Toilet training problems

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FoxyPinkChick

Forums Novice
We are having some problems with Gimli and I was hoping someone could advise. He sleeps in the hall of our house and we don't use a crate, he has a bed. Would rather get some advice on how to continue this and not start crate training.
At night, we put newspapers down and he goes on them. We've had a few nights where he has gone through the whole night and we were just getting to the point of wondering if the newspaper should go.
During the day, he tends to ask to go outside either by standing at the door or whimpering.
When we are at work, he is in a different house but same as above applies.
We have not had too many accidents and they have mainly been our fault. Where we didn't see him asking or we hadn't lifted the newspaper and he went on that. And they have mainly been pee.
However this week we've had a number of incidents, in both houses, where he is pooing everywhere. We had one where he was in the sitting room with us and just went. He's also gone upstairs a few times. We know we are doing something wrong but aren't sure where to go from here. Any advice would be appreciated but as I say, we'd rather not go down the crate route, or get into a debate on its benefits :smile2: please help us!!
 
You need to limit his access...it doesn't have to be by crating. Dogs by nature are clean animals and hate to foul an area they consider their "den". From the behavior you are describing, Gimli doesn't yet view the upstairs as his den...to his mind it is an "outside territory" and therefore fair game for messing up. With a pup it is really important to introduce them to only one room at a time in your home...make sure he "sees" that room as part of his den/home before you expand the space he has access to. You can use baby gates to close off rooms or just close doors. And, once you are at the stage of opening up rooms where he has messed, be sure you clean them very thoroughly with a product that is made specifically for eliminating animal urine and stool odors...your typical household cleaners won't do the job (the area will smell clean to the human nose but not to a dog's) and he will remark or go on areas if they still smell of his previous accidents.

Trini
 
Oh this is so familiar. We had the hardest time housetraining Adam. I didn't get him until he was 14 weeks old and he went to the door that looked most familiar to him, which unfortunately was our front door, not the sliding glass door. That took a while to sort out.

I recommend keeping a journal of when you let him out and see what pattern develops. And if you can't watch him to keep him in a crate or x-pen :yes:
 
Thanks for the replies. He doesn't have free rein of the house. We've a stair gate and close all doors at night so he can't leave the hall. In the evening he is in the living room with us with the door closed. The only time he goes upstairs is after he's had breakfast and been out to go to the loo, he pops up to say hello to whoever us having a lie in! But it was then he had a mishap this morning. And I guess a couple of those recent accidents have been when we have forgotten to close the gate on the stairs so will definitely watch this.

What age should we leave the newspaper down at night till? Are we doing more training damage with that?
 
How old is Gimli?
I kept Gavin in the kitchen overnight until he was about 8 months old.
As far as the other, I potty trained him with an intensive week of out every hour to pee (I was home sick). I used bells on the door, too. But never let the pup out of your sight! And once he starts teething you need to keep him in sight for other reasons :) I used a pup potty (ugodog)in the kitchen while I was at work, that he still knows what it is for but chooses to hold it as long as he can. He sees to see it as a 'for when Mom isn't home' option.
 
He is four and half months old. We couldn't leave him in the kitchen at night cos he was eating our brand new presses! The hall is actually working out really well at night. He loves it and sometimes goes out during the day for a break from us. The nights are actually fine.
We were concerned that the accidents this week were a new thing and that he was regressing but now, after reading this, we think it's that we've not been as careful about closing the stair gate and staying with him as we were. He genuinely does ask to go out and we always bring him to the back garden so we just need to make sure that he is only in the hall or the living room, both of which he seems to consider his dens.
The incident in the living room, it was strange, he didn't seem to have control and barely even stopped playing. We now think that might be due to a worming tablet he had been given. All the other accidents were when he was loose in the house in areas he wouldn't be in a lot, so not his dens!
Thanks so much for all the advice.
 
It sounds like he's on the right path. As a puppy Honey had a few accidents like what you described. Just suddenly peed even though she was normally good about letting us know she needed out, I chalk it up to the fact that at 4 months if they're doing something they're excited about they might forget all about the need to go to the bathroom. I know my niece who's potty training right now is the exact same way, if you're not asking, she's not thinking about it!

I also recommend training him to ring a bell to let you know he needs out. The only time Honey regressed after we moved was when her bell got knocked to the floor for several weeks without me noticing. As soon as she had that back and I couldn't mistake her signal for "I want to go out" with whining for "I want to play" or "I'd really like some of that tasty food you have there" all the problems cleared up.

If he does go to the bathroom in front of you you can spend a few days keeping him on a leash when he's out of his "den" and near you. It forces a bit of a reset and stops him from having as much of a chance of just going while in the middle of playing. It was a big help as a middle step between crated and free roaming of a new room for us.

As for how long you need to keep the newspapers down...at 4 months when we got Honey, even when not trained yet she never had an accident overnight. So at 4.5 months your's should be right on the edge of holding it long enough. Might mean a few early morning runs outside before you're fully ready to awake however. At 5 and 6 months I'd get up around 5-6, run her outside and then let her nap for another hour with us in the bed.
 
Don't worry it's completely normal. For a while, Shay would whine at the door, go out and pee, and come in to poop. Then she started hiding it! She did grow out of it though, and she hasn't had an accident for quite a while!
 
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