HELP dog litter training gone wrong

jennjack74 · 08-21-2006, 12:46 PM

I have a 7-1/2-month old female Boston Terrier who I have been attempting to litter train. When she was born she was put into a crate by the breeder with her food and water and newspapers to go to the bathroom on, so there is no way that I can kennel her. She messes her kennel and doesn't understand that she's not supposed to potty where she lives because that's what she was taught at the beginning of life. Anyway, I have been using a dog litter pan and dog litter, compressed paper pellets. She was doing amazingly good at first with just a couple accidents urinating. Now she won't use the box at all except for stooling some of the time. The pan is in the bathroom, and she knows she has to go in that room to potty because she doesn't have accidents anywhere else in my house. The problem is, she goes on the floor beside the box or not even near it. I don't know what happened. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

Curbside Prophet · 08-21-2006, 01:12 PM

Can you tell us why the dog can't be trained to eliminate outside? Regardless of her past, and with your effort, you can teach an old dog new tricks. It may take extra work on your part, but if you think you can...you can. It's all a matter of projecting that energy to your dog too. Maybe I don't understand your situation fully...you could be in a high rise building where indoor potty training is just easier, but for the greatest benefits to you and your dog, I would train her to eliminate outdoors. So please let us know why she must be trained to eliminate inside.

jennjack74 · 08-21-2006, 01:32 PM

I wanted to train her to go inside partly because I can't kennel her; therefore, she needs to have somewhere to go to the bathroom during the day while I'm at work. I can't expect her to hold it for 8 hours and let her run around the house - she's bound to potty somewhere. She knows she needs to potty "near" her box. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to why she may suddenly have an aversion to her box and want to potty beside it instead of in it.

LuvnMalinois · 08-21-2006, 02:42 PM

When my mom goes to work her dogs are left inside all day long until she comes home about 8 1/2 hours later. They do not go inside. They do wait for her to get home to potty.

luv4gsds · 08-21-2006, 02:43 PM

Quote:

I wanted to train her to go inside partly because I can't kennel her; therefore, she needs to have somewhere to go to the bathroom during the day while I'm at work.

There is the problem. If you let her have the run of the house with out someone to watch where she uses the bathroom then when she does goes she thinks it is okay to use the bathroom where ever she pleases. Once you start house training you are going have to stay up on top of it until she gets it. You can't let her have one accident where you don't want her to go. Because if you do you will have to start right back at square one with house training.

jennjack74 · 08-21-2006, 03:34 PM

She doesn't go to the bathroom wherever she pleases though. She knows the box is somewhere she needs to go potty. She doesn't have accidents anywhere in my house. She just doesn't want to seem to physically hop into the box anymore, instead goes next to it. I guess what my point is, is this - everything was going wonderfully with this method until about a month ago. Is there anyone else that litter trained their dog and it's going well? I put her in the bathroom with her box, a puppy bed and some chew toys and put up a baby gate. She gets fed and watered in the morning before I put her in the bathroom.

luv4gsds · 08-21-2006, 05:15 PM

You litter box train a puppy just like you would a kitten. The best way to do this is get a wired kennel big enough to put the litter box, food and water in. And put her in it.

Litter box training

jennjack74 · 08-22-2006, 09:09 AM

Thank you so much for that website! I will be getting the wire crate this weekend.

malteseluvr · 10-16-2006, 12:04 PM

[font="Impact"]Maybe you could try using puppy pads since you can't be home every second to let it out...... i know many people who are in the same situation and cant be home 24/7 to let the dog go to the bathroom outside and there dogs have gotten very used to the poddy pads and wont go to the bathroom any where else i hope that helped and good luck!

blackgavotte · 10-16-2006, 01:32 PM

I agree more with the last post too. Try pee pads, but I have to tell you, many dogs hang onto the remembrance of the feel and smell of the first surface they were trained to potty on as babies. If newspaper was used, even though I hate the thought that a breeder actually put her in a crate to do this, potty space, food and water together ( ugh ) poor little kid is pretty confused now. Try those pee pads, keep the litter pan but what I would do, is also put the newspapers around and outside of the litter pan, making her potty area actually larger and giving her the choice of using the pan, ( not all dogs feel comfortable using one ) the papers or the pee pad. I know that seems like a bit of overkill but eventually she may decide which she prefers and when you see she is consistent with that, remove the rest. Why not cancel that order for the large wire crate for now, and try this other method? If she is locked in a large crate and has to pee, poop, eat, drink and sleep in the same area, she may well become more confused and frustrated. Would we like to be kept in a very small room for long days where we had to poop, pee, eat and drink, sleep and just sit, I think not. Dogs are not instinctively dirty creatures, they try to observe cleanliness by their doggy standards. Why not think about this suggestion? Later on, maybe you will want to train her to go outside, maybe not. I personally always found it convenient that my smaller dogs were paper trained and outdoors trained, they were so good, they did not use the paper unless I was gone too long, it worked very well for me. Good luck.