House Training Issues with my 5 month old

I have a 5 month old Papillon that i'm having house breaking problems with. He gets taken out about every two hours and he never messes when in his crate. WHen I take him out he always does something. Then I will bring him inside and sometimes a half hour to an hour after coming back in he goes inside. He does this, however, when i am not in the room or watching him. I have tried training him to ring a bell. I ring it before we go outside, but he doesnt catch on to that. He does not bark or anything to tell me he has to go back out. I just dont know what to do...i cant take him out every half hour. He was trained to use wee wee pads, but he chews them up now if i put them down.

 

Why don't you just litter box train? Paps are small enough for that - then you don't ever have to worry about "poop slinging" outside!
I'm going to litter box train when (if ever) I get a toy breed! I get tired of slinging jumbo piles every day.

 

The breeder had trained him with a litter box when I first got him and after a week of having him he became sick and the breeder took him back to get him better and she told me she tried the litter box and he decided it was fun to play in it and make the litter fly everywhere. So I didnt try that based on what she said he did.

 

So, you need to be in the room or watching him. Or take him with you. Or put him in his crate, or put him outside.

In this stage of potty training, I think the dog understands what to do outside, but they don't yet understand what NOT to do inside. Unless you catch him in the act (which you aren't because you aren't in the room) he will never know that he is doing something wrong.

It is a LOT of work but well worth it in the end, because your dog will be so well trained that you won't ever have to worry about it again - well, unless he is sick, or old. LOL.

Anyway. Do NOT let the dog out of your sight. If you have to leave the room, snap on a leash and take him with you or put him in his crate. When you do take him outside, go with him, give him a command (such as "go potty") and praise him while he is in the act of going.

Make sure you clean up where he has gone inside with an enzymatic cleaner such as Nature's Miracle or a similar product, sold in pet stores. Also, you need to do this NOW and stop letting him have mistakes on the carpet. Dogs get used to going on a particular surface and you want that surface to be grass or dirt - NOT your carpet!

This is my favorite article on potty training: http://www.dogtrainingbasics.com/Potty Training Basics.htm.

 

I wish I had read your response about 10 years ago Jamiya. Now one dog is sick (kidney stone) and the other is old. And I failed at housebreaking.

 

I probably go overboard, but I figure it's better to err on the side of caution. I don't want to ruin my carpet or have my house smell. I practically lived in the family room with Nala when we got her - for about FOUR MONTHS! I didn't totally trust her until she was about 9 months old, although she hadn't had an accident for many months before then. I just didn't know whether she would hold it if there was no one around to let her out!

She is the only dog we have trained from puppyhood, but I have trained several foster dogs (ranging from 6 months old to about 2 years) since then. The adults tend to go faster, because they have better bladder control.

The mother of one of my daughter's friends came over and was impressed that I had four dogs in the house and no one was peeing all over. She said they have a 1-year-old Pom they have been "unable to train." I started to tell her how to do it, but apparently it was too hard to even listen to all of that, let alone do it. I could probably take the dog and do it for her, but I bet he would just start having accidents again as soon as he went back to their house. :|

Old dogs are another matter. If they are incontinent, there is not much you can do.

 

Thanks for the advice...My mother is home with him from 8-12 and 3-6 while I work and she leaves him on his own in the pen alot. I will have to talk to her about not leaving him alone.
He doesnt pee on carpet...one pen is on tile floor and the other pen is on tile with a showercurtin liner on top. Do those places leave smell after he pees? I usually clean it up with a paper towel and use a disinfecting wipe (i have nautres miracle but use that on his blankets. I dont know if that works on hard floors)

 

If she can't watch him, then he should be in a crate rather than a pen. The crate should be just big enough for him to stand up, turn around, and lie down. He MUST be let out often enough so that he is not forced to pee in the crate when he just can't hold it anymore. At 5 months, though, he should be able to hold it for 5-6 hours.

I don't know about Nature's Miracle on the hard floor, but it can't hurt. Might as well use it.

Your mom needs to understand that if she can just put in a week or two of solid work, he will be trained and then things will be easy. The alternative is to be lazy now and clean up urine for the next 10 years.

 

Tonight, I let my puppy out of his pen to run around the room and I was watching. He was running all around the room and sniffing everything, but i figured he was just running around because he was excited to be around and sniffing all new smells. Then he stops all of a sudden and starts to poop and then its too late. I yell "no" at him he just starts running around and poop goes all over. He was outside not long before that and did not want any part of being out and begged to go in without doing anything outside. Outside when he goes to poop he hops around in a funny way and circles before he poops. Inside when he was running around he showed no signs of those, but just stopping all of a sudden to poop.

 

When letting him out of his pen, your first trip should be outside. Take him out on leash and stand there and wait for him to go. If he doesn't go in a reasonable length of time (5-10 minutes), go back inside. But then you have to either put him in his crate or watch him VERY closely. A lot of sniffing or circling means he might be getting ready to go. Take him out again in about 5 minutes. Keep doing this until he goes potty outside.

You might stash a container of really neat treats outside. Take him out on leash and tell him "Go potty!" Repeat it every once in a while, and definitely repeat it while he is in the process of going. Tell him what a good boy he is and immediately feed him a treat when he is done. Do not give him those treats for anything else.

You might let him drag a leash while he is inside, as long as you are supervising to make sure he doesn't get tangled up. That way if he does start to have an accident, you can grab the leash and get him outside.

Puppies need to go outside after playing, eating, drinking, sleeping, or pretty much any change of activity. If he is lying down and gets up to look around - take him outside! Take him out at least once an hour and more if you can, especially if you have not seen him go in a while. Go out with him, say the words, give the treats, etc.