Ok, so now she's peeing in MY bed!

First Coco discovered that for some reason it is fun to pee in her own beds. Which is weird because she does sleep in them. It really seems like lately we are regressing

Just the other night I had taken her out for a poo and pee. About 30 mins later she pood all over the floor over in the corner. I was watching her, she gave no signs at all that she still needed to go. I did scold her and crate her while I cleaned up, then took her outside and she did not go anymore. She stayed dry and no accidents all night otherwise.

Just now, literally about 10 minutes ago I took her out to pee. I had her in bed with me, and there she goes and pees on my down comforter right in front of me. Ugh!!!!

I wonder what else I can do to make it more clear that she does not potty in the house. She is always confined in the same room as I am so luckily I catch every accident she ever has had in the act, so I do scold her when I catch it. Maybe I should take the scolding up a notch? Yell a little louder? I don't know. I take her out frequently, monitor her food and water intake, she is on a schedule. Accidents are happening now only minutes after she has been out, so it is so unpredictable I feel hopeless. On the bed we were cuddling in the blankets and she just squatted and went. No signs at all. I dont think it is a UTI, because then she would be going frequently. She always stays dry overnight, when crated left home alone, and in our living room we have the most success, she has been able to go 2 hours without a potty break and be just fine. Beds are her #1 problem I would say.

When she does go outside, we praise her like crazy, and she always goes outside when we take her!!! She doesn't mind the snow, rain, hot, or cold.

First of all please don't ever yell at your dog At four months old she is just a baby. I think you have answered your own question though - if she never has an accident in her crate and beds are her worst problem she probably shouldn't have access to beds until she is reliably trained. It seems some dogs do like to pee on soft things and I think the only solution is to make sure they don't have access.

Are you sure she is going potty when you take her out? Peeing and pooping 10 and thirty minutes after she has just gone is pretty frequent and I probably would have her checked out. Do you reward her and have a big party when she is successful outside? There are many good references on positive training - if you search on Dr. Ian Dunbar you should be able to download his e-book. I pretty much followed his method and was very successful in training Max and Rylie with it.

:xctly:

I agree that if she is re-going this often, you might need to see a vet -- it does't sound right. On the other hand -- are you sure she is going and getting enough time to go thoroughly?

Just to ask again: did you download Ian Dunbar's book yet?icon_nwunsure I've suggested that to you a few times, starting from back when you got the first puppy that eventually was returned to the breeder (where you might recall you had the same problem of the puppy peeing on beds, to which several people replied with the same advice, including me). As I said back then in July,Dr Dunbar's book will answer a lot of questions and give great advice -- one piece of which is: please never ever yell at your dog and especially not a puppy. This is like shouting at a tiny toddler for not getting to a potty fast enough. She is only 4 months old. That is like shouting at a 2 year old for not doing something that a 12 year old might understand. By shouting you (accidentally but actively) teach her that she is wrong to relieve herself when you are there watching. So she will go when you are not there, or in places you do not see -- this is a classic issue especially with small breeds and especially female dogs. It isalso a key way to end up with months and months of housetraining problems, caused by the owner -- NOT the puppy.

Most unhousetrained dogs and puppies also like to pee in beds. So it is not advisable to put a puppy, especially one as young as yours, on any surface that you do not find it absolutely acceptable for her to pee or defecate on. Babies have accidents, and she isn't remotely close to being housetrained at her age.

It will likely be at least 5-8 months before she can be considered reliably housetrained, and that is only if people are making sure she never has the chance to make mistakes -- which are always actually OUR mistakes for not getting our dogs to where we want them to be. If the dog hasn't adequately learned, it is only because we haven't adequately taught, and/or they are still learning. Also, if people are not around her all day -- eg if people go off to work and leave her alone for several hours daily -- then housetraining takes an extra long time because she won't have any consistent positive reinforcement.

There are lots of great training resources pinned to the top of this section. I'd really recommend using those as they will be very helpful -- for example this -- and also making sure you have at least one of Ian Dunbar's great books,starting with the free download (because it is easy to get and free!). www.dogstardaily.com, his website, is also full of training info from numerous trainers (including our own Tara Choules of Dog Training Ireland ). Reading some of these good trainers and reading Ian Dunbar's book carefully will ensure you are doing the right kind of training as you go along, rather than having to go back and correct problems that emerge due to the wrong training -- eg yelling at a puppy. It is much easier to train for what you want in the right way then to try to correct fixed unwanted behaviours you accidentally trained for.

I bought hard copies of Ian Dunbar's books back when I was trying out my test puppy "Han"!!! I've read them and everything.

Ugh potty training is really the #1 worst part of having a puppy, but boy all the other positives sure outweigh the negatives.

We actually graduated puppy class today, and momma and pappa were so proud of our baby!!!

Guinness would wake up and pee in the far corner of the bed rather than wake me up. My solution was, no puppy in my bed till he was REALLY potty trained.

Having always been sharp with puppies during housebreaking, Guinness got a break. If he got caught I clapped once and said "outside!" then we'd run to the door. The huge benefit over getting angry about accidents was that Guinness never tried to sneak off and get into the habit of hiding it.

