# Housebreaking Help Needed!



## Salvarez85 (Jan 13, 2015)

Hi all! I need some help/advice on housebreaking my standard puppy.

Bowie will be 6 months old this month, and I adopted him when he was 4 months. Prior to coming to live with me he really wasn't being actively housebroken; they were using puppy pads. So in December I started housebreaking.

During the day while I'm at work, and at night while I'm asleep he's in his crate and does GREAT. No issues. For the past month or two while I'm home I keep him attached to a short leash and near me to prevent accidents (he had two after I got him in the split second he would disappear around a corner).

He's been doing so well that this week I took him off the leash to see if we've made progress. The first 2 days were good, but then on the third day while he's running around playing he just pops a squat and goes. No warning, no going to the door, nothing. And I take him out consistently after 2-3 hours when I'm home.

Does anyone have any advice? Does it just take longer to housebreak a poodle? I tried to train him with the bells on the door but he seems totally uninterested in that. Help!


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

I think if you house trained him from the beginning he would be pretty solid by 6 months. Since you only started around 4 months i think it will take some time.On one hand he can probably hold his bladder younger because of his age. However, it might take longer to break bad habits. I think you are on your way and it might take a little more time.
Zoe did not take to the bells either.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

It took about six weeks for me to train Jazz, who was almost five months old when I got her. Once she got it, she was rock-solid.

Blue, on the other hand, was just past nine weeks when we brought him home. He's now ten months old, and it's only been two or three weeks since his last accident. Several times I thought we were home free, gave him too much freedom too soon, and discovered I was wrong. Each time I stopped tethering him, I was watchful but not as diligent as I should have been, and he continued to make random mistakes, not daily but at intervals of several days. I tried to be cool, but the last two times it happened, I raised my voice (a lot, actually, more like shrieking), took him by the collar, and, scolding him the whole way, put him firmly outside. He hasn't peed inside since then, and a few times, he's gone to the door and stood looking out, which may or may not be an indication that he needs to go. In any event, I don't yet depend on him to tell me, just send him out every few hours.

I'd continue tethering your boy, either to you or close to you, give him a little freedom every two or three weeks, tether him for another few weeks if he makes a mistake, watch him like a hawk for several weeks after his last accident, and repeat the new puppy owner mantra: It will get better, it will get better, it will get better.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

My last 2 poodles were 1.5 and not house broken when I got them. I took about a 3 weeks for Bella and she goes outside, Cayenne, I originally trained her for outside will Bell, but retrained to the potty pad, about 2 weeks and a lot of cookies. I did not leave then out of my site,if I was not there I crated them. I might ad they slept prior to getting them totally with me and never done anything in the bed, but would still go on the floor


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## Scully (Sep 30, 2014)

just be consistent even when you think hes got it make sure you are still taking him out. i always find its when we think they are trained they start having accidents as we think its ok to take our eyes off them. He will get there in the end.


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## Naira (Jan 9, 2015)

I think you are doing all the right things! Sometimes training a dog can wear on our confidence, so I wanted to reassure you.

No, I wouldn't say that standard poodles are difficult to housetrain at all. I think every dog is different. Some dogs aren't "ring the bell" dogs, some dogs bladder's mature slower, some dogs are less expressive when they have to go etc. etc. It's tempting to compare yourself to others and think you are doing something drastically wrong, but it's not always the case. 

Couple of questions:
Do you have a large house?

Is he squatting and peeing in a room he spends a lot of time in?

And of course, you have to rule out a bladder infection.


Though I would think a 6 month old standard could hold it longer than 2-3 hours, you may have to take him out more frequently until he gets it. Going outside constantly can be tiring, but on the bright side he's getting more repetitions.  Make sure you are profusely cheering and throwing a party when he does it outside, and he can only play inside under your supervision when you are sure his bowels are empty (you just watched him do #1 and #2 outside).

Keeping track of intake and outtake is important as well. You will get to the point where you will have a consistent feeding/elimination schedule...and both of you will have your routine down to a science.

I don't know if there is any correlation, but I've found out my calmer puppies were much easier to housetrain. So keeping him well-exercised and tired never hurts!

*Edit*: I agree with Zoe. He can physically hold it longer, I just feel like you have to break him out of the habit. Soon his habit will be going outside.


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## Naira (Jan 9, 2015)

I understand how tempting it can be to give more freedom too soon when the puppy is doing well. Mine is 14 weeks, and she hasn't had an accident so far...I had a divider separating her 42 inch crate in half that I was going to gradually move back, but now I've taken it out completely. I'm seriously considering giving her free run of the house soon (my apartment is small, and she has free run while I'm home), but I am forcing myself to stick with with the routine for another month or so we can both confidently move to that next step.

