# Potty Training (my way of doing it)



## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

I hate messes on the floor as much as the next person. I have bell that I hung on the door. For the dogs first 3 weeks I took her out often and gave her treats with the command out and out meant hit the bell which also means we could now go outside. Then I moved to the second part which is pretty scary. I took her out of her crate like normal and didn't take her outside. I just watched her. Sure started to pee on the floor so I startled her with my voice and we went to the bell, she jumped and hit it, so then I took her outside to finish and of course she praised. I expected this to happen a few more times but in my experience it didn't. I would seem my dog is potty trained downstairs. 

Rules I keep reading about but didn't follow:

1) She has access to fresh water all day.

2) I can't take her out on a set time so I didn't want that to be my method of controlling it. It's a fine method... just doesn't work for me. 

3) Food time various.

I think it goes to show you that there is no real one way of doing things. I think in general people would have more success if they trained the dog based on how they actually planned on living with it. Though I get the feeling that most people here already know of this.


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## maplewood (Apr 14, 2011)

bridget246 said:


> Rules I keep reading about but didn't follow:
> 
> 1) She has access to fresh water all day.
> 
> I think it goes to show you that there is no real one way of doing things. I think in general people would have more success if they trained the dog based on how they actually planned on living with it. Though I get the feeling that most people here already know of this.


Just to clarify. She does not have access to water or does?

In any kind of training being adaptable to ones lifestyle/routine and the dog is essential. What works for one dog/person/household may not be the best for another.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

maplewood said:


> Just to clarify. She does not have access to water or does?
> 
> In any kind of training being adaptable to ones lifestyle/routine and the dog is essential. What works for one dog/person/household may not be the best for another.


She does. Lots of places told me not to get her fresh water 24/7.


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## Atila (Oct 15, 2011)

Ok, you're doing it wrong. You have connected bell ringing and doing potty outside,she has not nor she needs to. Make it a 2 excersises. One is that bell means going out. Teach her that bell means going out (not doing potty, just going out). Second is that potty is to be done outside. Dont wait for her to star peeing, take her before that. She should start to be 'nervous' and sniffing before doing it, so when she starts searching for a spot, take her out and prasie when she does it outside. Do not yell or reprimand her if she does it at home. You will just stress her so she wont do anything in front of you and probably hide. Connecting 2 excersises is not needful. She's smart, she'll figure it out in a minute. You can maybe when taking her out ring a bell so she connects but nothing more. 
I live in a flat. It took me to potty train my dog (pee only outside on the grass and ask to be taken out) total of 2 weeks.


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## Atila (Oct 15, 2011)

p.s.he has and had 24/7 access to water too.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

Atila said:


> Ok, you're doing it wrong. You have connected bell ringing and doing potty outside,she has not nor she needs to. Make it a 2 excersises. One is that bell means going out. Teach her that bell means going out (not doing potty, just going out). Second is that potty is to be done outside. Dont wait for her to star peeing, take her before that. She should start to be 'nervous' and sniffing before doing it, so when she starts searching for a spot, take her out and prasie when she does it outside. Do not yell or reprimand her if she does it at home. You will just stress her so she wont do anything in front of you and probably hide. Connecting 2 excersises is not needful. She's smart, she'll figure it out in a minute. You can maybe when taking her out ring a bell so she connects but nothing more.
> I live in a flat. It took me to potty train my dog (pee only outside on the grass and ask to be taken out) total of 2 weeks.



I guess I'm not completely understanding why ringing the bell doesn't mean going to potty? She hasn't used the bathroom in the house for weeks. It seemed to work. Since she has stopped getting into so much trouble I don't watch her 24/7 anymore with she is out of the crate. Correction... she doesn't get into trouble when I'm around. She does when my GF is the only one. 

As for just wanted to go outside, we do that at least twice a day.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

bridget246 said:


> I guess I'm not completely understanding why ringing the bell doesn't mean going to potty? She hasn't used the bathroom in the house for weeks. It seemed to work. Since she has stopped getting into so much trouble I don't watch her 24/7 anymore with she is out of the crate. Correction... she doesn't get into trouble when I'm around. She does when my GF is the only one.
> 
> As for just wanted to go outside, we do that at least twice a day.


Are you saying the dog pees on the floor when your gf is around?


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

KittyKat said:


> Are you saying the dog pees on the floor when your gf is around?


In the past she has. She breaks other rules as well when she is around. We are trying to work on her getting a bigger role on training. She just isn't all too motivate and finds the dog to be intimidating. Just recently she crapped on the floor. I was told that the dog jumped on the door twice and she just wasn't able to respond quick enough. Usually I can tell just by watching her that she wants to go out even without the door bell. 

The largest problem here is that she doesn't work with the dog enough. I'll leave her alone with the dog hoping that she'll actually work with her and all she actually ends up doing is falling asleep and the dog does out sorts of things she never does when I'm around. It makes me upset because the dog was really her idea. We got Bridget because she said she wanted the dog and would be willing to work with her. She hasn't read any of my dog books I brought for us. Doesn't do much online research. Hasn't been patient enough to teach Bridget anything new. She'll try for a few minutes and that is about it.


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## Atila (Oct 15, 2011)

yes, I gathered from some other replys that your GF is not interested in working with your dog. You have 2 solutions that I went trough and work. One is that your GF starts training too. Best thing to motivate her is to instruct her to do some tricks your dog already knows well. Satisfaction of making a powerfull dog do something usualy sets people the right way. Second way is that she ignores the dog completly. No interaction at all when they're alone. Instruct her to leave the room if she gets intimidated by dog so Bridget is to learn that your GF is practicly pice of furniture (no offence meant) and no fun wthout you.


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