Trainning Question.

[tami97]

Shasta is housebroken and she paws at the back door when she wants to go out. Lately she has been pawing the back door like she wants to go out but as soon as I get up she moves away from the door. And not a little she will go across the room. Then when I sit back down she does it again. Should I keep getting up? I dont want her to have an accident in the house because I did not get up and let her out? Im thinking she just wants me up from what I doing to pay attention. I dont want to reward that if that is her way of pushing attention. Any suggestions?

[Emoore]

How old is she and how good is her housebreaking?

If she's a younger dog who was recently housebroken and she occasionally has an accident, I'd put a leash on her, take her out, and stand in one spot so she begins to understand that she's supposed to paw at the door when she needs to potty, not when she's bored.

If she's an older pup or adult whose housebreaking is solid, let her hold it until you're ready to let her out. If she's been out in the last hour or two, she probably doesn't need to go again.

[sharkey19]

Originally Posted by Emoore

How old is she and how good is her housebreaking?

If she's a younger dog who was recently housebroken and she occasionally has an accident, I'd put a leash on her, take her out, and stand in one spot so she begins to understand that she's supposed to paw at the door when she needs to potty, not when she's bored.

If she's an older pup or adult whose housebreaking is solid, let her hold it until you're ready to let her out. If she's been out in the last hour or two, she probably doesn't need to go again.

^Totally agree. You probably have an idea by now of when she actually needs to pee, so I would ignore the behaviour.

[tami97]

She is solidly housebroken. She is 8months now. It really starting to get on my nerves. I think I will start to ignore it. She will do it several times a day.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Agreed here too. I would also not allow her to decide not to go outside if she's asked to and you've gotten up to let her out - out she goes, whether she's changed her mind or not!

For awhile Halo would ask to go out and then come right back in, and then she wanted to go out again. And come in again. And so on and so on. Well, "outside" is through the garage to the dog run along the side of the house, and guess what else is in the garage? The cabinet where we keep the bully sticks! She didn't want to go outside, she wanted to go sniff the cabinet and beg for a chewy. So when she tried playing that little game I stopped letting her come back in with me or even leaving her out there to scratch, scratch, scratch at the back door to be let in, I closed her in the garage pen and left her there to stew for awhile. When she realized that if she asked to go out, she was going out, and she was coming in when I was darned well ready to let her in, that stopped.

Sometimes the dogs would bump the bells at the back door when they wanted to go out and bark at a dog walking past the house or a squirrel in the yard, so if I KNEW they didn't need a potty trip I'd just tell them "no, you don't need to go out" and then ignore them if they persisted.

[tami97]

Thanks, I will ignore her now. She does that too. She'll go out and then ask to come right back in, get something to drink and go right back out. Even though she has water outside too.

[Emoore]

Just imagine how good our dogs would be if we practiced their training as frequently as they practice ours!

[doggiedad]

give her the attention that she maybe asking for.

Originally Posted by tami97

Shasta is housebroken and she paws at the back door when she wants to go out. Lately she has been pawing the back door like she wants to go out but as soon as I get up she moves away from the door. And not a little she will go across the room. Then when I sit back down she does it again. Should I keep getting up? I dont want her to have an accident in the house because I did not get up and let her out? Im thinking she just wants me up from what I doing to pay attention. I dont want to reward that if that is her way of pushing attention. Any suggestions?

[tami97]

Yeah. She has me trained very well. She gets alot of attention. Sometimes I think to much, that Im spoiling her. Or at least my hubby thinks so. lol