# Help potty training a Newfoundland?



## maudlinblithe (Aug 29, 2009)

I asked this question at Yahoo answers only to be told I was a cruel person, as bad as the person I rescued my dog from. So, I am trying to get help one last time before I quit asking.


DOG:
Gracie: 3 1/2 year old purebred Newfoundland dog. Kennel raised. Breeder dog. Was not taken care of by previous owners ( she came from a puppy mill that was shut down). 

Gracie was forced to live in her filth for her entire life. When I got her, her fur was dread locks filled with urine and feces. In August she still had the previous winters fur matted all the way down to her skin! I had to shave all of her underside and took the tedious time to groom the rest out. It took forever!

This dog also had an ear hematoma and needed surgery. I paid for that. 
I love this dog!

Since this dog had to live in her own filth, she has no problem peeing and pooping in my house anywhere on the floor. When I leave, she has a LARGE crate, only big enough for her to turn around in, and she will poop and pee in there too. I keep NO blankets in the crate with her. 

At first I fed her twice a day because she is underweight. But coming home from work to clean poop and pee off the wall, the crate pan, surrounding floor, and bathing a huge long haired dog every day is getting OLD! 

heres the current schedule:

I leave for work at 10:30 am. I get home from work by 6:30 pm. (NOTE: my small dog who is 1 3/4 years old doesnt poop or pee in this time frame) to find poo and pee in gracies crate. I feed her AT 7:00 pm. This is currently the ONLY feeding she gets. I take her out at night time to poop. she poops. we go to bed. she poops in the middle of the night in the crate. She poops again in the morning. then she poops again in her crate while I am at work. 

Basically, off of one meal, this dog poops giant piles 3-4 time a day!

I am not feeding her the cheapest food either: she eats ONLY Diamond Naturals for large dogs. it's pricey.

Her poop is very soft, but not runny for the most part. It was been runny twice in the month I have had her.


how can I get this dog to NOT go in her crate? If I cant get her to stop going in the crate, I doubt I can potty train her at all. She simply doesnt care if she lays/sits/steps in it and drags it around. She doesnt care if she poops on my carpet three feet away from where she is sleeping.

ALSO: this dog is so HAPPY she is inside my house, that i have to physically FORCE her into the crate and have to FORCE her out the back door to go potty. She is CONSTANTlY by my side licking me to death. If I move three feet, she follows three feet. 

She doesnt want to go outside, even on a leash, because she fears she will be out there forever.

The first step is getting her to not go in the crate, but how? NOTE: I do not put blankets or towels in the crate with her either.

should I switch to feeding her in the morning? I doubt that would work cause she poops 3-4 times anyways. AND! I am not giving her a ton of food either, only what the label says.

A friend suggested that cottage cheese may help firm her poo up, and that maybe she would have to go less often?

I dont want any of my dogs to be "outside dogs." I want my dogs to be in the house with me.

PLEASE DONT YELL AT ME!

one lady said I was as bad as the puppy mill for crating her when i went to work and again at night. she said I am not giving her a better life, this dog who has been nothing but pampered since the time i brought her home! LOL, it took me TWO weeks to groom this dog. I did sections daily. that hair stunk so bad and was matted so tight that this dog had skin infections! 

******DUH! my question was, how can I crate train her... and then potty train her... (a dog who doesnt mind living in her own filth)... so I dont have to crate her at night!!!

(note: I dont crate my other two dogs at night. why? they are potty trained and WONT poop on my floor in the middle of the night! BUT YES! for the time being, I crate Gracie at night time, because if I dont, she poops and pees all over in my new house! 

further more, I cant section off my kitchen or utility room. the kitchen, dining room, and two living rooms are all a big open connected space. the utility room is way too small.

SO! can someone please HELP me and not tell me that I am a horrible person for trying to SAVE this dog from a life of going in and out of the pound. Not many people that I know of would have already put this much money into a dog thats ruining their brand new home, desperate to save her from living outside forever.


----------



## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

Dogs that have been raised in crates and had to live in their own filth are next to impossible to potty train using a crate. Understand that crates work for potty training because dogs dislike laying in their own mess....but, that's not your case. You have only one recourse... confinement in the laundry room or an x-pen set-up.


----------



## maudlinblithe (Aug 29, 2009)

An excercise pen? do you mean outside the house or inside the house?

well. perhaps that, and/or:

leashing her to me 100% of the time I am at home... and even in the middle of the night when I sleep. Therefore, if she moves, she will wake me up and I can take her out so she wont go on the floor.

ugh. I can see the sleep deprivation now. 



However, that wouldnt work when I am at work... perhaps, at least for now, sadly, she will have to stay outside when I am working.


----------



## skelaki (Nov 9, 2006)

An ex-pen is an exercise pen such as you see being used at dog shows. If she stays outside while you are at work, I would make sure your yard is 100% secure with locks on the gate/s. Better yet keep her in a secure dog run. Also, make sure she has plenty of shade and water. As long as you can provide a safe, secure environment for her it's perfectly ok for her to be outside.

