Housebreaking

B

Bella/Izzie

Forums Regular
Hi I am new to this so bear with me. I had a sheltie for 15 yrs and she was the best so after five years I decided to get another.
I have two big dogs so my intention was to get a black and white one. When I went to see Bella, her sister and her were the last of the litter and at 5 months had grown very close.So I had to get them both, I assumed since they were five months that they were close to being housebroken and abit trained. WRONG:no:
We bought them home to find out that they couldnt hold it the night so we started treating them like new puppies. We finally have them crate trained and they can hold it 8 hours at night and when Im at work.:smile2:
So my problem it that I cant get them house broken. Ive tried the bells,treats everything
Firstly they are afraid of the stairs they will go up but not down so we carrying them out and they are afraid of the deck so we have to place them on the grass. They whine to go out in the morning from their crate but if we r not watching them they will go right in front of us.
How do I get them passed the stairs thing at 6 months they should be physically able to go up and down the stairs.
Also the breeder did no socializing and they were afraid of us for three weeks so it hard for us to catch them in the act becuase they run away all the time.
So we confine them alot to the kennel and let them outside to play only whe they have gone potty.
What im I doing wrong:confused2:My other sheltie was house trained in a week
 
Hi Bella/Izzie and welcome

Stairs are a tricky thing for many dogs, esp going down. Given they are going up the stairs but not down they are probably still learning how to negotiate them. With the position of a dog's eyes at the side, the way they percieve things dogs do not have good central vision - and of course add the long sheltie nose can also block their central view. this means going down stairs can be a little tricky and therefore scary. I put a ramp (just a long plank) on my back stairs for my dogs to get up and down as pups. I have left it there because they prefer the ramp to the stairs, but it did take them a while to work the stairs out. My male preferred to jump off the back porch than try to negotiate the stairs.

If you cant put in a ramp then try teaching them stairs with a smaller set of steps. So start getting them to go up and down one step (even if its the step out the front door or the kerb), then two and so on. Trying to negotiate a full set of stairs at once might be too difficult.

They may also be going through their second fear period, which can make difficult situations even scarier. In these cases it is better not to push them.

To work on them running away (which is a typical thing for a pup to do) teach them that running to you is great fun. One way to do this is to run away from your pup so they chase you.

House training can be difficult. My current male took almost 6wks wheras my female worked it out within a week. I never had success with bells. My female will scratch at the dog door to go out.
 
The house training is a matter of persistance. Restrict their area with puppy/baby gates. How often are you taking them out to go potty? Until you get them house broken, up the trips out to at least once every two hours.

Be sure to do a thorough cleaning as well. Use a product designed to break down urine and poo. If you leave any trace it's like a big neon sign saying 'you can poo/pee here!!'
 
I take them out every hour or so but they seem to not know when they need to go and they just sqat and go even if it hasnt been an hour. The frustrating thing is that I know they can hold it longer so I dont know why they go. I am trying to get them to understand that the house is off limits and I dont know how to do that without cathing them in the act so far its just kennel, go out,play for 15 mins and back in the kennel.
Dont know what else to do:confused2:
 
Hi welcome to the forum.

With the stairs you can do something called backchaining. Put the pups on the first step on the bottom and stand at the bottom with a high value treat don't say anything at all, when they come down , treat and praise quietly. You'll want to put a leash on so they don't go up the stairs. When they are going down 1 step then put them on the 2 nd step then 3rd etc. They should get the hang of it quickly.

For catching them in the house try a long line, a handleless leash abotut 15 fts long that way you can catch them with getting too close, just stomp on the line and reel them gentlely in. You might try tethering them to you in the house so they can get used to being out of the kennels but under control.

Also if you can start taking them out seperately and doing things with them separately. Dependence on each other will not help them bond to you. They need one on one time.

You are most likely doing nothing wrong.:smile2: Dogs who are not started in housetraining until they are as old as yours are more difficult.:( Pet peeve of mine are breeders who don't socialize or train their pups and then leave it to the poor person that buys them to clean up the mess they caused.:mad: With work hopefully they will over come it but it won't be easy.
 
