New dog has lost her potty training. Help!

April 14, 2013 3:30 PM

I adopted a three year old Chiweenie from a couple unable to keep her. The dog seems to have lost her potty training. The couple said she was fine with it, she goes to the door to be let out... But absolutely refuses to use the bathroom outside. Help!

I thought maybe it was an adjustment thing, but it's been a few weeks now. I wake up to piss and shit on the carpet almost every morning, and if I leave the room she'll use the bathroom on the carpet and then cower in the corner. She continues to ask to go outside but then whine and no matter how long I wait out there with her she won't go. Asking here because I can't afford a trainer. I've also tried walking her to see if that will make her go, to no avail. I'm finding myself having to get the carpet shampoo'ed because my clean up methods aren't sufficient enough to keep the carpet from smelling like dog piss.

Maybe relevant - I have another dog that was there before her and uses the bathroom outside. Could it be a smell/territory thing?

posted by Autumn to Pets & Animals (18 answers total)

Best answer: It sounds like she's terrified and basically needs to be re-potty trained. She's probably not going to understand on her own - she'll need some help from you. Is there any chance she's been crate trained? If she hasn't, I'd try that first. It is in my limited experience the fastest way to solve house training issues. The basic theory is that dogs won't use the bathroom where they eat/sleep. So whenever you can't monitor the dog (at night, when you're at work), you keep the dog in a confined kennel. Then, when you can monitor the dog, you keep her close to you and take her outside frequently until she gets the fact that outside is where she goes.

If the dog does urinate inside her crate, it's possible that there's an underlying medical issue such as a UTI.
posted by muddgirl at 3:39 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

A couple of thoughts:
-It's entirely possible that the couple you adopted her from were lying and she was never very well potty trained.
-From your previous question it sounds like your other dogs also used to have this problem and new dog may therefore think your house smells like a pretty good dog toilet.

If I were you, I'd pretend this dog had never been potty trained and start from scratch, taking her out frequently, not leaving her unattended outside a crate, watching closely for signs she's about to let loose and rushing her outside before she has a chance.
posted by juliapangolin at 4:13 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've heard that dogs aren't necessarily "housebroken" or "not housebroken". It's more specific than that. Your dog was taught "go out here" and "don't ever go in here". Now that she's in a new place with a new setup, the old rules don't apply and she has no idea what to do.

My guess is that "asking to go out" has lost all context for her.

You should go back to square one and re-housetrain the dog.

Re her refusing to go on walks, she might be afraid to go in front of you. Are you shaming her after she has accidents? Is it possible that her previous owners potty trained her via "corrections"?
posted by Sara C. at 4:14 PM on April 14, 2013 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Autumn: "I've also tried walking her to see if that will make her go, to no avail."

Do you mean she's otherwise not being walked?

In 15+ years my dog never had an accident in the house, but he was never the dog that pooped as soon as he went out. I found that if I started to cut back on the length of his walks (due to laziness or health issues) he would take longer and longer to poop. I don't know if he was being passive-aggressive or not, but once I increased his walk again he's go back to his usual pooping time. This took at least 20 minutes on most days, so she may just need a longer walk. It sounds like you have a backyard, but I've known dogs that wouldn't use the backyard as a substitute for walks.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:20 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Do you mean she's otherwise not being walked?

Yes, your dog should be walked everyday. When my dog was a puppy, we walked until he peed and pooped. Crate training is a good idea but it should be done in conjunction with regular walking. Take her for a walk in the evening and then put her in her crate. You might need to do this every couple of hours but don't give her a chance to go anywhere but outside. In the morning, take her for a walk til she goes and leave her in her crate during the day. As soon as you get home, take her out and walk her til she goes.
posted by shoesietart at 5:18 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I would just act as if she is a puppy who was never trained in the first place. This means:

- Crate training, as mentioned above. When she's alone in the house or you're asleep, she's in the crate (let me know if you want tips on this, having just gone through it). When you're home, don't let her wander around the house on her own - use baby gates or closed doors to keep her in the same room as you.

- It really sounds like she might have some sort of fear of going in front of you, so you want to address that. When she does go inside, do not react at all. No "bad dog," no exasperated grumbling. Just pick her up as soon as you see her squatting and calmly take her outside to the spot in the yard where you want her to go.

- When she goes outside, even if you just interrupted her inside, act like she just did the most amazing thing. Treats, praise, play, cuddles, whatever she loves. Right away. Let her know that it is absolutely ok for her to go in front of you, if it's outside.

- Otherwise, be proactive. Take her out every two hours or so, or after she eats or drinks more than a few gulps, or after she wakes up from a nap. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, and right before you leave her alone or right after you get home. Yes, it's a total pain, but I've noticed that my puppy has a lot fewer accidents when he knows he will get to go out soon.

