At what age (months) was your puppy 95% housebroken?

[GreatGazoo]

I had two at once and the female took a little longer than the male. My neighbor is on crutches with a broken knee and we are wondering how much it is affecting housebreaking of his 4 month old pup. In my notes mine were pretty good around 5 months of age.

[Duppers]

1. 5 months here.

And it was 100%. The kid, a female Lab, has a good bladder. The sweetie is almost 8 months old now.

Your neighbor has my sympathy, since I can relate somewhat-- I'm using a cane part-time now because of a pulled ligament. (Fell in the tub while bathing her.) Poor guy-- a broken knee, on crutches, and dealing with a younger pup!

[GreatGazoo]

5. It has been 5 years but I remember how tired I was during those first 3 months

The pups were on a quick cycle -- wired, sleeping, eliminating, wired, sleeping... etc

Trying to find the best way to help my neighbor. I can't imagine housebreaking from a 2nd floor apartment on crutches. I like the crating method given below but he won't do it.

[Scuba]

2. Both my last two pups were both 100% housebroken at 7 weeks plus one day.

When I brought them home I made them sleep in the kennel next to my bed. On their first nights each messed the kennel, which I cleaned in the morning. Neither ever - ever - made a mess in the house again.

I was taught this trick by an experience dog guy. He says it works every time. The theory is that because they're in the kennel they have to suffer their own mess and don't like it.

[Duppers]

3. Great kids you have there!

[Scuba]

4. The black died five years ago at age 14+. She was an awesome dog. The yellow is now almost 12 ...

... and is also one very sweet girl.

[GreatGazoo]

6. I like the crate method

I had two pups at once and the training on poop went much faster than urine. The female seemed not to get much warning before she needed to go. The male went straight to the middle of the pee pad the day he came home. Literally 5 minutes after I brought them home he was using the pee pad with the accuracy of a marksman.

The other part of the challenge was that they would play fast and aggressive with each other then suddenly separate and pee. I learned to grab which ever one hadn't pee'd first and take them to the location because it was too late for the first one.

Here are mine 5 years ago at almost 5 months of age:

[Scuba]

7. It's great to have a black and a yellow.

That way you have dog hair showing on ALL your clothes!

[bluedigger]

8. About three days after I brought her home at two months.

I put her in a crate, went to work, cleaned up her mess a couple times. There were a couple pee accidents the next few months, but that was it. I had to keep crating her while I was at work until eight months or so, though, because she tried to chew up the house.

[hobbit709]

9. Took mine about 15 minutes to figure out how the dog door works.

[Kingofalldems]

10. I found out having an older dog to 'mentor' the puppy

really helps. My present dog was housebroken at 9 weeks. He followed the older one around the yard and mimicked everything he did.

[2theleft]

11. About 12 weeks old for both of mine.

I did crate them when I was gone, but they slept in the bed with me at night and whenever I was home. I did put up puppy gates so they were always in the room where I was. Key for me was taking them out whenever they did something - i.e., wake up from nap - go outside, eat - go outside, play - go outside, training session - go outside. It felt like I lived outside, but it really worked. The max a really small pup should go without being given a potty break is an hour (I just read that somewhere trying to help my niece with her new pup). Then you can increase to 1.5 at about 3 months. (except for overnight, although, I think my pup had me up once a night for about 4 months maybe???). They say pups can hold it based on how many months old they are, but 5 hours for a 5 month old is a long time, IMO. The max I crated at that age was probably 4 years.

[TorchTheWitch]

12. I have to laugh at the "95%"

Being 95% housebroken is like being 95% pregnant. Either a dog or puppy is housebroken or it isn't. Any dog or puppy still having accidents in the house (so long as there is no underlying medical issue and the dog/puppy is let out to go to the bathroom often enough) is not housebroken and needs to go back to the crate.

the only housebreaking method anyone should use is crate training as it takes advantage of a dog's natural instinct to not go where it sleeps. Paper training is silly since it still teaches a dog that it is ok to to do their business indoors... of course they aren't going to really understand what the difference is between going on papers or pads and going anywhere else.

Some dogs learn faster than others. Who knows why. You can have the most intelligent dog on earth that was raised from the day it was born to have the most tidy living environment while diligently employing 100% consistency and doing everything exactly right in potty training and it still may take ages before they're housebroken. That's really rare though. The average dog can be completely housebroken in a week or two as long as the right method is used with 100% consistency with the right equipment of the right size (the crate).

