Potty training?

[Nancy]

My babies are 6 months old. They don't go potty anywhere in the house except the crate they were in as little ones. But I can't get them to stop going potty all night long like my last dog. He wouldn't go potty in the house unless he was sick - and then he was embarrassed about it. (He died Sept. 26th after being my best friend for 12 1/2 years!)

I feed Luca and Luna (german shepard/wolf mix) at around 8:00 a.m. and again around 6 pm and no more at night. Maybe a treat before bed, but nothing more. They've both been fixed over a month ago.

How can I get them to hold it until morning, or am I not remembering that far back??

[freida]

How long are they kept in the crate?

[Nancy]

They used to sleep in it over night. They're too big to sleep in it now so they have the run of the house, but I still have it up for them because I dont' want to get up in the middle of the night and find they've gone potty on the floor!

[freida]

You need to keep them in a crate that is just large enough for them to sleep in comfortablely. As soon as they wake up in the morning take them out and stand with them where you want them to go potty. Highly praise them, (Their tails should be doing some serious wagging and give them a treat.) The dogs should be sleeping in seperate kennels. A dog will not wet their bed, so make sure the kennel isn't large enough to where they can go to one side of it to potty and sleep in another part.

[Kristen Collins, CPDT]

Hi Nancy,

First thing---have you taken your dogs to a vet to rule out possible medical problems? When you've got house training issues, that's always an important initial step.

In terms of training, there are two main things to do: prevent mistakes and highly reward peeing and pooping in the right place. See the attached article for detailed advice. Good luck and thanks for joining the chat!

Kristen

Kristen Collins, CPDT
Animal Trainer
ASPCA Animal Behavior Center

[Kinsey]

Well I would like to tell you that I had that problem when I got my Dog he would not stop going potty in the house so here is what we did: we showed him the out side and let him walk around and if you have more then 1 dog do only one at a time and say go potty to them when they are going so they get the idea to go out side and not inside...
If they go out side and they go potty say that and if they need to be let out say ltes go out side and once you get ouside tell them go potty and they will!!!
My dog does now and if ti'll work with my dogs it'll work with your dogs!!!
thank you!!!!