[cshirley]

Ok, the situation is that I have a puggle who is now completely housetrained. I am working with our 9.5 week old female GSD and I am about to lose my mind. They are both caged at night and when I let the puggle out to go potty, I have to put her on her chain/cable and let her out at the front door (we live in town with no fence). Well when we first got Lexie our GSD, she was doing pretty well and would go potty outside when we let our puggle Lyla out. Now, especially in the mornings, when I let her out, I cannot get her out of the door before she pees on the floor. I have tried letting her out first and she will stand outside of Lyla's cage, letting them out together and she will pee when I am hooking Lyla up, letting Lyla outside first like this morning and lexie took off roaming around the house looking for her, ignoring me at the front door trying to get her to come out. At this point if I was to look at her wrong she pees. So then she took off in the bedroom and dumped what looked to be a half gallon of urine on the floor.

Even after peeing all that much, she just pee'd again not 10 min. later and pooped. She will do this all the time during the day when I let her outside she will pee and then come inside and pee not 10 min later in a small amount and if I don't sit outside with her she won't poop out there either. Is this normal for a GSD puppy? She is peeing more often than our puggle did as a puppy. I figured being our puggle's adult size, she would be able to hold it as long as our puggle.

Also, I have always left food and water down. Should I only feed her at times and if so, how often and when because if I do put it up, when I put it back down, she will eat and drink like a horse which I know is bad for them.

I need help, I am in the process of remodeling and I am about to go crazy. I have never seen a dog go this much in my life and so frequently.

Thanks

 

[Sashmom]

9.5 wks is awfully young to expect her to be fully trained.
Just keep taking her out, praise her when she goes, if you see her starting to squat in the house grab her and get out the door, I did this with Sash when he was 12 wks old and he had shocked look on his face but 3 days later, he was trained lol I too at the time had no fence, I had to put his leash on and take him out ALOT but GSD's are smart, they catch on fast.
12 wks old, I would say you could expect her to be totally trained
Mine is 8 now and gets very pushy when he has to go out, he will NOT go in the house to this day.
Good luck!

 

[shepherdbydesign]

I've had a hard time potty training our 2 female GSD's too, What I found was that a pup can only hold it for a short time. until they got older I stopped giving water before they went to their crate for the evening and I gave them food at the same time every day and didn't leave food out for them to during the day, cause some pups will eat until its gone and then of coarse what goes in has to come out. Some of our GSD's were real easy and others just drove me crazy. It sometimes takes a lot of patience and persistance. keep you GSD on a regular schedule and soon she will get the idea

 

[EJQ]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

Wow you're expectations are a bit high to say the least! This is a 9.5-week-old baby that in my opinion should still be with her mother & siblings (but that is another subject)!

Suck it up, put her on a leash, and walk her outside to an area that you would like to her to go and give her a verbal cue like "potty" or "let's go potty" and wait. When she finally goes, give her a food and verbal reward. You will have to do this many times during the day because baby bladders do not have much holding power.
Also hang some sort of a bell on the front door knob. Every time you go to take her out, get her to touch it with her nose (hold a food treat next to the bell so she will have to touch the bell as she goes for the treat). Eventually she will realize that if she has to potty, you will let her out when ever she rings the bell.

Please remember that this is a baby; all puppies are different and all puppies need repetition and patience.

Good luck!

 

[Cashs Cowgirl]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

Originally Posted By: EJQWow you're expectations are a bit high to say the least! This is a 9.5-week-old baby that in my opinion should still be with her mother & siblings (but that is another subject)!

Suck it up, put her on a leash, and walk her outside to an area that you would like to her to go and give her a verbal cue like "potty" or "let's go potty" and wait. When she finally goes, give her a food and verbal reward. You will have to do this many times during the day because baby bladders do not have much holding power.
Also hang some sort of a bell on the front door knob. Every time you go to take her out, get her to touch it with her nose (hold a food treat next to the bell so she will have to touch the bell as she goes for the treat). Eventually she will realize that if she has to potty, you will let her out when ever she rings the bell.

Please remember that this is a baby; all puppies are different and all puppies need repetition and patience.

Good luck!

We did the bell thing for one of our dogs that just wouldn't whine to go out. He just never did, but he liked ringing that bell to go out. 9.5 wks is too young to even think about having her fully potty trained or even remotely...just keep taking her out and withhold water and food after 8 or 9 pm depending on your schedule for bed. Then scoop her up and take her out first thing (although you may have to take her out once or twice at night. I know we had to for a few weeks atleast).

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

She's just confused, and if a puppy is confused and then thinks it's in trouble (and in your house) it's a submissive thing to pee. Even if they just did.

Think you need to just take a deep breath, realize all our pups get house broken at a different rate (I got my Bretta at 12 weeks and let me tell you, she wasn't housebroken) so we have to be patient and TEACH the pup we have.