I got my first Akita when he was probably about 6 weeks old (I didn't know then that a puppy needs to stay with it's mommy until at least 8 weeks of age), and he was housebroken in about three weeks. There were two or three accidents not long after that but that was because he had the runs really bad. There was also one time when I had that problem, and had to dash to the bathroom just as we were going to the door to go out having just taken him out of the crate. He piddled right in front of the front door while I was in the bathroom, and I was so proud of him that he had already learned he was to go outside to do his business.

After he got old and had to go to heaven, I got my second Akita having learned a HUGE amount during Kato's life. Boo I got from a good breeder at 8 1/2 weeks, and he was housebroken in about a week and a half. No accidents with him that I recall.

Since I got Yoshi when he was already 4 1/2 months old, he was already housebroken though the day I brought him home I watched him like a hawk while he prowled around the downstairs getting to know his knew home since I had a feeling that he might try to pee not grasping that my house was a "no pee/poop zone" the same as his old house. Sure enough, the second he tried to do the modified girlie squat that male puppies do to pee until they start leg lifting at around 6 months of age, I slipped my foot under his bum and touched him with the top of my foot which made him stand back up (and not pee), told him "no" and took him straight out the back door into the yard to go.

At first he was hesitant about going in the yard I think because I had only lost Boo to the bone cancer a few weeks before, and I'm sure Boo's pee scent was still strong to him in the yard. Once he peed though, I made a great fuss about what a good boy he was, though it took him a week or so to feel comfy about going in the yard. I think it was because I was out there with him, and my watching him made him nervous. I started letting him out in the yard and staying inside watching him through the window and would run outside and praise him the second he got done peeing. At first though, I thought it was Boo's scent still so strong in the yard that made him uncomfortable, so I got a paper towel and got a few drops of his pee on it by patting it on a spot he just wizzed on and put it in the part of the yard where Boo always did his peeing in the corner near the tree. Right away when he sniffed the paper towel Yoshi knew that area was the john, and as long as we lived there that's where he always peed. Just like Boo though Yoshi liked to keep his pee and poop areas separate, so (just like Boo) he chose the more private alcove at the side of the kitchen to do his pooping. Since he was already housebroken when I got him, I only needed to crate him until he was finally out of the El Destructo stage when I left the house. It was only when I first brought him home that he tested me in seeing if he could do his business indoors or not in this new home. That one time was all he needed to learn that there was no going to the bathroom indoors at my house either.

Granted, Akitas are probably the most "tidy" dog breed about their bathroom habits, but the average dog or puppy can be completely housebroken in a couple of weeks as early as 9 weeks old provided you're completely 100% consistent in the training and have a firm schedule of eating, drinking, sleeping and exercising that meshes with when they go outside to go to the bathroom. I didn't have to keep either Kato or Boo in the crate all the time during those weeks since dogs and puppies need to typically do their business about 15 or 20 minutes after a meal, after exercising, first thing after waking up after a night's sleep and after a big drink of water (which usually coincides with the exercising thing). They could be out of the crate after they'd already been out and done their business, but ONLY when I had eyes on them COMPLETELY. Take your eyes off them for 2 seconds, and that's all they need to make a potty mistake indoors before you can stop them.

The only difference in potty training with an adult dog and a puppy is that young puppies just need to do their business more frequently since they aren't yet old enough to be able to have developed the musculature to hold it as adult dogs can.

Like I said in the beginning of this long screed... for whatever mysterious reason some dogs just take longer than others before their housebroken. And they're either housebroken or they aren't just like a woman is either pregnant or she isn't... there is no such thing as being sort of housebroken or mostly or party housebroken. It is or it isn't.

Just be diligent and have patience. Eventually they'll get it figured out.

Here's an excellent article on housebreaking if you need it...

http://leerburg.com/housebrk.htm

[Mosby]

13. i use the close observation method

Never had any problems potty training without crates or pads but beagles are highly motivated by treats.

My first beagle, Bailey (my avatar) learned in about two weeks, by the time she was 8 weeks or so.

I trained my next beagle to go on command using classical conditioning, training him took longer because he was three months old when we got him from a disreputable breeder who had made no attempt to potty train his and another litter.

Because the training took longer the classical conditioning had a chance to kick in.