# Housebreaking 8 month old puppy



## Pug_love (Nov 30, 2012)

*Housebreaking 8 month old puppy - Breaking the habit of peeing on the carpet?*

Lilly is a pug that is 8 months old now. I've tried different methods to housebreak her, but after a being spayed any progress with housebreaking went out the window. She has been peeing all over the carpet. The entire apartment smells like urine and I've tried cleaning the carpets with odor remover just for animals. I've finally broken down bought a cage to start crate training her with. (Please no remarks about how I should have from the beginning. Many people do these sorts of things differently and my method without crate use was starting to work and she was making progress.)

So, my question for you is how can I housebreak my 8 month old puppy? I usually wake up between 7-8am and go to bed between 9-11pm. I need some type of schedule for the pup to help housebreak her quickly. I know it takes time, but older dogs can hold their bladder in longer. She can hold it all night if she wanted to, but she doesn't want to anymore.

Any tricks you think that may work with her? She now has a crate that is the right size. How often/long should she be in it? She can jump clear over gates if I try keeping her in the kitchen. Any suggestions for that? 

Now, she does know what the command, "Go Potty" and sometimes she will go outside and potty when I tell her too. Other times she ignores me and I have started bringing her in within 5-10 minutes of taking her out and if she doesn't go she goes in to the crate for another 10-15 minutes and then she goes back out. it she goes she gets her freedom to play for a while. But the problem is that within just 10 minutes of being inside she will go to pee again. She won't hold it in for nothing unless she is confined. What can I do about this? Sometimes she will go within 5 minutes after going outside. It is very frustrating because I can't time her so I don't know when I should take her out. I could try taking her out every hour, but in between she would have already peed another 3 or 4 times. 

Any suggestions?

Update:

I still don't believe she has UTI. In fact, the only time she pees often is when she is in the living room. Just the living room. I can gate her in the kitchen when I am busy and she will hold it the entire time and has been making excellent progress so far with it. She potties every time I tell her too outside and few accidents have happened inside the home. She holds her bladder all night, for I stick her in the crate until 5 in the morning and then take her out and she is allowed to sleep with me for a few more hours. She will go in tp the bedroom while I am in there and even though the carpet is the same kind as in the living room, she holds her bladder the entire time she is in there as well. So, why does she go so often in the living room? Because she doesn't dribble, and barely pee anything constantly, she doesn't have those signs of an UTI. She has always been this way and up until I started gating her in the kitchen for short time periods at a time, I've learned that the living room is the only place she constantly likes to pee. There is no blood, no fever, or dehydration.
So, do you think she likes to pee so much in the living room because she carpet now smells like our own personal bathroom?

But, I wanted to update this and say that she is actually starting to improve since I began confining her to the kitchen or her crate. She's learned very quickly about going outside and has finally began whining at the door. Right now she only whines at the door if I am in the kitchen with her. (I take her out the door in the kitchen.) But that is a start. She had two accidents yesterday in the kitchen and a few the day before as well, but those accidents were my fault because I was busy and she couldn't hold it in anymore. They were huge puddles. But, I allow her to play in the living room she will randomly squat to pee a smallish amount really fast before I can even do anything about it. I strongly disbelieve it is a uti though based on her behavior.


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## LittleFr0g (Jun 11, 2007)

If she is peeing that frequently, I'd be taking her to the vet to be checked for a UTI.


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## Pug_love (Nov 30, 2012)

She has no other symptoms of UTI other than peeing often, but once I can I will ask the vet about it. Any advice on easy and effective house breaking methods though?


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## LittleFr0g (Jun 11, 2007)

Peeing often IS the major symptom of a UTI, especually if it's a change from previous behavior.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

I agree. I would get her checked ASAP.

Other than that, the biggest thing is supervision. If you watch her closely, super closely, when she is awake and on the move, you can prevent accidents by seeing her signs, and rushing her outside before she has the accident inside. 

I never used a crate either, for potty training. It was all about supervision. Just don't give her the chance to be out of sight, and have an accident.


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## Pug_love (Nov 30, 2012)

I still don't believe she has UTI. In fact, the only time she pees often is when she is in the living room. Just the living room. I can gate her in the kitchen when I am busy and she will hold it the entire time and has been making excellent progress so far with it. She potties every time I tell her too outside and few accidents have happened inside the home. She holds her bladder all night, for I stick her in the crate until 5 in the morning and then take her out and she is allowed to sleep with me for a few more hours. She will go in tp the bedroom while I am in there and even though the carpet is the same kind as in the living room, she holds her bladder the entire time she is in there as well. So, why does she go so often in the living room? Because she doesn't dribble, and barely pee anything constantly, she doesn't have those signs of an UTI. She has always been this way and up until I started gating her in the kitchen for short time periods at a time, I've learned that the living room is the only place she constantly likes to pee. There is no blood, no fever, or dehydration.
So, do you think she likes to pee so much in the living room because she carpet now smells like our own personal bathroom?

