This housebreaking is killing me. Advice please!

[Lauren]

An update: Xena is doing better when I remember. She does not ask out, and she does not mind one bit to poop where she may be.... BUT I am remembering a whole lot more.

The girl is something special. Now we are working on mutual respect. Stress the mutual.

[Dutchringgirl]

I used to set a kitchen timer, that helped me remember to take Sadie out..........when I remembered to set the timer

[CaroleBoaz]

Thank you all for the ideas. Xena really is doing better. BUT she still runs out on to the cat porch for business when the kids forget and leave that option open.

Boaz would run upstairs into the spare bedroom and poop if I wasn't paying attention. His way of training me. Good thing his poops are solid.

[saraandciara]

Hi all! I come to you for advice. Ciara is 6 months today, but I am so frustrated with her right now. She does this to me every once in a while: she absolutely positively REFUSES to poop when I take her outside in the middle of the day. The gross part is that I can SEE that she has to go. But instead, she sniffs around for 10 minutes and will sit to prevent anything from happening. I only get an hour break between work and school, and she's driving me insane!! She whines and cries to go out, but doesn't squat at all. Now I feel cruel putting her back in the crate so that I can go to school. She's never had an accident in the crate, and I don't want to make it a habit. Has anyone had this happen or any advice? I feel like the worst dog owner ever!

[Schlussdibusti]

It's been a while since my labs were puppies but I don't remember they had to poop in the middle of the day. I drove home during lunch hour (20 min drive, 20 min with the puppies, 20 min back to the office = eating while driving). During their 20 minutes they were in the back yard and peed. The BIG business was done in the morning and in the evening.
Usually, throwing a ball and make them running around gets the bowels "moving". You might want to try that. But she might not be a "midday pooper" like my labs.

[Lauren]

Can you show her one of her past, um, successes? I know what you mean by seeing she has to go. It has saved us several embarrassing sidewalk moments. But the surest thing that I know of with mine is to take her to a past turd... Then she has a "oh, yeah!" moment.

Of course the cat porch works too.

[Sugars Mom]

Mine doesn't go mid day either. Morning and evening. If yours used to, maybe she is getting to the point where she doesn't have to anymore?? I remember taking mine out to pee all the time when she was small and as she grew she would hold it longer and sometimes not have to go every half an hour...I remember worrying that she would pee inside if she didn't go when I took her but she didn't. I realized that she could hold it longer. Could that be what is happening with yours?

I agree with the exercise to get her bowels moving; that works for mine as well.

I totally understand your frustration as I too have taken mine out when I need to go to work and she doesn't do her business fast enough, but I figure if she really has to go, she'll go. If it seems like she really has to go but won't, maybe there is a problem and you could call your vet and ask if it sounds like something to worry about.

Hang in there!

[alspyce]

If your break is real short in the afternoon---maybe she's figured out that as soon as she "goes" the walk is over and it's back in the crate. Might she be holding out on purpose to try to get more time outside? You could try matching her.

[CaroleBoaz]

Hi all! I come to you for advice. Ciara is 6 months today, but I am so frustrated with her right now. She does this to me every once in a while: she absolutely positively REFUSES to poop when I take her outside in the middle of the day. The gross part is that I can SEE that she has to go. But instead, she sniffs around for 10 minutes and will sit to prevent anything from happening.

Do you take her for a walk during your lunch break? If not, it might be enough to get things "moving", so that she will have to go.

[leih merigian]

A small suggestion...

Instead of saying "no," try a word like "phoey!" You can say "no" really mean, easily. It's hard to say "phoey" in the same mean way. The tone you want is, "shame on you!" After all, you're just trying to convey information here.

My DS is very resistant to learning a "need to go out" signal that I choose. Did not have that issue with my GSD. Taught her to bark when she needed to go by asking her, "do you need to go outside?" Then I'd bark, and take her out (yes, I did). It worked, too. Then the bark morphed into a snap. Then the snap became a general "yes," and if she needed to go out, she'd come up and snap her mouth. Loved it.

This one! She just comes up and stares hard at you, and/or asks to be petted . Since she's always asking to be petted, you kind of have to pay attention to how hard she's staring . She will answer, tho, if I ask her, tho her replies are minimalist and all body language...she'll stamp a foot, for example. (You should see when I ask if she's hungry...she moves some muscle in a barely discernable manner and that's "yes, I'm starving!")

Right now, we're working on her giving me a nose touch on my leg (or any body part, really!). The way I'm doing it is I ask, "do you need to be quick?" (that's our pee cue), and if she says "yes," I tell her "nose" and point to my leg. Soon as she noses my leg, off we go. It's working some...

Good luck; keep being persistent and you'll get there. She's still very young.

[Dutchringgirl]

A small suggestion...
you kind of have to pay attention to how hard she's staring .

thats so funny, Thalie has stares too, she is quiet and her "talking" is all body language, she has different stares for going outside, food, petting, etc.

[Joxgirl]

Good advice here. Told hubby if he crated puppy, it can not be longer than 30 minutes, according to the people in this group.