Another toilet training question...

Any tips or advice? We are fostering a rather awkward case at the moment... she's a bit blockheaded bless her. She's 6 months old (nearly 7 months), and is terrible for going to the loo indoors. We have tried crate training (first port of call) - but she obliterated the crate in about 20 minutes. She can't be contained in that way, and just breaks the crate to get out.

Soooo... paper training... not my favourite method, but worth a try. Of course, she just shreds any paper put down within seconds...

Have tried just taking her and taking her and taking her and positive reinforcement whenever she *does* go outside, but this doesn't stop her going inside, at all! No matter how regularly we take her out, she goes inside at least once a day... :/ I'm not sure where to go from here. She was an outside dog before she came to us, and it seems to be quite hard to show her that she shouldn't go indoors.

Also - any tips to stop her shredding the lino? I mean, she has now, so there's not much to be done, I need to re-floor - but what do I do to stop her making it even worse so that when she does pee in the house, it doesn't affect the concrete underneath so much?

*le sigh* any tips or help appreciated!

xx

How long have you had her for? It does take a while for some dogs, particularly kennel dogs, to get the hang of toilet training and it's a case of going back to basics and perservere.

Helen

She's been here a month now - maybe a touch longer. I understand the perseverance thing, I guess I'll just have to keep doing whatever I can with her - it's just that she's not getting it at all! This thread was really if anyone has had any successes in a similar situation, to let me know what they tried, so I can give it a go - as obviously crating and newspaper don't work, and so far we're not having much luck with frequent walks. Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to be here 24/7 - we're not out all that often, but sometimes we have to, and we can't watch her then :/ I don't like setting her up to fail if you get me - so what can I do when we have to go out without her?

xx

I had a pointer that was like that and it was sooo frustrating. She was a house dog at the time and one day, she just clicked. It took her until she was 8 months old before she asked to go out! I honestly thought, we would never get there with her but we eventually did. We just took her out whenever she moved! lol

ETA - is there a separate room you can put her in. Where she hasn't weed so possibly breaking the cycle?

Helen

Sadly not - as she won't mix with my two dogs (or rather they won't mix with her) and she will destroy any of the rooms we haven't proofed for her :/ can't proof any more unfortunately. she has a big room all to herself, and spends much time in the kitchen and lounge with us too

xx

You don't say what breed or breeds she is. Having been an outside dog, I'll assume she is not a toy breed. Dalmatians take longer to housebreak than other breeds, so if she is a dal she is doing great. Other large breeds just take longer, they have a long puppyhood. On the positive side, this gives you a bigger window of opportunity to housebreak her. Continue to praise her for going outside, including a yummy treat. Do not otherwise give her treats. Treat only for going outside for at least a week. After the week, treat only for training and pottying.

Also, make note of how much she pees. Count in seconds. If she normally takes 15 seconds to empty her bladder, then you know she's not done after ten seconds and more needs time outside. I do this with my foster dogs and the males can take quite a bit of time to hit all the bushes. Counting has really paid off in making sure the dogs are empty before bringing them back in.

Met a few lurchers like this too - particularly on the crate-wrecking front.

It really is perseverance with the toilet training. If the house damage is being done while you are out and she is left, then she really needs some work in that department too.

It's easier if you can get someone in to go through it all with you (does the rescue have a behaviourist?), but one of the first things to try is to find where she is most comfortable being left (ie which room) as that can help. Then it's working through the triggers that start off the stress of being left one at a time until they are eliminated

Thanks guys should have said she's an Akita x staffy and as far as I'm aware the rescue doesn't have a behaviourist - not hit a wall like this with a dog before. Mind you, pleased to say she's done well tonight and not gone in the house so far!

xx

Hi,

I've had very similar problems with my newest GSD, Koda. I had him at 7 months old at the end of November and even now, although vastly improved from back then, he still isn't fully toilet trained.

Firstly, you mentioned you've tried crate training. How long did you try it for and exactly HOW did you do it? The reason I ask is that Koda was certainly not happy to be crated but the crate was left open in the living room initially so he went in and out as he pleased initally.

For us, it's very much a case of once one thing is resolved, another issue crops up.

Today I left him at ome for approx 25 mins with Yiannis in what I call the "dogs' room". During this time Koda quite happily chewed the PVC covering of a double glazed door and made a good start on the bare wood underneath.

So for us, it's very much a case of one step forward, five steps back. But we ghave to persevere.

Continue with basics and have patiece. Believe me, I know it's easier said than done and I reached a point where I considere taking Koda back to his breeder. But we're working through it.

Go right back to basics if you haven't already. Take her out after each and every activity - sleep, play, training, feeding etc and if she hasn't done anything for a whilemake sure you take gher out every 2 hours at least.


Ignore any accidents in the house and clean them up without speaking. Praise and reward whenever she eliminates outside and introduce a cue word for this if you want to.

Eventually the penny will drop an she will suss out that outside is for pees and poops, inside is for everything else!

Good Luck!

Laura xx

Have been trying all of the above for some time now, and there's still no improvement at all

RE. the crate training - we did the same as you, she had it in the room, all her toys in there, comfy bed made up - she would go in and out as she pleased, and then after a while we started shutting the door for 5 mins at a time increasing the time slowly over a period of days. She was perfectly happy with this, everything seemed fine, and she was happy to be crated for an hour or more - so we crated her, went out for half an hour, came back and found that she'd obliterated the crate and escaped

I'm not sure what else we can do with her, we've tried everything - and nothing seems to be sinking in. She's done so much damage, which is OK - we'll jsut have to suck up to costs, but I think she'll have to go back to rescue kennels...

xx