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Hi all,
I apologize for the blunt topic title, but I figured I would get straight to the point.
Approximately two and a half weeks ago I got a male golden retriever, named Chance, who just turned 14 months old on the 15th of February. The previous owner was a single mother so Chance doesn't have much training, if any. He has quite a few bad habits that need to be worked on, but first and foremost I need to get him house trained.
The previous owner gave me all of the things she had bought for Chance, including a fairly large crate\kennel. But it's too large to keep anywhere except in my unfinished basement. Which, although rare, is where he goes when everyone leaves the house. Simply because he's new and I don't yet trust him to be left by himself without destroying the house or being a bully to our other dog. He's not aggressive, just playful. But our other dog, Copper, is 11 years old and she's never been the most playful dog so she gets fairly annoyed with him. Anyways, because his crate is too large to keep in an easily accessible area crate training him isn't a possibility.
The previous owner told us that when Chance had to go potty he would nudge the door handle to let her know. Unfortunately, his signal doesn't work very well at my house, but only because he nudges every door handle he can find, at random, whether he has to go potty or not. So, I bought a string of bells to hang from a particular door that our other dog uses to tell us when she needs to go potty. After about a day of calling him over to the bells, ringing them myself, and asking Chance "potty? potty?" he knows what the bells are for. Now, instead of nudging every door handle in sight he rings the bells every few minutes. Chance is like "the boy who cried 'wolf'" because he rings the bells so often and he doesn't go potty every time you take him outside. Obviously, I'm not taking him outside every time he rings the bells but he is still going outside about a dozen times a day not counting his walk.
Thankfully, he pees outside with no problem, but pooping on the other hand...
In the roughly two and a half weeks I've had Chance he has only pooped outside twice, and only one of those times was in my yard; the other time was on a walk. When he poops inside I don't reprimand him for it. I deposit his poop outside in his designated potty area then immediately bring him outside and let him smell it while it's still fresh. This has not worked at all. On top of all of that when he potties outside I give him a lot of praise so he knows that's what I want him to do and that's where I want him to do it.
So, in summary, I've got Chance to pee where I want him to and praise him when he does. But he poops in the house, and signals that he has to go potty every couple of minutes even though he doesn't have to go. Most importantly, what can I do to get Chance to stop pooping on my floors? And what can I do to get him to signal only when he has to go potty? And not every few minutes just because he wants to go outside and investigate the yard.
Frustratedly,
CorsairFreak
I apologize for the blunt topic title, but I figured I would get straight to the point.
Approximately two and a half weeks ago I got a male golden retriever, named Chance, who just turned 14 months old on the 15th of February. The previous owner was a single mother so Chance doesn't have much training, if any. He has quite a few bad habits that need to be worked on, but first and foremost I need to get him house trained.
The previous owner gave me all of the things she had bought for Chance, including a fairly large crate\kennel. But it's too large to keep anywhere except in my unfinished basement. Which, although rare, is where he goes when everyone leaves the house. Simply because he's new and I don't yet trust him to be left by himself without destroying the house or being a bully to our other dog. He's not aggressive, just playful. But our other dog, Copper, is 11 years old and she's never been the most playful dog so she gets fairly annoyed with him. Anyways, because his crate is too large to keep in an easily accessible area crate training him isn't a possibility.
The previous owner told us that when Chance had to go potty he would nudge the door handle to let her know. Unfortunately, his signal doesn't work very well at my house, but only because he nudges every door handle he can find, at random, whether he has to go potty or not. So, I bought a string of bells to hang from a particular door that our other dog uses to tell us when she needs to go potty. After about a day of calling him over to the bells, ringing them myself, and asking Chance "potty? potty?" he knows what the bells are for. Now, instead of nudging every door handle in sight he rings the bells every few minutes. Chance is like "the boy who cried 'wolf'" because he rings the bells so often and he doesn't go potty every time you take him outside. Obviously, I'm not taking him outside every time he rings the bells but he is still going outside about a dozen times a day not counting his walk.
Thankfully, he pees outside with no problem, but pooping on the other hand...
In the roughly two and a half weeks I've had Chance he has only pooped outside twice, and only one of those times was in my yard; the other time was on a walk. When he poops inside I don't reprimand him for it. I deposit his poop outside in his designated potty area then immediately bring him outside and let him smell it while it's still fresh. This has not worked at all. On top of all of that when he potties outside I give him a lot of praise so he knows that's what I want him to do and that's where I want him to do it.
So, in summary, I've got Chance to pee where I want him to and praise him when he does. But he poops in the house, and signals that he has to go potty every couple of minutes even though he doesn't have to go. Most importantly, what can I do to get Chance to stop pooping on my floors? And what can I do to get him to signal only when he has to go potty? And not every few minutes just because he wants to go outside and investigate the yard.
Frustratedly,
CorsairFreak