When Chamberlain had an accident in the house and I would catch him, I would scoop him up immediately and bring him outside. When he went outside I would praise him....A LOT! :jump:

I never scolded him because yelling and "rubbing their nose into it" does not work!

I would not let her on the bed until you can trust her. I would also remove all the soft bedding!

I know alot people here like Dr. Dunbar but Ceaser Millan has a great puppy book that I read when I got Chamberlian and it really helped!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0TA9CKX9TQ5VD28162C6

Im no pro or even that experienced.

I will say that I had very good luck house breaking my dog and it was because of 3 things.
#1 I never yelled or complained at her and I never used the crate as punishment
#2 I would only reward the dog after it went outside. a treat for a pee and a treat for a poop. After a while he learned that poop and pee meant a treat and he would take 2 or 3 pees outside on one trip. I then only rewarded him after the first action. My dog learns how to get treats sometimes and then repeats the action thinking he is training us.
#3 I never let the dog see me clean up his mess. We would put him in the kitchen where he could not see us while we cleaned it up...I read somewhere that if a dog sees you clean up a mess they think it is ok to make a mess cause you will clean it up.

Butters is 8 months old and has not had an accident (or on purpose as I like to call the last few) for almost 5 months ...its really like 4.5 months but the last one he was mad at me about not playing with him and he walked in front of me and peed on the carpet while looking at me. I got the point! now I keep a toy near by to throw and he then plays with that for a while. He never feels negected it seems this way. I do a lot of work at home and cant play with him all of the time!

Tim

I guess everyone has the idea that I am screaming at Coco or something when she has an accident lol. Really what I mean by I "yell" at her is that I raise my voice and tell her NO or BAD or OUTSIDE! Never would I rub her nose in an accident, I know that is an old school and outdated method. When I was wondering about taking her scolding up a notch, I was wondering if I should yell louder and for longer to get an appeasement behavior from her. A lot of times Coco just sits and wags her tail at me if I go AHHH NO!!! So then I am not sure if she understands she did wrong.

However, I AM going to kick up a notch our praise outside! From now on, going outside is going to make me act like a crazy happy woman lol.

I will check out that Cesar Milan book, thanks Chamberlain!

I don't want to offend you, which seems to easy to do when "talking" with people in this medium. But ... I don't think scolding a dog for having an accident inside is ever appropriate. Especially this breed who seem to have very soft personalities. My advice would be to emphasize the positive -- make pottying outside a very happy occassion, and de-emphasize the negative. When Holly had an accident inside, I cleaned it up and ignored her. The accident was my fault, not hers. Dogs aren't like people -- they don't understand why they're being scolded if the act has already been done. And housetraining can be so tricky that I say why make any negative connections with pottying period?

I think you just need to remove the things she seems to like to potty on, and be extremely vigilant with supervision and a schedule. When you can't supervise 100%, then she needs to be confined. When Holly was young, I took her outside to potty every 20-30 minutes when she was awake. If she was sleeping (in her crate or play pen), I supervised that as well so that I could take her out the second she woke up. I gradually made the intervals longer between potty breaks, but never more than 45 minutes before she was a year old. Now at 2.5, I still take her out ever 2 hours or so.

Again, just my opinion here. But it's based on successfully housetraining Holly with absolutely no scolding or negative interaction whatsoever. It can be done!!

Be patient, it takes time. Puppies should have their own area or crate until they are fully house trained. This can take months. They do have to learn. Its hard not to get annoyed when they wee or poo in the house but the way I looked at that was it was up to me to bring them out more often. We fenced off our patio which is a god send because I just let them out and they scrape when they are done to get back in.

Really what I mean by I "yell" at her is that I raise my voice and tell her NO or BAD or OUTSIDE!

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And that is what most people mean by scolding and punishing (see below). This is what many are trying to tell you should never be done, especially for housetraining.

Dogs are only as successful as we train them to be. But training takes weeks and months, commitment, positive enforcement, and it is NEVER the dog's fault for not understanding something we have not trained effectively enough, reinforced positively enough or given them time to learn. There are no quick fixes or answers. And if owners don't want a dog to pee somewhere, the dog (especially a puppy for its first year of life) should not be allowed in that room/on the piece of furniture etc. Expect accidents. Expect things you like to be ruined by pee/poop/vomit/chewing :lol:. It is part of dog ownership to understand that as with a baby in the house, it is OUR job to make the environment dog (or child) friendly -- not a dog's or toddler's to figure out what is valuable, what can be damaged, or worse: what is poisonous, dangerous etc.

Owning a dog is a major commitment of over a decade, is not always easy, requires significant adjustment and compromise within our lives to make them part of our homes. These kinds of normal housetraining and other frustrations are why many people discover owning a dog isn't what it seemed to be -- especially once the dog is no longer a cute puppy. You might remember there was a thread where many offered support and advice to you along these lines when you and your boyfriend were finding your initial puppy a challenge many months back.

Ian Dunbar's book makes all these points, as does the handout I linked to above, which are worth a read (or re-read).

Never scold or punish your pup for going to the bathroom in the wrong place. He won't get it. They don't understand pointing, they often don't understand "no", and they won't remember the action of peeing if they're not in the middle of doing it. He'll only learn it's not safe to go to the bathroom in front of you, or to be near you when you're near "the toilet".

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