But, I wanted to update this and say that she is actually starting to improve since I began confining her to the kitchen or her crate. She's learned very quickly about going outside and has _finally_ began whining at the door. Right now she only whines at the door if I am in the kitchen with her. (I take her out the door in the kitchen.) But that is a start. She had two accidents yesterday in the kitchen and a few the day before as well, but those accidents were my fault because I was busy and she couldn't hold it in anymore. They were huge puddles. But, I allow her to play in the living room she will randomly squat to pee a smallish amount really fast before I can even do anything about it. I strongly disbelieve it is a uti though based on her behavior.

Adding this to the first post.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

If the urine stains were not cleaned correctly, she may be attracted to those spots or the basic area again. Household cleaners do not work well enough, even if they say they are for pet stains. We humans may think they clean the mess, but, a dog's nose is much stronger than ours and they can still smell it. Enzymatic cleaners are what is needed. They actually break down the enzymes in the urine so nothing is left behind. 

The problem is, if you clean a stain with a regular cleaner first, it migth "set" the stain, so that when you do use an enzyme cleaner, it doesn't work.

So, yeah, if the dog can still smell the traces from previous accidents, she is likely to think those are acceptable spots to pee in again.


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## Malasaurus (May 2, 2013)

I got Dinah when she was 7months old, and she wasn't potty trained either.

It requires time and patience, and a lot of cleaning. Take her out every couple of hours, on her leash, to the same spot and give her the "go potty" command. Praise her like crazy when she does it. Give her treats, or a special toy. If you catch her in the act of peeing in the house, pick her up and take her outside and reward her there if she finishes up. If she doesn't really know what "go potty" means yet, you should try only saying "go potty" as she's in the process of doing it, and then praise her and treat her for it. She'll start to associate the word with the action and then you can start giving her the command when she's not already going.

Keep her out of the rooms she's already peed in as much as possible, and if you can hire a carpet cleaner or go rent a RugDoctor to get the smells out. It should help, I think. If you catch her peeing inside, clean it up with the enzymatic cleaners asap.

I think the process of crating her as you have been is fine, putting her back in for 10-15 minutes if she doesn't go, etc, if you stick with it. Eventually you can slowly decrease her time spend in the crate until her "after pee play time" is all the time. =)


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## Kobismom (Dec 17, 2012)

Now that you're using the crate, here's a technique we used that helped to housebreak Kobi rather quickly.

If you aren't able to watch her, crate or pen her. Period.

Use the rest of the house as a reward to her going potty outside... so...

Before letting her out of her pen/crate, take her outside. 

If she goes, then her reward is to play outside the pen/crate.
If she doesn't go, put her back in her crate (not the pen... you want to restrict her movement) for 15 mins.
Take her outside again. If she goes this time, then reward her with playtime outside the pen/crate.
If not, put her back into the crate

Continue this routine until she learns that being out and about in the house is a reward, not a bathroom! LOL


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## Pug_love (Nov 30, 2012)

She is rewarded every time she potties outside. It is very effective with her now. Lilly doesn't go in the crate at night, she holds it all through the night until around 5am and then take her out and she gets to sleep with me for another few hours and I take her out once waking up for good again. She is given a treat and she knows to potty every time she goes out now, which is much progress.

So Lilly holds in her bladder while she is confined. That's great. She will hold her bladder when gated to just the kitchen, that's also great! But, when I try to reward her for pottying outside with a treat and then giving her freedom to be in the living room with me.. it is a disaster. I tried this morning to let her in here with me. I took her out as soon as we got up, she used the bathroom, both peed and pooped. So I let her out of the kitchen to play in the living room with me. Not even 15 minutes later she peed on the carpet without any warning. She gave me absolutely no warning that she was going to pee. She was just playing and all of a sudden without any sniffing circling, or trying to find the right spot, she squatted, peed, and it gave me no time at all to try to prevent it. I don't know how to prevent this unless I just don't allow her on the carpeted areas. She won't use it on the kitchen floor, but she doesn't care where she goes in the living room.

Any idea why she won't hold it in the living room but she will if she is in the kitchen?

