crate during the day, I’d suggest that she’s in there too long without a break, and that the issue is not house training, but the length of time she’s crated.

If she’s only peeing in her crate when you come home, you’ve got an anxiety issue separate from the house training one.

I’d do as Savannah suggested, take your puppy out every hour, immediately she’s eaten or had a drink and as soon as she wakes up, or finishes a game. Praise her lavishly for going outside, give her a treat as soon as she does her business, tell her she’s the best and cleverest puppy in the world. If she has an accident in the house ignore it completely, clean the area well so that she can’t smell where she’s been and continue taking her outside with great frequency.

5

My dog peed when she was excited (particularly when she saw specific people) until she was 2. My brother’s dog, who’s just about to turn 2, is doing the same thing (particularly when she sees me).

I’ve dealt with my brother’s dog’s “issue” by not speaking to her or acknowledging her until she calms down after first seeing me. I’ve found that my high, sing-songy voice that I used when I greeted her caused her way too much excitement, which led to the letting go of her bladder. So far, it’s working. She piddled the other day when she saw my dad but he immediately came in the door and kissed and hugged and talked to her.

So, in what manner do you and your husband arrive home? Is it in a way that would make her overly excited or is it very non-chalant? Do you make a big fuss or do you come in and non-chalantly take her out of the cage and outside to pee?

Although this “submissive urination” sounds very possible too. Mine is a secondary WAG.

6

Oh, that one’s easy! When I had dogs (sniff not now, mean landlord!) I’d tie a bell with a (pretty) ribbon to the doorknob. Before you let her out, ring the bell by hitting it gently with your hand. Encourage her to ring it with her nose or paw and say, “Outside!” or whatever your command for such things is. If you ring it every time she goes out, and let her out every time she rings it, she’ll associate the two very quickly.

Cracks people up, too. They’ll think you’re the smartest dog trainer ever!

7

I’ve got the bell! And the long ribbon, too! (She’s a very little dog.) But she didn’t quite learn that one. I’m going to have to try again. That would be the bestest trick ever, and she hasn’t learned a new trick in a while.

Brief hijack: Instead of “beg”, I taught her “boxer!” and she stands on two legs, paws up, like she’s waiting for the bell to ring. (“What kind of dog are you? Are you a boxer?” Okay, it makes me laugh. Now, if only I can get her to jump when I ask if she’s a springer spaniel. (Bye, Jack.)

8

Hee! I always taught my dogs “Say” instead of “speak”. That way, you can work them into the conversation:

“That cat is just too much! What do you say, Fido?” “Woof!”

“Say, what do you think about Babylonian architecture?” “Woof, woof!”

“Say, ‘Hi, Jack!’” “Woof!”

:smiley:

9

Cayanne (Jack Russell/Min Pin mix) will knock on the back door to go out… unless we’re upstairs, then she will knock on the window that would otherwise go to the back yard if it weren’t on the seconf floor to go out.

She will roll over on her back and paw at the air and ‘grumble’ until you get on the floor to rub her belly, at which point she will 90% of the time jump up and steal the warm spot on the couch.

Oh, and to the OP, what the other more smart people said. We trained cayanne by the “every hour outside” routine with lots of praise… havent had an accident in a long, long time.

10

That seems a little young. I’m guessing that whoever had her didn’t keep her in a cleaned area so you can forget about the ‘don’t go where they sleep’ rule with her. My sister raises bulldogs are her dogs are practically paper trained by the time she gets rid of the puppies.
I had a dog like that went where he slept too. It makes it a little harder but not impossible.

  1. Take the dog to the vet and rule out any health problems. If you dog goes, then you bring her in and she goes again, rule out health problems.

  2. What’s in the crate? If you have a lot of blankets and towels, sometimes they sort of scrunch them up and go in the towel. Until they’re housebroken have a little as possible in the crate. Just one of those vinyl mats are good. Can she go all night without going in the crate?

  3. Are you sure she’s going before she comes in? I took my dog to one area in the yard and stood there until she went. Then I let her walk around outside or come in and play for a few minutes. If she played any longer than 1/2 after she came in, I took her out again before putting her back in the crate.

