Calling on experienced dog parents

Parent Cafe
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<p>Saying a dog is stubborn is not productive. It’s kind of like saying a kid with dyslexia is stupid or lazy. </p>

<p>Beagles were originally bred to hunt in a large pack with other beagles and were kept in kennels in those large packs. They were not house dogs. Intelligence about where and when to poop/pee was not part of their breeding. They can be taught, just like (almost) every other dog, but it takes patience. My guess would be one to two weeks of constant vigilance followed by months of keeping an eye out.</p>

<p>First, principle 1 of dog training: what gets rewarded gets repeated. Beagles are extremely food motivated, so I’d start by using the dog’s breakfast to reward any and all behavior that you like. Put his kibble in a plastic bag and put it in your pocket. Take the dog for a walk first thing in the morning. Reward him for peeing and or pooping appropriately by giving him some of his breakfast. </p>

<p>Second, keep the dog where you can keep an eye on him at all times. Tethered to your waist or your desk is a good start. I realize you don’t want to do this, but it really is the easiest way to housetrain. I use it with my poodles–who are very smart about house-training–just because it makes it so easy, because you don’t miss an opportunity to intervene or reward. Set an alarm for every hour and take him for a short walk (5 minutes) every hour. If he pees or poops, reward with a bit of free play–throw a ball or play tug, whatever he enjoys, or some kibble. If he doesn’t, back to being boring. </p>

<p>Third and most important is INTERVENTION. You MUST keep the dog from peeing or pooping in inappropriate places while you’re training him. If you see him start to lift a leg or “assume the position”, grab him and RUN to the spot where you want him to pee/poop. When he pees/poops there, reward! Punishing the dog will NOT help; it will just make him afraid of you.</p>

<p>I use the cue “hurry up!” with my dogs to tell them that this is their chance to pee (I don’t have a cue for pooping, don’t need one, since they only poop once a day and times are predictable). I say it as they start peeing, and after a while they get the idea. I also use the philosophy “empty dogs get to play”–I am incredibly boring from the moment I put on the leash until they’ve peed; after they’ve peed, we play games, go for a walk/run, etc. </p>

<p>There’s a lot of great advice in this thread. I think it’s a good idea to experiment with mealtimes. I hope your vet has checked for a urinary tract infection.</p>

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<p>I don’t have any good advice for you as your particular situation is much different from ours. But I want to offer encouragement and hope. I think it can be done. Our story is that a year ago my teen S returned from a trip to visit extended family with a 9 lb. year-old dachshund/terrier mix who had wandered into their neighborhood and whose owner could not be located by posting signs and news ads, no microchip. Dog was not spayed, still had dewclaws etc. The big revelation to me was that dog was not house-trained in ANY way. She seemed to have no awareness of her bodily functions, and peed/pooped as often as a young puppy- 5x a day pooping! I don’t know a thing about her prior life, but her first 2 weeks with us were 24/7 walking the neighborhood. Thank goodness it was August, not January. We don’t crate our dogs, so as I said, I’m no help there. I kept her in the same room with me when I was home, though didn’t tether, just watched out of corner of my eye. Tethering would have been better, I’m sure. Baby-gated a linoleum floored room for her with pee-inoculated newspaper over plastic in one corner at night and when I had to leave her. But mostly just walked her constantly, giving treats and lavish praise every time she eliminated. Managed to catch her in the act a couple of times in the house, which was the most valuable thing. If you find it even a minute after the act the impact is not the same as if you can stop them and rush outside midstream. Dry food only and no water late in the evening. Rushed outside with her the second I heard her up in the morning. She got to pee before me. It took several weeks and at first I was not optimistic that she would learn, but she has. Also, her frequency is down. Poops 3x a day and can hold pee for many hours when we are gone (I pull her water.) In the past few months there have been only a couple of accidents and were my fault for against my better judgement mixing too much melted fat/water into food to make it appetizing and not walking her enough in the couple of hours afterwards. She is not locked up at night anymore. Unfortunately she is in the habit of demanding to go out at 4 am, but I figure it’s better than scrubbing the carpet. Still haven’t managed to train her to ring the bell by the front door that our other dog uses to notify us that it’s time to go out. But overall, a success. And she is the dearest sweetest dog. So happy we were able to keep her. </p>

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<p>Another advocate of tethering here. I have two dogs adopted from the pound as older puppies (“teenagers” in dog years). I had a tough time training dog #1 but had dog #2 housebroken in a day. He was leashed to me that whole day, but he got the message very clearly the 2nd time he tried to lift his leg indoors. Though I do have to say he is probably the smartest dog I have ever owned-- so probably it would take most other dogs longer. But it is still a process where you are talking days, not weeks. The point is that you catch them before they go, immediately take them outside, and reward. </p>

<p>However – I didn’t know that technique with dog #1 and had a very tough time with her, until I installed a pet door for the back yards. She just could never get the concept of ringing a bell or signaling me when she had to go outdoors – but once she had the ability to let herself in and out, I never had another problem. The pet flap was already in place when I got dog #2 and we trained him on using that before anything else. That literally was the fist “lesson” after coming home from the pound. So I don’t know whether that played into the ease of house training. Plus, of course, dog #1 was already there to model. </p>

