Need training idea

[karrie]

19 months of age and Sam still gives no signal of got to go.

 

Ex. Sam is playing in the house and before I can blink he is about to go poop in the house.

 

Other than this glitch I've got a wonderful dog. But I can't tell ya'll how irrating this is. Now once he sees me he will look all shame faced and will run to the door. I got a sleigh bells on a leather strap hanging low on the door. I've rang the bell each time we go out. I've even tried to take his paw ring the bells. He just doesn't seem to catch onto it or maybe he just doesn't wanna do it, whatever. I just need some signal I can use to know " Hey MOM gotta go!" or " MOM I wanna go out". I'd even take his high pitched bark at the door~ seriously anything. So if anyone has an idea of how to train/teach him to give me a signal, I would love to hear it.

[lrayburn]

Usually you train the dog to ring the bell by putting something yummy (peanut butter, squeeze cheese) on it. When the dog eats the treat, he rings the bell and you take him out. Repeat until he makes the connection that ringing the bell means you take him outside. Make sure you potty him and bring him right in so he doesn't learn to ring the bell whenever he wants to go outside and play.

 

I don't think Sam is *really* housetrained because he is comfortable enough at that age to poop in the house without being in distress. If he was signalling subtly (hanging out by the door, etc) you could just teach him to signal more obviously. However, you probably need to go back to basic puppy-style house training combined with a regular schedule so he learns that there is a "right" and "wrong" place to go.

 

Personally, none of my dogs "signal" to go out. We are on a schedule - they go out in the morning, at lunch, after work, before bed. If a dog is not feeling well and really needs to go out, they tend to get anxious and whine at the door because they simply aren't comfortable going in the house. Tightening up his housetraining and control will be important whether you teach him to signal or not.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Lisa

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

Tess will tell me she needs to go out by barking at me. Not at the door, at me. Iam the key to the door, you see. My two always go out on leash. They go on command. Kipp does not really ask to go out.

 

I take them both out often since I work from home, and we are more on a schedule here. I used a crate with both and they would whine or bark to go out. That seems to have transfered for Tess but not so much for Kipp, so I keep a close eye on him (he is about 16 months old) but so far so good.

 

I find a schedule is much easier to maintain. Our schedule is not set times, but rather set to the "after" part of activities... after they have been sleeping, after a game (inside or out), after a walk, etc. Tess has spay incontience and instead of giving her drugs I just take her out fairly often and that works for us.

 

One thing that might help, if you are not doing it already, is to always use the same door for going outside.

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Lunar]

Zoe just had a potty accident. With her however, it's like this: with me, she always signals me. But I was in the shower, DH was with her. And she doesn't signal him, just goes. I don't even know where to start with this. (And we were doing SO well, went weeks, months without an accident. Sigh.)

[feas]

Lunar When Zoe signals you have DH take her out. This signaling might transfer to him faster.

[Anda]

Sometimes talking DH into taking the dog outside takes longer than simply taking the dog yourself

[karrie]

Originally posted by Anda:

Sometimes talking DH into taking the dog outside takes longer than simply taking the dog yourself

Ain't that the truth.

 

I should say Sam goes weeks to a month no accident then a Bam. I almost feel like he is doing like a kid. Holding it too long cause he was having fun then he HAS to go. He will on occassion run near the door but he doesn't stay put or whine nothing. And with this household a critter or kid in the proximity of the door doesn't pull me away from the kid or critter who is getting into trouble. Not to mention I would need to be in the room with the door to know that someone was near it. Now if I'm sitting down Sam has occassonaly given me these eye looks that tell me. But he just isn't throwing a signal I can easily read with any regularity.

 

I'm going to work on the peanut butter on the bells. I mite not be being fair with Sam. This is a trick Tuck picked up on fast. Frankly, Tuck picked it up just by hearing the bells jingle when I opened the door. It mite not be Sam's cup of tea to pick this trick up in the same way Tuck did.

 

Thanks for listening to my Vent and giving me some Tips I can use to help with this.

[Anda]

I can ask Ouzo if he needs to go outside and can see from his reactions if that's the case. If he sudnenly drops whatever toy he has in his mouth, looks very intently at me and then at the door, and back at me intensly, then I know it's time to go. Of course there is the risk of him ALWAYS wanting to go outside, but he hasn't been abusing it.

 

If he wants to go realy badly he whines and puffs and comes to us and walks around like a horse If we're asleep, he makes sure to wake us up - more luck waking me up than my husband.