it doesn't matter how many times I have taken her outside to pee she will always come back in and pee like five times! even if she uses the bathroom outside! Her vet says she is healthy and nothing medical wrong with her. I am about to loose my mind lol She gets treats or toys when she goes outside... I must be doing something wrong! her first few weeks she was doing so good going outside and when I cant get to her right away she does have pads... hear me out! I also have two other dogs and a 4 month old. I sometimes can't go out on the nose every hour.... I am sorry for the rant!

Honestly I'm in the same boat. For me, she typically goes outside and does her business, but whenever I'm at school or work and she's home with just my boyfriend, she always goes inside no matter how many times he takes her out. She does go inside while I'm home too, but it's not as much as whenever she's home alone with just him. It always seems like whenever she's upstairs she pees and poops inside more than when she's downstairs. Now I'm not sure if she just doesn't know how to tell us she has to pee before it's too late or she doesn't realize she can go downstairs from upstairs since she can't go down the stairs by herself yet. So if anyone has any ideas on how to potty train her better I'd love some advice too!

Potty pads are a bad idea as far as I'm concerned. You are training your dog to pee inside. That's about as mixed as a message as you can get.

Potty training an animal is a full time job, and not one to be taken lightly.

If they relieve themselves inside, you need to clean that spot thoroughly. Often times you need enzyme cleaners. If an dog is going inside, they are essentially marking that location as 'ok' for bathroom breaks. If it's marked with that scent, it can trigger the behavior to continue.

Often times, the most effective potty training method is leashing. The dog is in your visual range at literally all times. When you notice the dog making signs that they are going to the bathroom soon, you take them outside immediately. If you do this religiously it usually only takes a couple days, but it is a couple days of full attention devoted to your dog's bathroom needs. Think of it like potty training a child without diapers.

Communication is also important. Many people like to find a way for the dog to tell you they need to go to the bathroom. A spot they can sit at, a bell they can ring, something for them to communicate to you. Every time you take them out, you have to have them do the action so they start to connect them.

Make sure potty time is potty time, and not play time. Rewarding with a treat for doing everything right is fine, but rewarding with activity or too much attention can be a set back. The dog will indicate it's need, get let outside, and then pee just enough to make you happy and play with him. Then you will go inside and he will realize he still needs to go, and just go inside.

We keep a mop and bucket with Pine-sol on hand for the occasional slip-ups; every dog we have been blessed with training to go potty outside has been a challenging experience, and our current Husky in training is no different. We take her out every hour; every time she wakes up, every time she eats, and anytime she shows signs of sniffing out a good place to re-leave herself. The home is still new to her, with so many smells and fun things to chew on, and I don't expect her to realize that when her bladder is full, she needs to communicate that to me by heading to the door and waiting patiently like our other dogs do.

Patience, persistence, and understanding is the only way to get through the potty training phase. Last night she showed her first sign of the beginnings of understanding the rules; she did the quick sniff, drop, and squat, but when I ran to grab her she headed straight for the door. Even though she still piddled on the floor, we considered it a major accomplishment and praised her.

My 11-year old Golden Retriever has occasional accidents; so long as you maintain a consistent schedule you pup will graduate to "housebroken" eventually. Come to think of it, our kids we significantly different in their learning too; one refused to wear her diaper after about 18-months of age, and another needed nightime diapers until around 8.

Just love your pup; they grow up so fast...

Thank you, Dave, for the great advice.

I used potty pads in the puppy area (very limited, small area inside an indoor pen) for the first days to avoid the smell getting in the carpet and am rethinking it now with the second Husky--my boy can set a good example, and he doesn't have accidents unless he has an upset tummy (and then he goes in the shower, haha).

Bells are useful, even though IME pups learn how to use them to ask to go outside for other reasons than just to potty.

My Corgi girl was leashed to my belt all day as a pup. With my Husky boy, I kept his bed by my desk at work so he was easy to monitor and train.

I'm curious as to how potty training will be different with a second Husky. Not having carpet anymore will be a plus!

Kmanweiss' answer is spot on and positively excellent. I want to reiterate that vanquishing pads from your training arsenal is solid advice, as well as getting an enzyme cleaner to thoroughly eliminate the stench. Dog noses are far more sensitive than ours, if your dog can smell the odor then he/she will be more likely to have a repeat accident in the same spot. In addition one of the best things you can do is keep your dog on a leash indoors or confined to a room where you will always be able to see them. If you constantly have your dog within, say, a 4 meter radius, then not only will the odds of your dog having an accident decrease but you will be far more likely to catch an accident in process and will be more adequately equipped to respond with reasonable disciplinary action.

I also want to add that the key is consistency. Puppies have weak bladders - in addition to not knowing the proper place to relieve themselves - and often times an accident is due to the unfortunate inevitability of physical limitations as opposed to malicious intent. It's not uncommon for dogs even as old as 18 months to still occasionally have an accident. However if you commit to a potty plan and properly enforce it you'll find that with time the occurrence of accidents will drop dramatically; good luck!

I keep the pads because I have my 4 month old and two other dogs besides Shiva it's not safe for me to tie a leash to me while I have my baby.... She is learning where she can go at.

I guess I'm a dog person because I don't even have carpet so accidents are easier to clean up! When they happen, I think it's my fault because I trap my Husky in the house and then ignore his signs every now and then.