Any tips on how to clean a carpet cheap, but effectively to rid it of urine and stains so she cannot smell them?


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

If you reward her for pottying outside with a treat and time in the living room with you, you have to be RIGHT there next to her, watching her every move, so that you can PREVENT accidents by rushing her back out. 

Really, potty training is all about PREVENTING them from going where they shouldn't and only allowing them to go where they should. It's a hassle, it really is. It means you have to adjust your routine until you get this done. Simply put, if you allow her to have accidents, she isn't going to get it. But, if you want it done right, you need to prevent accidents at all costs.

And, when you can't closely supervise, you can confine her.

As for cleaning, I used to recommend white vinegar and water, because the acid in the vinegar causes the same type of chemical reaction as an enzyme cleaner would. But, I was informed that it doesn't kill all the bacteria, the way an enzyme cleaner would. 
The thing to be careful of is using a carpet cleaner that has a heat setting, because that could set the stain.

As for why, some dogs are very particular about what surface they like to go on. This is why dogs that were trained on puppy pads sometimes have a problem thinking it's ok to pee on anything "pad-like."


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## Malasaurus (May 2, 2013)

It takes time. She might just not be ready yet, to move on to the other parts of the house. Maybe she's just too into the habit of going there or the smell is too strong. I would keep her out of the potty zones in the rest of the house for a few weeks. You want to set her up for success as much as possible, and right now it looks like the temptation to go in the rest of the house is too strong to resist just yet. So give her a few weeks of no accidents in the rest of the house before giving her some short trial runs in the other areas, and gradually increase the time. And expect accidents, period, and always be vigilant about protecting against them. Once she's around a year old and/or has a few solid months of no accidents under her belt, you can let your guard down and assume she's trained.


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## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

Pug_love said:


> I still don't believe she has UTI. In fact, the only time she pees often is when she is in the living room. Just the living room. I can gate her in the kitchen when I am busy and she will hold it the entire time and has been making excellent progress so far with it. She potties every time I tell her too outside and few accidents have happened inside the home. She holds her bladder all night, for I stick her in the crate until 5 in the morning and then take her out and she is allowed to sleep with me for a few more hours. She will go in tp the bedroom while I am in there and even though the carpet is the same kind as in the living room, she holds her bladder the entire time she is in there as well. So, why does she go so often in the living room? Because she doesn't dribble, and barely pee anything constantly, she doesn't have those signs of an UTI. She has always been this way and up until I started gating her in the kitchen for short time periods at a time, I've learned that the living room is the only place she constantly likes to pee. There is no blood, no fever, or dehydration.
> So, do you think she likes to pee so much in the living room because she carpet now smells like our own personal bathroom?
> 
> But, I wanted to update this and say that she is actually starting to improve since I began confining her to the kitchen or her crate. She's learned very quickly about going outside and has _finally_ began whining at the door. Right now she only whines at the door if I am in the kitchen with her. (I take her out the door in the kitchen.) But that is a start. She had two accidents yesterday in the kitchen and a few the day before as well, but those accidents were my fault because I was busy and she couldn't hold it in anymore. They were huge puddles. But, I allow her to play in the living room she will randomly squat to pee a smallish amount really fast before I can even do anything about it. I strongly disbelieve it is a uti though based on her behavior.
> ...


I don't meant to sound harsh, but if she is having multiple accidents per day because you're not taking her out in time, then you are going to make VERY slow progress and you risk her learning that the kitchen is also an acceptable place to pee. The whole goal here is preventing accidents. Eventually the dog will learn that the only option is outside, but in order for that learning to happen, it has to be true that inside isn't an option. The more you let your dog have accidents, the more she is rehearsing the behavior you don't want. These accidents have consequences, unfortunately. 

I agree that the smell in the living room is probably a problem. If I were you I would be cleaning everything extremely thoroughly with a lot of Nature's Miracle and I would be taking a few days off work to practice CONSTANT VIGILANCE.


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## victorino545 (Apr 8, 2013)

Our pup (5 mos) kind of went through the same thing. Then I read where their brain doesn't necessary get inside verses outside. I also think because where we got him from they used potty pads so he couldn't wan't getting it. Same like you we would tell him potty and he would go.But we would bring him back in and like 15 mins later he would pee. He would hold it all night. So we went back to "Potty 101" and did not give him any freedom unless we were watchng and we shampoo the carpets. I think he has finally got it, no accidents for about 10 days now. We leave the patio door open so he can run out and seems to be working great.


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