Having my black lab go outside to the bathroom by herself.

Question
My boyfriend and myself recently adopted a black lab that is about 1-1 1/2 years old from a shelter. We adopted her Thursday, August 16th, 2012 which was 4 days ago. Since that time, she has had 3 accidents in the house which I know it's going to happen. My problem is that she will not go outside by herself to go to the bathroom or even to go outside at all. How do I get to her to go by herself? Also, at night time, we are locking her up as of right now at night time and when we leave. How do you get her not to yelp and whine when we put her in there?

Answer

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations on adopting a dog!

Until your new dog is accustomed to your home and your household routines you should not be letting her outside by herself. Every time you take her outside for a walk, be sure to praise (and even offer a small reward) the moment she's done relieving herself. You want to make good and sure that she understands what going outside is for, and how much it makes you happy whenever she goes to the  bathroom outside your home.

Don't wait for your dog to tell you that she needs to go outside (that might never happen). If you wait, you might be setting her up for house breaking accidents. Get your dog on a schedule of walk times, and feeding times (what goes in at a certain time, comes out at a certain time!)

It takes at least a month for a dog to feel really acclimated to a new home and a new family. After this time, your dog will probably enjoy going outside by herself.

You refer to confining your dog when you're not home, and during the over night period as "locking up". A dog should not be left alone during the day more than 6 or 7 hours maximum, and that is much too long if your dog isn't house broken. If your dog isn't crate trained and you've been crating her, that could be a big part of the problem. I don't know what you are referring to, I hope it's either a dog safe room in your home, or a dog crate that's the correct size.

Everything about your home is strange to your dog, you've only had her for 4 days after all! You can imagine then how frightening it is to be left alone. It would greatly help the situation if you gave your dog a really long walk, a good long jog, or active play (such as running after a ball) before leaving her. When you leave the house, you should be leaving behind an utterly tired dog. A tired dog is a quiet dog!

Along with the extra bit of exercise just before you leave your dog, begin training her to be quiet when left alone. Start by imitating your daily departure routine. Do you usually put on make-up, search about for keys, or throw out the garbage? Make your dog think that this training session is just like any other daily departure.

As you leave your home, give your dog an "only-when-I'm-gone" chew toy. This toy should be something spectacular, such a sterilized beef bone stuffed deeply and thoroughly with canned dog food or cheese spread (served frozen or chilled), a flavorful beef-basted knotted rawhide bone, or a stuffed Kong toy. Give it to the dog upon leaving. Not only is this a diversion tactic, it actually makes being left alone not so bad, as this is the only time the "most-wonderful-thing-in-the-world" appears!

While giving her special goodbye toy, get eye contact and tell her in a firm and matter-of-fact manner to be quiet until you return. Don't give any long-winded emotional goodbye scenes,  no begging, pleading or whining for her to be quiet. It will only serve to emotionally charge the situation and further stress-out your dog.

Leave for a brief period of time. Just a minute or two to start out with. If you wait for an elevator, ring for it and get in, or walk to the bottom of your driveway. Wait 1-2 minutes. If your dog has not barked, return and gently praise. If you hear her begin to bark, mark the behavior by a sharp rap on the door with a solid object like a brass key ring and start timing again. Each time the dog barks, rap on the door and set the timer back to zero. It may take a half hour to get 1-2 minutes of silence. When you do, go in and praise. Leave 15-30 minutes later and repeat.
The goal is to be able to stay away for longer and longer periods of time without having to correct the dog for barking. The time away must be built up in small intervals. Set goals (5, 10, 15 minutes) and go back in and praise the dog if she remained quiet for the set amount of time. Don't wait for an undetermined amount of time and correct the dog for finally barking. Silence must be praised. When training a dog, appropriate behavior must be acknowledged.

You can read more about training your dog to be quiet when left alone, about it here:

http://canineconcepts.co.uk/en/blog/39-why-does-my-dog-bark-when-left-alone

http://www.perfectpaws.com/bark.html

http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/gov/depts/pol/as/training/reducebark.asp



Best of luck,

Patti