Nikko has never been perfect with house training, but usually will let me know when he has to go out. Still having a few accidents a week. But this past week he has ceased letting me know he has to go, and just pees whenever he wants, and he won't poop outside anymore. Only inside...in a spot where I can't see him. It's very frustrating. What could cause this? His stools have been solid, and I take him out often, usually one every hour to hour and a half. This is getting very annoying. A 4 month old puppy should be better than this. His house training has taken 3 steps backwards all of a sudden...

Do you scold him much for going in the house? Sometimes if a puppy gets scolded for getting caught going in the house then he'll go hide in a corner, perhaps thinking that if he isn't 'seen' for doing the deed then he won't be punished.

How have you been training him so far? Crate training orr?

If I catch him he does get scolded. He's crate trained. When I'm not home and at night he is crated. He doesn't go in his crate.

Quote :

A 4 month old puppy should be better than this.

Actually not in my experience.

A regression in potty training is more common than you think and it tends to happen right around the 4 to 5 month mark. I'm not 100% sure why it happens but it has to all my puppies too and to a bunch of others. Tika was no exception.


Regression though frustrating are very normal. Just clean the spot well and retrain... It goes away pretty fast or at least it should this time around.

~Chris~

Oh really? Well that's interesting... I hope it goes away soon.
Thanks!

I feel your pain!!
My year and a half non-husky dog has started doing this. She is trained to use potty pads AND outside, and she will go into the room the potty pad is in and pee about 2 feet from the pad. It is SUPER annoying. She has been in heat though... I think that's why.

I delt with this with my dog a few months ago. When Wrex was about 6 months old he suddenly decided he was no longer house trained.. He would never go in front of me, or any other member of the family for that matter, but no matter how many times I took him outside, he would only go in the house.

Wrex got put on probation... I kept him with me at all times when indoors, on a leash unless I was giving him some other sort of attention that prevented him finding a corner (Such as grooming, feeding or playing)

Because he wouldn't go in front of me in the house, it would just get to the point that when I took him outside he needed to go SOOOO BAD that he didn't really have much choice. I took him out every two hours and he wouldn't use it 90% of the time.. But by the end of 2 weeks, we had no more accidents in the house. (I also used this opportunity to teach him to go both on command and immediately.) I told him to go every time I took him out, and if he didn't go within 1 minute, we went back in the house for another two hours. This forced him to hold it until he needed to go bad enough that he would just do it when we got outside without the sniffing around. By the end of the two weeks it was amazing, and SOOO convenient to be able to tell him to go and not have to wait for ten minutes while he sniffed every square inch of the yard.

Wrex is a very smart dog and learned fast, it may take some dogs longer to learn, but if your consistent it shouldn't be too hard.

Camoger- sorry if I'm off the thread subject but the dog in your pic is beautiful, I've never seen a German shepherd with blue eyes like that, that's awesome! A shepherd husky mix right..?

i agree with Chris, regression is normal.

I wouldn't scold at all, even if I see them doing it. I grab the dog and get it outside fast. Everytime. I had to do it with Cato a lot, he was a slow potty trainer. I didn't get upset, just bought a lot of paper towel...I should have bought stock in it.

Sheba was also very difficult to potty train. I wouldn't be scolding him either. Sheba took until about 5 months to get it down pact. Have you been paying close enough attention to him? He may be sending you all sorts of signals that he needs to go and you might not be picking up on them. Sheba was like that. If I didn't pay enough attention to her tiny signals she was sending out to me in the five seconds she tried, too bad for me. She peed. He's not doing it on purpose. He IS still a baby after all .

Marie<3 wrote:

Camoger- sorry if I'm off the thread subject but the dog in your pic is beautiful, I've never seen a German shepherd with blue eyes like that, that's awesome! A shepherd husky mix right..?

Yes, that is Wrex at 9-10 months old. He is mostly German Shepherd, but there is some husky mixed in there... From What I can find online, He is very unique looking. Any other German Shepherd/Husky mixes that I can find pictures of with blue eyes look a lot more husky.

Camoger wrote:

Marie<3 wrote:

Camoger- sorry if I'm off the thread subject but the dog in your pic is beautiful, I've never seen a German shepherd with blue eyes like that, that's awesome! A shepherd husky mix right..?

Yes, that is Wrex at 9-10 months old. He is mostly German Shepherd, but there is some husky mixed in there... From What I can find online, He is very unique looking. Any other German Shepherd/Husky mixes that I can find pictures of with blue eyes look a lot more husky.

Wow what a gorgeous dog

Tika wrote:

Quote :

A 4 month old puppy should be better than this.

Actually not in my experience.

A regression in potty training is more common than you think and it tends to happen right around the 4 to 5 month mark. I'm not 100% sure why it happens but it has to all my puppies too and to a bunch of others. Tika was no exception.


Regression though frustrating are very normal. Just clean the spot well and retrain... It goes away pretty fast or at least it should this time around.

~Chris~

This is Yuki. She did fine as a little puppy but at about 4 months she suddenly kept going in the house. I disagree with the quote "A 4 month old puppy should be better than this." Even at 6 months old, dogs don't have full control of their bladder. And the fact that he's going in the corner shows to me he's scared to be caught. Be more patient and consistent with him, in time he will get the hang of it.