will he ever show progress with house training!!

hello all, cooper is doing great he is so smart and learns fast. he will sit, stay, lie down, roll over and he goes to his crate when asked. he is always rewarded generously and im with him 24 hours a day. but i just cannot break this peeing and pooping inside. he could go two days without one accident and then he sneaks one on the mat the second he gets indoors and were back to square one!!
i take him out every hour, after meals , play and naps but most of the time he just holds for ages till he gets in. im spending more time outside with him than in. he has a crate which he loves and he wont soil it so that works but he doesnt want to do it outside either!
we have been working on this now for three weeks. am i expecting too much from him too soon?icon_nwunsure

In short: YES! Three weeks is just the earliest days of housetraining. How old is he: 11 or 12 weeks? It takes weeks/months to housetrain. This is like expecting a two year old to use a toilet perfectly after managing to get to a potty chair a couple of times. Think how long toddlers stay in nappies and then training undies. Puppies generally don;t begin to get fairly reliable til 4-5 months and you can expect occasional accidents up til about age 1.

Part of the issue is in your answer -- he simply shouldn't be getting the chance to go on the mat. Maybe that means crate training (as you know he won't soil the crate)? But if he gets the opportunity to go regularly indoors it means no one is watching him or close enough to him at that moment to get him outside. Going out every hour is probably too much now, too -- he isn;t distinguishing that he is supposed to be doing anything when out as he is constanty being taken out. The goal is to gradually help him learn to hold himself. Once an hour would be an awful lot even for 8 week old pups. Do you take him on a lead, always to the same general area if possible, and wait? If he doesn;t go, bring him in and use the crate (there are several links on cratetraining in the Library section or search the topic on this site). The biggest mistake people make in housetraining is assuing too early that their puppy knows more than he does and is capable of remembering more than he can. Nonetheless: at his age going a couple of days without an accident is a MAJOR achievement. I think you just need to do some more reading so you have a better feeling for what to expect and what might be going wrong. Puppies can only learn over time and if we guide them carefully. If they aren't 'getting the message' it is always because we aren't giving it correctly all the time.

If you have not yet done so, please download Ian Dunbar's classic and FREE puppy guidebook and training book which he has made available online. This will help you to shape your puppy towards the adult dog you want him to be and answer your questions, and give specific guidance on housetraining. It shouldn't be as hard as it is for you at the moment and some guidance and structure in training should help.

thanks Karlin will do that :thnx:

You really need to catch Cooper in the act, so that he learns this is not a good thing to do. Sophie is 11 months old and we think she's finally housetrained. Have a few UTIs did not help our progress. (ugh) Most of the time, I took her out strictly for a potty trip, no playing outdoors (unless it was the daily big walk) and we came right inside. She was right with me at all times, if she was not in her crate. This is how I have trained every dog we've ever owned. We had our share of accidents, but catching them in the act is really important.

Having a puppy is a full-time commitment with few breaks, unless they're in their crate. They need our complete focus, but it all pays off later when they're trained and reliable.

I agree with Karlin. I also think that 3 weeks it is a really little time for a puppy. I know it is frustrating to see no improvement and just pee on the floor (I am passing now the same stage) but I try to believe that every day we make small steps to better future Also, I think you need develop some kind of key word for his toilet business if he doesn't do it outdoors. For example, if Minnie hears "piss-piss", she will start doing it. And try using really tasty treats that he can get only after he does his business outdoors and nowhere else

waldor, but what did you do when you caught them in act? because I have the same problem now, I caught her several times peeing on the floor, tried to clap my hands and said "NO", but she really didn't care.

mine has a problem she did accidents few times a week by peeing on her bed
I tried to train her in proper way but she still did mistake. I heard dogs won't pee on their but in my case, don't know why.

last time she did, she started by digging a rug in her crate then pee.

any suggestion?

pikkupupu - I tell the puppy “No!” very firmly, then quickly pick up the puppy and carry it outside and tell it to "go potty." Hopefully the pup will ‘finish’ going outside at which point I pile on the praise. If not, oh well... better luck next time. If I'm lucky, I'll catch the dog before too much damage is done. ( I'm not always so lucky.) I always praise profusely when they go outside, even when they're sixteen years old. Old habits die hard.


Ida – our Sophie peed in her crate all the time after we bought her. It was maddening. Clearly she had not read the how-to-housetrain books, nor the dog forums on the internet! The only way we stopped it was to remove all bedding. By then she had learned the habit of peeing in her crate and it had to be stopped. I felt badly that she had to sleep on a hard plastic crate floor, it seemed so cruel, but she had to learn! She stayed dry that way, and that was the important thing. No bedding – at all - was the trick. After a couple months, I added a towel and it stayed dry. After she proved she was reliable with that, she got a nice crate pad. Now her only crate accidents are with UTIs and I don't scold for that. It's my only signal that something is wrong.

waldor, but what did you do when you caught them in act? because I have the same problem now, I caught her several times peeing on the floor, tried to clap my hands and said "NO", but she really didn't care.[/QUOTE]

i do the same thing and he doesnt even look at me!!!, i keep doing it anyway but im doing my best to never give him the chance to do it indoors. ( this is hard as i spend most of my day outside in the rain while he weeds the garden for me!).
cooper never pee's in his bed thankfully, i have his crate in the sitting room with me as i like him to be with me all the time, but i feel leaving him in there too much to enforce house training is kind of cruel? i find if he spends 2 hours in there he will go potty immediately outside but he will still do a little on the carpet when he comes in for play session.
i dont give him the run of the house just one room near the back door, but although he loves his crate i dont like to close him in there for most of the day either.

Ok, here is what I do with our pups. I use a bell to train them. I tie a bell on the door they are to go out of. For the first few weeks, every time I take them out, I ring the bell. Big praises when they go outside. I mean bring the treat with you and treat them as soon as they are done. Take them out on a leash.

Remember the rule of thumb is 1 hour for every month of age. Every pup is different, but get them on a schedule.

If they go in their crate on bedding, the bedding gets removed until I can solve the house breaking. They are kept to a small piece of the house until they are reliable.

If they don't go when you think they should, put them back in the crate and take out within 5 minutes.

Initially, it is your job to set the routine. Puppies always have to go when they wake from a nap or with 5-10 minutes of eating. Our boy takes a lot longer to find his perfect place than our girl on the lawn.

I hope this helps!