My pup is 4 1/2 months old and he is doing most of his duties outside but
does have occasinal accidents in the house. The problem is I am the one to
bring him out . He does not let me know in any way. Is there a way to get
him to let me know. He is not crated but in an ex pen, but if he has an
accident in the pen he barks to let me know.

janet hodson wrote:
My pup is 4 1/2 months old and he is doing most of his duties outside but
does have occasinal accidents in the house. The problem is I am the one to
bring him out . He does not let me know in any way. Is there a way to get
him to let me know. He is not crated but in an ex pen, but if he has an
accident in the pen he barks to let me know.

Okay don't laugh a friend gave me this idea when we had our last dog.
Tie a bell to the door that the pup can reach. It took my dog minutes
to figure out the bell made noise when the door was opened. In one day
he was jumping at the door to make the bell ring.
He also would NEVER let me know when he had to go out. If I didn't see
him sitting at the door in time he would go infront of it.

"janet hodson" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

My pup is 4 1/2 months old and he is doing most of his
duties outside but does have occasinal accidents in the
house. The problem is I am the one to bring him out .

Why is that a problem?

He does not let me know in any way.

He's very young. If you want reliability, you need to take
him out when *you* think he needs to go. A basis of good
training is to not put the dog in a position where he can make
a mistake.

Is there a way to get him to let me know.

Time. Forget the bells and whistles for the moment - he's a
puppy and needs time to behave like a puppy. It may not be
the right time for him to teach you his signals, he's busy
enough dealing with his own "Oops! My bladder is full!"
signals.

Take him out.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Rocky wrote in
:

"janet hodson" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

My pup is 4 1/2 months old and he is doing most of his
duties outside but does have occasinal accidents in the
house. The problem is I am the one to bring him out .

Why is that a problem?

He does not let me know in any way.

He's very young. If you want reliability, you need to take
him out when *you* think he needs to go. A basis of good
training is to not put the dog in a position where he can make
a mistake.

Is there a way to get him to let me know.

Time. Forget the bells and whistles for the moment - he's a
puppy and needs time to behave like a puppy. It may not be
the right time for him to teach you his signals, he's busy
enough dealing with his own "Oops! My bladder is full!"
signals.

Take him out.


Matt is right, the puppy is pretty young yet and you're still
mastering housebreaking. As he get's older and gains better control,
watch for indications that he needs to go. Eventually you should begin
to identify "I need to go potty" behavior. Standing by the door, walking
around nervously, seeking your attention ect.. can all be indications
that he needs to go. You need to recognize these and take him out right
away. Eventually he will make the association that if I do this, I get
to go out and go potty and then I get praised/petted/rewarded. It all
takes time, patience and careful observance, and will come as he gets
older.

--
Les Hilliard & Nikki the Super Shih-Tzu

"montana wildhack" wrote in message
news:200609031126488930-montana@wildhackcominvalid...
On 2006-09-03 00:41:02 -0400, Rocky said:

He's very young. If you want reliability, you need to take him out when
*you* think he needs to go. A basis of good training is to not put the
dog in a position where he can make a mistake.

Is there a way to get him to let me know.

Time. Forget the bells and whistles for the moment - he's a puppy and
needs time to behave like a puppy. It may not be the right time for him
to teach you his signals, he's busy enough dealing with his own "Oops!
My bladder is full!" signals.

Take him out.

This is the best advice.

Yup.

Its a lot like potty training a child. Just because the child is using the
potty on a regular basis, doesn't mean that child is ready to march up to
the grown-up and announce their need to go potty. That happens after a
while, but it doesn't happen right away. Its about continuing to get the
little one to the appropriate potty area and waiting for that day when they
"announce" that they need you to take them. That's a day you celebrate :-)

Tara

"TaraG" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Its a lot like potty training a child.

Have you seen the advertisement for the diapers which turn cold
when the child wets them?

Positive punishment!

