potty training a rescue dog
We are potty training a pit bull puppy (9 mos) rescued from a state shelter. She is crate trained and we keep her leashed to us in the house when not in the crate. We are establishing regular schedules for feeding and going out. However every time we think she’s finally learned she finds the 5 minutes we aren’t watching her to pee in the house! Does anyone have any suggestions?
April Rogers
Sometimes in cases like this you have to monitor the amount of water your pet is taking in. This helps you better train her bladder to go out at certain times.
Henriette Pretorius
Here is a resource that you can check out: https://edc.trainpetdog.com/view-files/?fid=302 Potty training can be taxing for an entire household and the one thing everyone should have is patience.
Laura Napier
A regular schedule for feeding and going outside is a great start. How often is the pup going outside when not crated? Through the years, regardless of the breed, I found that if I consistently stuck to 20 minute intervals (30 minutes max) during the early stages of training and then praised and gave treats every time, the process was more successful and shorter. I even had a rottweiler that pretended to go just so she could get the praise and treats! When she became an old girl, she would pretend to go because she just wanted to come back inside. Smart pup she was! I also used verbal commands along with the process to help associate the words with the action, ex. potty outside. I can ask my dog now if she needs to potty outside and if she does, she goes to the door. If not, she continues with what she is doing. A family member trained their pit bull with a bell hung on a door knob. Everytime before they went outside, he would hit the bell. Soon enough, the pit bull knew if he hit the bell, he could go outside.