[DaliBoxer]

My boyfriend and I have a five month old male pup named Duke. We've tried our darnedest to house train this puppy, but nothing seems to work. He goes pee and poop whenever we take him out (a majority of the time), but sometimes a couple minutes after we bring him in the house there's a good chance of catching him laying another turd or making another puddle! We've tried crate training him, but that hasn't stopped him from going in the crate. He does fine at night and does alright when we leave him during the day, but sometimes after a couple hours we'll come back to find him splashing around in his mess. Puppy pads didn't work one bit, they ended up in shreds all over the house.

Can anyone give us any suggestions to help us train our puppy, and maybe a few tips at scolding him for bad behavior? Thank you!

 

[Barbs2Ks]

Have you had the vet check him?  Maybe there is a medical reason for his problems.  Wish I could be of more help.

 

[southerngirls]

My first question about crate training is-how big a crate does he have and how much room is in that crate? He should only have enough room to stand up, walk in a circle and lay down. If he has more room than this, that could be a contributing factor. Also alot of boxers suffer from seperation anxiety and that could also be a factor of why he is peeing and pooing in the kennel. I have one girl that will pee or poo in the house if left uncrated, thuoght she is 100% house trained-and this is due to anxiety.

My second question would be how often is he fed/water? Does he have access to food and water 24/7? or is he limited? If he is free fed/watered then that also could be the problem. i dont free feed or water my girls. I make sure they have enough water intake, but i monitor it so i know when they will need to go. They get fed 2 times a day, for a younger puppy i would feed 3 times daily.

 

[debo]

I'd try leaving him outside just a little bit longer. Debo has a tendency to "go" twice before he's finished. He'll pee and then a couple minutes later, go again. Sometimes the same with pooping. We keep him out there a little longer and that seemed to do the trick. It could be something else though, that is just from my experience.

 

[DaliBoxer]

Thank you for the help!

Duke's crate is pretty large, he has room to circle around a little bit and it's pretty tall. We're starting to watch his water intake. I have a Dalmatian as well that drinks like a camel and I think he's picking up on it.

Another thing I forgot is that sometimes he does this "walking-pee" thing; I'll go through the kitchen and find a nice little trail of where he peed, almost like he just can't hold it. I would take him to the vet to see if he has a bladder problem, but at the moment I just don't have the money!

 

[bubba]

The new little puppy that we got, Jet, we have to let him stay out a bit longer the first couple times after we get home because he seems to accumulate more functions as in he has a lot of poop cooped up lol. But he does have to use it a lot thats because he will drink water non stop and it goes right through him. But i would look at the crate you have andif it is too big he might make a mess because he has enough room to walk around it. And as the others said if he is doing this a whole lot then you might want to get him checked out. Good luck and hope he gets it down....

 

[ZaraBoxie]

It doesnt seem right for him to defecate his box (Den), they normally don't do it unless they absolutely can not hold on  or they have diarrhoea or something.  Are you being consistent with the times you let him out for his business eg straight after meals, before going into the box, before play etc.  You could keep a log (excuse the pun) and see what pattern is being followed and that will arm you with some good data if things appear abnormal and you visit the vet.  You indicated that he does it more after you have been out for only a couple of hours.  Maybe you can consider putting the crate in the laundry (or somewhere safe) with some newspaper outside the crate so he has somewhere to go and be praised.  Maybe make sure you clean his crate thoroughly so no bad scent is left to encourage bad behaviour.  There is so much on this topic, it has probably all been said much better than me.  Making sure the pup concentrates on potty in one area will help reinforce through praise, the idea that potty is in that spot and not elsewhere like the house or crate.

On correction:

No matter how pissed off you get, don't do anything physical with the pup in his crate (like dragging him out by the collar).  Remember the crate is his safe haven but on the other hand he needs to know you are not happy eg bad poo inside or bad poo box!  Keep the phrases short/simple and intonations to suit.

You could get accidents up to a year or more (hey there a slow maturer - infantile to senile).   If you are trying to be regular with potty every hour on the hour, after naps, play sessions and meals in a regular spot (with heaps of praise) you should see some improvement/reliability.

Hope some of this waffle helps.
Michael

 

[ZaraBoxie]

I think Zara must have been reading this post because last night she did the biggest pee all over our bed.  I couldn't believe it and when I called her into the room, she slinked away as quilty as sin.  These boxers are always full of surprises and not all of them nice ones grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[amberto]

also - make sure you are timing your corrections correctly. if you don't see your dog peeing or pooping in the house, do not punish him.  if you see him about to do it yell "NO!" or whatever words you are using loud enough to startle him.  this should stop him from peeing and then quickly get him outside.  once he does the peeing/pooping outside, praise him.  we even used treats everytime betty went to the bathroom outside (although she started refusing treats after she pooped, don't think she liked to eat after she did that).  it took us a while to potty train betty.  does he tell you that he has to go by scratching at the door?  we started bell training betty and that really turned our potty training problems around.  our issue was that she didn't know how to tell us she had to go out, so once we gave her a way how, she got a lot better.  good luck!

 

[JessiesMom]

I'd try leaving him outside just a little bit longer. Debo has a tendency to "go" twice before he's finished. He'll pee and then a couple minutes later, go again. Sometimes the same with pooping. We keep him out there a little longer and that seemed to do the trick. It could be something else though, that is just from my experience.

we recently found this out about Jessie also... When we get home from work, she will pee once and poo twice... We only realized it because my neighbors were outside when we were going back into the house so we stopped to talk and jessie pooped on the lawn after she had already pooped...  So the next day we took her for a longer walk and she has been going twice when we get home every day for a few weeks now.

 

[Kate]

I agree with having a schedule to feed, water and go outside.  If he's going right after you bring him back in then stay out ten minutes more or until sufficient time has past to let him completely relieve himself.  Boxer's are so easily distracted that I think they just don't get finished with one go.  You could also try taking him out every two hours, as soon as he wakes up from a nap, or within 1/2 hour of eating and drinking if not sooner.  If he is drinking then he's going to be peeing soon after.  Good luck.