[NeenahSasha]

We have a 12 week old female Siberian Husky (we've owned for 3 wks) that we are trying to crate train. Here's were we stand...

1) We have a bell that we ring when we take her out. She has shown a tendency to ring it when we she wants out, but is inconsistant with it.

2) In the past 7-10 days she's shown a tendency to pee and poop in her crate, eventhough during the day my wife is home with her and takes her out regularly (every 90mins).

3) We've charted her elimination, feeding and exercise schedule to try to gain some insight into when and what she does. However she's not showing much regularity except for a 2:00am pee/poop outing when I get up to let her out.

4) She is peeing quite frequently. Everytime we let her out she'll pee, also she'll do a pee/walk move that results in a sort of dribble out while she keeps moving around the yard.

5) She also has recently began ringing the bell or showing signs that she wants to go out, but instead of eliminating, she wants to play, lay down or do anything but go the bathroom. Then when we bring her in (could be after a 1/2 hr of messing around outside) she eliminates inside the house or in the crate.

This is our 1st dog as an owner. My wife and I grew up with dogs, but this is all very new to us. Everything we're reading indicates that by now our Siberian should be a) ringing a bell to let us know that she needs to go out, 2) sleeping through the night without making a mess and 3) not eliminating in her crate at all.

I'm not sure what we're doing wrong, if she has a bladder infection, if she's frustrated with us and eliminating out of "spite," if our expectations are out of line, or if it's a combination of many other factors.

Any advice or suggestions would be really appreciated!

[Gen]

I agree ! Suggestions would be really helpful...we have a 3 months old male husky (he has been with us for 3 weeks now) and he shows the EXACT same behaviour...we've try a lot of little tricks to help him become more constant in his "eat-drink-evacuate" routine...but he dosn't seem to get it yet. He ask for the door when he needs to go but most of the time, he would just lay down on the grass, starring at us and waits for us to open the door again. He usually evacuates on the floor a couple minutes after he's in... every night, around 4:00am, he wakes us up and quickly runs to the door to go outside. It's strange. we've got a vet appointement next thursday. I'll ask the vet for some advices...maybe check for bladder infection too. I'll give you some suggestions if I get any help from him !

[maxandbella]

Gen and NeenahSasha,

I own two sibes. Male and Female..

First of all you need to calm down a bit, as dogs can sense when you are upset.

In regards to 4) the little dribble as she walks is due to the fact that she is very excited. Siberian huskys get too excited very easily and it is also a way of them submitting to the pack leader *you*.

Everything you read is only on average. They are dogs not humans ringing a bell isn't going to make them more intelligent, and it is not going to click to them they must ring a bell. The usual signs of needing or wanting to relieve itself include, standing near a door, pacing the floor usually in circles or even whining.

As for when she 'rings the bell' to go outside and pee this could be due the the fact that Siberian Huskys are very very curious dogs. They love to explore especially when still in the puppy/teen stage.

The method that we taught both our sibes in just one-2 weeks. After each meal we put her on her leed and take her near a tree, wait until she relieves herself then praise her and take her inside. If she wants to play for a bit after it that is fine.

I don't think a vet check is nessessary as she is only very young and still a bit scared as she has only been with you for 3 weeks, she still needs to explore, if this continued until she was about 5-6 months old then i would see a vet but right now it's just not worth it.

Hope this helps..

Remember its not the way the dog treats you , its the way you treat the dog!:mrgreen:

[Sibe<3er]

Hello, I am having troubles potty training my nearly 12 week old male Sibe. I have been using some of the suggestions above - such as positive reinforcement (praise/treats) after potties, having scheduled meals and outside potty breaks, and having our sibe jingle his leash/bark before we go out every time we go out.

However, we simply CAN NOT seem to get him to ASK us to go outside. We have begun the negative reinforcement for inside accidents and then bringing him to the door. I feel terrible scolding him as I know he just doesnt know any better. We are not rubbing his nose his mess as I was told that that would make him rebel and/or be frightened of us and in turn hide when he wants to expel. Could this possibly be the problem? And even though we are pretty good with a schedule, it seems to his expeltions seem to still be rather inconsistent. What more can we do???? We are at our wits end.

