Help with house training

[Peabo]

Hi.

My wife and I have the most wonderful little guy named Peabo. He's 2 and a half years old. He has never been perfect with his house training. He's always struggled with the temptation of an alluring rug. But recently things have taken a turn for the worse. We recently moved to a house in the suburbs from a small apartment in the city. Peabo is very happy, but he has been having frequent accidents.

It's not a matter of him having emergencies because he sometimes does it when we are right there with him. He has been rotating spots in the house. We can't seem to get the message across that this isn't acceptable.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to retrain him? He generally has one accident per day now and it's only urine.

Thanks so much!

[crazypugmom]

Peabo might just be marking since he is at a new place. It is fairly common for the male pugs to do so. I would firmly tell him no (if you catch him). If he is doing this while you are gone, then I would go back to crating or confining him to a certain room. You also might try making him wear a belly band until he decides that he should not be trying to potty in the house.

[TessiesMom]

Is Peabo neutered? He sounds like he is marking his new house. Having him neutered, if he is not already, will sometimes help suppress the urge.

Were there any pets in the home before you bought it? If so, they may have left some spots that Peabo smells. Try buying Natures' Miracle or Petastic and treating any areas that Peabo marks. Dogs tend to go back to the same spot, and the solutions will help remove the smell. You can buy them at Petsmart or Petco.

[Lemon]

Sounds like the little guy is making himself right at home. I love your avatar -- he's adorable. And Peabo's such a cute name.

I can only imagine how frustrating it is. I agree with the Nature's Miracle/Petastic recommendation. I think it's the only thing that saved our rugs. The belly band is also a good suggestion. I can't imaine too many pugs want to feel that wetness.

Does your new house have more carpet than your last place did? That was our toughest hurdle in housetraining. Our place has all hardwood floors with a few area rugs. Lemon never peed on the hardwood, but the rugs were another story. She finally stopped doing that, but if we brought her to anyone's carpeted house, we were taking our chances. It seemed she had learned not to pee in *our* house, but she needed to learn not to pee in anyone's house. Maybe Peabo's going through a little bit of that -- new house! new rules! -- in which case, I'd start over with housetraining. Take him out as often as humanly possible. Never give him a chance to go inside. When he does go outside, have a potty party. I know it sounds silly, given that he's over 2. But that coupled with removing the scent in the house could remind him where he's supposed to go.

[Peabo]

Yes, Peabo is neutered. There definitely was not a pet in the house before us. We have been using Nature's Miracle to no avail. He just finds a new spot. He's very creative.

We've been giving him treats when he goes outside and showering him with praise. He's very appreciative, but he still seems to enjoy his daily "accident."

crazypugmom, we've considered confining him to one room, but haven't tried it yet. We are probably going to try that next. He get's really, really upset about that so we've avoided it up until now. When we've done that in the past, he has scratched at the gate until his nails bled. what is a belly band, by the way? That sounds extremely cute...

thanks.

[Peabo]

kathleen,

thanks for compliments about Peabo. he loves sniffing flowers! Lemon is so sweet.

our place is 99% hardwood. we have one small rug. but at this point we've steered him away from the rug and he's found new spots - really just about anywhere.

we are trying to retrain with excessive walking. it's tough during the week. my wife and i are both at work. we have a wonderful dog walker but he still manages to find an afternoon slot between his midday walk and when we get home.

We may have to resort to gating him in one room. We'll see...

[Lemon]

A pug being resourceful? Nahhh.

Have you ever tried wee pads? I know lots of people are against them, but they were a lifesaver for us. We still leave them out if we know Lemon will be alone for too long. They're scented to encourage them to pee there, and most dogs would rather pee on something absorbent than hardwood. Otherwise, they risk the pee hitting their paws. If Peabo (appropriate name, it seems) started using them, you could leave him ungated.

A belly band is just a band that wraps around their belly and privates. When they pee, it soaks the band rather than your house. If it works, they'll start associating that unpleasant feeling with peeing in the house, and slowly but surely, they'll stop.

[colleen]

He's adorable and sounds like he's just living up to his name Ferdie loves to smell flowers too, that's why we named him Ferdinad after the children's story where the bull sits and smells the flowers instead of fighting. His snorting also sounds like a bull. Ferdie is in a crate when we are gone and has to be in the same room with us when we are home. If he's not attended he lifts his leg and pees When we are with him, all through the night in our bedroom and 8 or 9 hours in his crate no accidents. The minute we leave him unattended it's a pee fest. I've looked at the belly bands on line and they are quite cute. Since he's used to the crate we haven't gotten these but I'm considering it. Maybe someone knows the web site where they had a bunch of different colors.

[crazypugmom]

This is one of the websites that have bellybands plus it is also one of the least expensive. www.petzilla.com


Many of the websites have very expensive prices for the bellybands considering they aren't very detailed.