Dottie still NOT housebroken at ONE YEAR of age!

[Dottie]

I didn't want to spoil Dottie's birthday thread with a complaint! LOL! She is still far from being housebroken. I just don't understand it. I have two other small female dogs and I had no problems with them. I started her with crate training and she did fine when I took her outside, but still didn't seem to mind going in the house. When the warmer weather came I let her play outside more thinking that she would learn to prefer going out there. Well, instead she prefers going ON THE PATIO! Yep, right smack in the middle she will squat and pee and she poops everywhere on the patio too! To say that I am frustrated is an understatement. Anyone have any magical cures?

THANKS!

[Ginger's Mom]

There is this really good book that many of the foum members recommend.. Forgot what that book is called but I think it has something to do with doing this in 7 days.. I'll try to serach and see waht the exact title is.. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Furry_Monster]

How to housebreak your dog in 7 days. By Shirlee Kalstone.
We have it!
Amazing book if you follow it properly.
Sasha is house trained and 5 months old.

[Dottie]

Thank you! I'll give it a try along with my new chocolate lab puppy I am currently housebreaking! LOL!

[Caraline]

Hmmm, I am thinking that because (presumably) the patio is an outside area, she is thinking that because she is outside this is an ok place to go. As we do not have patios, I can't really offer any advice. I've never been able to train my dogs to go to the toilet in a specific part of the yard. Mostly they will go far from the house, but on wet days they will leave little presents laying on the concrete driveway or not far from the front steps.

[WoodHaven]

I didn't want to spoil Dottie's birthday thread with a complaint! LOL! She is still far from being housebroken. I just don't understand it. I have two other small female dogs and I had no problems with them. I started her with crate training and she did fine when I took her outside, but still didn't seem to mind going in the house. When the warmer weather came I let her play outside more thinking that she would learn to prefer going out there. Well, instead she prefers going ON THE PATIO! Yep, right smack in the middle she will squat and pee and she poops everywhere on the patio too! To say that I am frustrated is an understatement. Anyone have any magical cures?

THANKS!

Am I correct in assuming that the patio is outdoors??? You may have one confused dog. Remember that a one year old is much like a human toddler and inside is Wrong ( ALWAYS!! )and outside is Right (sometimes, some places)

[Dottie]

Yes, I mean the outside concrete patio. I know that part of it is because she doesn't want to get her little feetsies wet in the grass, but it has become more of a bad habit now.

Woodhaven, I am confused by what you said. Do you mean that I should consider the patio "ok" since it is outside or what?

[Karlin]

Well she is probably thinking it is OK because it is outside. Also are you sure you want a dog using the lawn? A lot of us actually prefer dogs to go on hard surfaces and not lawns. It is a lot easier to scoop poop on a hard surface and hose off urine, whereas on a lawn it causes lawn burns and can be very hard to lift.

Wherever you decide on, you will need to take her out every single time, on a lead, to the place you designate her official poop area if you want to train her to go in a specific place. Then you need to praise her and reward *every time* until this becomes a firm habit. If she is still going inside it is most likely because you gave her too much freedom too soon, assuming by some early successes that she was housetrained (as so many of us mistakenly do!).

It helps to keep a small bit of stool at the place you want her to go as this helps trigger her to go there again and seek tis place out.

Remember a dog will only do what it has clearly been told to do and motivated in a positive way to do. Housebreaking takes a huge amount of work and it must be consistent and focused.

Sometimes it helps to think of what you'd do if you were potty training a two year old that spoke not a word of the language you speak. That is what the situation is like for a dog! Over and over, you have to be there to convey the message of where to go and your delight at the message being correctly understood. Over and over and over! Eventually it makes sense to the dog and the dog matures enough to remember what it is supposed to do -- something most puppies just cannot do right away (like a toddler). Most of us find it takes until the dog is about 6 months old to be about 85% housetrained and then it is fine tuning with accidents now and then til around age 1.

I strongly recommend the Shirlee Kalstone book as it will give clear guidance and schedules.

[*Pauline*]

Dylan recently started to go on the concrete at the back of our garden when I let the grass get a bit long. It's short now but he's still doing it. It's better in some ways as it doesn't ruin the grass. Is she doing her business indoors too? If not, I'd say she is house broken maybe not in the way you hoped for though.

[Dottie]

Karlin, the thing with the patio is that it is our only place for us to sit outdoors. We even recently put up a tent type cover for us to be able to sit out and have some shade, etc. We are willing to sacrifice our lawn to the dog pee / poop but this was our "clean" space! LOL! I guess I am just baffled because I never had this much trouble housetraining our poodle or dachshund. I will start over with the crate training I suppose with Dottie. The weather is getting colder and she'll need to spend most of her time indoors anyway.

Thanks for all the help! I will post on her progress! On a good note, we love our "Dottie dog" and are willing to get through this with her!