Teaching my Aussiedoodle how to tell me she needs to go

[JenSully]

We have a 10 week old Aussie Labradoodle, Kai, that's been home with us for 2 weeks. She's doing pretty well with housetraining - just a handful of accidents in the house. (It probably helps that we've been obsessed with taking her out just about every hour except for overnight.) Anyway, She is restricted to the living room and adjoining dining room with the use of gates at the doorways. The door that we use to take her out back is in a different room that can't be seen from her two rooms. So when we have to take her out to 'go potty' we take her through the gates, through the other room and out the door. Since she doesn't have access to the back door, how do we teach her to start letting us know when she has to 'go'? Or, is it too early to start that?

Also, how long do you think I need to keep taking her out every hour?

[jodysh]

Hi...

My boy has been with me for a few weeks now (he's 12 weeks old). What I did was say outside every time I took him to the door and outside to potty and said "go potty" as he started to potty.

Of course the door he goes out is the front door and he can get to it. After about a week and a half he started to cry at me and I'll say "outside" and he'll follow me to the door. This week he's started just going and sitting at the door a couple times, but sometimes he still just whines at me first.

So I'm not sure if that would work for you or not...if you say "outside as you go through the gates and then the door?

Good luck

Oh, I don't take Malcolm out every hour. I did for the first week maybe every couple of hours and/or after he woke up from naps, after play and getting a drink of water and eating. He had restricted access to water though (only available upon waking up and with meals and after play).

He has had 2 accidents in my house - once because I wasn't paying attention to him when he was trying to tell me he needed to go and once because I didn't get him out quick enough in the morning after he woke up. Both were in the first week. He hasn't gone inside since.

[lindamarie]

If I didn't have the chance yet, I want to WELCOME YOU TO THE FORUM!

Usually, the rule of thumb is that before 6 months, (maybe a tad longer) a pup can hold on for one hour per month. So, in your case, a bit more than 2 hours.
Yet, if you play with Kai indoors and she gets all excited, they need to go out after playing.
As far as where the door is, I don't think this matters. She is learning the path to that door via whatever you are doing.....carrying her or walking her.
So, as you do this, keep repeating, "Let's go", or "Outside, outside"!
They're pretty smart and catch on. She may even surprise you and start going to the gate that leads to the little path to where she needs to go.

Whenever she does go, keep praising with "Good girl!"
It's kinda funny because even with Bogart, 3 years old, I always said, "YAAAY!" when he went. So even now when I'm in a hurry, I might say......" "Go make OH YAAAY!" usually this is for poo because, I swear, sometimes it can take a dog forever to go poo.

She's only 10 weeks and it sounds like you're doing quite well!

[Riverkatie]

You could hang a little bell on the gate she needs to exit by and every time you go out to potty ring the bell, give her a couple of weeks and she will be ringing the bell by herself...every time she wants to go check out the garden, whether or not she needs to go potty!

Every time she rings the bell by herself treat, praise and rush outside like she has just won the lottery. she'll soon catch on bell ringing means getting let outside.

I took Ruff outside every hour too, and if you are ringing that bell every hour she will soon catch on.

[Riverkatie]

Originally Posted by lindamarie

I

It's kinda funny because even with Bogart, 3 years old, I always said, "YAAAY!" when he went. So even now when I'm in a hurry, I might say......" "Go make OH YAAAY!" usually this is for poo because, I swear, sometimes it can take a dog forever to go poo.

[lindamarie]

Katie....your laughter indicates you totally understand!

I have such stories of waiting, waiting, WAITING for a dog to eliminate! SHEEESH!
What do they need? To sit down with a newspaper or something? CRIKEY!

I had a Springer Spaniel that would do about 100 turns in one spot...then move on and do the same thing in another spot.....then MAYBE go back to the first spot!

[sweetp]

Hi Jen!
Like Katie suggested, a bell is great. I would be careful about using just any bell though. Some might fall apart easily and could be a choking hazard.
We actually trained our aussiedoodle with "poochiebells" when he was around 4 months old (they have a website that has a video on how they train their dogs to use the bells, and you can order there as well) They are very heavy duty bells (I've slammed them in the door a ridiculous number on times and they are still intact!) that hang from a strap on the back door. To start with, every time we took Bosco out, we'd jingle the bells and tell him "go out for a pee". Within a couple of days he was jingling the bells himself. We were blown away by how quickly he picked it up!
We always praised heavily when he peed 'on command', and I find I still tell him "good boy" when he goes, even though he's 3!

[jodysh]

I just got some "poochiebells" yesterday! He seems to be taking to it pretty good. Of course he just wanted to play with it at first, but he's starting to get that it's not there to play with Taking pretty much the same approach as you with them.