It will all come in time. We dog owners just have to make sure we are solid at step 1 before we move to step 2!


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

i'm a great believer in the idea of making sure the dog understands that inside is verboten. not all dogs realize that being taken outside means inside is a no-no. sometimes a loud protest, as in judyd's example, is an effective way of getting that message across. much depends on the dog. there's learning/behavior theory, and then there's the dog in front of you that is a family member. and over and over again i have heard people talk about how different their human kids were growing up. same for pups, imo.


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

You have been given some good advise look here for more:

http://www.poodleforum.com/23-gener...842-how-train-your-new-puppy.html#post1615058

I would think of training an older dog to pee and poo on command for super high value treats. Later just a "good boy" and a pat will do.

Eric


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Behavior ~ HOUSETRAINING
Solve the Problem by Understanding the Process
by Ian Dunbar, *PhD, MRCVS *



Understanding the problems associated with housetraining is a wonderful way for owners to understand other canine behavior problems. Some misguided folk still try to control behavior problems with punishment in a hopeless attempt to curtail the dog’s hebavior altogether.* “Corking the volcano” attempts at controlling behavior seldom work. On the contrary, punishment exacerbates many problems, since it forces the dog to misbehave at times when it cannot be punished, like when the owner is away.* What is disturbing, though, is the lack of foresight-the sheer inhumane silliness-of inviting a dog to share our home and then punishing it for acting like a dog. 

When it comes to housesoiling, it must be obvious that one simply cannot say to a dog, “No more elimination.” I mean, what’s the dog to do? Its irrepressible need to eliminate quickly impresses on most owners the need to teach the dog where it should eliminate; to acknowledge that elimination is a normal, natural and necessary canine behavior and, rather than trying to cork the dog and forbid it from eliminating altogether, the solution is to teach the dog how to perform its toilet duties in a manner that is acceptable and appropriate for domestic living. 

A Spatial Problem 

Most people acknowledge that housesoiling is a spatial problem: The dog is eliminating in the wrong place. So what’s the problem? Just show the dog the right place to eliminate and reward it for doing so. In fact, sete up a reward gradient to train the dog to eliminate in a specific toilet area: a “Good dog!” for doing it outside; “Goooood dog!” and a couple of pats for doing it wihin 10 yards of the doggy toilet; “Whaaat a good doggie,” many pats and a food treat for doing it within five yards; and “Yes, Yes, Yes! Goooood dog!”, multiple pats and ear scratches and three extra-tasty treats for hitting ground zero and eliminating in the doggy toilet. In just three days to a week this adult dog is housetrained; moreover, it now wants to eliminate in its dogy toilet, since soiling the house does not have comparable fringe benefits. 

You might think at least some of the above is sound advice, but one vital piece of information is missing. In addition to being a spatial problem, housesoiling is also a temporal problem. The temporal nature of housetraining creates two common scenarios: [1] Either the dog is in the wrong place at the right time (the dog was left in the house with a filling bladder and/or rectum while the owner went to work, hence the dog was forced to soil the house), or [2] The dog is in the right place at the wrong time (the dog was taken to its doggy toilet or walked by the owner, but its bladder and rectum were empty because it had already eliminated in the living room when the owner was at work). 

Before getting angry with the dog (and, heaven forbid, punishing it when we arrive home), perhaps we should consider first, who exactly, is at fault, and second, why we don’t just housetrain the dog? Then there will be no further cause for frustration and hypertension. The owner must take full responsibility for the dog’s actions and train the dog. 

Being in the wrong place at the right time may easily be prevented by confining the dog to an appropriate are when it is left alone for lengthy periods. Surely, common sense dictates that if a dog is not fully housetrained, it would be folly to let it have unsupervised access to any part of the house for even a minute, let alone all day. When the dog is left at home alone, it would be smart to confine it to a small area, such as an outdoor run or a single room indoors (the kitchen or utility room), so that if the dog eliminates, it will do little damage and, therefore, not upset the owner. 

If you don’t have a yard or a kitchen, or if you live in a small studio apartment with wall-to-wall carpeting on the 27th floor, then improvise. Build a smaller playpen for the puppy/dog with a dog bed in one corner and a doggy toilet in the other. Take up the carpet or, in the dog’s playpen, cover the carpet with several layers of plastic sheet and put a piece of tough linoleum on top. 

