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So, I had dog trouble about a year back and posted about it on TL and got a lot of really awesome help, so here we go again.
My girlfriend and I recently moved in together and inherited her old roommate's dog since she couldn't keep her at the new place she was moving to. The dog is pretty well behaved and really quiet which is great for an apartment dog. However, she isn't house trained. Her previous owner kept her in the apartment all the time (she lived in the city) and never really took her out. She is pad trained, which is better than nothing, but I'd like to get her trained to go outside since our apartment has a big yard and I don't want to keep cleaning up pads all the time.
So, how do you train a 6 year old dog that has been using a pad all her life to change?
I don't want to scold her for using the pad because if she does need to go in the house I would rather she do it on the pad.
I've tried giving her treats whenever she does something outside...but she seems uninterested in treats when she is outside. She will literally drop them immediately and continue frollicking around and sniffing stuff.
I've tried bringing the pad outside, but she ignores it completely. I've even gone so far as to make her sit on it outside for ~5 minutes, but as soon as I let her go where she wanted she ignored it again.
She treats going outside as super happy fun time running around and if she just so happens to get the urge, she will go. I want to try to teach her that going outside is the normal way and a pad is just a last resort.
Should I try taking the pad away while I'm at work and hoping she holds it?
I've trained other dogs to do things before, but never one that was this old/set in her ways.
Halp!
also coagulation
 
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What breed of dog is it first of all o.o
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Shitzu-Poodle mix named Nahla.
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I am not a dog trainer, and it has been a long time since we house-trained our dog, so take this with a grain of salt...
The trick iirc is that you have to get her outside just after eating (that gets their digestive tract working). Take her some place you want her to do her business, and keep her there on a short leash until she does. When she does, absolutely load on the praise, and let her play outside however she usually likes. I imagine that you're totally right that you don't want to really scold her... Then she'll just pee in the house and get nervous that she peed in the house and get stressed out about it.
But yeah, lavish praise after any kind of business outside is super-good. Dogs love that! :D Good luck!
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MrHoon
10183 Posts
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Lemonwalrus, you're back!! :D
You should see what happened to your Human vs Dog thread.
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What do you mean by "pad" ? Is it like a diaper for dogs ? I've never heard of dogs pooping anywhere else than outside.
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Positive reinforcement is everything with dogs, so when she does go outside reward her with treats and praise.
A simple strategy.
Have the pad close to the door to start off. I am assuming by now it doesnt matter where she is that she will go on the pad. I am also assuming you will have her on a eating schedule. watch her for a few days and make note of when you feed her and- how long afterwards she goes to the bathroom. Doing this will tell you when to take heroutside after eating. That part is pretty easy.
Say she pee's 40 min to 1 hr after eating. So after 40 minutes take heroutside for a walk, and praise the shit out of her when she does go outside. Do this for awhile and she will get used to going outside. Once she kind of gets used to it take the pad away and continue on the schedule of taking her out. Should work quite well, good luck!
It's pretty simple, positive reinforcement and patience is the key issue.
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i would assume the pad has a regular place? just slowly move it towards the outside, like half a meter each day, and once it's in a comfortable spot outside, let it be there for a few days and then just put it away.
and yeah, what the guy above me said too ^^
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Hi,
First you need to devolop a schedule. You will have to stick strickly to the schedule until the bitch gets the hang of going outside. It doesn't matter if there is no success in the first couple days, but building a regular time will help.
For the first week you are going to leave the pad inside for the bitch to go on when needed. Bring the pad outside with you, and place it on the grass or where you would like the bitch to go. The dog already associates the pad with going to the bathroom.
After a week, you have to try to stop her from going inside on the pad. This is tricky because you don't want to scold the bitch for going to the bathroom but, you want to look for signs. If she start going over to the pad inside, grab the leash quick, redirect her from the pad, and go outside immediately.
Most importantly, when she does actually go outside, you need to make a huge deal. Give her a ton of praise. Make her know that that was the right thing to do.
When I used to live in an apartment, I hung a bell on a string on the doorknob. Every time you take the dog out to go to the bathroom, ring the bell with your hand and say a command "go out" or something like that. Whatever word you want to mean to be go outside and duece it on the lawn.
Eventually the dog will catch on that the sound of the bell means going outside to stain the lawn. And then when they need to go out, they can hit the bell with their nose.
This site sells bells. But you can just google "dog bell for door". http://poochie-pets.net/
It is fun to have friends over and all of a sudden the bitch rings the bell because she needs to go out. For some reason people are impressed that the dog will can learn to do that.
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have you tried pooping in the yard in front of the dog to demonstrate the proper protocol?
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EPT
