wont ask to go out

[Oscar's Mom]

Oscar is 18 months and will not ask to go outside to do his business. So we are still having accidents. Any suggestions?

[Sue&Reu2]

Hi Oscar's Mom, my dachsie is almost a year and will go to the back door when he has to potty. Now, I have a beagle that lives outdoors so that may have help with Reuben wanting to go outside and check on her sometimes. I don't know when it clicked with him to go to the door other than the fact that it is where we went to EVERYTIME he went for a potty break. At 7mths he was still having accidents and I finally put a leash on him at all times and took him out every hour. It Worked - Finally - Thank Goodness!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm38.gif" border=0>

<font color="#00FFFF" font size="1">[This message has been edited by Sue&Reu2 (edited September 06, 2000).]</font>

[dutchman]

I would suggest the leash method. Oscar needs to be physically attached to you at all times when inside or in his crate when that is not possible. Watch him and at first sign he is about to go send him outside. Reward him when he goes outside. If he starts to have an accident while attached to you scold him while catching him in the act. Make sure all the old accident sites have been well cleaned with some odor neutralizing solution like Nature's Miracle. You might want to invest in one of the black lights to check for accident sites that still need more through cleanup.

Good luck,

Tom

[twix0699]

Twix finally caught on just a few weeks ago. I went to a hobby store and bought some bells-like Christmas bells-and put them on some yarn and hung it from the door knob. Everytime I took her out I rang the bells. It didn't take long for her to start touching the bells herself and I would just praise the heck out of her. The problem I was having was the same one that you have, she didn't know how to tell me that she wanted out. We have had very few accidents since I put the bells on the door and before that we were having them alot. Good luck to you both and let me know how it is going.

Teresa and Twix

[Mrs.F]

My Maggie will be 1 year old next Thursday and she has never, ever gone to the door to let me know she needed to go out. However, she sniffs, slinks away to a private corner, etc. so I've had to train MYSELF to watch the clock and watch her. (Of course it helps that she's not an only dog - If I wait too long between potty breaks, Penny will sometimes let me know that she needs to go out - but she seems to be part camel, she can hold it and hold it and hold it....)
I have resigned myself to keeping a regular schedule and as long as I'm faithful about those trips outside we don't have any accidents.

[dutchman]

Mrs. F, you made some very good points. Not all dogs will go to the door and scratch or bark to let us know when they need to go out. Part of the house breaking lessons that must be learned are learning how to read your individual animals and what type of a schedule you need to enforce. Learning to read the general signals is a necessary lesson for the owner and if you can't keep an eye on them then you need to contain them and not let them have the run of the house till they prove they have earned that tryst.

Tom

[Oscar's Mom]

Thanks for all the ideas. I do use Natures Miracle, I should own stock in it!

[Krista]

Rudy just gets antsy when he wants out. He usually starts to pace a bit. Then I ask him "Do you wanna go OUTSIDE?" and he runs to the door and prances there until I open it. Over the past month or so I have made him SIT before I let him out, in hopes that one day he will go to the door and sit if he wants out. I'll let you know if it kicks in.

I don't worry too much because he just holds it forever if I don't notice he wants out and I do let him out every two hours or so when I'm at home anyway. I would like to get him letting me know though, so that Roscoe will learn it from him since he isn't even trained yet, but we're getting there.

[Penny's Aunt]

My pup just comes & looks at me. No bark. No whine. Just ESP, I guess. I have the perfect bell to use by the door, but I can't find it. I just have to remember to take her out often enough, although she is very good. No accidents for over 2 months now!

But I am still going to use the bell trick. Some people say to touch the dog's paw to the bell to make it ring, & it takes 3-7 days for them to get the idea.

[twix0699]

I'm not bragging here or anything like that <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm41.gif" border=0> but it only took Twix a few times of me ringing the bell before she did it. I think it was because she was basically trained but just didn't know how to tell me and once I put the bells up and showed her how to work them she caught on. Also, she doesn't use her paw, she uses her nose to touch them. Not that that matters at all but thought it was interesting. I had several people tell me about the bells before I tried them because I didn't think it would work--silly me! <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm44.gif" border=0>
Teresa

[Dachsiedawgs]

Chester was housetrained by the time he was 7 months old, and he lets us know when he has to go out by going to the door and just sitting. If we don't jump up immediately, then he turns around & stares at us<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm22.gif" border=0> It took Maggie a little longer, or rather it took us a little longer to realize that she wasn't going to be like Chester! In fact, she actually comes up to us and puts her paws on our leg and then dances around. We used to think she was playing, then we'd find the evidence in a back bedroom!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm28.gif" border=0> We finally wised up and now we have them both on a regular schedule. However, when I see Maggie slipping down the hallway, I call her back. She may not be the angel we think she is! <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm34.gif" border=0>

[Wienergal]

Like Mrs. F and Penny's Aunt, I am one of those poor souls whose dogs don't tell them they want to go out. Oh, every once in a while, Peaches will give me a signal--which consists of one of the following: either sending me mental messages (which I do not get because hers are on such a low frequency... http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/rolleyes.gif ) or lying down somewhere within the general vicinity of the door, by which I mean, in the same room that the door is in.

So I too am a prisoner of schedules: The wieners go out five times a day, always at the same general time. And that seems to work unless there's an upset tummy involved. In which case, it's the antsy routine. Peaches, in particular, will begin to skulk about, even lower to the floor than usual, just aimless wandering. Then, when I say to her, "Peaches, do you want to go outside?" she will give me her adorable blank look. And out we go, whether she needs to or not.

I suppose it's a failing on my part, but there you have it.

[LisaH]

Annie isn't very good about telling us she needs to go out, either. The only time she's really clear is when I'm working in my office upstairs and she needs to poop in the late morning--she'll come to the bottom of the stairs and SHOUT up at me. I come to the bottom of the stairs, say "Do you want to go out?" and she'll run to the door.

Of course, sometimes this shouting means "Come play with me!" instead. Then I give her h*** for being the dog who cried wolf.

The rest of the time she'll just tend to disappear from the room when she needs to go, gravitating somewhere near the back door. We say, "Oh no, where's the dog?" and run for the kitchen, where we find her looking pathetic.