I’ve messed up house training

[BloodiedButUnbowed]

Oh dear. DPup is 5 and a half months old and I think we’re doing more or less okay with navigating puppyhood. The only thing is, we absolutely have NOT cracked toileting. When we first got him, we did as per advice and took him out every half an hour or so, and when he did a poo or wee outside he got a lot of praise, but when he did it inside it got cleaned up quietly, no scolding. The only thing is we just didn’t get that many poos or wees outside, so we didn’t get much chance to reinforce it. I think he associates the garden with playing, as when we take him outside he has a play and doesn’t go toilet, then when we come back in he’s likely to do a wee quite shortly after.
Right now he toilets on walkies but not at all in the garden, so everything else is in the house - a couple of poos and wees a day 😟 I’m really keen to sort this out, he’s a beautiful and clever boy so I just think we’ve confused him somewhere along the line.
I wonder whether it’s partly to do with the garden - it was bare earth when he came to live with us as we were digging up tree stumps (he LOVED helping!) and it’s been levelled now but is still bare earth as we didn’t get it ready to turf before winter.

Any advice would be MUCH appreciated!

What breed?

You unfortunately just have to go back to basics and go with him outside regulary to ensure he does wee and poo in the garden. Put him on a lead and be prepared to stand outside until he wees. IF he is weeing when you come back in, go out wait for wee no wee, come in and immediately go back outside again. If he likes playing outside stay outside for a game after the wee. If he likes it indoors the minute he has weed come back in again.

You are absolutely right in your reflection that he did not have enough clear messages telling him that outside was the right place to go.

Make sure you clean up inside witn an enzymen cleaner or he will be tempted to wee in the same place inside over and over again.

Keep the door shut and take him out regularly and praise and reward for weeing in the right place. It will take time but worth the effort.

Another thing to do (has your life really come to this!) is have a poo diary. Write down when he does wee and poo each day. This may help you work out when he needs to go out and you can prempt this.

Dogs ike to wee on soft ground so earth should be ok but bit muddy I guess.

Roughly the same age here! We started using puppy pads at the beginning but he chewed them, rather than use them.

Then, we used a rope toy we threw outside for him to encourage him to go out for a wee or a poo. This helped massively! He'd go out, do his business, come back in and trade his rope toy for a treat and lots of fuss.

We never made a fuss of him messing inside the house but then it seemed to get worse. We'd go through so much kitchen roll to clean it all up, we should have bought shares!

We then decided at 16 weeks to change tactics and if he did mess in the house, he got a firm 'no!'. He pretty much stopped messing straight away and we have no accidents in the house now

What I have always done with my pups is to watch them like a hawk for a few days to see when they wee and poo, there is usually a fairly set routine to it, give or take 15 mins. Keep a notebook handy and write down the times he goes, say nothing and just clean up an accidents.

After you start to see a pattern, take him outside 20 minutes before he is likely to go, and wait around outside with him on a lead.
When he goes outside, lots and lots of praise "yes! This is where we poo/wee! Yes! Well done" then a high value treat straight after.

Again, just what I have always done but it has worked extremely well and very quickly with lots of different breeds. Will say though that current PolePup (miniature poodle x) was by far the fastest to pick it up.

When pup is trained you can stop taking him out of a lead of course, the lead just helps them focus on doing their business and not playing at the start.

And you havent messed up, dont worry about that. I have had many rescue dogs in the past (used to foster) who I have been able to housetrain as adults, just keep patient and persevere

There's some good advice on this on the Facebook Dog Training Advice and Support page.

Ours was trained at 6 months fully - apart from when it was raining. She seemed to think that you toilet outside - apart from when its raining.

We had to go back on rainy days - to taking her outside and waiting till she'd been. Took about 3 days.

Go back to basics.

Out every thirty minutes, after meals, drinks, play, training and sleep, and be prepared to stand out there until they go. I would also put the puppy on a lead so they can't do anything else except sniff and toilet.

I would also add food motivation as well as praise, so whenever he toilets, give him a big fuss, lots of praise and a really high value treat to help motivate him to go outside.

Some great advice. Also have a command word you use for toileting we seem to have inherited "go out" as our phrase but it is used solely for going on command. "Go quick" or "go wee wee" etc.

Also straight after food as this trigger a reflex on some dogs.

We have a routine with our dog who we reduced as a 7 month old. First thing in the morning (6am) after breakfast 8 am ish then mod morning, mid afternoon, after tea and last thing.

When we first got him I was it out for two hours at 11pm until I caved- there's only so much time I can say "go out".

He now goes on command to our schedules.

Hope it works for you. Have a look at toilet bells too. My dog trainer is also a literally a miracle worker so try a local one for a 121.

We got our pup at 16 weeks ( Battersea special) and it was apparent he had never lived in a house so yours is only slightly older . I’d say for a few weeks take him into the garden on a lead so that all he is expected to do is his business , no playing . Use a key word , we use quickly as ours and he’s 10 now and still wees on command . Indoors if it’s feasible have him on a house line and if you see him start to pee/ poo pick him up / run to the garden saying outside quick in an excited fashion . It may initially cause more spread of mess as you run but that was hat really seemed to get it to click for our dog ( he’s not the sharpest tool in the box ) .