Having 2 puppies is already really setting yourself up for a hard time. Many of us only have one at a time and most breeders will REFUSE to sell us a puppy if we already have one. Just sets us up for a much harder time with more anger/frustration and being on our last nerve. So realize that it really IS harder for you, you aren't just being sensitive.

Also, management is key with this. NOT yelling and corrections (not saying you are yelling, just saying that's not going to work to 'teach'). First of all, my pups aren't free to escape, run thru the house and then pee when it's too late for me to do anything but cleanup.

My pups go from my crate and INTO MY ARMS so I carry them outside to pee if I think they aren't reliable to make the long walk to the door. This sets them up to SUCEED rather than fail by accidentally squatting before they make it outdoors. I've never had one pee in my arms! So I pick them up out of the crate (calmly, no excitement peeing) and walk to the door and outside.

Additionally, I have to stay outside with her 100% of the time until the peeing/pooping takes place. Cause when it's done outdoors I need to be their IMMEDIATELY for the 'puppy party' and reward. Timing is everything to have our pups learn fast. So the party starts when they start to squat and pee (quiet party if you need to have them keep going LOL). So they know it's this we want. If you party when they are DONE it's not as clear what you are so happy about.

I'd also be doing way more walking with the pups for the poop/pee adventures. On leash walking the yard or the neighborhood. And taking them on long car rides with walks to poo/pee.

Using babygates and closed doors will assure the pups are ONLY in the same room you are in so you are monitoring for the housebreaking. If my pup is in another room and poo/pees, I need to smack myself upsidethe head. That is MY fault not the puppy's.

What I do to make clean up much easier (and so much less frustration and anger on my part) is I went to Home Depot and purchased a massive brown WATERPROOF tarp that I place on the floor in the room I spend the majority of time in (and so do the pups). That way if I did make a mistake in the housebreaking (notice it is ME making the mistake, not the puppy) and miss a puddle/pile. It's so easy to clean up and nothing is destroyed.

Good luck.

 

[grmnshpd21]

Are you letting her out throughout the night or is she holding it thru the night and then peeing on the floor when you are about to take her out in the morning? If she hasn't gone out all night I would say that is too long and she just can't hold it until she gets outside. If your puggle is housebroken then I would say take Lexie out first before hooking Lyla up. I mean as soon as you open Lexie's crate door, hook her up to her leash and bring her outside with you. As a previous poster said, go out with her and give her a potty command and praise, praise, praise when she goes potty. After Lexie's potties then hook up Lyla for her potty break. The key is to have Lexie on a leash in the house as soon as she gets out of the crate and immediately get her outside.

I also made sure that when my Molly was that young I restricted her water intake. I took her water up at around 7:30-8pm every night and she got no water until the morning. Plus she only ate twice a day. That way I knew when she was eating and knew when to take her potty after eating.

 

[StGeorgeK9]

Great suggestions Maggie,
I also carried my pup from the kennel to outside, her feet never hit the floor until she had been outside.

I only fed her 3X daily and then moved to 2x, that keeps a better potty schedule. After play-outside, after meal-outside, after water-outside, after nap-outside. The pup should never have the opportunity to make a mistake, it helps a lot. and like Maggie said, if my pup had an accident it was my fault, or my husbands etc...but not the pup.

Also, clean up all accident spots with either one of the good enzyme cleaners or follow with vinegar.

Good luck and hang in there, they will get it, but it takes time and patience, and sometimes a lot of paper towels too>

 

[cshirley]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. The reason that I was upset mainly is because the first week we had her, she did well but I had the time to go out and stand with her. Then as my week got busy with work I went back to just hooking her up to the chain with Lyla and letting her out. This works for Lyla but it didn't when she was young. I guess I have been expecting Lexie to learn much faster than Lyla. She already is a lot smarter than Lyla from every aspect even at 9.5 weeks and Lyla is almost 10 months. She has about learned what treat means and is responding to her name. I am going to have to make myself go back to square one with her.

Thanks,

Curtis

 

[cshirley]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

I am beginning to wonder if she has a bladder infection or something. She pees a little bit like every 5-10 min inside or out. I just let her out and she pee'd then she came back in and pee'd on the floor within 5 min. so instead of getting mad I just took her outside and stood with her where she pee'd again. I brought her in and within 5 min both dogs were at the door wanting to go out to play. She went out and pee'd again. So that is 4 times within 25 min. and not a lot either time.

Curtis

 

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Re: House Training - I think I'm about to go crazy

See if you can do a clean urine catch tomorrow morning and bring it in for the vet office to check. If they let you do it that way! I use a stainless pan on a stick and the first pee of the day. But you'll have to check with your vet office on their procedure in terms of needing an appt. etc.