Please Help- Desperate for answers...7 Month Havanese

[Pockets]

We are working a bit backwards. Our baby is 7 months old. She has been “crate trained” since we brought her home. We taught her to ring a bell to go potty, but 1x day she is sneaking off and peeing/popping in the house and not ringing to go out. Also its soooo cold some days and rainy that I regret not teaching her about the pee pee pad.

We now realized we have given her too much “freedom” in the house. She was only in the crate when I left the house and to sleep at night. The rest of the day she has had the run of the house.

We just bought the IRIS 8 panel expen. We have it set up in our main family room so she is ‘with us’. We have put a pee pad in there with a pee pad holder. BUT she doesnt know what to do with it and has no desire to use it. I keep trying to tell her “Go pee pee” same cue words as when I take her outside. Are we too late at 7 months? I thought that since she is used to going out if we could teach her about the pad than we would atleast give her an option “indoors” if she needs to go - and the pee pad is much better than my oriental rug!!

I would appreciate any thoughts on - Are we too late? Our plans are to leave her in the playpen when we cant 100% focus on her and we are home (otherwise she’ll go in the smaller crate when we are out and at night time). How long will we have to have this HUGE xpen set up in our family room? If she never learns how to use the pee pads than do we put her bell in the xpen?

Any advice is GREATLY appreciated.

[Sheri]

Pockets (that is her name?) is a cutie.

I'm no expert, but, no, I don't think you are too late. But you do have to go back to square one with her and treat her as a baby puppy; don't let her out of your sight if she is inside. If you can't have your eyes on her, she goes in the expen. Small expen, I'd think. Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in soon. I would imagine that it will take a lot of time and effort to re-train her. Treat all areas of the floor she's gone on with enzyme pet cleaner.

[Lola :)]

My situation is similar to yours. Lola is also 7 months and will occasionally sneak out of sight and have an accident in another room where we don't spend much time. I, like you, also think she does this because it has been so cold and she doesn't want to go outside (can't blame them!). I also think it may be related to regression as this is her adolescent stage. She also pretty much has free roam of the house as long as I am watching her and she sleeps in a crate at night and goes in her ex-pen when I am not home to watch her. I'd really like to teach Lola to use the potty bells, as of now she usually just stares at me by the back door when she has to go out, as if I'm a mind reader haha. I think putting a set of potty bells in your dog's ex-pen may encourage her to let you know when she needs to do her thing outside. I'm interested to read what other's have to say about this too!

[Tom King]

It's never too late, but to change learned behaviors takes the same sort of diligence that it takes to shape the proper behavior if started early. It just takes this diligence for a longer period of time until the old habits are changed to new habits.

[Odieo]

I'm no expert but I have a 10 week old puppy at home and This is our first dog as a family. He had an accident in our living room and all I did was blot it up with a paper towel and left it on his pee pad and let him smell it. He started using that pee pad we haven't had an accident ever since. I went to my friends place yesterday and took his pee pad with me. He pooped on it even at their house.


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[Tuss]

It's just my opinion, but i wouldn't try and train her on a pee pad if she's fairly reliably trained outside at this point. I think the sneaking off in the house is more about "acting out" and adolescent rebellion than it is about housebreaking and her not wanting to go outside. Dogs naturally prefer to eliminate outside. I would keep her more confined the x-pen works really well) when you can't keep a close eye on her so she doesn't have an opportunity to mess in the house and lots and lots of praise and reinforcement of outside success. She is still quite young. My girl is 14 months and only now is she reliable enough to have full run of the house and even then I still crate her when I"m out and wouldn't trust her alone in the house with a full bowel/bladder! She hasn't had an accident since before Christmas and I've been able to be more relaxed and let her explore the house without worrying what she's doing in the dining room!

They are lovable creatures but can be very frustrating at times!