housebreaking recently adopted dog

Kara - posted on 01/19/2011

Thank you so much Renee!:)

Renee - posted on 01/19/2011

You only need to do the every 15-30 potty time at first, once you get used to knowing when you dog needs to go, you can try ever 2 hours and eventually every 3. During that time don't let be unsupervised. Use the crate if you have to, even if it's only for a few minutes. Preventing potting inside along with using pet deodorizers will get him on track fairly quickly. Don't be fooled by him doing well for a few weeks and leave him out of his crate and alone for a bit, he will most likely go while you walk away. Just keep a strict schedule for a few months before letting up at all. He will come around if you stick to all those methods without punishing him, only reward him.

Renee - posted on 01/19/2011

I know scolding and rubbing the dog's nose in their poop/pee is the old way of trying to teach a dog not to do it. But dog trainers have actually found that method only teaches them not to do it when you aren't watching. It's pretty common for a dog to be house trained all over again in a new setting. I had to do this with dogs I've adopted from shelters, any time we moved, they had to be house trained all over again. It would help a lot for your dog to be on a strict schedule with food and water. When training a new adult dog to my house, I restrict water to meal times only unless it's needed for warmer/hot weather times of the year. He isn't going to give clear signals for when he needs to go, so you will have to take him outside often. I have found that it takes either leaving them in a crate for when your eyes can't be on them, or leashing them to your waist to prevent them from going when out of sight. That has to be done with some caution, leashing a dog to your waist can cause them to dependent or clingy after the house training is over. I have leashed my adult shelter dogs that had to be house trained every time we moved, and it did cause them to be overly clingy. To fix that, I sent them back to their beds when they follow me, they eventually (after a few months) lost the clinginess. I only suggest that if you are willing to work with the clinginess that it can cause. I resist using pads myself, if you ever do decide to use them and the dog only goes on the pad and not outside, put pads outside on a hard ground area. This will help them transition from pads to going outside. When taking your dog out of the crate, take him outside right away, and then again in 15 minutes. If he doesn't go, repeat that in another 15 minutes. Dogs that aren't completely house trained experience nervousness from knowing they need to go, but also knowing they aren't supposed to go inside. In their mind they don't have a way to get outside or know how to let you know they want to go. This causes them to go inside more often then what they would be doing otherwise. Once you get him on a strict schedule and see his patterns of when he goes, you can rely on that to know when he needs to go. In the beginning it would be a good to take him outside every two hours after you do the every 15-30 minutes of potty time. When your eyes can not be on him or him in your perifial vision that you will be able to monitor, he should be in the crate. When he does go outside follow him so that you can reward him for potting outside. Tell him good boy ect while he is going, you can even use key words like "go pee" during that time and reward him. This will teach him to go on command, my shelter dogs know my pee/poop on command, it actually helps them see what I want from them when I happen to be in a rush. I see that you are already reinfocing the behavior you are wanting and walking him to help also. A strict schedual for his food and water, combined with absolutely no time unsupervised will get him on track fairly quickly. It can take up to six months to completely house train a dog, don't worry if he slips up from time to time when you happen to not notice that he slipped away. Just try to prevent as much as you can. Also use pet deodorizers inside the house for all surfaces he goes on, for male dogs this can include the pee splatter from them raising a leg. Pet deodorizers break down the scent that they can smell but we can not on a molecular level. This prevents the scent from being released, regular house hold cleaners don't do this, only pet deodorizers you get from pet stores. As long as a dog can still smell where they have gone before, they will be enticed to go there again. House hold cleaners only prevent humans from smelling it, dogs can still smell it after a house hold cleaner. This goes for all types of floors used in homes.