Help with House-Breaking please!

[Katie <3 Nano]

Hello all!

So, Nano is over 5 months now, but I feel like we have barely made any progress with his house training. He has accidents in his kennel infrequently, but whenever he is out of the kennel, it's a different story.

We went with the crate training method, as recommended by our vet. So whenever we are not supervising him, he is in his kennel. The problem is, even when we are supervising him, he will either run from me and pee before I get to him, and sometimes he will just squat and pee in front of me. We have tried enclosing the living room when we are in there, so he can run around free there, but he still has accidents. I'm wondering how we are ever going to extend the time that he is out of his kennel? We can't keep an eye on him 100% of the time, and I want so much to let him be out of his crate more. We try keeping him to a schedule as well, which works great for his poop's, but there seems to be no consistency with when he has to pee.

When we go outside, we use the same words, 'good outside', and we go to the same spot every time. We praise and give treats, and we never get angry with him. I've also cleaned all of his messes with Nature's Miracle very thoroughly to make sure there is no leftover smell of urine.

Would someone be willing to go through their experience house training their pug? Any stories or examples would help very much. Am I just being impatient? I was told that by six months he should be completely trained.

Thank you so much for reading, and I look forward to any help :)

P.S.- I have started sewing him some Belly Bands, so that we can take him visiting with us at Christmas time without worrying about him peeing in anyone's home. Is this a bad idea? Would it be counter-productive to the house breaking?

[KismetPuggies]

First.. the belly band is a GREAT idea.. I have used it in my own training with fosters.

I would suggest keeping up what you are doing... include setting a timer for 30 minutes.. take him out then and keep him out until he pees. In the house, if you don't use the belly band, try leashing him to you so he can't go out of your sight. That may or may not work if he still goes right in front of you. Dogs do not like having their own urine on them, so you may find the belly band working wonders for you but I strongly urge you to have at least 10 on hand... two or three will not work because he'll pee in them, you'll change them, and before you can get it washed, he'll pee in the next one. (also, they are great to have on hand if you have a visiting male dog so they don't mark your house.

Best of luck, and just keep trying... pugs can be difficult to train.

[Julesrb]

Our pug Douglas was quite difficult to train. I'm not sure he's the brightest button if I'm honest with you. He seemed to get it a bit one day, and then we'd have 5 separate wee accidents in one day the next. It wasn't until he hit 6 months that he really started to 'get it' and I was so relieved as I thought he'd be untrained forever. Now he's 7.5 months we rarely have accidents, and if he does it is often my fault. That said, he gives virtually NO signals, and never really did or at least they were so subtle it was hard to miss.

We found that rather than leaving him in his crate all the time, the best things we did were:
1. taking him out regularly - every 30 mins at first and then every hour and now he can last much longer and goes outside on a regular schedule
2. each time he went outside, we would say the word 'wee wee' when he had been, so he learned the word and when we go out and say 'wee wee' he knows what is expected from him
3. watch for even the most subtle of signs e.g. sniffing on the floor (quick get outside!), leaving the room when we're in it (quick get outside!), sudden interest in rugs on the floor (quick!)

It will get better and belly bands were our next plan if he didn't start to get it, but try and above and see if it helps. I'm sure he will get it in time, but unfortunately it did take time.

[Snifter]

From what I have heard it is actually pretty rare for a pug to be fully housetrained by 6 months. I did not trust mine until they were at least a year old, although they were both pretty reliable from about 9 months as I recall.

You do need to bear in mind as has been said above that many pugs do not tell you (at least not in any obvious manner) when they need to go so you really need to try to get them on a schedule.

If he starts to pee in front of you the best thing to do is to get his attention at once. Not by sounding angry but perhaps sound really excited or clap your hands. This should stop him in mid flow. Then you need to pick him up and get him outside. When he finishes the job, praise and treat. The more chances you give him to do it outside the better, even if he did already start in the house.

Good luck

[Oregon Pug Mom]

I've read every housebreaking thread on here & it seems 6mo is about the soonest you can expect to see any glimmer of hope for this to register with them. Marley is 4 1/2mo & is accepting no responsibilty for this process--so I take her out every hour or so & tell her to go potty so we can go inside--probably works cause it can be chilly out there--she would never give me any sign she needs to go out either.
Me thinks this may be a long process........

[Katie <3 Nano]

Thank you so much for all of your advice! I feel much better about our situation :)

I think we are going to try setting the 30 minute timer, and keep a close eye on him and see how he does. We're going to get him on a good schedule as well, and hopefully, eventually, we will work our way up in time he gets to spend out of his kennel! We are both very excited for the new plan, and Nano thanks you all as well (this will give him loads more time to terrorize the cat and eat holes in all my socks, you see) :D

I have his belly bands almost ready, for a backup plan, and for Christmas visits. I will post pics once they are ready! I found two really cute patterns at the fabric store; one a Christmas-themed doggie pattern, and the other a cute Spiderman one! He will be my little Spider Pug :D

Thank you again!!

[mss]

Hi there! Our Frida is only 14-weeks old but we are also finding that she doesn't give any warning. The thing we don't get is that at night she goes loooong stretches and seems to be fine, but during the day we often take her out, she pees, and 15 minutes later she pees on the kitchen floor. It's crazy-making because one day I think we might be getting somewhere, and the next she has accidents on the hour. It reminds me so much of when my kids were newborns and I would finally think we were going to get some sleep and bam! they'd start waking up again in the middle of the night!!!

[WinniePug]

Winnie was crate trained from the beginning when we got her at 8-1/2 weeks. Winnie was only created at night and only for a few weeks. Before she wen tin the crate we took her out to poop and pee and EVERY TIME she whined or cried when she was in her crate, not matter what time of night, she would be taken outside (I did this, my wife slept right through everything!). Winnie learned fast that crying in the crate meant bathroom time.

One night at around 3-1/2 months, she cried around 1:30 AM and I got up and took her out to pee and I noticed she was shivering in her crate so when we came back inside I put her in bed with me and my wife - Winnie slept through the night and got up at 7:30 in the morning! The next night I thought, let's try it from the beginning, so I took her to bed with me at 9:30PM and Winnie crawled right between my wife and I and slept for 9 hours without wanting to go out and pee! It's been easy for us ever since. Occasionally she will want to go out in the middle of the night, but mostly she sleeps from 9:30-10:00 all the way through to 7 or 8AM.

Before she turned 4 months she had maybe one accident a week in the house and it was usually in her bed (not the crate). We blocked off our living room so we could keep an eye on her and when she started sniffing around the room, we took her out to pee and she caught on fast. I think we got lucky with Winnie on the house training side of things. She sleeps with us every night and it's been great. During the day (my wife is home all day), Winnie goes out about every 2 hours, just in case and now she's down almost no accidents in the house. Since we are in Colorado, we bought that fake grass to put in the laundry room when it's too cold to go outside and Winnie uses that almost daily.

As I said, we got pretty lucky with the house training thing for the most part. When it comes to evening aggression and dry-humping everything in sight, now that's a different story....