Category: Animal House
We have a puppy. He is 4 months old and is still not potty trained. He is still
peeing and pooping in the house. I know potty training takes time, but he
hasn't really made any progress. It is really frustrating. We can't use the
wee wee pads because he eats them. It's hard for me because when I take
him out, I don't know if he does anything and then I bring him back inside and
he will go in the house.
Have you tried leaving him for like a long time then taking him in? Puppies mark their territory so that's what they do. I know it takes time but my brother said that you should take the dog on walks and they will learn. I think?
I don't know I heard different stuff I heard you're not supposed to take them
for long walks you're only supposed to take them to a certain spot and praise
them when they go and if you are using a wee wee pad to move it closer to
the door you want them to go out. So if you take the puppy out your front
door each time he goes you just keep moving the pad closer and closer to the
door until you bring it outside.
Okay. Here's a tip for you:
If you're not sure if he's going outside or not, here's a fairly sure-fire way to figure this out. I wouldn't have known this on my own, I was taught by someone who owned a guide dog. Now, do bear in mind that I learned this off a guide dog, who had pretty well-established habits.
1. Hopefully you've got a leash.
2. When it's time to go outside, or when you want to try this deliberately (maybe shortly after eating in the morning?), put the puppy on his leash and take him outside.
3. He's a puppy, so he's probably going to run around and piddle as he goes, though this will slacken and stop as he gets older. What you want to do is hold the leash with one hand, and follow the leash with the other till you find puppy with your free hand.
4. Eventually, when he realizes he isn't going to get away from you, if he has to go, he's gonna go. If he's pooping, he's going to adopt a squat while he does it. When he does this, you're going to know because his back will kinda arch in a way that's fairly specific to pooping. It's like he's sitting, but not quite because he has to hold himself up a bit. I don't know how better to explain this. If he's doing this and staying still and gets really focused, there's an excellent chance he's pooping.
5. Often enough, male dogs who don't have other males to observe will learn to squat when they pee, and this, too, is something you'll pick up on.
6. Thus armed with knowledge, you should at the very least know whether he's going or not when you take him out.
This won't stop him going in the house, it won't stop him doing a little outside and then finishing later. Those things, I can't give you too much help on, I'm afraid. I was focused on the one bit of your post I thought I might be able to help with. I didn't know how you knew a dog was toileting if you're blind until I was taught, so I pass along the info.
Pro-tip: if you really want to be sure he's gone after squatting, here's something you can do. Get some of those little poop-scoop bags and put one firmly over your non-leash hand. When the dog squats, wait for him to finish and move away, then reach down to where he was. If you feel wetness when you know there's not supposed to be wetness, or if you find poop, then bingo. Since your hand is inside the bag, it's pretty safe. Wash up as soon as you go inside. And if you need to collect his poop when he goes outside, to dispose of in a specific place, then once you've found it, sort of use your bag-covered hand to collect, then basically turn the bag inside out. It's pretty foolproof unless the poop is extremely soft, and that can get nasty..fair warning.
Either way, I hope I helped even a little bit.
Yeah sometimes when he is peeing, I hear him going. With pooping I can't
always tell. He's a small dog but I guess I can still treat it like a guide dog.
Another problem with pets is that they move around as they are going (or
atleast ours do) so they poop in more than one spot on the ground, and I
can't pick up the poop because I don't know where it is.
If you do as I suggested, put him on a leash while he's going instead of just letting him out in the yard, then he'll poop in one or two places and you'll know when and where.
I agree with the comments stated regarding relief patterns, and yes, the back arch description was spot on. not sure how easy it is to pick up on this in small dogs, but it's worth a shot.
First of all, I wouldn't recommend using one of those retractable leashes for him as he will be more difficult to control. You know, the leashes that have that plastic box-looking thing with the button and the leash is pretty much just a rope that comes out of the box and gets longer or shorter, depending on where the dog is located. You won't get as much feedback that way. Try a leash that'll clip directly to his collar. You'll feel it go tought the farther from you he gets. If he'll stay still long enough, it'll be easier to find him. Following alongside him where he wants to go in the yard, (This is assuming he's picked-up after regularly so as not to step in pooh and track it in the house unknowingly.) If that doesn't work, keep stepping forward and backward as he walks around you, and if he's learning the word, "No," use that or a tug on the leash when he starts to drag you everywhere. If he thinks it's a game when you take him outdoors, and tries crawling between your legs, try not to laugh or indicate you're enjoying his behavior or he'll keep doing it. Help him understand you, as part of his human family, are just as much a pack leader as anyone else, and going outside on the leash means potty time, not playtime.
Learn his cues for when he needs to go outside by asking family members what to observe as you interact with him. some of it might be visual, but you may notice he acts differently when he needs to go to the bathroom through physical contact, too. Squirming or seeming not to settle, whining, turning his head in the general direction of the door, pacing between the door and you - these are just a few indicators that he needs to be relieved.
The trick with picking up on his accidents in the house, (and this can be difficult if you can't see him doing it), is to correct him in the act of relieving himself inside. they don't understand what they've done wrong if you point it out to them five minutes later; dogs always live in the here and now and don't understand time like we do.
I'm sorry the potty pads didn't help and he keeps eating those. Is he teething?
Not sure of anything else I can offer as pointers for house-training, but I hope at least some of those were of some use.