Re-routing house breaking to outdoors

[HollynLA 1]

My Rudy is now a whole 7 months old and as beautiful and loving as can be. However, we just haven't had much luck with the potty training. I was trying to train Rudy to use the puppy pad in the ugodog. After all this time, he will very seldomly use it. I did notice that Rudy always goes in the grass the minute he comes outside though so I think this is the way we need to go with getting him completely house broken. Maybe he learned from our other dog (a jack russell terrier) to do it this way. So anyway, I want to make sure I am doing this correctly so he knows this is how we want him to do this from now on. I will bring a treat with me outside and award him as soon as he goes, then take him directly back inside? (seems simple enough? right). Can I eventually expect him to alert me that he needs to go outside?

Has anyone else tried indoors and it didn't work? Rudy is my first indoor dog that I've had to house break so I'm fairly new to this.

Edited June 15, 2010 by HollynLA

[ShihTzuholic 0]

I am working on getting Gizmo to go outside too. He used puppy pads up to this point, and the past few weeks we have been making him go outside. I probably take him out every hour or two. He has been doing good, only having a few accidents. I am wondering the same thing about getting them to alert you. I am just consistent in taking him out in case he has to go. I can't tell if he goes every time or not. It would be nice if he would signal that he has to go instead of me taking him out all the time.

[FairyTail Josette 14]

I don't know know of anyone that has used the ugodog with success. My Shih Tzu and friend's dogs will use pee pads, but, not a ugodog. Re: ugodog, I'm not sure if it's the tray they're afraid to stand on or what.

To answer your question, yes, I tried to train Mandy, my Bichon indoors on litter and pee pads as a young puppy without success. It also took me six very long months to train her outdoors. But, I did it. You're starting off on the right foot. Consistency is key. Dogs thrive on routine. So, take Rudy out on a leash to the same spot in the grass and use the same command each time. Reward with a treat, as you've been doing. Since he's 7 mos old, he can hold it longer, but, I would take him out every hour. You're starting over from square one with him, now. If he doesn't go after 10 minutes, take him back inside. Either confine in a small area where you can constantly supervise him, or, keep him on a leash and have him trail you as you go about your duties around the house. Confine Rudy anytime your focus can't be on him until he's housetrained. Crates or x pens are best when nobody is home. Don't give him free run of the house before he's trained. Or, you can set him up for failure. After he eliminates outdoors, limited freedom of one room is acceptable, but, other areas of the home should be gated or closed off. After any accident, clean up is crucial. Or, Rudy may want to go back to the same spot. Use an enzymatic odor neutralizer. Follow the directions to a tee, or, on rainy or humid days odors can reappear. Also, you can start a log entry of time of day and whether Rudy urinated or defecated at each time. You will start to see a pattern on paper with your meal times, when he's going and not going. I would also take him in and out the same door if you have several entrances/exits. Eventually, and I mean several months down the road, he may go and stand at that door. Mine will go to the door and bark. (Some use a bell on their door for their dog to ring.) My dogs are all adults and potty trained, but, to this day, I still remind them and take them out every 3-4 hours. Hope this helps you a bit! :)

[GizmoHappyKitty 1]

Lucky is 4 mo old now and up til now he was using pee pads in between outside breaks. Over the weekend I started taking him out every 3 - 4 hours and he did not use his pee pad at all until this evening He will alert me that he has to go out by scratching on the front door when he has to poo, but hasn't started doing that yet for pee. Hopefully within the next few weeks he will be totally off of the pee pads. I do praise him a lot when he goes outside, no treat just lots of good boys and rubs he's not very food motivated, so treats aren't a big deal to him.

Michele and the pups

[Dakotah's momma 0]

Dakotah started out being paper trained and still is but he wanted to go outside with the big dogs meaning the dogs at the dog park actually help train him to go outside. We are now working on him doing the bells to let us know but he does bark to say out. He has been pretty easy so far. Hope it continues.

Good luck.

[Cwag 0]

We have a doggy doorbell that they ring when they want outside. They also like to alert me this way if they run out of water or just want a walk LOL. It's actually been very effective. When we starting using it we would say potty and ring the bell and after a few days they caught on.

http://poochie-pets.net/

[tzuhouse 4]

We have never trained for INside, always outside. We use the poochie bells too, and every time we would go outside, I would say, wanna go outside and I would pat the bells with their paw....they catch on VERY quickly.....after I had done this awhile, then I would say...wanna go outside? ring the bell....and then pat the bell with the paw....soon they start patting it themselves and all of a sudden they go and do it without you even being near....just know, they will go through periods where they are TOTALLY obnoxious with the bell thing too..LOL

[Carolina Girl 2]

Mine unfortunately don't tell me when they need to go out and potty. I have ask them "do you need to potty". They usually run to the door. The bell thing sounds great! Just don't know if mine would really get it. Hmmmm.....

[HollynLA 1]

Thanks so much. I might consider trying the bell. Can you believe it is our very first day of "outdoor" training and Rudy hasn't peed inside one time. He has gone everytime I've taken him outside............ but he did poop in the house this morning. Oh well, still a great first day.

ETA: He pooped outside this evening after he ate!

Edited June 15, 2010 by HollynLA