A WEE bit of help?

So I have a new puppy.. Nigredo, as everyone knows by now lol. He's doing pretty good, he's coming when called, he knows how to sit.. and sometimes will lay down on command, though not perfect yet.

He also does his poos outside. No poo accidents in DAYS, like lots of days (maybe 5 days and he's been here less than two weeks). BUT, he wees wherever he wants to, whenever he wants to. He rarely pees in his crate... only if I get caught slipping and oversleep or forget to remove his water bowl on schedule and he drinks too much.

I'll take him out to wee, and he'll go... but then a while later, he'll just wee in the house for no apparent reason. If I see him starting to wee, I'll get up to go over to him and he'll RUN! I always catch him, take him to the wee, tell him no, bring him outside, then crate him.

The annoying thing is he doesn't sniff around or anything. He could be playing with a toy, and get straight up and just squat and start peeing so it's REALLY hard to get him before the wee hits the rug.

I've also tried a scheduled type thing, but it doesn't seem to help even a little bit. Despite getting water at only certain times, and going out like every hour.. he STILL pees on the floor. Even if it's only a little bit.

I'm sure I'll be able to nip this in the bud given enough time as he's doing so well with everything else, but what are some techniques you guys used to help housebreak puppies? I of course treat him and praise him with a food treat and his clicker when he wees and poos outside... but he still comes right back in and wees.

He's going to be an indoor dog.. even if I have to clean up wee for the rest of his life as I've seen the harm being outside all the time does to dogs. I've tried keeping him in my room or the den... so he won't have free roam, but he just pees all over the room! I've already used up one entire bottle of puppy pee cleaner...

I LOVEEEE him and I hate putting him in his crate, as I love for him to be around me. He's learned to be okay with it now, and I'm trying to use it more to help him learn to hold it longer, but holding it isn't the problem... it's not weeing in the house.

I suspect he might have HD, and will be getting that checked out very soon... does HD cause any form of urinary incontinence? I've read up and it doesn't seem like it... and he holds his wee REALLY well in his crate so I don't think he's incontinent at all... but just thought I'd ask fellow dog owners.

You should never withhold water from a dog - pup or adult. If you do it causes their urine to become concentrated and will irritate their bladder, therefore they pee because the concentrated urine hurts if held back.

The reason he "drinks too much" is because he is trying to make up for the time water is not freely available and he is just plain thirsty.

Hi! I read an article online that said to do this... and our vet also said it would be okay so long as he was offered as much as he wanted about 5 times per day. I thought it was okay! I won't do it anymore, thanks so much Malka.. you're always helpful.

Myra - you must always have fresh water freely available for Nigredo. That way he will drink when he needs hydrating and his urine will not become concentrated, so his bladder will learn to hold more unconcentrated urine.

At the moment he pees wherever and whenever his bladder feels uncomfortable. Free access to fresh water should ease his bladder and teach it - and him - to be able to hold urine and not just empty it due to the feeling of discomfort.

Hmm... gosh I'm so confused. I was taught that less water would help him from feeling so full and having to pee all over the place.

Your advice is always helpful and useful so I'll assume you're right and get back to my reading. I've been reading some VERY wrong things if you're correct, which i suspect you are.

I'll put his water bowl back downstairs and keep his crate water bowl filled and see how it goes from here on. Thanks again!

I agree water should always be available for dogs, they won't over drink and just drink what they need.

I used a crate to house train my pup. When I couldn't keep an eye on him properly I put him in his crate with something to do like a chew, making sure he had relived himself outside first.

I also put him in there if I took him outside and he decided not to go. I put him in for 5 mins and then tried again outside, repeated it until he 'went'.

I took him outside every time he woke up, every time he drank, every time he ate something and every time he had been playing. These are all times that pups normally relieve themselves.

I never did anything when he had the odd accident inside, I ignored it and cleaned it up. By bringing him back to his accident and telling him no is confusing, it will actually make him go inside in places where you can't see him.

Are you using a word to cue his toileting? I found this helped a lot, every time he had a wee I would say ' have a wee wee'. And treated him/praised him for doing it. You have to be careful when giving treats as some pups catch on you will treat them and won't finish relieving themselves so they get the treat quicker. Then you get back inside and they end up finishing it there.

I admit my pup did spend quite a bit of time in his crate at first but doing it conisistantly he soon cottoned on, he was 13 weeks when he was fully house trained.

You also need to remember that every time he 'goes' inside it is reinforcing his behavior to go in the house and harder for you to train him to go outside.

By using the crate I set my pup up for success as it significantly reduced his chances of going in the house and going outside instead.

ETA: When my pup was crated at night he didn't have any access to water and he was fine. He only had 2 pee accidents in there and that was because I had over slept. I used to get up 3/4 times a night to let him out when he was very young and reduced the times as he got older. This teaches him to hold it longer as he gets older. They don't start to get proper bladder control until they are about 12 weeks though.

That's not always true. Some dogs will drink because they are bored if they are awake and have nothing else to do.

Good advice from Malka and Dog geek there. Yep, always have water down for him and when he is out of his crate just watch him like a hawk...and if you can't do that (and don't want to mop up accidents ��) pop him in his crate with something lovely.

Take him out to pee, and stay with him, as soon as he wakes, after his food, if anything exciting such as play/running around/people reprinting home/visitors occurs....and any other time you see him sniffing around looking likes he's going to go.... As well as every hour or so initially! Hard work!

If you catch him going make a noise to surprise him enough to stop the flow...but hopefully not scare him silly, try to get him to follow you to the door(rather than pick him up, so he learns the quickest route really). Once your outside you'll probably have to wait a while until he relaxes enough to finishe what he was doing before he was rudely interrupted. Lol!

Whenever you take him out to pee just stand around not playing attention to him, but watching out the corner of your eye until he goes, then praise him like mad, be really excited with him. As he gets used to it you can say your toilet word just as he gets to the end of his wee....and praise him loads...and then eventually you'll be able to say the toilete word first and he'll go.

When you clean up any accidents use biological washing liquid as this will break down the enzymes in his wee and get rid of the smell so that he won't smell it.

He'll get there. Some take longer than others! Was Brownie a boy too? Rmus is my second boy and he's definitely been a bit lazy with the peeing ...he's still a bit half hearted and would much rather go inside if I let him.

When I adopted Bizkit he was 6 months old. He never pooped in the house but he would wee whenever he felt like it (which was often) in waking hours but was dry through the night. I managed this by taking him outside to pee every 20 minutes and rewarding with treats or a game of tug. I crated him when I was out of sight and he became accident free in a matter of weeks.

HTH