No luck with house training - having break down

[Notcontent]

i am feeling extremely low.
Have been trying to house train puppy for two months now. He does most poos and wees outside but I feel that's mostly down to the fact that i take him out constantly. Just had to clean up a huge puddle in the kitchen and there are spots it gets into that I can't reach to clean properly (eg gap under skirting board). I can't relax as I am constantly thinking about his next wee or poo. I am exhausted. Is this normal?

I keep hearing about all these puppies who are completely house trained within 3 weeks. He is now four months.

Mine was more like that sort of age before it clicked, he's very reliable now if that's any comfort to you (8 months)

If you look at the thread about the whippet puppy not liking the rain, I've posted the advice I'd give you. IME in this situation you need to go back to square one and imagine your puppy is only 8 weeks old again. Lower your expectations and increase your attentiveness for a few days (I don't mean to say you're not, but that many people underestimate what level of attention is needed for some dogs). Make sure the outside space you want to use as a toilet area is free from poos as this puts them off using it.

HTH. :)

Don't despair, my dog has whippet in him, I think, and the staffy in him is rain aversive too. He was almost 6 months before he was reliable by day. Until 10 months he would skulk off to the hallway to pee/poo if it was raining outside. We got very good at reading his signs (fidgeting, wandering around aimlessly, suddenly getting up after sleeping and wandering nonchalantly to the hall) and ran the gauntlet to get him outside before he did the deed, then he finally got the message.

We also capitalised on the fact that he's a praise junky, so ignored wees/poos inside (just cleared them up, no fuss, no eye contact) and went over the moon with praise for doing the business in the right place - going out to the spot with him, pointing to his puddle/pile of poo, massive wows, big strokes, treats, etc.

Hi. Our Springer puppy is 5 months old and did 'get it' very quickly. However, I do wonder if we did some stuff to help with this, I agree it's very tiring and tying and bloomin hard work sometimes standing in the freezing cold/rain/snow etc basically 15 minutes! We got our puppy in December, I do understand!

Ignore any accidents. Whip him outside basically every half an hour, plus after play, after meals, on waking up etc. Go WILD with praise when he goes outside and treat with something your puppy thinks is AMAZING! I kind of ignored any wimpering about rain or cold and pranced about like I LOVED being outside in the pouring rain . Now he just ignores bad weather and prances in the mud like a good un, different breed though.

He will get it eventually, it probably doesn't feel like it now.

Our puppy still doesn't ask to go outside though, but neither does he have accidents, he kind of holds on until we go for a walk or he goes into the garden to play. Strong bladder I guess. He also very rarely drinks from his water bowl but adores stinky muddy puddles. I suspect if I filled the bowl with glacial water from Iceland, the muddy puddle would win!

Having a puppy is hard work isn't it?

Having similar problems with our pup, he's 19 weeks old, he's fine if I leave the back door open ( which I can when it's dry outside) will go out and do his business but as soon as the doors shut he doesn't ask to go out so unless I take him out every 30 minutes he will do it on the floor.

Thanks for all the encouragement!!

Yes, it's all just hard work and this weather doesn't help! Feel like my life has been reduced to fighting wee, poo and MUD!!!!

Marne, glad it's not just me!

Reading some of the advice on dog web sites can also be depressing because it tends to assume that the owner can spend a month or so doing nothing expect watching the dog! But that's not real life is it...

Do you use a command word as that can be very useful .My dog seemed to get house training quite quickly but I think it was more luck , we had a command word so before I was going out or every so often I would take him out and say the word ,he would go ( or try hard to go ) and that way he was clean indoors . He is nearly 3 now but I still do the same if I'm going out and we've had no indoor accidents since he was about 5 months old. Good luck .

Just keep going! I had to take a deep breath and take it from the beginning loads of times. We didnt have many accidents, provided I took him outside every 45 minutes! It does feel like you are on the alert all the time.

Mine is 8 months ish now and is much better (touch wood).

Mine's nearly 7 months now and we're still getting the occasional accident. She has also taken to weeing and pooing randomly during the night. The other puppy is only 9 weeks old and seems to be getting the hang of it already, no problem. I was worried that, because of the older one, she'd just go anywhere but she seems very keen on doing it outside. There has been the odd accident but nothing like the bigger pup. I think some dogs, like some kids, just aren't ready as early or don't really like outside very much. Older dog is very, very nervous and I think she feels safer indoors.

Actually, I wonder if having the little one go out regularly the other one will get better. She's already happier with going out and playing on the garden if pup is with her.