[cabecca19]

Boomer is almost 8 months and we got him at 10 weeks old. We crate trained and he started sleeping through the night without accidents relatively quickly. He is very good about going outside first thing in the morning and again for a quick potty break before I leave for work. He rarely has accidents in the cage during the day. We never scold him for an accident and focus on positive reinforcement.

However....he still occassionally has accidents. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif He's almost 8 months...why?!?!?! I would say its an average of twice a week. Tonight we took him out and he did his business and then an hour later crapped and peed on the floor. :angryfire:

Any suggestions/tips? I really want to get another puppy next summer but I don't know if housebreaking takes THIS long.

 

[Marley's Mommy]

does he have a sign to let you know he has to go outside?

We use a bell on the back door. he doesn't ring the bell all the time but we know when he goes to the back door, he has to go out.

 

[cabecca19]

Hmmm, usually he will go scratch at the door. I guess our problem might be that we spend a lot of time upstiars and gate the stairs off. He started barking when he needs to go out...that's why I thought we were on track. Maybe we could do the bell thing at the door and upstairs?

 

[Marley's Mommy]

yeah, try that. you may miss some of the signs so keep an eye on him for now. If he cannot get to the door to scratch it, try like you said, introducing something else like the bell. when we gate off the mudroom to the back door, we either put the bell on the gate, or we just know when he goes to the gate, he wants to go out. we learned that lesson the hard way. Gated him in the kitchen and ignored the whining for wanting to go potty because we thought he was just whining to get out the kitchen.
How's your routine? got somewhat of a schedule for potty breaks?

 

[Murphys Dad]

Chloe is 8.5 months old, and still not fully housebroken. I know of dogs who were housebroken at 1 year and over, and some that were housebroken at 5-6 months... it changes.
With me, I think that Chloe could have been housebroken a few months ago, but since she is only crated during the night, I can't control her during the day, so when I'm not with her, I usually come home to a circle of pee and sometimes a little pile of poo. I wish I could keep her in the crate during the day, but she cries and barks like crazy and the neighbors complain.... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

 

[Marley's Mommy]

Marley was 95% house trained at 4-5 months. I think to your point some of it was because he was crated a little during the day and some during the night, etc. Since we got him in July at 2 months old, he has had very little mishaps inside. Thank goodness. But I was on it. I took him out so many times a day it was driving hubby crazy. I said hey, he learned quick by the repetition so I think you owe me one.

 

[Penny's mom]

I read somewhere that puppies don't have full physical control of their bladders and bowels until they reach 9 months of age. Accidents happen. Mine is 8 months old and since she was an outside dog prior to us getting her we are having a difficult time. She rarely goes in the house but she does go in her crate while we are gone during the day.

 

[Drewmangroup]

Scout is 5 months and she is really good about going to the door. The last time she peed in the house was when a friend came by and she got excited. Otherwise she always goes to the door. I still wake up in the middle of the night so she can go, I am not sure if she can make it through the night right now, she does well in her crate during the day though. I do come home at lunch and take her out.