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Housebreaking 6 month old male puppy

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  jdworth 
#1 ·
Hey everyone. This is my first time to actually post on here but I browse often. We have just gotten our second boxer, a male puppy who is now 6 months old. He is full german and was the runt of the litter which is why he was given to us. We've had him a little over a month and since then he has been doing really well. He has put on weight, plays well with our 8 year old female boxer and is very well adjusted. The only issue we've seen is with housebreaking. When we got him he had been outside some, in the garage some and in the house some. I know he has had confusion issues with knowing where to go, etc. Some days he will do great, and let us know he needs outside, then others it's as if he doesn't even try: he'll play outside for an hour then come in an pee in the floor. He's even pee'd on the sofa twice. We use a crate with him at night and he does great with it and we try to watch him for clues that he needs to go but like I said, he doesn't always give any. He also will start peeing in one spot and then start walking while he is going so there is a trail all around the house. Please share any secrets, tips of advice that you may have that would make this easier on us both. Thanks so much!
 
#2 ·
we put bells on our door and everytime you take the puppy out you show them to ring the bells. now she is a ringing machine with those darn bells, only problem is when we go somewhere other than our house we watch her very closely on hints of having to pee bc we dont take the bells with us.

also try taking him our every 45 minutes to an hour, i know he can hold it longer than that, but if you go out every hour give him a minute or two to walk around adn sniff and if he doesnt pee back inside, and if he pees praise and give treats.
 
#3 ·
I also put jingle bells on my door. I would show her to ring the bell with her nose, and we would go out. When she would potty she got a treat. At first she thought ringing the bell and taking a step outside meant a treat, so I had to be consistent with only rewarding when she rang the bell AND pottied. This process did not take long, and for the rest of her life she would ring the jingle bells with her nose when she needed to potty, and occasionally when something interesting was going on outside and she just wanted to check it out. Before the bells, she would just poop in any corner of the house regardless if i had just taken her out or not.
I have a baby boxer coming in a few weeks, and ringing the bells is going to be the first thing i teach her. It REALLY helped.
 
#4 ·
the bells changed things for Dually in about a week, she learned to ring those bells and boy does she love to ring them, and if she rings them once and you dont get a move on to go out, she keeps on ringing them with more and more assertion each time, its so funny. she also will ring them when she sees somethign going on outside she would like to join in, especially if she sees our neighbor Hope who lets them out for us, they love her and respect her age of 85.
 
#5 ·
Bell training is an excellent tool. If you do not already do so, make sure that you use the same way to take him out every time. Being that the he has been in different parts of the house the consistency has contributed to him not knowing where to go to potty. Decide on one place to have him and use the same route in taking him out. However, you may need to start over and use his crate even more and put him on a potty schedule simultaneously with the bell training. Schedules are necessary in the potty training process. If you cannot watch him 100% then he has to be in the crate and take him out at specific times, its good that he does well in his crate overnight. He will eventually learn to "hold it" until you let him out at your scheduled time and when you take him out, take him out on a leash ring the bell prior to going out the door and say "potty". Consistency in the schedule is key.
 
#7 ·
Fantastic suggestions already from so many...

I just want to add that we would mop up some of the urine with a papertowel and keep this in a zip lock back. (Only for a few days) And every time we took our male dog outside we would open the zip lock and have him smell the pee. Even toss it on the ground showing that is where we want him to go. We used a phrase too. You can use any kind of phrase. (Like the jingle bells) "Do your business!" "Make a gift" "Action Jackson!"

Our dog learned to go on command. We could say any place any time "Make a gift?" And he would wag his tail and make a pee. I want to add this took a super long time to train. It felt like months and months but worth it.
 
#8 ·
Thank you guys so much. I will try the bells on the door. I've never heard of that before so this should be interesting. We are consistant on the door we use to take him out and always tell him to "go potty". He seems very smart, but I also know that like a toddler, he gets busy and forgets until its too late. I guess what really makes it seem worse is when he doesn't wait to finish and walks through the house while still going potty. Never seen such a little guy have so much pee.
I know the fact that he was outside and inside before we got him, has hurt him as far as housebreaking goes, so patience is the name of the game. Thankfully, right before we decided to take him, we pulled up our flooring to put down new flooring and are now just waiting until he is better house broke before putting the new stuff down. You just forget how long training takes when you have an older, reliable girl like our Wendy :) Thanks again, I really appreciate the help!
 
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