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So this isn't strictly a house training question, but it is related! We have two 18-month old Alaskan Malamutes that don't really ask to go out. The female will sit down next to you and stare or do some kind of a dance to let us know, but that's only helpful if we're within her reach. The male doesn't really know how to ask, but it's not usually a problem since he can hold it so much longer. My question is, does anyone have any good tricks for getting a dog to ask to go out?
The male actually pooped in the back of the Jeep today because he didn't know how to ask . Clearly this is not a common occurence, but if he really has to go, what else can he do? Neither dog whines or cries ever. The female is a chatter box so it should be easy (in theory) to get her to speak when she needs to go. We keep them barricaded down in the den at night which is two floors below us, so it needs to be something that can get our attention at night too. Usually at least once a month we wake up to an unwanted present downstairs.
We've thought about bell training but have a feeling the female would ring the bell constantly just so she could go play. This would only work at home anyway. I'd never considered that one of them would actually take a dump in the car, so now that changes up how we can go about this.
I've always had dogs and have never had to deal with a dog that couldn't ask to go out. So, I'm kind of at a loss on how you train a dog to ask! Any help is greatly appreciated!!
We taught our dogs to ring a bell hanging from the door knob. That way, anytime they want out, I can hear it in most parts of the house and we don't have accidents.
My daughter's dog is almost a year old... she doesn't ask to go out either... she has a lot of accidents. I frown on accidents - we have a 1904 historical home and accidents don't do well on our lovely old wood floors.
She is learning to ring the bell and has picked up on it pretty quickly.
That's OK, I'm not crazy about Jeeps either. I would think that you can teach your dog anything, like the bell ringing. Although, my dog doesn't learn very well so, he's had to teach me to read his body language. He get's kind'a anxious. If yours learns to ring a bell, please tell us how you did it.
If an otherwise healthy (i.e. there's no underlying medical reason why a dog would have to relieve itself) is still having accidents routinely (once a month is routine enough).... my humble opinion is that there is a piece of the puzzle missing in the dog's mind.
Housebreaking is a process.. and during that process a dog comes to understand what is supposed to happen where. It sounds - due to the fact there are still accidents, some part of this equation wasn't processed by the dog(s).
What do you clean the area that's been soiled with? Does the re-soiling happen in the same spot or is it more random? There's a huge difference between an "accident" and marking... Is the male neutered?
There are times when asking to go out may be appropriate, but - and it's a big but - by and large, it's far, far more useful to train a dog to relieve itself on command. It's also a concept that is a lot easier for them to grasp and very easy to train.
I thought I had my 4-mo.-old Westie pretty well-trained until he did a little bit of "pee" (I hate that word) on the carpet right in front of me tonight. It's so hard to tell when he's going, because he doesn't lift his leg yet, and he doesn't really squat either, so he basically just gets really still for a few seconds. I wondered if I had him too excited because we'd been playing roughly.
Anyway, I'd also like to know how to train the dog to ring a bell. If I hang a bell from the door, I'm sure my dog will pull it off and chew it. But I'd still like to try it.
Most of these accidents are from the female who routinely gets an upset stomach (no answers from the vet on this one). So it's normally not something she can really control. The male has only had a handful of accidents since he was a puppy, but his stomach is pretty solid so he doesn't normally get sick like she does. None of these accidents have been them urinating, it's always the big number 2!
Again, most of the problems arise at night when they have no other way to ask us to go out. You'd think our chatty female would figure out that if she spoke or made any type of sound that we might possibly hear her! Since day one we've made her speak when we ask her if she has to go outside, but it's never translated into her asking vocally to go out. And she's the smarter one of the two .
Again, most of the problems arise at night when they have no other way to ask us to go out. You'd think our chatty female would figure out that if she spoke or made any type of sound that we might possibly hear her! Since day one we've made her speak when we ask her if she has to go outside, but it's never translated into her asking vocally to go out. And she's the smarter one of the two .
You're thinking far too much like a human and not like a dog. Put yourself in the dog's position: she makes noise at whatever hour of the day, sometimes you react, sometimes you don't (you're not there for instance, or you're having a shower, or whatever it might be!) - so there the connection in her mind (which is the only mind that matters) between voice = reward/action is not firm. Dogs don't understand "inconsistent". Is she let out at other times - just for a frolic for instance - without having to speak?
So you ask her to speak when you ask her if she wants to go out... so she's learned to speak to respond to the question, to the tone, to the intonation... You say, "Do you want to go out?" Tail wags. You say, "Speak if you want to go out." Dog barks, you open door. She's responding - and therein lies your problem because we would take a response and make it a request but dogs don't. You've taught her to answer a question brilliantly, but... you want the question asked.
Perhaps she wants to go chase a squirrel, or a hawk is flying overhead. So she gets asked if she wants to go out, she barks, you open the door... but there's no connection in her mind leading to most important point you're trying to get her to understand: relieve herself. The "speak" isn't connected to the "my back teeth are floating" .
On the sensitivity issue... first and foremost, what food is she on?
I was thinking maybe changing their feeding schedule, so the Big #2 hits them during the day, when you are available.
As for ringing of the bell, it is relatively simple...one just must be consistent with the learning process. My daughters 5 month old rescue puppy rings a bell when he needs out. Simply hang anykind of bell or bells low on your doorknob...would you believe they actually sell bells just for this purpose? Any set of bells will do, as long as they are big enough and low enough for the dog to hit with his nose or paw. Each time you want him to go out (or bring him out if he is young) have him hit the bells....must be consistent each and every time he goes thru the door. And of course, loads of praise afterwards!
The accidents never occur during the day, so it doesn't matter when we walk them. The female does ask us to go out, just in a non-verbal way that we've learned to read.
As for her stomach sensitivity, they have been on a few different brands of dog food since we got them. We are currently feeding them Nature's Logic, which we are thinking about switching from just to see if we can combat her stomach issues. They had been on Great Life for a while until the prices and availability became an issue, then we tried Timberwolf for a few months. We are also going to try raising their bowls to see if that cuts down on the gas (another issue we have with them) since they are both very tall dogs.
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. Clearly this is not a common occurence, but if he really has to go, what else can he do? Neither dog whines or cries ever. The female is a chatter box so it should be easy (in theory) to get her to speak when she needs to go. We keep them barricaded down in the den at night which is two floors below us, so it needs to be something that can get our attention at night too. Usually at least once a month we wake up to an unwanted present downstairs. 
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Any set of bells will do, as long as they are big enough and low enough for the dog to hit with his nose or paw. Each time you want him to go out (or bring him out if he is young) have him hit the bells....must be consistent each and every time he goes thru the door. And of course, loads of praise afterwards!
