Lab not house trained

We got Bentley at 10 weeks in January. We already have Bella and they share the same Father.

My problem is I can not house train him. He gets lots of praise when he goes out side. I smoke so I am outside a lot and he comes out with me. He goes to the toilet outside but will come in and 10 minutes later he poos and wees on the floor. I hardly go anywhere as it seems he cant go more than 2 hours without an accident.

He is trained in other areas - sit, stay, paw, recall, etc. It's just the toilet training. It has got the point where my husband wants to rehome him because of this. We can't go anywhere as we know when we get back we will have a huge mess to deal with. The floor is ruined because of the urine. He is a wonderful dog and has never chewed has excellent recall and loves a cuddle at night. I will be devastated if we have to rehome him but I understand where my husband is coming from. It doesn't help that Bella was house trained in a week.

I was also wondering if I got him neutered would it make any difference.

Please any advice would be greatly received. I seem to have tried so many things - the only thing I refuse to do is rub his nose in it.

Good to hear that you're not rubbing his nose in it, that wouldn't achieve much other than making him afraid to go.

If he's really not getting it, you need to go back to basics with him.

Take him out every hour and have a command word for 'going' - stay with/ supervise him until he goes, even if he's taking his own sweet time about and then lots of praise and reward.

Same with after meals.

Is he crated when you leave the house?

If not, it might be worthwhile crate training him as dogs will rarely soil their own beds.

Look at how often you're feeding him, is he on two meals a day, or free fed? If free fed try switching to twice a day to make his bowel movements a bit more predictable.

It also might be worthwhile having the vet check him over, just in case he does have a bladder infection that might be contributing to him not being able to hold his bladder for long.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

A lot of folk don't like the idea of using a crate but if introduced in a positive way it can work wonders.
I agree with Anniebee.

You say you got him at 10 weeks? Had he been kept outside until that point? Most breeders will start toilet training asap so perhaps hes a late developer or he simply wasnt taught in the first place

Neutering will have no affect on his bowel habits I can assure you.

What do you feed and how much, how often? What goes in must come out and I wouldnt expect a 10wk old to produce a 'huge' mess in the space of 2 hours unless they are consuming a heck of a lot of food (or unless you were referring to puddle circumference as opposed to erm.. solids)

Routine is paramount as AnnieBee said

Puppys tend not to concentrate on the job in hand hence using a 'key' word to point out what they are out in the garden for is very useful (our word is 'Busys!' - it still has the same effect and he is 7 now, 10pm pre bed 'busys!!' sees him off like a rocket to the back door to go out)

How often do you smoke? If he comes out and hangs about on a regular basis i dont think this will help his focus either as he doesnt see going out in the garden as having a job to do more mess about.

pick a word and whenever you see him about to go say it in a happy sing song voice and lot of praise eventually he should get the hang of it

ah just seen he was 10wks in january so he is now at least 7 months? i can see how the mess could be a bit bigger now oops!

If he is doing it 10 mins later then i would suggest you better take a coffee to have with your fag and sit it out instead of just letting him out. Or if you are going out take him for a brisk walk before hand should only take 5-10mins max to get everything moving and if he doesnt do it whilst out then straight into the garden and repeat the magic word

i had a mexican stand off with my boy this morning over 'busys' where he actually pretended to go (after observing the garden for a good 5 mins) then legged it back in the house to his bed. He got turfed out again and performed begrudgingly on command little bugga It was a huge wee as well so he obviously needed to go but just wasnt concentrating

Yep, all good advice so far. I think the key, as others have said, is to go back to the basics. Just start over as though you adopted him today and he knows nothing about potty training.

So, take him out every 30 minutes or so. Reward when he goes outside. Keep him on a leash when you're home and put him in a kennel or at least in a gated-off area when you can't supervise, like a bathroom with a baby gate.

Another factor is to take him out through the same door every time and to take him to the same place, which I'm sure you're doing. It can get confusing if they're going out three different doors. I wrote a post about that issue here: http://www.dogids.com/blog/common-pu...ning-mistakes/

Also, what if you hired a trainer to help? Maybe even just a session or two could give you some good ideas to start with. Worth a shot if it means you can keep your dog.

Go pee outside when you smoke. He'll pee where you pee.