what am i doing wrong???

I had a big problem with accidents when Ollie was around 6 months and it was due to my not watching him enough. I went back to the basics...he was IN HIS CRATE if I could not watch him exclusively- even if he JUST went outside!!!!! So, if I was making dinner, he was in the crate. If I was giving my son a bath, he was in the crate, etc. If your dog likes the crate at night, he/she won't mind it during the day either.

You need to start using the crate as a training tool and not just for confinement if you can't keep your eyes on your puppy at all times. It is not torture and he/she will not hate it! I promise!

Ollie, now almost 9 mos, still has the occasional accident but, again, when it happens I always say "shoot! i knew i should have taken him out!!!" I wasn't watching him OR the clock.

My other Cavalier, Casey, took a full year to fully train. Now she has the bladder of steel and refuses to step foot out of the house until she eats breakfast! And at night, she goes out around 8 and will NOT go out again. So she, by choice, goes 12 hours between her night potty and morning potty. Go figure!

thanks everyone xx

I agree with Karlin 100% also. I did not take my eyes off of Sofee for 12 months (well, to the best of my ability) and it really made a difference. We did not give her run of even 1/4 of the house until 10 months and then only the downstairs at 14 months. She still had two accidents around 14-15 months. It takes a lot of time with smaller dogs.
With Sofee, the only way she really learned was when I saw or at least thought she was going to go in the house, I startled her with a saying a firm 'ah ah' and said 'outside', and outside we went, very quickly. Her command to pee is 'hurry up' and she still pees on command with this word now. she was treated when really little when she went pee outside, but no longer.
I think I've said it five thousand times and she's only 21 months! To be honest, she still is within my site 97% of the time and the other 3% my husband can see her. It's just worth the effort to be sure she is safe and not getting into trouble. I trust her mostly now with being housetrained but you never know.
Good luck!

i feel you

my nemo is 6 month too! he is still not very reliable either. we put in playpen or block the room off so we can see where he is going.

i know exactly where your frustration is coming from. your other dog is probably like my other dog who was easier to potty train.

however i do start to see improve this week. although nemo just had a big poopoo in the house today. at least it was right next to the patio! which is in the blind spot of our living room. so i didnt know that he wanted to go.
my biggest worry is that sometimes he holds it from 7pm to the next day!!!
so i know he can hold it.

i am sure our puppies will do much better in a few more month to come!

I trained ours by never giving them the chance to toilet indoors (where possible), I would always look out for the circling and sniffing etc by if not then as a rule every hour they would be outside until they went to the toilet and gradually went longer between trips outside. It can be very frustrating at first but I have to say Ashton half trained Rio it was half the work!!

yeah cosmic it's hard


but today she woke up from her nap and wee'd immediatly!! no sniffing or anything!

i've started to keep her in the room i'm in so i can watch for her signs, but this time there was none at all,

Thats when you need to be there promptly. The second Libby wakes I take her straight outside. I dont even give her a chance to walk out of her crate as i know its at that point (after napping) she will need the toilet within seconds

maybe if you can keep her closer to the door when she is asleep. even wake her from the sleep. and bring her straight outside.

I sometimes used to bring the soft bed with her in it to the door and then scoot her out of it, out the door. She would be half asleep and google eyed but she didnt have a chance then to wee inside.

keep it up.
it will be worth it in the end.:xfngr:

I know that this thread is quite long with a lot of good information which we have taken seriously but we too are at witts end. Chloe is the most intelligent, lovable dog that we have ever encountered. She knows people's names, she runs to the door when you say "do you want to ride in the car", she runs to her doggy life preserver when you say "do you want to go for a ride in the boat". Having said all of this she still pees and poos in our house almost daily.

We have read Shirley Kalstone's book, several times. We do everything that she describes. Chloe is 10 months old and just last night she peed right in front of us 15 minutes after she peed outside. She is vet checked and has no physical issues. Last night I brought her out two seperate times for a total of almost an hour because we knew she had not pooped but she just sat there. I walked in the door and as I was going to pick her up to place her in her crate she pooped immediately in the foyer. I have talked to many experienced "dog" people who have never experienced anything like this, especially those who meet her and see how intelligent she is. We love this dog dearly but our Brazillian cherry floors, oriental rugs etc. are paying a dear price for Miss Chloe. Please someone assure me that she will some day decide to do her business outside.

KV

I don't know if this is an option where you live, but I installed an automatic pet door, and Pixie could let herself out (into a safe, fenced back yard with my larger dogs) when she needed to go potty, and there were no accidents after that. This type of door can be switched off so you can keep her from getting out if you don't want her to go, and it only opens by the signal from a transmitter on the collar, so no raccoons or stray cats etc. can get in. Before we got the door, we would occasionally miss her signals, and had some random peepee accidents, though she would do them on either a puppy pad if we had it down, or on the small area rug by the front door. She was confined to the kitchen when we were not home or unable to watch her, and that is when we used the puppy pads until we got the door.

The best thing we ever put in was the doggie door. As Dottie was 6 months old when we got her, her breeder had already trained her to use it.

She lets herself out when she has to go, and returns when through. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the doggie door!