[JordaanDMC-12]

Hey everyone, I'm brand spanking new to this forum. I have a German Shepard, Pembroke Welsh Corgi and a Bichon Frise. All of which are about 2 years old and all boys.

These dogs haven't had any other real training other than sit and down and no and to relieve themselves outside. But they are starting to become a big pain. ESPECIALLY the Corgi.

The German Shepherd was the first to come to our house and he was such a good dog! Listened and never had an accident in the house after the potty training. Everything was going well until the problem child came and that's the Corgi. He is my sisters dog and with her he is pretty good. But with my mom, dad and myself he's a nightmare. He's pees in the house all the time, we've caught him in the act many times and we did the whole "put his nose in the pee and spank him thing" but he could seriously care less, he does it anyways. It's gross sitting on the couch and smelling dog urine. They pee on everything in our backyard. We have our cars back there sometimes and they pee on the wheels, all three of them. They pee on the walls too! The whole pee thing started with the Corgi too! He taught the Shepherd and the Bichon these bad habits. And it makes me so angry that this happened.

The Corgi barks and barks and barks, and when we play ball with our Shepherd he plays too, but has no intention of going after the ball, just snapping at the Shepherd and biting his neck, which ticks off the Shepherd and results in fights sometimes. If we open a room door he shoots in as fast as he can, or if he is outside and we want him to stay there but open the door he shoots in .

Every time I try and attempt to train each of them, I feel like I'm talking to a wall. I feel as though they don't take me seriously. ALSO the Shepherd thinks he is the alfa and that needs to stop, but I have no idea how to push him back down in his place. The Bichon too, he barks at stupid stuff, and when we tell him "NO" and to stop braking he keeps going and going. He doesn't listen. Neither of them do. I'm so desperate, it's horrible having dogs that don't listen and then walking into a house that smells like pee, I feel like they've taken the house from us and it's their playground. I can't trust them to be by themselves for fear of coming home to a huge pee stain or a big pile of baked goods. It's so frustrating. I don't know how to get to them. please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TooneyDogs]

You've got alot of training issues and the best thing you could do is enroll in a basic obedience or good manners class. That will give you the control you need for most training issues.

I suspect your biggest problem is the housetraining? First, you need to clean the house thoroughly with an enzyme cleaner that kills the smell. Then, it's back to housetraining 101. No more unsupervised freedom in the house. They need to be crated or confined when you can't watch them. There really isn't any other method that will work....you have to be there when it happens in order to train them.

Take them out every hour to relieve themselves. Why every hour? Dogs will relieve themselves every 70-90 minutes so, you need to get ahead of that schedule. Lots of praise and treats for going in the right place.

 

[rosemaryninja]

Good suggestions from Tooney... I would also read up on NILIF and practice it religiously with every single dog. http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm This has to be consistently practiced by every member of the household.

Putting his nose in the pee and spanking him doesn't help housetrain him at all... think about what you are trying to achieve with this. The smell of pee = punishment? Is that really what you want him to learn? No, you want him to learn that peeing outdoors is better than peeing indoors. So you take him outdoors on a regular schedule, before he has the chance to pee indoors, and reward him when he goes outdoors instead. While he's indoors and unsupervised, he needs to be crated.

Your crates need to be only large enough for your dog to stand up and turn around in it. I'm aware this sounds cruel, but your dogs should not spend a prolonged amount of time in this space - only when you cannot supervise them. In other words, the amount of time they spend crated is entirely up to whether you can supervise them or not. The crate needs to be this size so that the dogs do not pee or poop in them. If the space is too large, they will soil their crates, thus defeating the purpose of the crate in housetraining.

 

[LadyD]

TooneyDogs is right. Also, pushing a dog's nose in his waste and hitting him is the wrong thing to do! If you don't catch him in the act he doesn't know why he's being punished. If you see the dog starting to "go" in the house you should say firmly NO! and clap your hands or maybe shake a medicine bottle with pennies in it to get his attention. Next, you must take him out immediately to the place you want him to use. Praise him and give him a treat for going in the right place. Like Tooney said, when the dog is inside you have to watch him closely or put him in the crate. This can be a lot of work with 3 dogs, I know. The whole household needs to be involved in the housetraining. It will really pay off in the end, trust me~~

 

[JordaanDMC-12]

Yeah, we're going to all have to engage in this. My sister might move to Los Angeles in a month or two and I have my fingers crossed cause then she's taking the Corgi with her.

I still need to work with the Shepherd though, because of the Corgi, he needs to be straightened out with house training all over again. They would be outside all day but we can only put them out in the morning because where I live it gets REALLY hot. It was 115 yesterday. The coolest it gets a night is 95. So during the day they're in the house but we try to keep them in the laundry room.

I heard of one person training their dog to ring a bell on the front door every time they needed to go outside. I thought that was pretty cool, i'd like to teach them something like this.

ALSO with the Bichon, he loves us and LOVES my mom, but we can leave him in our backyard too long because he crawls under the gate and to say the least we almost lost him twice. We don't even know but we open the front door to go someplace and he's sitting there. We don't understand why he keeps doing this and all we can do is just block it up. Is that good enough? Or are there measures we can take to stop this habit?

 

[TooneyDogs]

The bell idea works the same as barking/scratching/whinning to let you know that they have to go out but, you still have to teach them that going in the house is wrong otherwise, they won't ring the bell or bark.

Fixing the gate is the best option. If that's not possible, then you might want to look into a dog run or a tie out.