My Puppy Pees In Her Crate & Around the House, Even Though We Take Her Out. How Do I Fix This?

Question:  We just got our field bred Goldie a few days ago and we're really struggling with potty training. We got her late in the development process (6 months old) and we also think she may have been subject to a bit of abuse and/or neglect earlier on. She was only 16 pounds when we picked her up, and not house broken at all. She also doesn't mind peeing in her crate or on her bed. We're trying to take her out as much as we can (every hour on the hour) but she's continuing to have accidents in the house. How do we start to correct her behavior?

Answer: Most if not all the time, dogs want to stay "clean". Unfortunately, if a pup is forced to messing due to various circumstances, they can change that and accept being "dirty". It makes housebreaking a lot harder. I think a few things in this case need to be looked at. It sounds like you are letting her out a lot and she's still having accidents. Understand that housebreaking is nothing more than developing an effective schedule or routine, taking into consideration when they eat and drink.

First question is how regulated is the water and food? My older dogs get access to water at will, my pups in training do not. I give them drinks as needed and also dictated by my ability to let them out on schedule.

Another question is, where are the accidents happening. If its in the kennel or crate, then you need to let the pup out more frequently (knowing when they last ate and drank). If it's in random places around the house then it's taking away that freedom to roam. My pups are not given free run of anything until they have proven to be responsible enough to handle it without issue. For some dogs, they might be 1-2 years old, with others it might be 6-12 months old?

One other thing to be sure of is that it isn't medical. UTI's make it impossible for dogs not have the accident. You should be able to tell tho based on the urination. If it's frequent peeing, but not a lot of pee, it could be a uti. A few days of medication will fix that but it needs to be addressed.

I hope this helps, keep me posted. It can be changed but it takes what I call a "hard reset" and zero tolerance going forward on your part in letting the accident take place. Any time my dogs have accidents, it's not their fault. Recognizing that and understanding the reason it happened is how you fix it.

Best of luck,
Jeremy

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