I just have a few questions about house breaking.

First of all, I just got a new Italian Greyhound, her name is Lola. She is doing great around the house. She is always tethered to me by her leash. I always use "go potty" as her command and when she goes, "good potty". She seems to respond well and never has accidents when she is out because she is tied to my arm - literally. But when she is in her crate, she goes to the restroom. It is definately small enough for her. I always feed her in her crate also as well as do her "crate" treats for going in. But she still goes to the restroom. She does not mind at all!! And it is so gross. I understand that is the way she was most likely raised, and that this will be a difficult thing to train out of, but how do I do it? Just consistency? Not to mention I have read that they can be harder to housebreak in general. oh no...

Another problem, is that not only is she ok with sleeping and playing in it, but eating it... YUCK! Is this ok health wise? How do I break this? If I'm not here, and she's in a crate, how can I possible get her the message that its not ok to do that?

Any comments or help would be fantastic. I ordered the training video a day or two ago from the site, and am anxiously awaiting it to start her training.

Another problem - sort of off the subject - is her barking at night. Greyhounds do not bark at all during the day really, but she whines and is sooo loud at night... Any suggestions with this too would be wonderful!

Oh yea, I forgot to mention her age, in case you are wondering. She is 2 and a half months old. So I know I have a ways to go with all of this since she is so young. Also, as another bad starting mistake, she was purchased from a pet store and not a private breeder.

Yikes. Her going in the crate may have A LOT to do with coming from a pet store. Those dogs are held in tiny cages without access to "nature's bathroom" for days or weeks on end. They are forced to ignore their natural tendency to not soil their den. They learn to live with it, and I'm really sorry to say this, but they learn to play with it because often, really often, that's the only toy they have.

You are in for a long haul getting this pup to overcome these issues, not to mention any health issues that may come up. Your pup had a really unnatural start to her life.

I'm trying to be gentle, and I hope others on the board will be too, but pet stores are really horrible. On the other hand, I appreciate your honesty because without that information, people wouldn't be able to give you the best advice on your problems. I'm assuming you didn't know how rotten pet stores are before you purchased your pup.

You're going to have to take this pup out a lot. A lot a lot a lot a lot. You're going to have to make a BIG deal out of her going outside, treats are not a bad idea. I wouldn't scold her for going in the crate, but I would remove it ASAP and spray the crate with Nature's Miracle (what I use anyway) to get rid of the scent. If they smell it, they'll keep going there.m Eventually, she'll get the idea but don't be surprised if it takes a loooong time.

You're going to have a long road ahead of you, I'm afraid, but it's not impossible. You're just going ot have to work extra hard to undo all the crap the pet store did.

Good luck.

Aren't the little dogs harder to housetrain? I read that somewhere. Can't remember if it's BS or not having never owned a tiny one.

Amber is totally right. Buying a dog from a pet store can make housebreaking a true fight down the road. It is NOT natural for a dog to want to go to the bathroom in the same place that he eats/sleeps but being in a tiny cage with no access to getting away forces them to "poo where they lay." Against my advice, my sister made the same mistake and she's still working on getting him 100% housebroke and he's 1 year old. We all make mistakes though so at least Lola found a good home.
Good news - with perseverance and patience, it should get better....but it will take longer, much longer, than normal. Just make sure that you really focus on the appropriate place to go to the bathroom and eventually, you won't need to worry about the crate at all anymore when she is completely housebroke (if you give her more space and she can hold it the entire time you're gone).
As a side note, eating it is called "copropagia" and there could be several reasons why a dog does it. Poor Quality Food (something lacking in their diet), Stools not picked up frequently, being confined to too small of an area, boredom, habit, possible pancreatic problems (may want to check her out thoroughly w/ the vet if you haven't done so already).
Hope this helps!!!

Just my two cents, I got my puppy from a breeder, who as the vet puts it nicely was "farm raised". The litters were large and the moms were taken away from the pups at about 5 weeks. The puppies didn't have anyone telling them where they should or should not go.