- Are you using a enzymatic cleaner for her messes? If not, start right away, and consider doing a full clean of your floors and carpets to get rid of lingering smells. This stuff is amazing - I use it with my puppy (who is still learning) and you can't smell a thing, even on the few occasions he's pooped inside.

- Once you've cut down on the indoor accidents, that's when you can work on training her to let you know when she needs to go out - but she first needs to learn that going outside for the bathroom is what she wants.

Good luck! I'm sure that with some training, she'll be fine.
posted by lunasol at 5:24 PM on April 14, 2013 [5 favorites]

Oh, and ...

Asking here because I can't afford a trainer.

I'd suggest picking up a dog training book. I really love Good Dog 101 but I think anything in the positive training school would be good.

You also might want to see if there are training classes offered in your area - I just finished a puppy class with my dog that was $150 for 7 sessions - still not cheap, but made such an enormous difference for both of us. I know your dog isn't a puppy, but there might be someplace nearby that offers adult dog classes, which will definitely be cheaper than a one-on-one trainer.
posted by lunasol at 5:32 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Room 641-A brings up a good point.

It especially took my dog forever to go in the first few weeks after I got him. I'm not sure if it was confusion about how housebreaking works (he had previously been a backyard dog), getting adjusted to new surroundings, or the fact that, when I first adopted him, he was extremely walk-motivated, but he would routinely wait a solid 10-15 minutes into a walk to do any kind of bodily function. It's really only in the past week that he'll poop in under 30 minutes. Now he doesn't hold out, but he's still not one of those "I step out the door, I empty my bladder, I go back inside" kind of dogs and may never be.
posted by Sara C. at 5:38 PM on April 14, 2013

Best answer: My chihuahua needs to be walked three times a day. He'll go outside in the backyard, but is somewhat reluctant to do it, and the only way for me to be reasonably confident he's not going to have an accident is to walk him as soon as I wake up, after work, and around 8pm. I also let him out into the backyard, but those walks are something I consider a completely reasonable amount of exercise for a small dog (I just do a 5-10 min loop of the block).

I think adding this in, even if you can't get her to go on walks at first, will eventually help.
posted by Juliet Banana at 5:38 PM on April 14, 2013

This is the housebreaking guide my rescue shared with me after I adopted dogs.

#1 to success is real, regular and consistent WALKS on a schedule.

For example:
-Take dog out for a walk all the way around block at 8AM, 12PM, 5PM and 10PM.
-Pay attention for needing to pee after these activities: waking up, eating, bathing, excitement. My dogs always need to go potty within 30 minutes of eating their food.

Tips, carry dog's favorite treat and give piece of treat as soon as the dog goes potty outside. Praise with real enthusiasm in your voice. If you don't feel like a complete idiot, you're not gushing enough. :) Don't wait too long after the dog goes potty, try to do it right away just as they are finishing peeing.

Sometimes, my small dog won't go potty on walks if she is cold, so try a dog sweater to see if that helps. The same dog NEVER goes potty just by being let out. She needs to go on a walk to pee and especially to poop.
posted by dottiechang at 6:57 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Respectfully, I'm wondering if this has more to do with your particular style of dog ownership, because this would be your third post about dog potty training issues. And per your update you had to give those dogs away because you were not able to train them.

Dogs are work. They don't come programmed to be perfect. You need to put a lot of effort into them. You say it's only been a few weeks that you've had her - she's still adjusting.

I think your best bet is to start from square one with her in regards to potty training her. You need a schedule - some sort of routine that works for both the dog and you. You need to be really consistent. There are tons and tons of potty training resources online and in print that you can use. My personal favorite is Dr. Sophia Yin (here, here, and here)

Good luck.
posted by OsoMeaty at 7:04 PM on April 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Not sure what size your other dogs are but smaller dogs have correspondingly smaller bladders, having owned a maltese and a pitbull at the same time, the larger dog could definitely hold everything in for longer, the little guy might need walks more often.

Also nervy dogs in general can take a while get used to the rules of a new house, and that includes toilet training. Dogs don't generalize very well, they don't think of it as going outside to pee, as others have said it's more a its OK to pee here, but not here kind of mentality.

While longer walks might be a pain right now, it would be the easiest way to get the dog used to going outside, walk the dog long enough and it's just going to have to go, the second it does praise it like it's pooped gold, lots of happy noises, pats and treats are good here. You also want to make sure not to tell the dog off for going inside the house, smaller dogs especially will become secret poopers (as they can fit in more hiding spots) and you wont' find that pee in the back of your closet until the smell drives you crazy, I learnt this one the hard way. All you can do is clean it up with an enzyme cleaner and carry on, the only time you should tell your dog off for going inside the house is if you catch them doing it, and even then with a nervous dog I'd be more inclined to not yell but to just calmly just take them out straight away. Crating etc also can be a big help, and will help the dog feel a bit more secure as well which might help.

