How can I housebreak an adult rescue dog?

[frogmarch]

My husband and I love Tyrone, the little dog (the vet says he's a poodle or poodle mix, but till we groomed him, it was hard to tell what he was) we adopted from the pound a couple weeks ago. He's neutered and in good health, except for an ear infection that our vet has been treating him for. The infection is gone now, I think, because Tyrone seems very happy and is quite playful now. The pound vet said Tyrone was anywhere from 1-3 years old, but our new vet said he's at least 5.

He's very gentle, sweet and friendly, both with people, young and old, and with other dogs. He never barks (well, he said "boof!" once, but that was all), whines or growls, and he doesn't snap or bite, even when he's struggling to escape when I'm putting in his ear drops. Except for his habit of stealing Kleenexes from the bathroom wastebasket and chewing them to shreds, his only other bad habit, besides running the other way when he's called, is pooping (and sometimes peeing, I think, although that might have been my son's two small male dogs when they were here at Christmastime) on the floor. My son enclosed a small part of our backyard with a fence when he was here, and it's easily accessible from our attached garage. I put Tyrone outside a lot, but he still poops on the dining room carpet, and he does it at different times, not at any particular, set time. I haven't caught him in the act yet, but I'm pretty sure it's Ty's poop and not my husband's, since, to my knowledge, Mr. froggy has never done that.

Help! How can we housebreak Tyrone? My husband and I never hit our pets (never did our kids either) or rub their noses in anything, but that doesn't mean we're going to put up with Tyrone doing his business in the house. We aren't.

[MadMaddie]

1. Do you have Tyrone on a schedule?

For example my Max and Maddie are walked at 7am, Noon, 4-5 pm and 10pm.

Maddie has a leaky bladder so she goes down a couple of more times.

Do you walk Tyrone? We find that when we walk them they tend to poop on the walk. If it's just you going outside with Tyrone in the backyard you should walk around with him.

If he likes to chase a ball or something toss it for him and that can get him to the point where he can poop.

Don't give up on him. He is adjusting and he will get better. He is getting used to his new home and his new mommy and daddy.

If all of the suggestions from DU don't work talk to your vet or find a good trainer.

Thanks for taking Tyrone in!!

[frogmarch]

3. No, but a schedule sounds

like a very good idea. Until my son built the fence, my husband and I did leash-walk Tyrone every hour or so, till 10 or 11 pm, but he only peed a few times during the day, and he only pooped once, and that was for my husband.

We play ball with him a few times a day for quite a while each time, and then put him outside, hoping he'll poop, but he seems to save it for when he comes in and we're not looking. We also put him out after every one of his "wild hares," as we call his gleeful scooting and tearing around, but no luck with him pooping then either.

We won't give up on him. He's such a precious doggy, and he really tries to please us. He's the only dog we've ever known that hugs, grasping us tightly with his front legs and paws and pressing against us when he thinks we're going to set him down. Tyrone is really a snuggler and seems to love all the attention he's been getting. When our kids and grandkids were here for Christmas, he got a lot of lovin' from everyone, and had a great time playing with their dogs.

We wish we could have adopted all the other pound pooches, and kitties too, that were at the pound, but we're glad we could save one, anyway. If we ever came into money, we'd spend it trying to help animals.

[IndyOp]

2. My best suggestion: Keep him on leash, attached to you or your husband at all times

except when he is in the backyard or when he is in a crate where he won't poop. This can be an intense experience, but the idea is to make sure that you see when he is starting to do the deed and get him outside immediately. Keep him from going inside and praise and reward him for going outside. Potty training can be impossible if you don't see him in the act and if he is attached to you or your husband at all times then you will for sure have plenty of opportunities to show him exactly what you want him to do.

