i have an approximately 8 week old rottweiler. he knows what to do when he goes outside but he wont go out or let us know when he needs to. also, when i open the door for him and say "lets go" or "outside" he still wont go.

he has only been traing a couple weeks

Does your puppy like treats or toys? If so you can train him through this. Put on his leash when he needs to go out. Ask him to sit and reward him when he does. Open the door and toss out a toy. Give him a command to go through the door (door, pass or cross are all good). when he get through the door praise, give a treat and allow hime to play with the toy. He is ONLY 8 weeks old and is still a BABY just be patient. Have you enrolled him in puppy-k yet?

Originally Posted by orangedog

Does your puppy like treats or toys? If so you can train him through this. Put on his leash when he needs to go out. Ask him to sit and reward him when he does. Open the door and toss out a toy. Give him a command to go through the door (door, pass or cross are all good). when he get through the door praise, give a treat and allow hime to play with the toy. He is ONLY 8 weeks old and is still a BABY just be patient. Have you enrolled him in puppy-k yet?

i've heard that if you coax them to go out, it makes them feel like there is a reason they should not go out there.

he is not trained to sit or leashed trained yet cuz im trying to do the house training first.

no puppy k yet

I do not mean to coax him out, I ment to train a new behavior "going out the door". It is VERY important to begin obedience training right away, it goes hand in hand with house training. But we can do this without the leash if you want. Get a few treats and/or toys he likes. Bring him to the door and reward for being near the door by giving him a treat. Next open the door. Toss the toy out the door and tell him "cross", "door", etc. what ever you choose to be his door command. As he runs out the door after the toy reward (tell him good "cross" or what ever word you chose and give him a treat or toss the toy again (keeping him and the toy/treat rewards outside the door). It is not coaxing him because you are not pulling him, bribing him, or crossing and patting the floor, etc. Hope that helps. This would also be VERY easy to solve using clicker training - What method do you plan to use for training?

I use treats for training. I will try this today and thru the weekend and let you know if it works. Thanks

Great. Keep me posted and let me know if you hit any snage, I can help you trouble shoot. I had a client's dog last year how has 18 months and affraid to pass through the front door of the house... this is the method I used to get her past it and it worked in one session. Hope it helps you.

Your dog may be afraid of the big wide world and that's why he's not going out. If you understand how classical and counter conditioning work you can help this dog have positive associations with going outside. Doorways can be scary places for many dogs. If your dog is cool once he's outside than having a fun time when out there is a good idea. If it seems to be the door itself that is the challenge I taught my dog to target my hand to get me to toss a ball for him. We played this game in the doorway. You can use the concept of incompatible behaviors to help your dog learn to feel more comfortable going in and out.

[QUOTE=disceptre;57148]i've heard that if you coax them to go out, it makes them feel like there is a reason they should not go out there.

Dogs really don't think this way...hmmmm must be bad if they want me to do it...... It is true that if a dog has been lured or coaxed to do something and then had a bad experience, it will think twice when confronted by that same lure or coaxing. You see this a lot around bath time :-)

it only took a couple times and it worked. now all i need to do is get him to tell me when he needs to go out. i think im gonna try the bell on the door trick. any other ways i could do it w/o having to buy anything?