Potty Training Nightmare!

[Princey009]

Our 5 month old GSD refuses to potty train. We've crate trained her, disciplined her, rationed her food and water, kept an eye on her, and nothing changes. She is outside A LOT! We would take her out and she would spot pee(mark) and come back inside and completely empty. When she does potty inside and I catch her, I will throw a fit as to deter her from continuing what she is doing. That does not change her mind about it. We figured moving to a new home would stop it because her "smell" wasn't in this house compared to our last. She made it 4 days without going in the house. 4 days! Now she is back to going everywhere inside. I'm at wits end. I do not want to get rid of her, I do not want her to be strictly outside, but something has to give. I've tried just about everything. I feed and water her outside, leave her outside for an hour or 2 and will bring her in, then she pees. This started 4 days after moving in. If it doesn't stop soon, she has to go. She is outside more and more each day but I would like her to be more inside with us and kids.

Any advice would be great!


Please help.

[breyer08]

I'd start all over. Take her outside on a leash only. Do not let her outside loose by herself, because you won't be able to know if she has gone to the bathroom or not. Every few hours, take her outside on a leash and tell her "go potty". Be sure to take some treats with you. When she does go, immediately tell her "good potty!!" and give her a treat and lots of affection, then take her back inside. Do not let her alone in the house or out of your sight while she is potty training. By letting her run around unwatched, you will end up missing some of her signs that she needs to go to the bathroom. If you keep a very strict routine and watch her like this, it shouldn't take her long to catch on.

[paulag1955]

Originally Posted by breyer08

I'd start all over. Take her outside on a leash only. Do not let her outside loose by herself, because you won't be able to know if she has gone to the bathroom or not. Every few hours, take her outside on a leash and tell her "go potty". Be sure to take some treats with you. When she does go, immediately tell her "good potty!!" and give her a treat and lots of affection, then take her back inside. Do not let her alone in the house or out of your sight while she is potty training. By letting her run around unwatched, you will end up missing some of her signs that she needs to go to the bathroom. If you keep a very strict routine and watch her like this, it shouldn't take her long to catch on.

This.

Also, has she been vet checked? Are you using an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle to clean up the accident sites?

[wyoung2153]

Agree with what's already been said.. basically what you are saying is that she doesn't go potty in her crate right? That's where I would keep her if she didn't go potty outside or you can't watch her. Take her out.. on a lead like stated and treats and all that.. if she still doesn't go, immediately put her in her crate for about 10 minutes, and try again. once she has gone potty, you can let her off the lead and play or whatever outside and bring her inside and do what you have to do to never let her out of your sight; if that means tying her to you.. the so be it. I would say give that about 2-3 weeks for it to take effect. But you have to be on a strict routine so she knows exactly when she is going outside.

I understand your frustration but I think that should really help and I hope you don't have to rehome her for not potty training. How long have you had her?

[Princey009]

She does not go in the same spot when she pees. We do keep an eye on her. This morning she came up beside me in the kitchen while I was cooking and out of nowhere, squats. I had my eye on the food so I didn't catch it. She is never un supervised. I cannot keep watch on her 24/7 and she is always beside me. ( I also have a 1 year old daughter and 3 year old son.

Anywho, she has been checked with vet, all shots, poo tests, pee tests, groomed regularly, etc. So Idk..

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

She needs to go to a second vet. Let me go see if I can find the good link...

Prevously normal vulva now showing signs of skin folding...is this unusual?
Blue22

A Sweet Little Rescue Girl (GSD-Huskyish)

Okay - not sure if those will help...first has a good article on all sorts of things that can be wrong with the dogs, especially the girls.

Second one is a good example of needing second (and third and fourth) opinions. Vet 1 thought regular incontinence after a spay (like a spay that had happened 1 day prior...zoiks), Vet 2 thought kidney failure and recommended putting her down, Vet 3 was just an email consultation and she came up with 2 good possibilities and when Vet 4 was able to see her in person immediately he knew what was wrong. But the dog was almost PTS for no reason...which obviously is not the case here, but shows that sometimes if things seem off, you have to keep going.

Some dogs - especially ones from pet stores/puppy mills are REALLY hard to house train. Where is she from?

Sometimes the UTI doesn't show up without a culture - not sure if they did a clean bladder tap or you brought a sample in, and sometimes things can be missed...if the sample is mishandled, too old, etc.

And welcome to the board!

[LaneyB]

If you leave her outside for an hour or two then you don't actually see her go? I would follow the advice others have given, and keep her in the crate more. Take her out and stay with her until she goes, then make a big deal and give treats. After she goes then she can have some supervised time in the house out of the crate.

I also don't scold for accidents in the house. If I saw our puppy getting ready to go, or actually starting to go then I would say "NO!" and grab him and take him outside, then really praise him once he went outside. I have read if you throw too big of a fit they might not understand why, and might be afraid to go in front of you (even outside).

[Princey009]

We have had her since she was 8 weeks. We have done everything imaginable to potty train. Crate, taking her out every 15 min, leaving her outside, disciplining, praising, etc. She WILL NOT pee in her crate. She did not pee in our house for 4 days, then it happened again and now it's been 2 days in a row. Once per day, once on first floor, once on 2nd floor.

[wyoung2153]

IDoes it seem more frequent? When she "marks" does she usually do a lot or just a tiny bit? My girl was about 4 months and she was peeing in the house a lot too.. and when she would go outside she would, what I thought, "mark" and when I took her to the vet they said she didn't have a UTI but gave her meds anyway because the symptoms all pointed that direction. After she finished her meds I was able to potty train her pretty easily.

[Princey009]

Originally Posted by wyoung2153

IDoes it seem more frequent? When she "marks" does she usually do a lot or just a tiny bit? My girl was about 4 months and she was peeing in the house a lot too.. and when she would go outside she would, what I thought, "mark" and when I took her to the vet they said she didn't have a UTI but gave her meds anyway because the symptoms all pointed that direction. After she finished her meds I was able to potty train her pretty easily.

I can call our vet and get the meds to be on the safe side..