:hi:

[frogmarch]

4. Great advice! Thanks!

Tyrone likes to follow my husband or me around anyway, so I'm sure he won't mind following us on the leash. I don't know why neither of us had thought of keeping him on his leash so we could catch him pooping. Like we'd always done when house-training puppies, we will say "Outside!" when we see him start to poop or pee, and take him outside immediately. We will reward him with praise and bring him inside as soon as he's done, so that at first, till he gets the hang of things, he will think of the yard as only his toilet, and not somewhere to simply hang out. Bringing him inside right after he goes is something we've been trying to do, but since he doesn't go very often, we end up bringing him inside even when he doesn't. The dog-training process has been made harder by the fact that both my husband and I have bronchial pneumonia. Since he has COPD on top of it, it's mostly me who's been pulling doggy duty.

Tyrone won't like sleeping in his pet carrier tonight, instead with us, but the Mystery Pooper - a.k.a. Mr. Re-pooper - must be stopped. :-)

[IndyOp]

9. I hope you and your husband feel much better soon! Ty sounds like an amazing

little love - based on your posts in this thread - and will love pleasing you as soon as he figures out what you want him to do.

:hug:

[XemaSab]

5. Take him outside about once every hour and a half or two hours

wait patiently outside until he goes.

If you see him going inside, march him outside and wait again until he goes.

[frogmarch]

7. Last night I set the alarm

to go off every 2 hours, and I took Ty from the carrier and took him outside on the leash and walked him around his enclosure till he went, which he did almost right away each time I took him out, at least a squirt. Then I cuddled and praised him and brought him back in. I feel lots more optimistic today that he's going to catch on. He didn't make a fuss in the carrier, but he's a quiet dog to begin with.

[undeterred]

6. Positive reinforcement works.

When my last dog was a puppy I spent the first few days walking him around the neighborhood. He didn't take a dump until I'd had him out for several hours, but when he did I made a big deal about it. Lots of praise! It was at the north end of the empty lot behind my apartment. For the rest of his life he always would head toward that spot to go.

Weirdly, my current dog (who is 8 months old) will go poop on papers I leave down, but he has never pooped on the neighborhood walk. He always goes when I take him to the woods or the dog park. I don't scold him when he has an accident in the house and I do praise him whenever he goes outside.

I don't think the old school notion of rubbing their nose in poop ever worked (though I heard that when I was a child). From what I can tell, dogs think poop is interesting and it doesn't smell bad to them!

[frogmarch]

8. Yes, most dogs love praise, don't they?

What you wrote about your experiences clearly shows that dogs, like people, are different from each other, and can have different preferences. I hope that the better we get to know Tyrone and he us, the better we'll be able to work together on things, including the potty issue. My husband and I are very calm and patient people, so I think we'll succeed eventually. I hope so!

The thought of rubbing a pet's nose in poop about gags me. It had never dawned on me that dogs might find poop interesting, even though they always seem to like sniffing it, but I'll bet you're right - they do! So, if it's true, then rubbing their noses in it after they've done it might seem to them like a reward. :-0

[MadMaddie]

12. You are right dogs find other dogs poop interesting

My Max is the grossest of them all....if it is really interesting he will actually take a little taste....blech...no kisses for poopy mouth until those teeth are brushed... He also is a fan of goose poop...yep...especially if it is sitting on top of fresh snow....already for the picken...again...yuck..

[MiniMe]

10. Use a crate.

You can use a crate as a positive experience, I feed my fosters in the crate so they have something positive to associate with it. Dogs will usually not soil their bedding. Don't punish the dog inside, including yelling at it, until you establish that outside is a good place to go. Wait the dog out, and when s/he goes potty, make a fool out of yourself praising the dog and giving it treats. After that happens, you can express displeasure when the dog goes in the house. I housetrained a puppy mill dog that way who they told me would be extremely difficult to housetrain. Done in 10 days. Same thing with a dog who came to us saying she was impossible to housetrained. 2 days for her. Patience is the key. Using the crate works best, especially if you work. You can take the dog from the crate straight outside, if they don't pee, back into the crate and try again 15 minutes later. When they go potty, they get to stay out of the crate and play and get cuddles. I'm not using the crate for punishment, but rewarding them for going outside. The crate is just a way of controlling the situation. As somebody else mentioned, keeping them attached to you with the leash is another part of the method. Like I said, most important is not to punish until a place to go is established. I have seen dogs come down with uti's from trying to hold it in, or they try to go off to a place where you won't find it to pee.

