I bought your book last night because my 5 month old Maltese isn't potty trained. We tried at first to only use piddle pads. She refused as she saw my other dog going outside. So now we're trying both inside on piddle pads and outside in the yard. She has no accidents in her pen area even if I leave her for long periods of time and she'll "go" right when I take her outside. When I know she has gone potty and poop and bring her inside to run around and play for awhile, she'll sneak off and potty or poop....even if she just did a few minutes outside before. Sometimes she'll potty or poop right next to the piddle pad. After reading part of your book last night, I've had her either in her pen or a short leash near her piddle pad. She's went potty and poop outside and then came in and pooped in the corner. Because of our nasty weather, I want to make sure she'll potty/poop on the piddle pads as well as when we go for walks. Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks, Diane
We are sorry to hear about the issues you are having with house-training your pet, she sure is a challenge to train from the sounds of things! What have you been doing in terms of getting her to understand what she is doing is wrong? I think that telling her off with a firm, growl of a 'NO, bad dog!' is crucial. This chiding must come immediately after the act. Have you had a look at our obedience training section? I would suggest you start on these as well as the older she gets the harder it will be to train her. You seem to be doing everything else correctly, I think it is now just a time thing- a bit of patience and perseverance with the training and you will have a well-behaved pet!
Thank you for your reply and recommendations. I have been using the "no, bad dog" when I catch her poop or potty in the house. if I don't catch her, then I don't say anything and just clean it up. After reading your book, I decided to use a leash to lead her to the door to go out instead of picking her up and carrying her. She has just been able to go up/down steps. Now she's afraid as we get closer to the door and I have to practially pull her out the door. I also thought it would be nice to train her to ring a bell to go out. She's not too thrilled about that either but we're going to continue to pursue that. So do I continue to use a leash and pull her to the door and out? Do I go back to picking her up? I was thinking that she'll never learn to go to the door if I continue to carry her but I had to have to pull her out as she's dragging her feet.
Yesterday and today, I've not left her out of my sight when she's loose in the house and we have only had one accident.
I will look into the dog obedience training section. I've trained a lot of dogs but I can always use some guidance and this is the smallest dog we've ever had. Thank you again. Diane
What you are doing at the moment is great, just try and keep her in sight as much as possible. It is the easiest way to get these behavior issues corrected. With the leash problem, I recommend just having the leash attached to her around the house (ONLY when you are around to supervise her, we don't want her getting it latched onto something). Do this for 2-3 days and on the 2nd and 3rd day start picking up the leash and getting her to walk with it using food/treats as bait. Having someone to help you with this exercise would be ideal.
Please do let us know how you get along. Good luck
