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Puppy Training

Please tell me this is progress! I feel a bit like all I’m doing is digging myself deeper into this “puppy rules the house” syndrome.

I do not want puppy pads in my house! I do want him to know how to use them for when there’s snow, or ice or I’m in a hotel with him and I’m afraid to go out in the dark and he has to go but puppy pads are not going to be our main “using it” option.

I love the idea of a bell that he can ring when he wants to go out. I have the bell hanging on a shelf by the door that we use to go outside. Every time we go out, I ring the bell and Oscar and I discuss going outside to pee and poop.

I also said I wasn’t going to give him treats for doing his business outside because my previous dogs have “needed” to go out everything the thought of a treat passes through their heads.

When I left to go to Louisiana this past Friday, Oscar was scared to death of the bell. Every time I rang it, he was scared. I came back on Monday and he was ringing the bell . . non-stop! He now knows that we get up and come to him every time he rings the bell. He’s also kinda partially understands the peeing and pooping because he pees on the pad, then rings the bell. He poops on the tile floor (which is where he stays!) and then rings the bell. It’s like “I need a treat!”

Is that progress or have we gone off on a tangent and may never get back on track?

I told Vince . . when he rings the bell, we take him out . . whether it’s the 40th time in the past 5 minutes or whether we think he really needs to go outside. If he pees or poops outside, he gets a treat. If not, we walk around outside with him and then we do it all again when he rings the bell.

Any advice?

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • It isn’t as bad as I probably make it sound. I love him and wouldn’t trade him or his bad bathroom manners for anything but . . he IS going to learn to do better. I told Vince – some puppies are more hard headed than others but almost all can be taught to do what you want them to do, with the right amount of effort on our part.

  2. Just keep up with the bell. I think it works great! He is getting it even though it feels slow. My son adopted a blind puppy last summer. She was going everywhere in the house. Even though they took her out a lot and she knew where the door was. She is a winer and they would ignore it sometimes even though it was her signal. They put the bell on the door and now when she really needs to go out, she rings the bell. She has not had an accident in the house since. It will get better. Thank you for this fun blog. I found you during the Blessed stitch along and I am glad I stuck around.

    • He just rang the bell again . . after he peed on the tile. I fussed at him, still took him outside and no treat. I can only hope this gets better.

  3. I don’t know whether this will be any help or not, but my Mother would train kittens by moving their sand box (before the days of kitty litter) closer to the door each day until it went just outside the door. She would do it with the kitten watching. It worked for her.

    • That’s what we started doing but Oscar was so afraid of it. Now that he’s not afraid of it, I can say “ring the bell” and he does!

  5. He is doing great for a puppy. I like Marie L. suggestion of moving the pads to the door and then eventually out the door. I know it’s a hassle for you but your pup is smart and will catch on quickly. Our dachshund is 1 1/2 years and every night , before bed, we still walk outside with her. She potty and poops right away and trots back in the house. We don’t get snow but even if it’s raining she goes outside. You’ve heard the joke about dachshunds they look outside and think ‘yep it’s raining, guess I’m pooping and pot-tying inside’..

    • The pads were in front of the door but he was doing his business farther into the tile hallway so we moved the pads there and he started doing it by the door. We’re going to win this battle.

      I don’t mind going out in the snow but if it’s deeper than Oscar is tall, that’s not an option and with ice, it’s not worth the risk of us falling.

  6. In addition to using the bell, one thing we have always done with our dogs, is to say the same phrase as they do their business. With us it was “Let’s go”. It becomes ingrained in theirs minds that the phrase is connected to the action. After a while, our dogs would basically go on command. If we were outside and they were dilly dallying, we’d say let’s go, and before we were done saying it, they’d be in the process of doing what they needed to do.

  7. It just takes a great deal of patience, just like with a human toddler. That & rewards & making a BIG deal when they get it right — they learn by our teaching. Good for you that you are still so positive about it all after all the time you’ve had him. We had yorkie sisters we got as babies (8 weeks old) and it took FOREVER to get them trained (they are one of the hardest to learn), but they DID learn, and they were the BEST dogs we ever had. I love our dogs we have now but they were rescues and already had learned all the basics. Using the same words (“go potty” is our phrase), and they know, as all our dogs have over the years (48 now) what is expected when those words are said. Love the idea of the bell, that way the dog can let you know themselves. LOVE your blog and all you share…thank you!

  8. OMG, I love this post!! Our Sophie will be 9 in May and in August we will have had her for 9 years. Sophie is a GoldenDoodle and she is SMART. I was 63 when we got her and I had forgotten how much energy it takes to train a pup! (The last pup we had before her I was 53. My energy level was much higher in my 50’s!)

    She piddled in the house but has never pooped inside. But ohmygoodness, she piddled before you could even tell she was going to go!! She never stopped playing yet there was a tiny puddle!!

    Once she knew what we wanted, she never went in the house away.

    Pups are so fun and so smart, even when they make you want to pull your hair out, you do it with a smile on your face cause they fill your life with so much joy and love.

  9. Yes, when he rings the bell, take him out. No matter if it has been 5 seconds since he peed on the pad. He will soon learn that ringing the bell means you go out and poop after you ring the bell. It may take a few days but he will learn. You just have to be patient! That is the hardest part!

  10. I used the same technique as Sandie only our phrase was ‘go potty’. It worked – she got to the point where she went on ‘command’ which was extremely helpful when we were traveling and making ‘potty stops’.

  11. May I suggest when he goes inside, make no fuss – don’t say anything, don’t look at him, don’t pet him. Clean it up and take him outside. Or take him outside then clean up. Lots of praise, and even treats when he rings and goes outside. Over time, you can cut back on the treats, right now getting him associating bell/potty outside/good things is more important. I presume you already have one, but if not, a schedule to go out – first thing in the morning, before each feeding, every 2-ish hours between, last thing at night, etc.
    Our beagle’s signal she needed to go out was so subtle, it took a while for US to learn – she’d sit, and stare at us. No whining, no gotta-potty dance, no pawing, no nose poke, only a silent quiet stare. In hind sight, I wish we knew about the bell, it might have saved some incidents (not accidents as she did it on purpose!) before we learned her signal. At least when we goofed up, she’d always go on the door mat at the basement door, bad thing was it might be a bit before we knew we had to clean up :-/

    • I’ve never made a fuss about it. He’s still a baby but we have to get things on the right track. This morning he rang the bell, then we went out and he pooped.

  12. I don’t have anything additional to add for hints but just wanted to say hang in there! Oscar is a smart puppy and he’ll get it! Some dogs just take longer than others and some dogs just have their quirks. Our dog just stands by the entryway to the laundry room when he needs to go out although he has whined when we didn’t notice him. And there are times in the morning when he’s in such a hurry to come inside to have breakfast after he poops that he tries to come up the stairs to the deck to come in. We send him back out to pee because surely he needs to pee after sleeping all night!! And then there is his pickiness in finding just the right spot in whatever he needs to do. Never had a dog who was so finicky about where he does his business!

    • Rita was a grown dog when we got her and I thought she would never get house trained. I feel like if we accomplished that with her, we can do it with Oscar. It’s raining and cold outside today but he doesn’t seem to mind. I mind but . . it has to be done.

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