Hi all,

I have a 15 month old bichon frise dog. I recently moved house to a i bed apartment with no immediate access to outside. My main problem is toilet training my dog. I have read some good suggestions like keeping a diary, putting the poo back to the place you want him to do his work i.e. pee mat, and also the bell idea, treats etc.

Can anyone suggest any other strategies, so I may fine tune this unwanted behavior.

Thanks

d

Do you mean 15 weeks or 15mths? If its 15mths and his not trained it is really going to be much harder to outside toilet train him anyway at this age.
Is there no way you can get him outside, if he is 15mths he shouldnt need to urinate as often as a very young pup whose capacity to hold things is very limited purely because of the size of their bladders and not always associating the need to go at first anyway.

You can tend to get a regular pattern of bowel movements, by feeding regular meals at the same time every day, and keeping a note how long and when they need to poop. So you can a least get him out to defecate at certain times. The advice depends though whether you did mean 15mths or 15 weeks. If he is 15 weeks he probably needs to be taken out every 30/45 minutes if your just starting toilet training and especially after eating,drinking,play and sleeping. If hes 15mths and beginning then every hour when beginning should be ok, because of the bigger capacity. You need to give it a name when he starts (to later use as a toilet cue, and once toilet training has been completed or near so later on you can usually in a lot of cases use it to get them to toilet on demand) when hes finished lots of praise and really high value tasty treats. I think I read somewhere that you can get sprays and things that supposed to be scented to encourage them to go in specified areas, although ive never used them, so cant tell you if they work or not. I should think pet centres would sell them.

Hope this might be of help. If you can get him out to pee and poop the sooner the better, as the longer he is allowed to do it on paper in the house,you are likely to have an ongoing toileting problem. If he does have accidents make sure you clean it up with a special pet accident cleaner, any smells left otherwise is just going to encourage him going in the same places,
adding to the toileting problem indoors even more.

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Thanks for your time in answering my querie.

Like you said I need to do something otherwise it will just be an ongoing problem.

He is 15 months by the way, and knows well enough (once I catch him) that he has done wrong. I can't blame him cos I haven't been taking him out.

I suppose I should start with giving him food/water at set times, keeping a diary and also associating a name for poos/wees. I'm not sure how I can achieve this, as he knows the name 'walkies' so well, as I always say it before taking him out. Should I praise him with treats/associated word when he goes on the wee pad? Or praise him with an treats/associated word once he goes outside?

Thanks again for your help.

Damian

If you solely want him to go outside, do as sled dog hotel suggested, then I would only praise when he goes outside; use a cue word as he goes (I use 'be quick') - and really go over the top with how excited you are that he has done it. When he goes in the house don't say anything at all, just clean it up with a special pet cleaner to get rid of any lingering odours that may encourage your dog to use the same spot again.

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You can do the set times with the food, but dogs need a constant supply of clean fresh water throughout the day to drink at will, especially even more so if they are on dried food. If you want him to only go outside, then I would get rid of the pee pads completely. It only confuses them more as its telling them its ok to go in the house still.

Keep the treats for outside only. He only gets rewarded when he does it outside. When he starts to go outside, give it the name then on starting.
when he has finished, immediately as he finishes, then lots of good boys, and really tasty treats.

If you give him the treats and praise for doing it on the pad, then he is going to carry on doing it inside or on the pad, which is what you dont want.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks alot

I don't think I can win on this one, its just one of those things I suppose. It's tres tres difficult to train a boy dog rather than a girl. I can't rely on him keeping it in for any long period.
.......but I will try giving your advice a go,

thanks again guys

Damian

You can win...you just need to be persistent and consistent, particularly as you are changing some ingrained behaviour. Just keep at it and one day you will realise that he has 'got it'

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I hope so,

thanks very much

Damian