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"Rocky" wrote in message
...
"TaraG" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Its a lot like potty training a child.

Have you seen the advertisement for the diapers which turn cold
when the child wets them?

No way!

Positive punishment!

Apparently. Unfortunately, instead of taking the best of what behaviorism
can offer, they've decided to go the aversive route. But then , I suppose
there isn't much profit selling praise.

Have you heard about the "new" ancient way of potty training a child. At
first I thought it was lunacy, but then I realized its almost exactly the
way we potty train puppies without force.....so it actually makes a *lot* of
sense. Plus, there's the fact that people were doing it for thousands of
years before Pampers(tm) came along.

http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5...y-training.htm

Tara

"TaraG" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Have you seen the advertisement for the diapers
which turn
cold when the child wets them?

No way!

Positive punishment!

Apparently. Unfortunately, instead of taking the
best of
what behaviorism can offer, they've decided to go
the
aversive route. But then , I suppose there isn't
much
profit selling praise.

Maybe that's why I don't have kids - I really don't
have a
problem with such diapers (the theory behind them, at
least).
But I'm the last one to claim any sort of ability at
child-training.

Mind you, like many aversives, I can see how they'd
be open
to misuse and inappropriate apllication.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"Rocky" wrote in message
...

Maybe that's why I don't have kids - I really don't
have a
problem with such diapers (the theory behind them, at
least).
But I'm the last one to claim any sort of ability at
child-training.

It just strikes me as similar to letting (or forcing) a puppy to pee and
poop in its crate for 6 months, and then suddenly (once you've decided
that's no longer ok) correcting the pup for doing what its been allowed to
do up until that point. Seems barbaric to me....but then I don't have kids
either, so I have no idea if I'd actually have what it takes to do the
infant elimination thing.

Mind you, like many aversives, I can see how they'd
be open
to misuse and inappropriate apllication.

Absolutely.

Tara

On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 04:20:51 GMT, "TaraG"
wrote:

"Rocky" wrote in message
...

Maybe that's why I don't have kids - I really don't
have a
problem with such diapers (the theory behind them, at
least).
But I'm the last one to claim any sort of ability at
child-training.

It just strikes me as similar to letting (or forcing) a puppy to pee and
poop in its crate for 6 months, and then suddenly (once you've decided
that's no longer ok) correcting the pup for doing what its been allowed to
do up until that point. Seems barbaric to me....but then I don't have kids
either, so I have no idea if I'd actually have what it takes to do the
infant elimination thing.

Not really at all, if you do it right. Think of it this way. If you
take the puppymill dog who has peed and pooped in its crate all this
time and punish it for going in the crate, that is what you are
assuming traditional potty training is. For some parents, there is
punishment, certainly, but that is not necessary. For me, it was just
the same as trying to teach the child a different and better place to
pee and poop once she was able physically to do so. Take her to the
potty (and I used a potty chair for one because it was more
comfortable and a cushion on the big toilet for another because she
was dying to go on the big toilet like the big girls do) and have fun
hanging out until she goes. Have a party when she goes in the potty.
If she goes in her diaper, change the diaper like you've done a
billion times before with no negative comments. Give rewards for
doing more and more pottying instead of diaper soiling. As they got
old enough to wear the coveted big girl panties, the only "punishment"
was that if there were too many accidents, they ran out of them and
went back to pull ups until the laundry was next done, but that wasn't
done with any yelling, just a matter of fact statement that there were
no more dry panties but of course she was getting better and better at
keeping them dry so she could try them again after the laundry was
done and her big girl panties were all clean and dry again.

Just like you can push a dog's nose in the pee spot or yell at it for
accidents or you can praise going outdoors and ignore accidents, you
can do it either way for kids as well. It's how you handle the
teaching of the new principle that affects them more than whether it
is new or not. After all, parents ask children to do new things all
the time. It can be a game as easily as it can be a power play.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy,
so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay