Toilet training

Hi,
My dog is basically toilet trained and will only go to the toilet outside unless unwell. But with the weather being really warm this summer we have left the back door open most of the time so therefore he has had the use of the garden as and when he needed. As the weather has now become colder and the door has been shut he has taken to doing his business indoors if we haven't seen him waiting at the door. I am not sure how to go about teaching him to alert us when he needs to go or in what way that he can tell me. Has anyone got any ideas?

Hello If going back to the roots of toilet training and going outside every 30 minutes to reinforce outside for business (which is what I'd do) isn't an option, then perhaps you could attach some string connected to a bell to the door handle. Train your dog to ring the bell when he needs to go outside?
Good luck!

This is a mistake that many people make if they get a puppy in the summer is to leave the door open so the dog can go in and out as they want, the dog doesn't learn that there is an inside and outside. Sorry but you are going to have to take him back to the begining and train him to toilet outside.

Take him outside so you know when he has gone, you can then reward him.

Take him outside as soon as he wakes up, naps as well as mornings.

Take him outside after a training or play session and at regular intervals in between.

Only when he has been taught to that he toilet outside and not inside will he start to tell you when he wants to go.

As above. If the door is left open all the time the puppy cannot differentiate between 'in and out' in my opinion.

I trained Georgina, now 15 weeks old the same way as Mattie suggested and she learnt very quickly and I've had no accidents in the house for the past month.

Now that its cold and the front door is closed she'll sit in front of it and whine when she needs to go to the toilet.

I agree, its one of the biggest mistakes folk make, thinking if you leave the door open the pup will learn toilet habits, all it does is give free access to the garden and if they do their toilet out there its mostly due to chance not design.

my boy is 12 weeks old, we are up and down like yo yo`s ... he is getting the idea that he has to go outside and on occasion when the door is open he actually runs outside to have a pee/poo, but I am not fooled into thinking he has got the message 100% , because we still have accidents in the house, even if the back door is open.

As for them telling you they want to go out ..don't expect they all will, my old boy would stand at the door and bark, Millie never let you know, (or she did in her own way) it took us a long time to realise, that her signs were more subtle, she would simply come into the room and look at you.....

I think you need to go right back to basics, and take the dog out every so often using a trigger word for them to toilet.

As all the others have said, back to basics & it might be worth teaching him to respond to a question like"do you want to go wees " if you think he looks as if he is wanting to toilet

Thank you all for your advice. We did go through the winter last year and he was toilet trained and used to wait at the back door when wanting to go but obviously he seems to have forgotten over the summer and we will have to retrain x

Agree with everyone else. That is all.

can I just add several walks during the day help aswell, our Chihuahua has at least 3, 20 minute walks during the day even in the rain, aswell as going out into the garden several times during the day.