My 4 month old puppy is having housetraining troubles!?

Question

Hello everyone

I have a 4 month old goldendoodle who seems to be having a hard time transitioning from crate-trained to house-trained. She goes 8 hrs overnight, and 4 hrs during the day WHEN CRATED. However, I read that 4 month old puppies should be able to "hold it" 4-5 hours. My dog can only do that in her crate. outside of her crate, we are LUCKY if she can hold it an hour. I know she's a baby, but can she really be THAT far behind what "normal" puppies do? We got her at 9 weeks old and she was able to go 45 mins then. 2 months later and she's barely able to go more than that without an accident indoors. She has no infections or medical problems. We have been consistent with her from day 1, praising everytime she goes outside, taking her out every 45 mins. She pees immediately upon going outside whether it's after 15 mins, or if it's after 8 hrs overnight. She KNOWS to potty outside. But how can i get her to hold it longer when she isn't in her crate indoors? thanks

Answer 1

That's the whole problem with crate training right there! Your dog, because she's crate trained, never really got house trained. Dogs don't like to soil where they "live" and she thinks of her crate as where she lives, not the house.

You have to re-train her. Keep her in the room you're in so you can keep an eye on her. She must give signals when she has to go, circling, looking restless, etc. When she does, go outside with her, tell her "go pee", and the split second she does give her lots and lots of praise, then come back in. This way she learns to tell the difference between play time and potty time outside.

Dogs learn very quickly with lots of positive reinforcement and by not giving her a chance to make mistakes, you don't have to correct her which is good because dogs don't learn from negative experiences.

Of course, until she's older and reliably housetrained you do have to use the crate (or an exercise pen if you have one) at night or when you're not home. Once you've worked on re-training her, why not try leaving her out for short periods of time when you're not home and see what happens.

You also have to make sure that every trace of smell is gone from your house or she'll just keep on going back to those spots.
Good luck with her!

Answer 2

There are a few things that could be happening here...first make sure you are using a cleaner that gets rid of ALL pet odors. You need to buy it a pet store. Even if you use your most stringent cleaner, it will leave a trace of that pet cleaner on your floor, and that will tell your dog to go potty in the same place, over and over and over again. You need to get an enzymatic cleaner that works specifically with pet odors. They are not expensive, so don't worry! Second, crate training could help you a lot. Put puppy in the crate and keep a schedule of when she needs to go. Take your puppy outside. If she does her business, she can come in the house for some play time. If not, back in her crate she goes. And so on and so forth. If you decide to do this, make sure you read the instructions that come with your crate about properly introducing it to your dog. This will save you lots of bad feelings, because if you don't introduce it properly, your dog will bark and bark and bark and bark! Third, puppies can really only be expected to hold their business for the equivalent of an hour for each month of age. So, you know that your dog needs to go out at least every four hours. Also, you need to keep a hawk's eye on her. Don't let her out of the same room as you and don't give her too much freedom. That way, you will be on hand and ready to say no no! and carry your puppy outside the second she starts to go in the house. She will need to out immediately after napping, eating, or playing hard. This is getting a little long! Sorry about that! I have a three month old puppy, and before I got him I read the book Housetraining for Dummies. It was excellent, and it helped me SOOOO much. I would highly recommend you pick up a copy if you are stumped!! Good luck!

Answer 3

I don't think the problem is that she CAN'T hold it - clearly she can, since she does so no problem in her crate. She considers her crate to be her 'den' and tries not to pee in there. I think your problem is that the puppy does not consider the rest of the house to be her 'den'. Does she pee near the area where she is fed? Or where you generally play with her? Odds are she pees in random areas that she doesn't spend a lot of time in, like spare bedrooms, computer room, or whatever.

We had a similar issue where our 4-month old pup never had accidents, except in this one room in the basement where we never spend much time. She actually went right in front of me, like she didn't think it was wrong. It happened multiple times. I guessed that maybe because we never spend time down there, she doesn't consider it part of the "den". So I started feeding her down there, playing with her down there, etc. After doing this a while she stopped having accidents altogether.

ALSO - no offense but I would not recommend some of the advice given by posters above... namely the suggestion that you put newspaper down - definitely not. Do not allow the dog to pee in the house, and certainly don't put newspaper down to encourage it. And saying the crate should only be used for punishment - completely the opposite of what you want to do. You are right for crate training your puppy and I don't believe at all that she is old enough yet to stop crate training. And the method of rubbing her nose in the pee which someone suggested does not work and makes no sense to the dog. I think you are on the right track, don't change or stop your crate training.

Answer 4

If she can't be trusted to wander on her own, tie her leash to your belt and make her stay with you. Crate her when you cannot actively watch her.

Alternatively (or in addition), teach her to ring a bell when she wants to go outside. Hang a bell on the doorknob and ring it everytime right before you open the door. Very soon she'll be ringing it herself. But then, if she asks, you have to believe her.

Sometimes they take quite a while to be trustworthy. My sister has a 2 year old flatcoated retriever mix (similar in many ways to a golden). This dog is like a sieve. Everytime she drinks she MUST pee within 15 minutes. She will pee int he house if my sister gets tired of going outside everytime she asks (Yes, the dog will train you if given the opportunity!)

Be certain you are adequately removing the scent from your floors where she goes. Use an enzyme cleaner that you can purchase at the pet store. If you don't remove the odor, and instead cover it up with a flowery carpet spray, your dog will still be able to smell it and will return over and over again.

You can alos limit when she has access to water. My sister has to do this with her dog. Be VERY careful that you don't dehydrate your dog though. ENOUGH water is critical, but you can control WHEN your dog has access to the water.

Answer 5

We have a 10mth puppy who is now house trained but it took him a long time to get the hang of it. He drinks a lot and therefore pees a lot, so at night we took his water away, giving him it back in the morning before his walk. This helped to stop the night time peeing. He was getting dried food and this made him very thirsty all the time!! I know people say they should always have water available, but excessive drinking only makes pee!!!
I don't know whether this is your problem but I thought I would reply just in case.
Best of luck.

Answer 6

You have to be vigilante and you have to invest a lot of time. When the dog is not in the kennel put him in a room that will not hurt the floor and watch him/her. When he/she begins to pee pick him/her up and take her outside. If you can't watch the dog in the room then have her in the kennel. Repeat this process for awhile and the dog will begin to understand. I just went through this phase with my 3 month old dachshund. I had the problems like you did but now the dog knows that he can't be in the room or in his kennel. He tries his best to hold it until he is outside. So just be vigilant and patient it will come.

Answer 7

well I would do the newspaper on the floor.

But you may need to let her know who's boss,
try the rub her nose in it method after a few times and after you do that take her to the door and put her paw on it...

After a few times you will notice she wont go inside the house and that she will ask to go out by scratching the door.

I have a greyhound that pees when she gets excited. so maybe you need to leave her out of the cage more often and just use it for punishment and travel. If you do this your dog will get used to being out of the cage and wont be as excited to get out ... Good Luck

And remember labradoodles are a new breed so there is really no bladder size research...
and nobody really knows how long they can last without relieving themselves.

Answer 8

Take away the crate and eventually it will happen.Be very patient and carry on praising her,remember she is only young.Also in my opinion there is no normal puppies, each one is different just like kids and therefore will learn at there own rate.
Good luck.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

I think she is confused with the crate. She see's the crate as her 'house' and when you let her out she is 'outside'. All you can do is keep taking her out as you are doing but do it more frequently, more often than every 45 mins and try and limit her crate use through the day.