House training a five year old terrier 'Rescue'

Hey Sheafe,

Understandable that you're stressed out! Would you mind explaining how you've tried toilet training her? Do you use pads, just let her out often, have you started her off in one room and gradually let her into more of the house? If we know how you've tried training her, we might be able to give better advice.

Off hand, though, I've heard the most success stories by far with the confinement and gradual expansion of house access method. You keep your dog confined to one, SMALL room in the house - the laundry usually works really well, or a guest bathroom. A baby gate or some other barrier is good because they can see out and interact with you, but not actually get out of the room. Keep the dog confined, taking it out only to go STRAIGHT outside and use the bathroom. Make a lot of fuss about being happy if she goes outside, you can even give her a treat. Once she's got it to the point that she doesn't have accidents in her room, let her out into the immediately adjacent room - still the rest of the house is blocked off. You keep on with this method, so you give her access to more of the house as she goes for a few days without having an accident in whatever part of the house she's in. If she has an accident, you back up a step - block her out of the room she had the accident in for about 2-3 days, then try the new area again. Most dogs get it in a couple weeks. You just have to be sure that the first thing that happens (the VERY FIRST THING) when you let her out is going outside! Dont even stop to pick something up!

Reward the correct behaviour, and give stern verbal discipline when an accident happens (moreso if you actually see it happen, its hard to discipline a dog for something you missed).

Try not to get discouraged, 5 years old is not too late to house train!

Its a start, like I said, hopefully we can offer better advice if we know your actual home training methods

Hey Sheafe,

Good luck on the move! And with the re-training; I do think that will work best in the new house, especially if you're going to use the patio as a bathroom area. It will let your dog get used to the new house gradually, and re-learn the rules!

For obeying the "come" command -
Keep using treats to begin with - when your dog is away from you, crouch down, hold the treat out, and say "come". When she starts moving toward you, repeat "good girl, come" while drawing the treat back toward you and hiding it in your hand. Keep repeating the word "come" as you're working with this. Gradually, start crouching down and just hold your hand out as if you have a treat (when you dont, actually) and repeat the exact same routine. The key with training any dog to a new command is to repeat the key command word as much as possible. You start out with treats so your dog gets the idea that doing the action results in a reward, and you always start out training this sort of thing at home, not in public where you may become frustrated when she doesn't listen. If going from treat to no treat doesnt work, try substituting a toy instead, holding that out in your hand.

Eventually you should be able to just crouch down, pat your leg, and in a really excited voice say "come here!" and have her respond well

Either way, don't give your dog the treat until she's all the way where you want her and sitting nicely. It may pay off, in the beginning, to hold her collar once she's sitting in front of you, say "good girl, come" again, then give her the treat - BUT, keep a hold of her so that she can't take the treat and run off immediately. If she takes it and gets up, say "No, sit" again and make her stay until you say its ok to leave. This may work better if you keep a couple more treat kibbles in your back pocket to give her when she responds well. Don't just let her get away with grabbing the treat and bolting off - thats not a proper response to "come".

I hope this makes sense, I can clarify any points that dont And other users may have a different method that will work better with your dog. But let us know how things go!

Hey Sheafe,

Congrats on the move, hope everything is going as smoothly as possible

As far as your dog signalling when she needs to go out - what happens if you don't take her out at a normal time, when you routinely take her out? Try delaying a typical trip outside and see what happens - be sure to keep an eye on her, though, maybe keep her confined to the room with your front door - so that she has opportunity to go to it and display any kind of behaviour indicating she needs to toilet. She may even just sit in front of you and look at you, or vocalize some how. Keeping her confined to one room while you're testing this will keep her from having an accident somewhere else in the house.

I think your work on the "come" command will improve, especially if she's already responding to a verbal command to come back to you. Try saying "treat, come" every time you are in the situation where she will come back from somewhere in the apartment.

Hope this makes sense, and helps you somewhat!