  4. Don’t give her free access to the house and always keep her on a line even in the house so you can correct her. Until my dog was completely housebroken and trained she didn’t leave the kitchen or her crate.

  5. Always clean where she pees especially her bed with Natures Miracle or a product like that.

  6. Monitor food/water

7… Some dogs just take longer than others to train. If you continue to do everything right, she will get it.

Here’s a good site with lots of information. Especially in the FAQ

11

Missed this. How do you get her in the crate? It’s best if you can get them to go in the crate by themselves so they don’t see it as a punishment. Use a kong with peanut butter, or a treat she loves. Gently put her in the crate and give her some praise.

It sounds like it could be submissive peeing except that she doesn’t just do it when you crate her. I’d guess she’s just not getting it yet.

12

This is still a very young puppy. The rule of thumb for how long you can expect them to go before needing to potty is one hour per month of age. Another factor is a very early weaning (best if not done before eight weeks of age) which might have precluded some vital socialization skills. Don’t be discouraged. She will get it eventually. Give her time and more frequent potty breaks.

13

Just thought of something: how long was she in a cage at the shelter? Could she be confused about *where *she’s supposed to urinate? It almost sounds like she thinks she has to hold it outside and wait until she’s in her crate to release. If that’s the case, you may have to start all over again, and start with putting puppy pads or newspaper in her crate for a few days and let her use them, then move them to just outside the crate, and then a few feet away and so on until the pads are outside and so is she. If at any time she backslides, don’t get made at her - it means you’ve moved things too quickly. Go back to the spot she soils with the pads and go from there. You’ve got to transfer her cue from the crate to the pads and then to outside.

Or you could try clicker training or bell ringing or scent training or any other cue that’s mobile. First in the crate where she thinks she’s supposed to be peeing, and then slowly moving her outside over time.

14

That’s the problem I had with the dog that went in the crate. He was always kept in a crate and had little choice but to go in the crate. Crate training was out with him but I got him when he was over a year old. Any dog can be housebroken.

Just my opinion, but I think puppy pads are a really bad idea. If you want to train them to go outside, take them outside and stand there. Most dogs like to go in grass if possible, so take them to one spot of grass where they want to go.

The key is consistency, so get them on a schedule. My dog went every morning at 6:30. If I waited five minutes later, she’d go in the crate.

15

Lots of good advice so far, I’ll add my own opinion here too: ISTM you have two (not necessarily related) things going on here: (1) accidents in the house and (2) peeing in the crate as soon as you walk on.

For accidents inside: CONSISTENCY! All dogs are different, and some just take a long time to figure it out. My dog (crate-trained) was an accident-prone disaster. What really turned the corner for her was when we finally got ourselves trained. That is, taking her out at the exact same minute of the exact same hour every single day. We also figured out that we needed to step up the number of outside trips because, even though it seemed like we we’re going overboard (6-7 times a day), she just hadn’t connected all the dots yet. Once we started taking her out like clockwork, her problems cleared up, and we were able to slowly reduce the number of outside trips per day.

Most of the improvement, I think, was based on a level of trust we established with the dog. She began to trust that we would take her out at an exact time. Then she would hold it. When it was more random (like “Oh! I think I’ll take the dog out now and see if she has to go”) she didn’t know when her next trip outside would occur - and she would have an accident indoors.

Obviously, you may have been consistent, but I would really step back and analyze whether you have been regular enough with her outside trips.

As for peeing in the crate - sounds like excited submissive urination to me. Be sure that you are not cooing at her or anything like that when she’s inside the crate. Something like “Oh hi babypuppybabysweetie!!! Doyouwannagooutsidegoodgirl?!” Even if she doesn’t pee that time, that will condition her to be super-excited when she sees you are coming to let her out. It must be all-business. She goes in, she comes out - that’s just regular business until she learns not to get so excited.

Also - someone else mentioned Nature’s Miracle. Great stuff - be sure that after she has an accident you use that stuff liberally so that your dog cannot smell where she already went. And finally, TREATS! When she goes outside, you should immediately hit her up with praise and some form of ridiculously good treat.