For a doggy toilet, use sheets of newspaper or a litter box. However, if you want the dog to eliminate outside eventually, it is helpful to use outside items like soil in the litter box or a couple of concrete pavement slabs-perhaps even a roll of turf. This is passive training. By the time the pup is old enough to be walked outdoors, it will have already developed a strong substrate preference for eliminating on concrete and soil. 

Confinement, Then Relief 

The primary purpose of long-term confinement is to confine the problem. The owner acknowledges the puppy/dog will probably need to eliminate sometime during the long period it is left alone, so it is best if feces and urine are deposited only in the doggy toilet of the long-term confinement area and not all over the house. (Obviously a dog crate is not a suitable place to confine an unhousetrained dog for long periods of time, otherwise it will be forced to soil its crate. Once the dog has developed the habit of crate-soiling, this messy problem will frequently recur and render the crate a useless housetraining tool). 

If the owner only knew when the dog wanted to relieve itself, housetraining would be a non-problem. The owner would simply show the dog the appropriate spot and praise and reward the dog for using it. Unfortunately, most owners cannot predict the dog’s needs and, consequently, waste a lot of time walking empty dogs. What novice dog owners need is a foolproof, time-efficient, user-friendly means to predict when the dog wants to eliminate. Simple. Closely confining the dog to a small space just large enough for it to comfortably lie down strongly inhibits the dog from eliminating, because it does not want to soil its bed. However, during this period of confinement, both bladder and rectum progressively fill, making it highly likely the dog will want to eliminate immediately upon release from confinement. Since the owner chooses when to release the dog, the owner is choosing when the dog will eliminate. 

To implement the houstraining program, confine the dog to a small area, for example a dog create, basket or bed, and every hour on the hour, take it to its toilet area and give it three minutes to eliminate. If it does, praise it enthusiastically and maybe offer a couple of food treats into the bargain. Since the dog is now empty, it may be allowed to have the run of the house-as long as someone is still keeping an eye on it so it does not get into other mischief. If the dog does not eliminate during the allotted three-minute toilet break, no big deal, just put it back in the crate for another hour, and so on. 

The purposes of short-term, close confinement and long-term confinement are quite different. Long-term confinement in the owner’s absence confines elimination to a small, protected area, and thus prevents mistakes in other parts of the house; close confinement temporarily inhibits elimination altogether, so that the dog will likely eliminate when released. 

Compound Problems 

Occasionally, the two housesoiling problems are compounded. Not only does the dog soil the house, but it also refuses to eliminate on walks. This really annoys owners. It is not actually uncommon for a dog to fail to eliminate on a walk-regardless of the encouragement, pleading and prayers from its owner-but to do so immediately upon returning home. Basically, there are three reasons why the dog would do this. [1] The dog would much rather eliminate at home, in private; [2] The dog has learned that its walk will end as soon as its feces hit the ground; and [3] The dog dare not eliminate in the presence of the owner. 

That many dogs develop an early preference for eliminating on carpets, indoors, underscores the importance of never letting the puppy/dog make a single mistake during its first two weeks at home. Just one mistake is the start of a habit-a bad habit. Within just one or two repetitions, young pups (or old dogs in a new home) quickly develop favorite locations and/or substrate preferences for eliminating. Instead, the dog must develop a spatial preference for eliminating outdoors and a substrate preference for concrete, dirt or grass. 

Fear of Elimination 

Why do you think the dog does not want to eliminate with the owner around? Is it shy? No. Look in the mirror; there’s your problem. During the early stages of the housetraining fiasco, the little dog was peacefully relieving itself in an out-of-the-way corner of the living room when suddenly the owner screamed, “Arrgghhh! & *#%*!! NOOOOO!!!!!” and with the speed of greased lightning, grabbed the defenseless critter in mid-poop and.....you know the rest. This reprimand was not what one would call instructive. 

Rather than learning that it should not eliminate in the living room, the dog learned that it would be foolish to eliminate at all in the owner’s presence. The owner tried to cork the volcano. The dog must eliminate; if it dares not do it while the owner is there, it will wait until the owner is gone. 



*Dr. Dunbar is a veterinarian, animal behaviorist,
and dog trainer based in Berkeley, California.* 

This article is copyrighted by the AKC Gazette. 
Permission must be obtained from the AKC Gazette before reprinting


North Carolina Responsible Animal Owners Alliance 2004 

Housetraining by Ian Dunbar


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## Poodlerunner (Jul 4, 2014)

I had problems housebreaking Piper and I think I figured out the problem. It was not that she did not know that she should go to the bathroom outside. It was that she did not realize it was NOT OK to also pee inside. It took me to catch her just a couple of times and scold her to get her to cut it out, just like Blue. Maybe he had the same mental block.

pr


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