Housebreaking A Puppy

Question
My boyfriend and I just adopted our second dog from the local pound a few weeks ago.  Her name is Kimber and she is almost 4 months old.  She is a lab/pointer mix and she is a really sweet girl.  I havent ever raised a puppy before though, our first dog was already about a year old when we got him and he wasn't housebroken, but we only had a problem with that when we weren't around, so we crate trained him and that took care of everything.  Kimber on the other hand, has accidents right in front of us, and when we see her doing it and say "No!" she just looks at us and keeps going.  We also take her out about 10 times a day, but even when she does go outside she will sometimes have accidents just a few minutes later.  We understand that puppies need time and attention, but because of all of Kimber's accidents, now our other dog is starting to go back to having them as well and he had had a perfect track record for about 6 months.  What I'm trying to ask is if there is anyway to speed up the housebreaking process?  Positive and Negative reinforcement doesn't seem to be working for us and our puppy right now, and the fact that her accidents are effecting our other dogs behavior is just not going to work for us. PLEASE HELP US!!!

Answer
Hi Signe,

Have you had your dog examined to rule out a medical cause for not being about to "hold it"?  If you're having trouble housetraining your puppy, and she can't seem to hold her urine for more than a few minutes, you should investigate this possibility further.

Unfortunetly, there isn't a way to "speed up" the process of house training. Some dogs learn this important life lesson in a matter of weeks, others take a full year to learn it. Each dog is an indivisual, and learns at his or her's own rate.

Clean the areas where your dog has soiled with an enzymatic cleaner, such as Nature's Miracle, or Simple Solutions. This will help remove the odors that are attracting your dog back to repeatedly soil in your home. You may need more than one application.

Because your dog isn't trained, she shouldn't be getting the run of your house when you can't be watching her like a hawk. During those times when you can't watch your dog, or when you leave your house your dog should either be crated, contained in an indoor dog pen, or restricted to part of a room with the help of a child-gate or two. If you opt to keep your dog in the pen or in a room, you should lay a thick layer of newspaper over the entire containment area, and change the paper as it gets soiled.

After prevention, giving your puppy frequent opportunities to relieve herself outside is step two. You need to go outside with your puppy, and not have your other dog with you.
Praise her when she relieves herself outside. Offer this praise, and even a tiny treat, the minute your dog is finished going to the bathroom outside. This will help her connect the action to the reason for the reward. Offer her plenty of opportunities to go outside until she is fully housebroken, I aim for about one outing an hour, whenever I am home and awake. Putting her outside alone is not nearly as effective as going out with her, because she won't get the praise and reward for "doing her business" outside.

You should feed your puppy only when you are sure that you can take her out right away, at a notice of 5 to 10 minutes at the most. Keep a close tab at the time she needs to excrete after consuming her meals. You can then plan the meal time accordingly and reduce the time wastage in waiting for your dog to poop. Initially though, when your dog has not learnt what to do, you will have to spend some time with her.

Never punish your dog for a housebreaking mistake. She won't understand, and the punishment can create new problems. Instead, keep her in the room with you at all times when she is not in her special confinement area. If you see him start to have an accident (or start walking around as though he's thinking about going), firmly say "No, Outside" as you rush out the door with her. Your goal is to get her to finish outside so you can praise her. Teach her the word "Outside" for going out there, and "Better Go Now" or some other phrase for actually relieving himself--these words are taught just by saying them at the right times, until she catches on to what they mean. This helps communication, and thus of course also helps training.

If your dog makes a mistake when you weren't watching her, oops, that was your mistake, not hers. She is just a dog, and has no idea why we are upset when she relieves himself in the house. But most puppies will learn, if you are consistent, and help her avoid mistakes by being there for her.

Set your dog up for success, and you'll see progress. You can read more about house training here:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/how-to-house-train-your-adult-dog/page1.aspx

http://www.sspca.org/Dogs/Rehousetraining.html

http://www.petfinder.com/pet-training/dog-housetraining.html

Best of luck,
Patti