House training issue

As some of you may know, last Tuesday I brought home a 6 month old WL GSD puppy. He'd spent much of his time so far in a kennel with very little "training". I had him with a view to training him in SchH so I don't mind the lack of training part. However, housetraining is a BIG problem atm.

Koda seems to think my living room is his personal toilet. He won't eliminate in the garden, nor on walks. He will do so out on a training field though, in his crate at home and all over my woodn floor!

I decided it would be best to go right back to basics as though he's a very young pup. So each time he wakes up after a snooze, after eating, after play, after training sessions etc I take him out onto the patio. I have stood there on one ocasions for an hour and forty minutes before he did anything.

When he does "produce" I shower him with praise and a little bit of chicken as a reward. When he does it in the house he gets completely ignored and I clean up.

What am I doing wrong? Usually it would take me no longer than about 3 days to at least see an improvement. With this dog though, there's NO improvement or change at all. I did think we'd turned a corner but I think he led me into a false sense of security (sneaky toad!)

Next week the other dogs won't be here. They'll be in kennels as I have the plumber coming but Koda will stay here at home with me. I had intended to really work at it even moreseo than I am already doing (don't see how that's possible though) witht he intention of really nailing it by the end of next week.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be very grateful.

You are trying to undo 6 mths in a few days. It'll take longer but you'll get there.

I have had a few who have taken ages when they are older.

good luck!

rune

afraid so
You are doing the right thing but it takes work because he is used to going where he wants

I have stood there on one ocasions for an hour and forty minutes before he did anything

Sorry but I think this is pointless, the only thing that will be achieved is a bored dog and a bored owner.

Is he ball mad yet? If he is, I would make access to the ball contingent on elimination in garden, in fact I would make EVERYTHING contingent on elimination in garden,

walks, food etc

The dog needs to make a link with action + location.

There is no need for him to think about this at the moment as you expecting him to eliminate AFTER feeding AFTER play AFTER training, reverse the process.

The trouble is that unless she can watch him literally all the time when he is indoors there are going to be a lot of misses. If he is happy to go anywhere you can't shut him in a crate---you obviously won't gain anything by shutting him out on his own.

I think its too long but I couldn't think of a solution----I think if you go in you might well forget to watch him---even if the phone rings or you make a coffee---- and it happens so fast!

We had a little whippet cross here and three of us took shifts to watch her constantly.

rune

Think your trying to undo what he has got used to in days, Tess took 2 months plus ...sorry she had never been inhouse, always kennels or whatever she had before the rescue got her and she thought everywhere was for her toileting

Try playing outside, I found standing and waiting was a pointless exercise, then after play give a command ...be clean (or whatever you use) Tess caught on in the end, although she was very very slow I must say, so you may need to be prepared for a long journey to being clean

Raz and Prince came from kennels. Both weren`t house trained. Prince took about 3 weeks and Raz (entire male) still marks occasionally when excited but took about 6 weeks for normal widdlin`.
My back garden is accessible via a dog flap so it was a question of making the garden `the place to go`. Which I did by blocking the preferred toilet spots in the house (dogs tend to go in the same places) with water bowls or furniture. And cleaning the area with bio liquid and dettol.
Having the other dogs really helps. I`ve never done the praise thing and I`ve never used crates and never had problems house-training. I just rely on the dog working out what is expected.
I think sometimes we get too worked up about it. (of course having laminate floors does help! )
Please give him more time before doing anythin drastic. He will get there - be patient?

Nightmare isn't it, especially at this time of year

I'm in the process myself right now, but puppy is only 9 and a half weeks old.

To make the process a little less painful, we've put lots of spare carpet over the (nearly new) carpets that are down and under that is a layer of polythene (cut up bin bags do the trick). It's a slow process, but, after a week and a half, we're at the stage where my little girl does squat and go when she's out on the garden pretty quickly. I don't use treats for this but a fuss, small play and back indoors. Little bladder does trigger off very regularly though so still quite a lot of accidents indoors - hence the carpet protection.

It takes time and patience and a lot of time on the garden , but if you can manage things indoors so that accidents are a lot less of a stress, it does help

Domn't worry I won't do anything drastic! It's frustrating though when I've never had a problem with housetraining, even with rescue dogs that have been in kennels themselves for extensive periods of time.

I only stayed outside for over an hour once on someone else's suggestion and decided it was a waste of time. We do play etc but so far it hasn't made much difference.

I have no carpets downstairs and the dogs aren't allowed upstairs so cleaning up is no problem.

Today is the first day I've had NO accidents at all. Maybe because I completely wore Koda out and got back home about 8pm. He's been asleep since then. Until then we were out all day, all different places and helping my Mom move house. Also just after his dinner tonight he stood and watched the other dogs for a short time then toileted outside.

Mybe too soon to say we've turned a corner but still an improvement nonetheless.

He will play with a ball and this is something I have to encourage. So far, he has very little drive, he will do great heelwork for food but not without (although I know I'm expecting too much on that front) aand I'm having to teach him to play, which I find really sad. This is all as well as housetraining and learning to get to know us at the same time as being dragged off to training twice a week with a view to eventually doing SchH training.

The most important thing at home is the housetraining but for a 6 month old pup to not know how to play is something I find quite upsetting. So that's what I have to work on. trying to get him to play outside with a ball isn't impossible by any means but at times he doesn't seem to know what to do.

Thanx for all the advice. I'll update with progress reports.

I can't really comment on the housetraining, although when we did rescue our Springer i had to go right back to basics with her. She was about 9months and really had no housetraining, luckily she caught on pretty quick. I guess you already know that, but some re-assurance that he will get there in the end is always nice.

She also didn't know how to play, either with us or with my other dog, she worked out the dog on dog playing really quickly, but it took months for her to realise that we were playing with her not stopping her or punishing her.

It completely broke my heart to think that as a puppy no one had played with her but now nearly a year later she is as full on in her play with us as our other dog!!!