If you think the pooping is tied to nerves you can get pheromone collars for dogs which can be very effective too.

Oh and pretty much every dog needs to poop and pee not long after eating, take them out within 15 minutes of eating for a walk, this is pretty much the easiest way to catch them in a poop or pee so you can praise the crap out of them literally. A few weeks isn't very long for a dog to settle in it had a life full of routine and not much in the way of stimulation and changes at it's old house the poor dog has had a very big shake up in its life.
posted by wwax at 7:43 PM on April 14, 2013

It's hard to know if the couple misrepresented the dog's potty training (either outright lying or they were lying to themselves about it, which is not unheard of) or if the dog is just confused. My dogs suddenly forgot about their potty training when we lived temporarily with someone whose dog was completely untrained and did its business everywhere, but it cleared up as soon as we moved into our own place. So if your house has any lingering pet smells then your new dog may be confused. That said...

- Are you crating the dog at night and when you're not home? Don't give her the opportunity to do her business all over the place when you're not home/awake!
- As said before, you should be walking the dog a couple times a day. It should be going outside at minimum three times a day, and the majority of those should be actual walks. Some dogs just don't do their business as soon as they get outside.
- When you take the dog for walks, carry treats and praise the hell out of her every time she goes.
- You can do a six-week training class at Petco for $100. I took my rescue to our local Petco and I was really impressed with the trainer, and we learned a lot. Seriously, do it. It's cheaper than carpet cleaning.
posted by radioamy at 8:53 PM on April 14, 2013

Looking at previous questions, one thing I would add is that part of potty training is having reasonable expectations of how long a dog can hold their poo/urine. We don't expect our (big) dogs to go more than 8 hours, and during crate/potty training we kept the time in between potty breaks closer to 4 hours during the day (either my husband or I would come home at lunch - it was a sacrifice of time but it was necessary).
posted by muddgirl at 9:02 PM on April 14, 2013

Respectfully, I'm wondering if this has more to do with your particular style of dog ownership, because this would be your third post about dog potty training issues. And per your update you had to give those dogs away because you were not able to house train them.

Based on the link osomeaty provided, I'm not sure dog ownership is for you. The last time you had dogs, you gave them away because your schedule was too inconsistent to establish a routine that allowed you to house train them. Now, you've gotten another dog. Unless your lifestyle has changed, you're setting this new dog up for failure and it's not her fault.

You might be better off with a cat.
posted by shoesietart at 9:21 PM on April 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

She continues to ask to go outside but then whine and no matter how long I wait out there with her she won't go.

If you have a penis and a reasonably private yard, one approach is to lead by example — just go ahead and take a leak yourself.

A lot of the time this will get the lightbulb to go off for a dog: "Oh! I get it! We're peeing! I understand peeing! I can do this too! My turn now!" And then you do the praise-and-treats-and-cuddles routine and everyone feels like they've accomplished something.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 9:58 PM on April 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Also worth mentioning, a dog that is used to going on a particular sort of surface may have problems adjusting to something different. So a dog that is accustomed to a sidewalk may not feel comfortable with grass, and vice versa. A dog who is used to being walked and doing his business during the walk won't necessarily understand going potty outside in a yard alone.

And, as others have said, a totally new environment is just going to confuse most dogs until they are taught what to do anyway; they simply don't know where and how they are supposed to do it. When we adopted our dog, she didn't want to poop or pee at all, and would do it inside when we weren't looking. So, I took her for walks around the times I figured she'd need to go, and didn't stop walking before she had done some business – and then she instantly got yummy treats and (calm) praise. She learned to go during walks very quickly with this routine, and once that was solid, I taught her how to go in our courtyard for emergencies. But she much prefers walks for doing the necessary and is not too thrilled with going out on her own into the courtyard.

One dog behavior book I read said to imagine being taken into an alien spaceship. Everything is completely unrecognizable in terms of function and doesn't resemble anything you are familiar with. You don't understand what the aliens are saying, or what they want, where you should go to the bathroom, or eat or sleep, or anything. Many times when you try to do what seems like the most natural or logical action to you, they get really mad, so you know it's not the right thing, and you're terrified, but you just don't know what to do because nothing is like what you're used to. Yet they seem to expect you to know what they want, and act like you are doing the wrong things on purpose.

That's sort of how the dog feels, and the analogy is just a sort of useful way to think about things; what may seem totally obvious to us as humans is not necessarily at all how a dog thinks or relates to his environment or circumstances.
posted by taz at 12:12 PM on April 15, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I started taking the dogs on frequent walks, and crating them when I wasn't around to watch them. It worked! The new dog has been pooping/peeing outside now and last night I let them cuddle with me while I slept - did not wake up to accidents on the carpet!
posted by Autumn at 7:39 AM on April 18, 2013 [3 favorites]