I have a 3 mo old GSD, Kodee. I got him at 7 wks of age. He's being crate-trained, which is going great. Since I got him about 1-1/2 mos ago, he's had one poopie in his crate (within a couple days of getting him), and maybe 2 or 3 pees in it (also within the first couple wks of having him. He holds it all night if I take him out right before I go to bed, he can usually go til about 6:30 a.m. or so before I take him out. Has had a couple accidents in the kitchen (my fault, of course, for not watching close enough). He's recently been going to stand in front of the kitchen door when he needs to go out, and a few times in the last week, he's whined at the door to get my attention. Normally I take him out fairly often, so he doesn't get a chance to have an accident, really.

I'm giving you all the details of how he's doing because I'm wondering: How do you know when you can trust the dog/consider him housebroken? When he goes to the door and alerts you consistently 100% of the time? Or when he holds it til you take him out 100% of the time? I'm still hesitant to turn my back on him for too long, even though he's doing so well, he's still awfully young. I'd like to stop taking him out so often "just in case he needs to go,", but I don't want to jump the gun and end up having him have accidents in the house b/c I didn't take him out enough.

Thanks for you input!

We can tell when our dogs are 3 or 4 years old. You dont house train a dog in 2 months or even 6 months - unless you want to scrafice your couch if he chews it up.

You may want to think about the e-book I wrote on house training.

My wife and I both work from home, so we have a LOT of time with the puppy.

Some of the information I post is contrary to Ed’s Advice. It works for us, but it may not work for other people.

Here is a link to my problems with housetraining Starbuck.

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/141067/page/3#Post141067

A couple days after that posting I picked up some Natures Miracle and I cleaned all the spots where she went pee. I think this helped to remove the odor and she quickly quit peeing inside the home. I would guess that her last “accident” inside the house was mid May. I still have just about a full gallon of Natures Miracle.

When we are home Starbuck is outside of her crate and has access to the office, kitchen and living room.

Any time we both left the house Starbuck would go inside her crate with a Kong treat. She never seems to hesitate and half the time as soon as she saw the Kong she would go to wait for it inside the crate.

Some time around May she started to outgrow her crate we used in the bedroom. I didn’t want to drag the big crate back and forth, so we let her sleep outside the crate in the bedroom. As far as I know she has not had any accidents in the bedroom.

Starbuck has done minimal damage to the house (small tear on the back of the old couch when she lost her ball under it, a little chewing on a baseboard and a small tear in the carpet) and none of it within the last 2-3 months. About 2 weeks ago we started to give her time outside the crate while we were gone from the home. We started at 30 minutes, moved to 1 hour and now we are up to almost 4 hours. So far she has not done anything to the house while we are away. Most of the time when we get home she is laying inside the open crate. She does have access to the backyard while we are gone.

Starbuck was 7 Months old on October 7. I don’t think we would have left her alone outside the crate much before that age. I would not consider her 100% housebroken, because we have never tested her. She could stay inside the crate for 8 hours and not go to the bathroom, but I don’t think I would give her 8 hours alone in the house without access to the yard. I don’t think she is going to damage the house while we are away, but if she does then it’s my fault and I understand that. If she does start to cause problems then we will revert back to the crate.

Good Luck

I wouldn't worry about a timeline, I would just continue with your schedule and as the dog gets older you can lengthen the time between outings. We rushed our trust in Bella, and it showed. She took considerably longer to house train than Jenga.

I'm with Ed on this one; if you rush it, you're taking a risk. In fact, I recently made that mistake with Jenga. I rushed into giving him free roam of the house because he was doing so well - and then I discovered him munching on my cell phone, which is destroyed. He was never a chewer really, so it seemed as though he could be trusted...but he discovered the joys of unauthorized toys. So don't jump the gun. Better to be safe than sorry.

I was very lucky with housetraining Bayley, when I got her at 14 weeks, she was already 99% housetrained. No accidents in the house, I was diligent with taking her out regularly and lots of praise when she did her thing. She did go through a short period of piddling when someone came over and she got excited, that has stopped too. She is crate trained and it's only in the last few months that I haven't been putting her in the crate when we go out and at night. She's 18 months old now and sleeps in her crate at night, open door. So far, at least 3 months she has done no damage to anything in the house, including the cats!! The cats get into more trouble than she does!! Every now and then I will put her in the crate and close the door and go out, just so she doesn't forget, no problem there either, she lays down quietly and either chews on a bone or probably goes to sleep.