house breaking a lab puppy anybody wanna help

 

Take the pup outside frequently (around every two hours) to the same spot until he/she goes. Immediately after pup is done going, give plenty of praise. If (when) pup has an accident in the house and you catch him/her in the act, pick the pup up by the scruff and firmly say, "no" to his/her face. Then take the pup to the designated spot outside. For the times that you don't catch the pup in the act, clean it up and leave the soiled paper towels/poop in the designated spot in the yard so the scent is there for the next time pup has to go. Crate training also helps as they don't want relieve themselves where they sleep. I'm no expert on crate training but there are numerous books out there that can help. Also look into an obedience class (not at Petsmart).

 

I agree. This works for anything else you might want to train your dog to do. Treats or positive reinforcement when the puppy does it right and nothing if it does it wrong(or scolding if you are trying to train it not to do something).

 

CRATE training. Best thing you can do. Leave the crate open when puppy is out and sneak a treAt into the crate occassionally. Puppy finds them and starts going into the crate by itself. Great way to fix separation anxiety too.

 

I agree about the crate training provided the dog is not retarded like mine was. It took 4 months of crate training and 2 final near death experiences to get her trained. No more problems now.

 

what about when i have to leave her from 8-5 while im at work

 

8-5 At Work=yard dog

 

I also have always had good luck with crate training and providing lots of praise when the dog goes outside. I've had jonah since he was 8 weeks old and he never once went in the house. the only thing I disagree with here is correcting such a young dog. I will correct jonah on things he knows, but it does the dog absolutely no good when you're correcting him on something he hasn't even learned yet.

 

Probably the most important thing about house training is to catch the pup "in the act" and get it outside everytime it starts to relieve itself in the house. Punishing it when it doesn't know what it did wrong is a mistake. You have to get rid of the smell if the pup has an accident. If the pup can smell pee it triggers it to relieve itself again.

Crate training works great. The crate becomes their "den". 3 or 4 days of putting the pup in the crate and giving a treat should be all you need for it to become routine. The crate has to be the right size. If it's too big the pup with pee in it. You can put a cardboard box in it to make it smaller. It's not cruel. They don't need to be able to do laps in the crate. As long as there's enough room for the pup to stretch and turn around, it'll be fine.

But leaving a young pup for 9 hrs and expecting it not to relieve itself is pretty much impossible. You don't want to restrict water either. Buy a crate with a wire rack bottom like a Vari-Kennel and get a few pieces of indoor/outdoor carpet that you can wash with the hose. What would be best is if you could find someone to let the pup out at noon.

 

We have a bell tied to our door. When we started potty training we ring the bell everytime we took her out. (every couple of hours) Now she rings the bell when she has to go. Pretty cool. We also crate trained for away time and nights.

Two words here, consistency, and patience.

 

I agree patience is key. If you are mean to your puppy for not doing what you want you will make it associate training with pain, then it won't likely do anything you want and probobly won't like you. If you work 8-5 then back yard is best. But if you have no yard then a crate is the only way to go. My roommate's ex used to keep her lab/Weimaraner mix in a crate all day. She weighed like 120 and is THE most hyper dog ever. Now she turnes on the tv to animal planet and the dog watches tv all day. The bell thing is one of the best things you can do. Have fun and be patient. Puppys end up like one of your children, just remember they trust you to keep them safe.

 

My dog is a stray I took in, she was housbroken to the point that she wouldn't pee on the floor if you were watching. Here's what worked for me. It's called tether training. When I was home, she was tied to me on a 2 foot lead - even at night. When I was at work, she was tethered to a post in the basement. She learned to let me know that she needed to go out the first day. After a week or so she would hold all day and all night, and the tether came off. She needed a reminder about 2 weeks later, one night was all it took. She's been off tether ever since.

Oh, I yelled at her when she went in the house, praised her when she went outside. She will now pee (or at least act like she's peeing) on command.

I like this better than crate training. Crate training bonds the dog to the crate. Tether training bonds the dog to you. If there is a problem, I want my dog to come to me, not to hide in the crate.

 

I've never seen a dog "bond" to a crate. However, I do know many dogs who are comfortable there as the crate is "den" for them so to speak. I work with police dogs, SAR dogs and drug dogs during my training with Jonah. He's crate trained. He has to be. He spends a lot of time there on callouts or in the back cage of the car. Not once have I ever had a problem with his recall, our bond or anything else. When you work with your dog, spend plenty of time with your dog and you train them with positive training, you should never have that kind of a problem. I don't necessarily disagree with the way you train as different techniques work, but I feel that your opinion on crates are incorrect. I've seen too many good dogs both working dogs and pets have no issues with a bond with their handler.

If your dog is ever hiding like it's scared or something, then you've got other problems to deal with there.

99.9 times out of 100 if a dog is doing something wrong, it's the handler's fault. Until a handler or pet owner understands that, they'll never "get it".