house training - advice require

djdunny

Hi folks, I have come here out of desperation. the scenario is this - We have a 6 month old JR - lab cross. We are finding it very hard to house train him. we currently have a wet room down stairs, his crate is in there and thats where he sleeps at night. we lay down paper for any mess and because its a wet room we can hose it down.

I work from home so during the day he is let out to roam around the kitchen and the back door is open so he has unlimited access to the back garden. the issue is he comes inside to do his duties.

So my question is what do i do to even start house training him. Can he be locked into his crate for 8 hours at night (i cant help but feel its cruel) and what should i be doing during the day (im on calls so i cannot keep an eye on him all the time)

Its getting very frustrating as we seem to be in a constant state of cleaning up after him.

The positives are that he goes in the same place all the time so we can put down paper but its still not ideal.

Ps he was a rescue dog and one of the conditions is that he is mainly kept indoors so locking him outside all day isnt an option.

Hope someone can help.

Toulouse

There's numerous thread about it but the jist is...

You need to go back to basics. Leaving the door open is not enough, he needs to know that it's good to go outside. You haven't let him know this.

So outside every hour and praise him to high heaven when he goes. Inside if he goes ignore it and clean it up, you weren't watching him. Continue in this vein and he should pick it up in about a week. Be sure to take him out first thing in the morning, after meals and after playing. Clean up any accidents with biological washing powder to get rid of the smell so he's not encouraged to go there again.

As for crate training, again, lots of threads about it but don't go straight from nothing to suddenly locking him in overnight. You need to introduce it as a positive thing.

Ms Tootsie

To start stop letting him go in the house because that is just confusing the dog. Get rid of the paper, clean the wet room using water and vinegar and start from scratch.

Start with closing the door of his crate for 10 minutes with a stuffed cong, then increase it until he can be left in for a few hours. I strongly disagree with leaving him in during the day but at night until he is house trained is fine.

Back to basics as the previous poster said. It should take you no more than two weeks if you stick to it rigidly. Take him out during the night for toilet breaks - that way he will know not to soil his crate.

Keep him in the crate when you cannot supervise him. Take him out for toilet breaks about half an hour to 45 minutes after food and water. Go nuts on the praise when he does go outside. Use a high value treat so he knows inside is bad but outside is good.

Watch for tell tale signs - circling, sniffing etc and take him out. Try to work on teaching him to 'go' on command so you can get him to go last thing at night.

This is it all shortened but there are tons of threads on this. Crate training is the way forward combined with immediatley getting rid of the paper and this idea of a 'wet room' where he can go inside.

I have been there so I feel your pain :rolleyes: stick to it though. No paper training + crate training + rewards when he goes outside and you will be onto a winner.

andreac

Echo what the others have said.

For a start. Stop putting down newspaper. That only encourages the dog to go inside. On one hand you are encouraging the dog inside but want it to go inside. The poor dog is confused.

If you are using a crate, you need to use it correctly. Make sure the dog is contained in it at night, then let it out every few hours and bring it straight outside. The whole point of the crate is, that the dog will not soil his bed and will hold it. So you then bring the dog outside and encourage it to go outside then reward and praise when he does.

During the day and evening, bring the dog outside, as often as you can. Even more so after a meal, drink, sleep etc and use a command to go to the toilet. The dog doesnt automatically know yo go outside, so its up to YOU to train them to. Leaving the door open is not enough.

But regarding the crate, unless you use it properly, its function will be worthless. You can lock him in over night, but you would need to get up once during the night for the moment until he learns to hold it in all night.