<p>My dog are terrier mixes - terriers are stubborn in their own way, but it still could be a different matter training a beagle. My main point is not to be afraid of giving the tether approach a try. It’s not really difficult because dogs don’t really mind being tethered to their owner - they’ll cuddle up and sleep if you are sitting in a chair – so it doesn’t really get too much in the way of a household routine. Plus it give you an opportunity to intercept the dog before other bad habits are established. </p>

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<p>I meant to type 8 <em>week</em> old puppy earlier. 8-| </p>

<p>I agree with those who advocate walking to encourage pooping. Many dogs basically won’t poop unless they get at least a bit of a walk to get things moving.</p>

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<p>The article that walkinghome cites is pertinent to our situation. It is unusual… our dog came from a good breeder. He was initially going to be kept by the breeder for breeding, but it ended up that his lower teeth are just very slightly crooked - just enough that they didn’t want to keep him for breeding. Of course, they didn’t know these teeth would be crooked until they came in, so they didn’t put him up for sale until he was ten months old. When we got him, we were warned not to let him sleep on our bed (which we hadn’t planned on doing anyway). After a few weeks, we knew why - he was one of those dogs who would pee in his crate and occasionally inside on something soft if we were not diligent. We worked with him quite a bit and he improved, but we never got to a point where he wouldn’t pee in his crate. We worked with a dog behavioralist, and he eventually told us we couldn’t have any sort of bedding in his crate because it was like the diaper effect - it would absorb any urine. Once we removed any sort of bedding, he has never once peed in the crate. It has been many months, and as much as I’d like to add bedding back, I’d be afraid he’d return to old habits. So his crate has nothing in it, but it’s what keeps him from peeing in there. </p>

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<p>Thank you! Lots of information here and good advice. Interesting about the tethering. I thought it was insane but it seems something people do. I had her vet checked within the week she came home and she’s ok and no urinary tract infection. Reading through the paperwork from her previous owners, this was a problem with them as well. </p>

<p>I think I might experiment with the bedding. She has a bed in our family room that she enjoys and never soils so maybe I will see if that works in the crate overnight. I am also going to see if we can work with the feeding schedule. I can easily tether her to me when I work as she often sits at my feet. However, when I am about the house, that will be more difficult. I like the being boring advice. She does hate that as she always wants to play. She sure is a full time project and I wish I had more time for this so I guess it is going to be a long road. We thought about getting a trainer but I am afraid, this is something that needs to be done in the home and how would we know she needs to poop. She is always sniffing the floor. I don’t notice a pattern in her pooping. Last two nights, we fed her early got her pooping outside and she still did stuff overnight.</p>

<p>Cpt, sorry for your loss. It takes a while and it’s hard when you go out and see people with their dogs. I have been through several and I thought we would not get anymore dogs but here we go again. </p>

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<p>How’s it going, Lia?</p>

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<p>Also tethered my puppy and intervened every time she started to let loose. I remember having her tethered to me while I did dishes and she would curl up on top of my feet to sleep. If she did have an accident in the house before I could intervene, I brought her out immediately after so that she could make the connection between eliminating and the outdoors. I also had a cue phrase that I used and used rewards. I agree with Consolation that you should treat this dog as if it’s a puppy being housebroken for the first time.</p>

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<p>We have only trained two puppies in our home, so I can’t speak from experience as to the special needs of older and/or rescue dogs, but I would concur with posters who say that you have to be with the dog you are house training every single minute, take him out often (for our most recent puppy, it was every twenty minutes), and reward him with a treat when he does his business outdoors. It is also good to have a cue word–we say “Let’s go do your business,” or something similar when we go out the door. If an accident is in the process of occurring, yes, intervene (with plenty of noise), and get him outside as soon as possible. With all that in mind, it sounds like the tethering would be the right way to go. It is exhausting, but worth the effort, and will make the rest of the relationship with your dog so much more enjoyable.</p>

<p>Cpt, I am sorry for your loss. We lost our beloved 15 year old Sheltie in January. I still get misty thinking about her. We were afraid it might be too soon, but we found we needed another dog to love, so we acquired aSheltie puppy in March. He is a handful, but we love him like crazy already.</p>

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<p>Actually, I found tethering less “exhausting” than the alternative - which meant never knowing when and where the dog would leave a deposit. One problem with the scold-after-the-act approach is that the dog’s takeaway message becomes - “make sure mom’s not around when I pee” and “best to poop in a place where no one can see me.” Crating wasn’t a good option for me because both my dogs hate being crated – so they whine and yowl whenever they are confined… which was a lot more annoying to me than simply having a leash tied to my belt loop. </p>

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<p>dmd77, thank you for asking. We had some progress and then some setbacks. I had to travel for work last week and DH and DD had trouble keeping up the rules. He got stuck late at work and DD had to work an extra day. So back to the drawing board. it looks like the crating is not working as she soils herself. Therefore we are putting a gate in the laundry room and she seems to do a little better. She is actually getting better at going outside when I tell her outside. It is just the overnight and long hours alone, which needs a lot more work.</p>