My puppy is now 14 weeks old (we got him at age 7 weeks) and LAST Night is the FIRST Time that he stood near the door to go out and Pee, in addition to ONE WEEK of DRY NIGHTS. Eureka! It has been a long road. He will not poop in his crate, et cetera as long as you are available to bring him outside, but he would pee anywhere including his crate.

I do not know how people who work ever get a puppy and properly train them. It has been hard enough working with the puppy and being home and a flexible schedule and taking him with me. The running joke is that he thinks we live in the Vehicle, and we just visit our house to eat and sleep.

Our pup has a crate in my son's room that he sleeps in. He has a crate in the vehicle for when it is just the pup and I or when we have things that I don't want him to get into like boxes of fundraising chocolate. We also have a crate in the kitchen, that we don't use much but about two weeks ago, I started to feed him in it to associate the crate with eating, as well as sleeping, in an effort to get him to stop peeing in his crate at night. I think it worked!

And yes the two house crates are a tad larger than he needs at the moment, but in the vehicle he was in the "KITTY" Sized Crate at first and he still had accidents in that one, too. He just didn't care.

I still do not consider him house trained. I put him outside the minute he leaves his crate, before putting him in his crate, upon waking from naps in the kitchen, after 30 minutes of playing, et cetera, et cetera. Whenever I bring him outside, I use the word OUTSIDE and shake the Jingle Bells that I have on my doornob.

After he is outside, I tell him to go PEE and he does. So at least he Pees on command. But in the house I still watch him, if he starts to squat, he goes OUTSIDE. At this point, it is pretty much a scheduled deal still.

In his crate he whines if he has to pee, and he barks if he has to poop. Outside his crate, I might get a 10 second look of warning, so standing by the door last night was like winning the lottery.

Just wanted to share what we've done so far!

Louanne

 Quote: saramilliken

Aren't the little dogs harder to housetrain? I read that somewhere. Can't remember if it's BS or not having never owned a tiny one.

No.

If you allow for the smaller bladder (so double the number of potty trips, approximately, of a standard-size pup, say), then no, they are not harder to housetrain. I think they are often not trained well because the little mess or the little puddle is less urgent to avoid to some owners. Then the thing about harder-to-housetrain started.

I know a whole lot of people are going to disagree with me, but I've done lots of bigs and smalls; the same system and the same consistency pays off the same way.

I do agree that a pet-store pup will have already learned bad habits (and another gentle mention here about NOT supporting the pet stores that sell dogs), but more persistence and patience will eventually pay off. As Amber says, that would be a pup who will need lots of potty trips and lots of reinforcing praise for going outdoors.

Tethering is an EXCELLENT thing to do for a jump-start.

And as for the night whining, have you tried moving the crate near your bed, so she's not lonely? And of course, you know not to reward it by going to her when she vocalizes, right? (I mean, unless it's a potty warning.)

I would set this pup up for success by not allowing opportunity for accidents, insofar as it's possible. I'd be taking her out to potty every hour and praising like a nut for each good potty. It won't be forever, and you'll be glad you started off right.

I would check her diet (is meat number one on her food's ingredient list? Or is it grain-heavy?) and fix it righty away if it's one of the junk foods like Purina or Science Diet, and I would also correct for poop-eating. I'd also walk her away from it immediately outside, and pick it up. Also, when you get the video (number 302, I hope?), you will learn motivational training and can teach "drop it" and/or "leave it."

You can do it. You have a job ahead of you, but it definitely CAN be done with patience and consistency.

Louanne, GOOD WORK!

Because my pup didn't mind the pee, I made sure that I did have a towel in there to absorb that got changed every time I took him out and it was wet. Also the pup got a bath EVERY DAY so he wouldn't be used to the Urine Smell on his fur.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 Quote: louanne manter

Because my pup didn't mind the pee, I made sure that I did have a towel in there to absorb that got changed every time I took him out and it was wet. Also the pup got a bath EVERY DAY so he wouldn't be used to the Urine Smell on his fur.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Well, a daily bath might be stripping oils from the pup's skin, but I do see why you did this temporarily. Maybe those big "Simple Solutions" wipes for dogs would be a good alternative.

But you dealt with it successfully, so you did good! JMHO.