HOW CAN WE TEACH OUR DOG TO TELL US WHEN HE NEEDS TO GO OUTSIDE?

On July 2nd, 2005 we adopted a 14 month old Male, non-neutered Beagle.
For the first 14 months he lived in a kennel run. He is a really good
dog and we love him to death. But we are having housebreaking problmes.

Sam pees in the house occasionally. Sometimes we know he is marking,
like shortly after our friends girl Beagle Maggie comes over and
leaves, Sammy will pee on something realy good and soak it. Other
times he will just randomly pee on a corner of furniture or the wall,
sometimes right in front of us, sometimes he'll do it, and then sneak
around the corner and give us that look like, I just did something...
and we know to go look.. sure enough...pee.

Sam is in a crate while we are at work becasue we cannot trust him to
stay out. He is out the rest of the time and even sleeps between us or
at the foot of our bed w/ the bedroom door closed, he wanders around
our room and never peed in the room until last night at 3am.

Sam goes to the bathroom/short walk at 5:30am, 7:30am, 5:30pm, and
9:30pm like clock work. The two evening walks are alot longer than his
morning walks. He eats around 7pm every night. He gets plenty of play
time as that is all we do when we are not cleaning/eating etc... if the
dog is around us, we play with him or pet him or just have him right
there... he likes to be by us. He's slowly learning how to "sit" and
"lay down" and understand thinks like "get down"

******We are not experts but we've come to the conclsion that Sammy is
not housebroken but that he's more/less on a schedule. He knows to
potty outside when we take him but he doesn't know how to tell us that
he needs to go out.

*******HOW CAN WE TEACH OUR DOG TO TELL US WHEN HE NEEDS TO GO
OUTSIDE????

Thank you for any suggestions!

On 26 Sep 2005 12:12:33 -0700, "Gwendy5281"
, clicked their heels and said:

Good grief! You do like to ramble and paise yourself don't you?

you must have run into the resident loon. killfiles are your friend.
Cross-posting is frowned on (5 newsgroups!).

I like dogs to come to me when they need out, but mostly, most dogs
are more or less scheduled around here. You can start with around the
time for an outing, calling the dog to you and asking, in an animated
voice "do you need OUT?" Any response gets a "good dog - let's go out
then". Business FIRST will help get it through that the main purpose
of going out is elimination, and THEN play/walk/fun.


--
Janet B
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bestfr...bedience/album

"Gwendy5281" wrote in message
oups.com...
Good grief! You do like to ramble and paise yourself don't you?

Gwendy - ignore the idiot.. If you have a kill file, use it. Most of here
never see his posts. Watch also for the crossposting that he inserts
sending your message and his response to several other groups - many of them
totally unrelated.

You are going to have a great time with your new beagle. Lucky dog that he
found you.

Now. Housebreaking a previously kenneled beagle. Going to take some time
and patience on your part. He is used to peeing fairly near his bedding
area. He not only doesn't know what he's doing is wrong, he believes it is
acceptable.

I assume that Sam manages to poop outside? If so, then you have one foot up
on the problem. He does have a level of understanding of keeping his living
area clean.

There surely is a marking element in there - as you noted. First step to
reduce that is to get him neutered. At his age, that won't stop it but it
gives it a boost.

Second - Nature's Miracle. Clean everything he has ever peed on with it.
If you can get a black light to check for stains, all the better. You have
to get the odor off those indoor marking posts.

Third - I'd continue the crating when you can't be there with him. When you
are walking him and he pees, don't just praise him. Praise him, pet him,
throw a little party until anyone watching thinks you are totally out of
your mind. Locate spots outside that he pees on your walks and take him
there as soon as you go outside.

If do see him lift a leg inside - or even start the sniffing that usually
comes just before it - give him an "uh-uh" and take him outside to one of
those spots as quickly as you can get a leash on him and shoes on you.
These trips outside are to pee, not to play. When he pees, he goes right
back inside. If he only plays, he goes right back inside and you try again
in a few minutes - half an hour or sooner if he gets sniffing again.

There is an added level of difficulty to housebreaking a dog who has been
kennelled. I know a cocker spaniel owner whose pup had been raised on wire
in a kennel - and had gotten used to peeing there. The dog actually looked
for wire grates - such as the floor heating ducts in their house!

The smaller the kennel was, the more difficult your job is going to be. But
you *can* do it. Sam can learn new house rules. What he's doing was
allowed before. You are going to have to really clean the odor out of
everything you can. And then you're going to have to be super-vigilant
while Sam is learning the new rules. He's old enough - his bladder is
mature enough - to hold it while he's crated for a fairly long period of
time. It may seem like it will take forever to retrain him, but once it's
done and you look back, it won't have been all that long.

Hope this helps.
~~Judy