House Training Advice??

mfc2006

Meet Sam.


He's our little Jack Russell/Dashund fun pup. He's almost 3 and we've had him for almost a year. Anyway, it's hard to tell if he's been properly trained. My wife & I are a little sick of coming home to his accidents & wanted to see if anyone had any advice before we shell out some $ to train him w/ a trainer. He was great about going outside until it got a little cooler & the rain hit. If the ground's wet, he doesn't like to go outside. It's really frustrating to take him out for 10 minutes & all he wants to do is play. Not because we don't love playing with him (we do!!), but rather b/c he will always go to the bathroom right after we bring him inside. We've already accepted the fact that we may have to pay to have the living room carpet replaced---even though we have it professionally cleaned every 2 months.

ANY advice would be helpful. We'd like to be able to avoid the cost of shelling out a couple of hundred dollars to have him trained. Help us help Sam. PLEASE!

Thanks in advance for any tips/suggestions!
Matt

Digital Twilight

Sorry no advise but cute pup

redmosquito10

whenever Ive had dogs we would build a little area in the yard with woodchips in it, and make that their spot. Whenever possible, we would take them out there and when they went, praise them and make sure we used the words go to your spot. if they went in the house, we would put them in the spot and tell them thats where they go. eventually they would respond to our asking do you wanna go to your spot, and then eventually they would start waiting by the door to go out. this worked with 3 dogs, but they were all considerably younger than yours when we taught them. added bonus is theres only one small area of your yard you have to clean up. anyways, good luck, hope you find something that works.

PJaddicted

I'd crate train him, and keep him it while you are out of the house until he totally understands not to go in the house. It is difficult to re-train but not impossible.

haffajappa

PJaddicted wrote:

I'd crate train him, and keep him it while you are out of the house until he totally understands not to go in the house. It is difficult to re-train but not impossible.

wow really?
i'm not sure how I feel about crating dogs.
i would rather replace the carpet then have to think my dog is locked in a kennel all day.

mfc2006

haffajappa wrote:

PJaddicted wrote:

I'd crate train him, and keep him it while you are out of the house until he totally understands not to go in the house. It is difficult to re-train but not impossible.

wow really?
i'm not sure how I feel about crating dogs.
i would rather replace the carpet then have to think my dog is locked in a kennel all day.

yeah...we tried crating him when we first got him & he hated it. we also tried putting up a childgate i nthe kitchen & he tore it down.

redmosquito10 wrote:

whenever Ive had dogs we would build a little area in the yard with woodchips in it, and make that their spot. Whenever possible, we would take them out there and when they went, praise them and make sure we used the words go to your spot. if they went in the house, we would put them in the spot and tell them thats where they go. eventually they would respond to our asking do you wanna go to your spot, and then eventually they would start waiting by the door to go out. this worked with 3 dogs, but they were all considerably younger than yours when we taught them. added bonus is theres only one small area of your yard you have to clean up. anyways, good luck, hope you find something that works.

that might be a good thing to try. thanks!

Digital Twilight wrote:

Sorry no advise but cute pup

thanks!!

haffajappa

mfc2006 wrote:

haffajappa wrote:

PJaddicted wrote:

I'd crate train him, and keep him it while you are out of the house until he totally understands not to go in the house. It is difficult to re-train but not impossible.

wow really?
i'm not sure how I feel about crating dogs.
i would rather replace the carpet then have to think my dog is locked in a kennel all day.

yeah...we tried crating him when we first got him & he hated it. we also tried putting up a childgate i nthe kitchen & he tore it down.

yeah, i feel guilty for just leaving mine in the house all day.

my dog's name is Sammi your's is such a cutie!!!!
About the house training i'm not sure, since mine was relatively young too when we trained her (she's almost 9 now). I guess try to put him outside when you can and praise the heck out of him, and punish him when he goes in the house. I've heard if you rub their nose in it when they do it in a spot they're not supposed to they learn not to (although thats kind of mean, my brother has done that to mine and I hated when he'd do it).

Does he know he's not supposed to do it there? Mine still has accidents (though shes good about going on the tile and not the carpet) but KNOWS when she's done it in the wrong place.

mfc2006

Sammi & Sam! haha--i love it!

yeah--he definitely knows when he's done it in the wrong place (inside). we do praise him & encourage him to go outside. whenever he goes outside, he gets a treat. thanks for the suggestions!