Or I vary his diet too much by allowing chicken over lamb and his stomach gets tender.

Grant will do slow, deliberate circles around the living room and sit by the door, and then escalate to taking my hand in his mouth (a no-no) if I'm too daft to understand what he needs.

We will do bells with Sophia. We may use potty pads. She will be crated when left behind (rarely) and penned when she is not leashed. I will do whatever it takes to give her a workaround for my occasional distracted ignorance.

If she needs to be leashed to me, which wasn't necessary with Grant but was with my son's Corgi girl, we will do that.

I think it's important to go easy on ourselves, though, and keep the goals realistic. It's sad when a dog is viewed as "bad" because he can't communicate his needs perfectly at all times.

I'm grateful for the advice here.

It does seem like Huskies have more trouble than most dogs communicating when they need to go out (or we have more trouble understanding Huskies). Maybe it's because Husky vocalizations are more unusual than those of most other dog breeds ...? Misty only recently figured out that she needs to bark to let us know when she wants something -- and barking doesn't seem to be something she's used to doing. She mostly just "woowoowoo"s -- but she ALWAYS "woowoowoo"s, so we can't tell if she's just talking or if she's trying to let us know something a bit more serious.

We do have small brass bells hanging on the doorknobs of all of our doors. They're a holdover from when our daughter was a toddler, so we would hear if she was being sneaky and opened a door. Misty seems to be figuring out how to use those, too. She certainly likes the bell on the front door! DING DING DING/"WALK! WALK! I WANNA WALK!"

Anyway, it's now been three months since we got her, and Misty FINALLY appears to be COMPLETELY housetrained -- like, she finally understands that peeing ANYWHERE in the house is a NO-NO. We've now gone two weeks without us having to constantly keep an eye on her when she's running around inside the house. We did have to keep her on a leash indoors for a while, and I considered buying stock in enzyme cleaners. When we first got her, peeing indoors was a daily event for her. As of early November, she went long enough without an accident in the house that I felt comfortable with having the carpet cleaned.

Also, to date, the only thing she's destroyed in the house is a pair of earbuds. We even have a big ol' Christmas tree in the house right now, and she hasn't done more than sniff at it. I think the crate training helped the most in her case. Hopefully we'll be able to retire her crate by the end of the year.

Lots of similarities with Misty here! But the good news is 2 years later Grant is completely trusted home alone uncrated for 4 hour stints. He goes everywhere I do, normally, which probably helped with training, even though he is independent.

The woo language has never been about going potty, but is usually about reconnecting after an absence, asking to play, or an alarm clock for 5K running time if I even think about working late. I wish we had something definitive like a bark! So lucky.

Can't believe we're going through puppy potty training again in about a month, but just like in child training, "this too shall pass."

At least Sophia Loren is a puppy.  It seems like puppies are a bit easier to potty train -- and much easier to forgive -- than an adult dog that was never housetrained.  Especially an adult HUSKY that was never housetrained.  You can just see the wheels turning in those fuzzy heads of theirs when you tell them that doing their business indoors is a no-no:

Human: "Don't pee in the house!"
Husky:  "Why?"
Human: "Because ... because ... it's smelly and gross!"
Husky: "Well, YOU go in the house."
Human: "That's different! That's what toilets are for!"
Husky: "I don't have a toilet."
Human: "Yes, you do!  It's called Outside!"
Husky: "So I have to go outside to pee but you get to do it indoors? That is SO unfair. I demand equal treatment."
Human: "%#*$&#$&%!!!"

Exactly, Faye: do as I say, not as I do. Haha! Your Husky dialogue is so funny.

Mersea Lopez wrote:

I guess I'm a dog person because I don't even have carpet so accidents are easier to clean up! When they happen, I think it's my fault because I trap my Husky in the house and then ignore his signs every now and then.

I agree.  Initially i wanted to be mad at Thor for his accidents, but I had to remind myself he's a puppy and if he has an accident it's my fault for not 1)taking him out on a schedule 2)ignoring his howls as annoyance 3)being away too long and leaving him in his create.

We do have to be patient with pups learning to potty train as well as those who have grown dogs who are transitions to the training.  Just likes kids, it takes lots of patients and consistent training and reinforcement.

Cynthia N Bowen wrote:

it doesn't matter how many times I have taken her outside to pee she will always come back in and pee like five times! even if she uses the bathroom outside! Her vet says she is healthy and nothing medical wrong with her. I am about to loose my mind lol She gets treats or toys when she goes outside... I must be doing something wrong! her first few weeks she was doing so good going outside and when I cant get to her right away she does have pads... hear me out! I also have two other dogs and a 4 month old. I sometimes can't go out on the nose every hour.... I am sorry for the rant!

I'm sure I missed it, but how old is Shiva? It took me two months of tracking potting habits sticking to a daily schedule consistiatnly to get Thor where he is today. It was literally like potty training a child. Hang in there.

Yes, Carter, those three points! I read a lot, but putting the ideas into action is a labor of love. Getting into the mindset of listening for understanding instead of dismissing attempts by the Husky to communicate as "nonsense" is how I began to respect Grant. I love how he returns the respect by trying to live by house rules, like no zoomies from couch to place to couch and no standing on the coffee table (!)

Shiva is almost three months old.

This was after our walk around the park lol She was like I am tired take me home LMAO