I need help. I'm not sure what else to do!

My apologies on the length, I just wanted to add as much detail as possible!

Firstly, My pup is close to being 6 months old. She's a great puppy, very well behaved, sometimes has her crazy moments but what pup doesn't..right? She listens to me half of the time, she also likes to "talk back" which I find really funny, cause we pretend to yell at her and she howls right back at us.  Anyways, that's not really my problem.

I'm here because I feel like all the time i've used to potty train her has completely gone down the drain. I feel like nothing is working. Ever since she came home, I spent most of the time following her around the house watching when she was going to pee! and then immediately take her outside, I feel like she would have gotten the clue that she needed to go outside to use the potty. I tried treating her and praising her while she went outside, and for some reason, she just didn't get the idea that OUTSIDE is where she has to go.

She did and still does great through the night, I spent time waking up every 2 hours to just take her outside (whether she was half asleep or not I STILL took her outside) she would go and trot right back into her bed, and slept. Now, being 6 months she can pretty much hold it through the night and go in the morning, I've gotten her used to going at 7am everyday, so she wakes me up now when she has to go haha.

Right, so the nights are perfect, but it's during the day...I don't understand where this dog develops so much urine! I give her water in the morning and take her outside an hour afterwards where she will pee like 5 times! Then I bring her inside and she will, once again, squat and pee, even though she was JUST outside. I've gotten so tired of mopping up pee that i've just resorted to placing puppy pads in every corner of my house, which she uses but I just don't want her to think that going on the puppy pad inside the house is okay. I try taking her out every hour so she can pee, and she does..again like 5-6 times and once she comes back inside, BOOM she'll pop a squat and pee again. I don't understand how she can pee THAT much. She's almost 6 months and you would think she'll have control of her bladder a bit better, but I guess not.

I decided to take her to the vet, she came out fine. No UTI. So then what could it be? The vet said "Don't give her too much water" Except that I don't I barely give her any water during the day, she drinks only in the morning. And it's not even that much. Why is she peeing so much? And why is she doing it in the house? I spent so much time taking her outside, praising her and trying train her to get her to go outside, but she wont even signal to me that she has to go out, she'll just casually walk, and then just pee. I even tried teaching her to ring a bell at the door whenever she needed to go out...didn't work she'll just go over and smack at it until she finally pulls it off and drags it to her bed.

Crating her wasn't an option either I tried that as well...failed. She did nothing but scream her lungs out when she was in there, from when she was a pup to now, and I did not want neighbors coming over asking if I was beating my dog cause it was just THAT bad. She also urinated and pooped while she was in there even though I'd take her outside right beforehand. And I didn't think it was sanitary for her at all, so I quit on the crate. We fixed up our basement, and I set up a corner just for her filled with all her toys and a bunch of junk for her to play with and she spends a few hours down there while i'm out doing errands, never longer then 4 hours. And never everyday, I say she probably spends 3 days out of a whole week down there when I have to go out and do something. And she loves it, its like her own "den".

Well, I've run out of things to do about her excessive peeing...I want to get rid of the pads but the fact she constantly pee's I can't just spend my time cleaning it all day, the pads make it a quick pick up.

Any idea's on what I could do? I really need help!

Your problem is the puppy pads. I have never ever used them. Instead of continuing to work with her on going outside, you gave in and gave her places that she's allowed to pee on inside. She will never learn that inside is bad if you don't remove those things. My friend's four year old chi still has potty issues because of those things.

Tether her to you. Take her out every half hour. Treat her every time she goes outside. If you catch her going inside (which you should with her tethered to you) take her outside immediately. No more pads, pottying inside is not acceptable. Be consistent. And good luck!

Roxy's advice is pretty much exactly what I would say and I'd add one thing. When she goes, do you notice specific behaviors she does before she squats? Like sniffing the ground or acting a certain way? It's easy to spot with my male, but I know that it can be different with females (some of them just drop and squat whenever). If you see any of these behaviors inside the house take her out immediately. Also, if she goes in the house, interrupt her (pick her up if you have to) and use whatever you use for her correction word, I use 'ah ah' and take her straight outside. If she finishes, give her tons of treats and make a huge deal out of it, like she just solved world hunger.

I haven't tried this myself, so hopefully someone will chime in if they have, but you could also try teaching her to go potty on command. I want to start working on this with my puppy because he is starting to mark and I would like to break that habit, so I want to teach him to empty out when I ask.

Another suggestion, which I haven't done either, but I think might help you is to train her to ring a bell by the door to go out. It could be that she just isn't consistent in telling you she needs to go out, or her signals are really weird. My puppy used to get super restless, playful, and bitey when he had to go, he would attack and chew on my arms, pants, ankles, or whatever he could reach! For a while I just thought he was being a bad boy until I noticed he would have an accident after a few minutes of acting like that. The bell will be a very clear signal that says, 'I need to go out.'

Lastly, there are other medical issues that can cause excessive peeing other than a uti. Did you vet mention anything else to you?

wpskier222 wrote:

I haven't tried this myself, so hopefully someone will chime in if they have, but you could also try teaching her to go potty on command. I want to start working on this with my puppy because he is starting to mark and I would like to break that habit, so I want to teach him to empty out when I ask.

i do something similar, i wouldnt say its on command, but rather a location. when ever we go out side we go to the exact same spot. after she takes care of business then ill praise her and play. and this helped us a lot. rikky was having accidents almost every day to know she has almost none except here and there. It took time for her to understand that she couldnt walk all over the yard and go but after 2 weeks of it the second we get there she takes care of all business.

That's exactly what I was thinking too. I'm just going to have to remove the pads, I have noticed in the morning (she sleeps in her own bed in my room) that she will not go potty around my bedroom until I take her outside because I don't have puppy pads in there. So I think I should remove them and just take her out every half our. She tends to pace around the house allllll the time though so following her everywhere is gonna be tough >.< she always likes to look through things cause she's always sniffing around so I never know when she's gonna squat and pee. I'll keep an eye on her now.

And I tried the whole bell idea but that was to no avail, she didn't really understand what to do all she wanted was to rip of off the doorknob and play with it.

_Jaymoran wrote:

And I tried the whole bell idea but that was to no avail, she didn't really understand what to do all she wanted was to rip of off the doorknob and play with it.

Lol, I can 100% see my puppy doing this! He'd be like, "Saweeet! A new toy that makes NOISE!"

What do you use to clean up urine? Enzyme cleaners are best and if you do not use them she could be smelling it too andcremarking.

On command take time. When i let loki out and want no nonsense i say go potty. I taught this by basically following him everyime i let him i would repeat go potty if he go distracted i would say go potty. When he did go i would praise him and good boy going potty. Took months but now i can toss him in the backyard when it rains tell himgo potty and be waiting for him to wipe him down when he is done.