But, with all that being said, I would like to add a brief note that this is our first Sibe and he is AMAZING. He deffinately has a personality and a little bit of a sassy attitude. He is incredibly intellegent and never ceases to amaze me. The love and affection he shows is priceless....and all of this coming from a life-long "cat person"! :mrgreen: Thank you in advance for all of your help!!!

[SkipperDoodle]

Well puppies in general can't really hold "it" so dont get frusterated because of that!

This is what I do with my dog (Please bare in mind he is 5 years old)

Early in the moring my mom takes him out to pee and poop

Then around lunch time or so we take him out again just to pee and if he has to poop depending on if he is sick or not

Next maybe around 4 or 5 o clock we take in out again to pee

After that we take him out to poop around dinner time

Then we take him for his final pee at night!


But if we are gone all day he can hold it because he has been trained to so that schedual moves around every now and then!

So dont get stressed out it will get better and better as long as you keep training him!

[suebgone]

I agree, calm down when you are doing anything with the dog. these are puppies - infants - you really can't expect much until about 5 months, so consider anything before that a gift.

you must be consistant & have them on a good schedule with eating & going out. at this age they should be getting at least 3 meals a day & going to pee every hour.

when they go out to pee, you TAKE them out, on a leash & do not allow playing. they are there to do a job. you may want to try fluffing up a flake or 2 of straw on the spot you want them to use.

as for the bell, I know a lot of people who swear by it, but some dogs will ring the bell just to get outside.

[Sibe<3er]

Thanks to all for the support and advice. After finding this website yesterday and reading a bit more I felt so relieved about the situation. Enough so that I actually think my puppy could tell and other than his 1 lunch time accident (in transition from me coming home at lunch to let him out to not being able to due to moving) we didnt have ANY other accidents yesterday/this morning.

I cant recall exactly who said it but I wanted to thank you for your insight that yes, they are infants and any progess is truely a gift. If I can take the moment to be a proud mommy and brag that Neiko (almost 12 weeks) has already accomplished sit, shake and lay down =)

As soon as I can figure out how I want to post some pics.

Thanks again everyone and have a great weekend!

[DogTrainer33]

Hi everyone. Ok so your having some trouble with the housebreaking. Lets start with every dog is different, so don't expect yours to get it right away just because "most" do. Think of it like this, your dog is 12 weeks? a dog can only physically hold going to the bathroom for 1 hour per month.(3 months = 3 hours) That means you better get that dog out of the crate before that or he/she cannot physically hold it. Again this does vary though as some can hold it longer than others. How big is your crate? if it is too big the dog will not try to hold it because she figures she can just go to the bathroom in one side and sleep in the other but usually end up in it somehow anyway. It also depends on where you got your dog from as to how willing they will be to be in their own mess. If you got your dog from a petstore I am sorry to tell you that you will probably have a little more difficulty than if you got it from a breeder because petstore dogs are usually brought up very close to being with their own mess all the time so eventually they do not mind it. Here is another tip, puppies have to go to the bathroom after they eat, drink, wake up from a nap not matter how short it was, played, ran around, or even chewed on something for a while. Then the 1 hour per month rule does not apply, I have a 14 week old german shepherd right now and I did housebreak her in about a week. However she had to pee every 20 minutes in the beginning sometimes even more. Constant supervision and constant in and outside is your best bet. Always after those things I just listed and also at least every hour. After consistantly doing this for almost a week , also take your dog out the same door. Any sign of going near the door, sitting near it etc, take them out no matter what. They will learn that when the go near the door the door will open. Now here is how to correct the proper way without being too harsh or too easy. Whether you caught your dog making a mess or not, if it is still there you CAN correct for it. Heres what you have to do within 3 minutes from when you begin. When you see the mess stay calm, go get the leash, put it on the dog, bring a papertowel with you. Bring the dog over to the mess, sit them in front of it, as soon as they look at it, say NO NO NO sternly, now take your paper towel, dab it in the urine or pick up the poop , walk your dog out the door drop the paper towel with the stuff on it outside in front of your dog and praise, good potty or good business etc. You now corrected for going to the bathroom in the crate and show them the appropriate place to go. Follow this procedure and you should be there in no time. If you need anymore help I serve the new york and some parts of new jersey area, otherwise I also offer online or over the phone help. Visit my website at Dog training, positive reinforcement training, online dog training
Good luck! - Julie Cattabiani