Bella/Izzie said:
I take them out every hour or so but they seem to not know when they need to go and they just sqat and go even if it hasnt been an hour. The frustrating thing is that I know they can hold it longer so I dont know why they go. I am trying to get them to understand that the house is off limits and I dont know how to do that without cathing them in the act so far its just kennel, go out,play for 15 mins and back in the kennel.
Dont know what else to do:confused2:
Click to expand...

Hang in there and don't get frustrated!! It sounds like you are doing what you can, you just need to give them time to learn. Be consistant. Be patient and in the end, don't blame yourself :smile2:
 
Justicemom said:
Hi welcome to the forum.

With the stairs you can do something called backchaining. Put the pups on the first step on the bottom and stand at the bottom with a high value treat don't say anything at all, when they come down , treat and praise quietly. You'll want to put a leash on so they don't go up the stairs. When they are going down 1 step then put them on the 2 nd step then 3rd etc. They should get the hang of it quickly.

For catching them in the house try a long line, a handleless leash abotut 15 fts long that way you can catch them with getting too close, just stomp on the line and reel them gentlely in. You might try tethering them to you in the house so they can get used to being out of the kennels but under control.

Also if you can start taking them out seperately and doing things with them separately. Dependence on each other will not help them bond to you. They need one on one time.

You are most likely doing nothing wrong.:smile2: Dogs who are not started in housetraining until they are as old as yours are more difficult.:( Pet peeve of mine are breeders who don't socialize or train their pups and then leave it to the poor person that buys them to clean up the mess they caused.:mad: With work hopefully they will over come it but it won't be easy.
Click to expand...

Dr Shelli makes excellent points in her response. We have 2, 6 mo brothers. Some people will tell you it is a real no-no to try and raise 2 siblings at the same time. There are, and will be issues. The one-on-one time is critical in my eyes. If one doesn't want to go down the stairs the other one won't go down the stairs. Our's ring bells to go out. Much to the credit of my wife, she rings the bell religously when she takes them out to do their thing. It took about 3 weeks for them to learn this. When outside we always tell them "good pee or pooh", they know what it means. Repetition is so important. We did let our boys sleep with us. At 10 weeks they would go all night without issues. We kicked them out of our bed a month ago, or so (a queen sized bed wasn't big enough for all of us) and it went very smoothly. I think at the age your boys are at they have a certain sense of independance which will work against, or perhaps for you. We split our boys up allthe time. My wife takes one and I take the other and we go in opposite directions. She goes upstairs, or to a different area of the dog park. You need to get them to bond to you and not each other because they will never listen to you if you don't. It is when you are alone with one that you will bond with them. If you have a friend who is willing to take one for a day or a weekend can help too. Since you have had a sheltie before you know they are an amazing breed and I hope for the best for you. I'm new to sheltienation, but it seems as though there are a whole bunch of people willing to help here, and we are all connected by our love of the breed.
 
OMG:smile2:
I am sooo touch by all the responses thank you so much. I have four dogs so I am working on taking them out separately.
I have tried going upstairs and leaving one in the kennel while I have one on one with the other one, sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt
For example sometomes they listen with me alone and sometimes they dont.
Thanks for the advice on separating them for a day I never thought about that.
I think I will take one to day care and keep the other and see if that helps and then switch it.
We are walking them outside on a leash and it is helping on the stairs situation alot so I am very please with them and yesterday they seemed to be peeing on command but maybe its just me:razz:
They also sat for a treat I was very proud.:smile2:
 
Welcome, welcome :yes: :yes:..

I think I am the ONLY Sheltie owner here whose dog took a LONG time to potty train. When everyone else's were trained by 3-6 months etc, NOPE, not my Megan :(. She is a year old and we can just NOW leave her unattended in the house for a few hours and her not pee or poop.

Persistence, patience, a schedule is what pays off!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top