Help with Potty training my doggie!?

Question

Ok, My pup is almost six months old. I can't get her to stop peeing on the rug! She is in a crate about 8 ours a day when we are at work, and sleeps in the crate for about 8 hours... WITH NO MESS!!!! Why does she still pee on my floor?! I could let her outside, she pees and poops, but then she will pee on the floor 30 min. later! I can't get her to go by the door when she needs to go, but when I ask if she wants to go outside, she will run to the door. Please help!! I love my dog and don't want to get rid of her, but my house smells like pee and i spend the better part of my evening on my hands and knees on the carpet scrubbing pee out! She is a Burnese Mountain dog / black lab mix if that helps at all. THANK YOU!

Answer 1

The cool thing about dogs is when you reward a behavior, it tends to re-enforce the behavior and it happens more frequently.
When you ignore, or don't re-act to a behavior, it tends to disappear over time.
So, basically, if there is a pay off for the puppy, they will continue to do the behavior
Rewards are the following, touching (any handleing), eye contact and verbals like even No!, get down! etc etc.
Dogs and puppies don't understand the english language(human language).
They are a species that recognise body language before vocal language(which we use mostly)
So, by (you)reacting in anyway for any behavior you may or may not like, you may be rewarding the behavior, instead of trying to stop it.

With house training, your job is to reward for what you want and mostly ignore the stuff you don't want.
The Puppy does not know your reasons, or why he can not pee on the liveingroom carpet, or why you want him to pee in the grass outside.
The trick is to catch him actually doing the behavior you like and mark it with a treat, or a "Good Puppy"

This is a re-enforcer to the puppy (pay off) He enjoyed the reward, and if its done consistantly by you, the puppy will repeat the behavior (peeing outside ) for the reward.

If your puppy pees on the carpet inside and you grab the puppy and rub his nose in it, he may perceive this as rewarding (depending on the temperment of the puppy)
So punishments tend to backfire on us, and are never necessary in the dog world.
If you do punish a puppy for peeing on the carpet in front of you, next time he may/will hide to avoid your strange behavior towards them.

When your puppy is in the house, he needs to be kept in a small confined area to discourage wandering. Wandering is the perfect opportunity for a puppy to find a nice spot to pee. Like in another room, when hes alone.

Keep the puppy in the same room as you, you can purchase a baby gate to block the puppy in one room at a time, useing a crate when you can't watch the puppy is very helpful as well.
You can leash the puppy to your waist, so he can't wander away.
Take the puppy out to the spot you like in the yard on a leash, wait for the puppy to go(walking around helps move the bowels), when he goes, reward with a yummy treat as soon as the puppy goes. Then take the leash off and play a little.
The leash off and getting to play with you are a great reward for peeing in the yard.(or pooping for that matter)
When your taking the puppy out to that certain spot , use a word like "Go pee pee" or "Hurry up" everytime so he starts to assiciate this word with the act of going.
Puppies take time to house train, if your strict and consistant, it will be a breeze, if you let your guard down and give in to letting the puppy wander, you will have more accidents, which will teach the puppy to go in inappropriate places.
When your puppy has not had an accident in about 30 days, you are doing very well.
Keep in mind that puppies and dogs do not "know" right from wrong, they have behaviors and depending on the response or reward they receive, will depend on the behavior decreaseing or increasing. They don't do things for spite or hate you for leaveing them alone.

Answer 2

We crate trained our dog until she was about 5 months, and she never had an accident in her crate, just the occassional one around the house. About 5 months we decided to leave her in our master bathroom while we were at work instead of just the crate, and put the wee wee pads on the floor in one spot consistently. In a matter of days she began to think of the entire bathroom floor and her crate as her personal space. She really began to use the pads, and stopped having all accidents. Many of the kennel training books suggest that if the dog sleeps in the crate at night, then try to limit the daytime crating. Just a suggestion, it worked for us. We also give her a treat everytime she potties outside. She's 1 1/2 years old and still goes potty for us anytime we ask, and she still gets her treat.

Answer 3

All dogs love attention, but they lack the ability to differentiate between good and bad attention. I would have to guess that your keeping the poor thing caged up too often, and she wants attention, no matter what kind it may be. Try letting her out of her cage at night when you are home, let her sleep on your bedroom floor, put some puppy training pads down, and take her outside with you, don't just let her out...have some treats in your hand while you're outside with her, and when she pees/poops outside, give her a treat.

Keep in mind that your puppy should never be caged up longer than he or she sleeps during a 24 hour period. Most puppies sleep for about 12 hours total, but at her age, she's probably down to about 10 hours total...

Answer 4

Do you praise her, give her treats when she goes outside?

If you see her about to go on the floor, she will first be sniffing looking for a previously used spot - quickly run her outside.

If you catch her in the act of going - scold her in a firm voice. Never ever hit her. Scolding a dog after the act does no good, if she pees, then sits by the window and you start yelling at her she will think it's wrong to sit by the window.

Answer 5

put a puppy pad down where she usually use the bathroom