Just my rescue experience here, I have housetrained a lot of dogs in the last 6 years. Enjoy her, she is beautiful.

[frogmarch]

13. We have a pet carrier

that we bought to safely take him with us on a 200-mile road trip last week, and he seemed to like being in it just fine, so last night I put him in it to keep him from leaving surprises on the floor during the night. He didn't seem to mind being in it, but he was really happy when I let him out this morning and took him outside to go, which he did right away )and got loved up for it. :-) ) I kept him by me all day, on the leash when he was awake, and on on my lap or on his cushion by my feet when he was asleep, and every hour and a half I took him outside and walked with him till he went, and then loved him up for going, whenever he did, and then brought him in. The pet carrier seems to be working the same way a crate would - which, so far, is great.

Thanks very much for your helpful advice. :thumbsup:

[catgirl]

11. Feed him his last meal earlier

I feed my dogs twice a day. As soon as we wake up, and at 4:00 P.M. This way, they have it out of their systems
for the night. Louis stopped waking me up at 3 in the morning when I started this schedule.

Your little guy is probably too polite to bark and wake you up. He thinks he's doing the right thing by pooping and
leaving you alone (to sleep). Try it, it works!

Btw, you two make a great pair. :-)

On edit: if he hasn't been crate trained at this point, I wouldn't do it. You'll be punishing him and he won't understand
why, which can make the situation even worse- especially if he's sensitive.

[frogmarch]

14. Good idea, and I did just that.

I fed Tyrone his last meal of the day at 3:45ish today, and I think doing that will probably help with the potty situation. I wish I'd have thought to try earlier feedings when our little shih tzu and bichon were still alive, because for the almost 16 years of their precious lives, I slept on the sofa in the family room so I could be close to the back door to let them out when they needed to go - which was never at the same time, of course. Fritty, the bichon, wasted no time in doing her business (sometimes a couple times a night) and wanting back inside, but Flower, the shih tzu, liked to sit on the patio after he went, and gaze longingly at the stars. My husband always joked that Flower, who looked like an ewok, was waiting for the mother ship. We really miss our powder puff and dust mop, and because losing them 4 and half years ago made us so sad, we weren't going to ever have another dog.

Tyrone must have had a pet carrier in his former life and liked it okay, because he went into his carrier on his own accord a little while ago, and took a little nap.

(We named him Tyrone, because Tyrone was Flower's invisible friend. When Flower was a tiny baby, he barked when he heard someone on TV say the name, so we said it a couple times a day from then on, just to get a rise out of him. He was so cute when he pursed his lips and said "Ruff!" on hearing the name.)

[MadMaddie]

16. How is Tyrone doing?

Hope all is well!!

[northernlights]

15. crate training

Hitting, rubbing nose in pooh, all bad.

Have him live temporarily in a comfortable crate, large enough to stand & turnaround, with toys, chewies, blanket, water, etc. His den.

During the day, crate him for several hours at a time, then take him out to pee. Dogs generally won't pee or poo in their "den." If he pees, keep him out and play with him for half an hour or so, then back to the crate. If he doesn't pee, put him back in the crate for a while a try again.

Puppies can hold their pee starting after 3 months for 1 hour/month of age. Grown dogs can safely hold for 8-9 daytime hours.

With an adult, I'd try starting 4 hours crated, then out at lunchtime, then 4 hours, then out for evening, then overnight crated. Then he will figure it out.

It's important, too, to feed on a schedule and take him out morning and evening immediately after eating to poo.