House Training and Adult BC

[DTrain]

I was asked last week if I would take on a new BC so we took him in for a couple of days. You don't want to know the whole story but this is a dog that has lived on a farm. He is not trained it appears in any fashion. He has been left to fend for himself including feeding most of the time. He has been left outside his entire life. He is probably around two. He is not fixed but totally submissive and very scared. He is a beautiful BC and I will probably take him in. I can work on his other training but he is not house trained in any way. He goes outside, he goes in the house, he goes everywhere. I have not trained an adult, do you have any suggestions on how I would house train him. Thanks.

[aljones]

I'm sure more experienced folks will weigh in--and I'll learn from their responses, too--but my first instinct would be to approach house training with this adult dog much as you would with a puppy. It sounds like he's pretty much been left to fend for himself, so I'd start with getting him on a regular schedule for meals. Then I'd make sure he had frequent trips outside to relieve himself. I don't know if you're open to crate training, but crating him when you can't watch him could also reduce his opportunities to have accidents in the house. I have also known people who have had success tethering adult, unhousebroken dogs to them during the training/transitional period.

 

Your post makes me feel very fortunate that Johnson, who had lived his whole life as an outdoor farm dog and came to us as a senior, basically housetrained himself. However Spirit, who was about the age of your new acquisition when he joined our household, also had several health problems that complicated his housetraining. It turned out that a structured schedule and careful supervision were the keys to success with him.

 

Good luck, and thanks for considering rehabilitating this poor, neglected guy.

[juliepoudrier]

This training section is for "those engaged in training their border collies for livestock operations and ISDS-style trials," that is, for actual stockwork training questions. You will get more replies to general questions such as this one if you post them in the "General" discussion section. Once Eileen notices the post here, I'm sure she'll move it to the appropriate section for you.

 

J.

[nancy in AZ]

My aussie, Boo, was raised in similar conditions, I suspect. He was about four when I found him and didn't know how to walk on a leash, wasn't house trained and knew no commands. He was not allowed out of my sight whenever in the house, so I could monitor him to prevent accidents. I frequently caught him in mid leg-lift. I crated him over night and gave him lots and lots of opportunities to go potty on the leash during our walks, went along with him when outside in the yard and would occasionally tie him to me or somewhere in front of me while relaxing in the house so I could monitor him. When he did go outside, I praised and treated. I always used the same language so I could cue his potty behavior. That is, while he would potty I'd say "go potty" so he'd make the connection between the words and the action, and then treat him and praise him effusively. It took about 3 weeks for me to housebreak him reliably (he was un-neutered when I found him as well).