Be sure and clean up any accident areas including the crate very thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner such as Nature's Miracle. Then, when you are at hom you can work at teaching her that her crate is her good, safe place. And, when at home, keep her tethered to you and take her out as if she was a young puppy. Also, if you haven't done so yet, I'd take her to the vet (or at least take urine and feces samples) to be checked.

And, you are not being cruel. Remember people on Yahoo Answers may be dog lovers, but many (most?) of them are not necessarily knowledgeable ones.


----------



## Elana55 (Jan 7, 2008)

There is a faction of society that is either working from home or stay at home or wealthy who don't ahve to leave their dog and go to work for a living. Then there are the rest of us... and we have to go to work for dog food and a house so the dog can live with us and so we can buy cat food and be servants to our cats.  

My dog is crated from 6:00AM to 4:00 pm (give or take 1/2 hour on either end) M-F and she is FINE. She sleeps all day. You are not cruel. 

When you are home, you are going to have to take this dog out every hour. When she goes outside, you are going to have to give her food rewards and tons of praise for every pee and poo she does. If she goes inside, it is VERY important to catch her in the act and interrupt her and get her out.. praising and feeding as she finished up. You need to be right with her when she goes.. not standing on the porch. It is important to get that association between the right place to go and really good food rewards and happy praise from you. 

Get the dog on an EXACT feeding schedule. I don't know anything about your dog food. I have fed Canidae and now feed Evo (grain free). Evo seems to make less dog poop than the canidae. If the dog has sot stools (as in runny or cow pie) you can try feeding 1/3 can of pumpkin. This is the canned pumpkin (only ingredient, pumpkin) not the spice and sugar filled pie filling. 

Clean up with an enzyme cleaner is very important.

When you go to work, for now, I think a secure out door arrangement may be your answer (like a real dog kennel). This is until you get her trained. This way when she does go and you are not there, she is at least going in the right place (outside). 

Another idea, if you can afford it, is dog day care with someone who will help this dog eliminate in the approriate place. 

As previously mentioned, a dog that has been forced to live in its own filth will not care if she poops and pees and sleeps in it. She has, sadly, been trained to do exactly that.

One last thing.. when the dog goes out side, use a word while the dog is actually going. I use Pee for pee and CrapCrap for poop. My dog now pees and craps on command. This can be very handy!


----------



## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

Dog has had tough life and I understand your problem about dogs outside. But if you could get your dog outside in a kennel run in your yard 24/7 30 to 60 days. Then slowly introduce dog to home and when dog is not supervised in home back out to kennel run. The idea is to "kick start" the going outside poop/pee program. Once this is done the gradual back/time in house increases. In a perfect world the dog will eventually be housebroke. As Tooney said it's a tough job to get your big dog back to normal. Good Luck.


----------



## maudlinblithe (Aug 29, 2009)

I want to thank you all for all of your ideas, I will definitely use a combination of all of your suggestions

well, today I came down to my parents farm and got an old big dog house. I bought from TSC a heavy duty chain and all the attatchments. Gracie indeed will stay outside while I am at work.

I dont want her to make a muddy mess with her ten foot chain, so next weekend bricks are being laid. My hope is that this will help keep the area clean by using a garden hose to spray it off.

(my back yard is completely fenced in, but my dad said I could also buy their tall kennel. but I think it may not be strong enough chain link fence and that gracie with her jumping will destroy it)

I am debating on how I want to do this... I think I may indeed leave her outside for a month or two while I train her the "sit, stay," and then begin the process of bringing her in. When inside, she will be attatched to me the whole time. Shouldnt be too hard, because she follows me everywhere anyways. It was only night time that WAS the problem.

(well, sit/stay/off: all of that will be rather fun because she has so much energy. One of the hardest will be off because she JUMPS on the dining room window and the glass patio doors when she want to come in. Grrrr. She already broke the screen to the window. occasionally she tries to jump on me when over excited, so I have retorted to saying 'off,' ignoring her completely until she quits, and then I pet her).

Today we had a walk through town. She pulls, but not too bad, by the end of our walk things were easier. I just used a normal collar. When every she pulled too hard, I stopped walking completely. Even if that was every three steps. I also made her sit at every stop sign.

Thanks again so much, and I will keep all of you posted!


----------



## newfylover (Aug 31, 2009)

I have experience w/ this breed of dog/untrained adults. The only way that I've found to train the adults that were w/ breeders like this is when they "go"...take the poop directly to where you would like them to poop outside.. I use an old dust pan (haha)....keep putting it there... walk them to the poop area when its time to go...when they poop there...make a huge deal of it..they will start pooping where you want the "poop"..you'll have a pile there for them..sounds gross but this breed likes to go in the same spot. Now..the other thing is that they also like privacy so if you have a bush to put the poop behind...that's best....they are very eager to please and you are right on...it's totally disgusting picking up a hot load of huge newfy poo but the method worked for me on 2 adults..one of em I was throwing the poop in the woods and he wanted to always go there to poop..2nd one..she was and adult and I used the same method..worked like a charm...you only need one load of poop in his/her spot for them to get the idea...


----------

