# Puppy seems impossible to train..



## steffmargot (Jan 5, 2012)

Hi there, 5 weeks ago I adopted a 10 week old female shepard lab mix. Her previous owner clearly did not care for the litter and made no effort to train her puppies as she was severely underweight and has NO house training whatsoever (she does not understand puppy pads and eats newspaper). Since I have had her, she has learned to go to the door (sometimes) but makes no sound to alert me that she needs to go, so she ends up doing her business anywhere she pleases. Other times she will just squat and start peeing without any warning at all. I have experience with dogs as I have a 2-year-old husky lab who was house trained within a week. I took the puppy to my parents' house for a few days and the difference in her was remarkable; she had barely any accidents, she was listening perfectly, was not hyper.. but when I came back home, her attitude changed and she doesn't listen, she attacks the older dog, she pees everywhere.. it's like she is possessed she won't even respond to her name. I do not want to give up on her but my fiance and I are at our wits end.. also I should mention that we do try to crate train her but since she has been a neglected puppy, she goes crazy in the crate, pees and poops in it, and screams so loud I'm scared to have the cops called on us!  
Any help at all would be appreciated, thanks!


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

My guess would be that the difference between your parents' house and your house is that your parents aren't allowing her freedom to roam around and just pee anywhere. 

Dogs don't know to make noise when they have to go out. You have to teach them that. She may not know her name very well. She certainly isn't house broken. Also, dogs don't generalize well. She may not understand that the rules of your parents' house are also the rules of your house. After I trained my dog to sit in the living room, I had to retrain him in the dining room, the kitchen, the foyer . . .

Please also look up "crate games" to make crate time fun for her. If you use crate time as a punishment or don't give her anything to occupy her mind in the crate, she's going to hate the crate, which will make your problems worse.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

The key to potty training is PREVENTING accidents. The more you can prevent accidents and get them to potty outside, the more likely your puppy will learn that pottying is only done outside.

So, the way to do this is supervision and schedules. A puppy who is not potty trained should never have access to roam free about the house. This gives them the opportunity to have an accident with no one looking, so no one can prevent it. A pup who isn't potty trained should always be supervised, or crated when you can't supervise. If you are supervising, you will SEE when she shows signs, or when she starts to squat, and you can interrupt her, and rush her outside, thereby PREVENTING the accident, and putting the seed in her mind that she should ONLY potty outside.

The other thing is schedules. A puppy usually has to go outside after waking up (even from naps), after eating/drinking, after playing/exercising, and for your age pup, about every 2-3 hours besides that.
But, you DO have to supervise, so you can PREVENT accidents.

You CAN potty train without using a crate. I did, and others have as well. The thing is, you HAVE to watch them every waking second, otherwise, as you know from experience, they can squat just about anytime and have an accident.

Very young puppies (younger than yours) don't get signals from their body that they have to go. As they age, they start getting those signals, but not every time. And, when they DO get those signals, they don't always get them in time to find you and make it to the door. If you are watching them, you can see, and interrupt them with a clap or a "hey hey" and that is usually enough of a "startling" so that they can stop and hold it til you get them out.

As they age, they start to get everything coordinating: they get the signals, they know what it means, and they know what to do, AND they start to get an idea of how long they can usually hold it before it's too late.

Many things can cause setbacks in potty training: illness, infection, changes in routine, changes in environment, teething, fear stages, etc. If you think your pup was doing ok, and then this visit to your parents messed things up, you just need to be more vigilant, and take her out more often, and watch her, to prevent accidents, and hopefully you can get her back on track quickly.


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## steffmargot (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks guys. I'm definitely going to try crate games. I'm trying as much as I can to always have an eye on her, I suppose I need to invest in baby gates. Honestly the other dog brings out a lot of energy out of her, eventhough he is a very calm dog, I think his size is intimidating to her and she feels she needs to compete with him..


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## PatchworkRobot (Aug 24, 2010)

I agree with everything that has been said. Remember, puppies, like people, all learn at different rates. My first suggestion would be to make sure she's supervised at all times. She won't need to notify you by making noise if you're watching her. I'd also suggest (don't know if it's been said) setting a timer. With my boy I set a timer for 30 min while he was out and about and when the timer went off I'd take him out to pee. Once he did his business I'd praise him like he just won me a million dollars and then I'd reset the timer. It worked really well.


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## steffmargot (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks for the reply. Honestly if it were just me, I would take all the time in the world to train her, but my fiance has brought up several times that he wants to give her away and it breaks my heart, I can't let that happen. So I feel like I am fighting a losing battle.  The biggest problem with the timing, is that she seems to pee every 10-15 minutes.. I'm wondering if something may be wrong.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

steffmargot said:


> Thanks for the reply. Honestly if it were just me, I would take all the time in the world to train her, but my fiance has brought up several times that he wants to give her away and it breaks my heart, I can't let that happen. So I feel like I am fighting a losing battle.  The biggest problem with the timing, is that she seems to pee every 10-15 minutes.. I'm wondering if something may be wrong.


Has she seen a vet recently? Maybe she has a UTI? Wouldn't hurt to check.


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## Tofu_pup (Dec 8, 2008)

Start conditioning the crate to be a good place. You can feed her in the crate with the door open. Practice going into an open crate, close the door for a split second, give her a treat, and release. Bones, bully sticks, kongs, etc. should be given in and open crate too. You can make it a good experience for her. 

I second the vet visit. If she was in poor living conditions before, a UTI is even more likely. 

I also like umbilical training. All that means is tethering the puppy to you(either a belt loop or your ankle) with a leash. It's physically impossible for puppy to sneak off to pee somewhere else. Make your trips more frequent too. If you aren't already using an enzyme cleaner for her messes, start now. The house shouldn't smell like a toilet to her.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Given what you said about the 'breeder,' I'd question if the pup as been to a Vet, has had all of her shots, or has ever been de-wormed. If she slept in her mess, she could have picked up a UTI easily. 

BTW, Make sure that you clean ALL accidents (including the crate) with vinegar or enzyme cleaner to eliminate the smell, b/c smell is one of the triggers that tells the pup where the bathroom is.

My experience is that GSD x Labs tend to be very intelligent and eager for training... but the hard thing is to get that first communication across....

Pictures???


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