Potty and Crate Training [emoji29]

[samrae119]

So, I am a new Frenchie owner. I work at an animal hospital and a breeder acquired her from Hungary and then chose not to breed her because of a luxating patella. So she graciously gifted her to me. I'm not sure what the crate or training situation was there, but she is absolutely not potty trained at 10 months old.

I've tried feeding her in the crate so she might think not to soil it, throwing treats into the crate to make it seem like a "nice" place, bathroom breaks every hour or so, tethering her to me so she can't do anything I don't know about on my days off, and praise/treats every time she goes outside...and nothing is seeming to work. She seems to have no problem laying in her own poop.

For example, this morning before I left for work I walked her outside for a good 20-25 minutes. She didn't want to do anything except for pee. Since I had to leave for work, I put her in her crate and left. I left at 7 am, my aunt woke up at 8:30 to take her out and she had already pooped in her cage and walked around in it/smeared it everywhere. So my aunt let her out, and stayed out in the backyard with her for 30-40 minutes. She wandered around, but only peed. As soon as my Aunt let her in the house, she started trying to poop on the floor. She clapped her hands and yelled "no!" And took her back outside. She wandered around for a bit more and did nothing outside. My aunt let her back in and she immediately ran up the stairs and pooped on the floor. [emoji30] Back in the crate she went. My aunt took her out again an hour later and she pooped again, thankfully this time outside. I'm switching her to a higher quality food in the hopes that maybe she will poop less, because to me that just seems excessive. She's only eating 1 cup of dry food a day. Otherwise I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

She seemed to do a little better when we just baby gated a small area off for her to have some walking around room. However, our baseboards are tall, so securing the baby gate firmly to the wall, instead of against the baseboards, left enough room underneath for her to wiggle out. And if we put the baby gate against the baseboards, its nice and snug on the bottom and incredibly unstable on the top (because of how far the baseboards stick out from the wall). She quickly figured out that she could jump on it and push it down to escape.

So I guess what I'm asking is...do you guys have any advice for this potty/crate training issue? And any recommendations for baby gates that account for baseboards? So she can't just ramrod it down. Thanks!

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[Dreamer]

Oh, that sounds like a bit of a challenge - were you able to ask any questions or able to still contact the breeder? Perhaps she's been trained on potty-pads? You could try getting one and see if she automatically goes there or not. How big is her crate? Did it come with a divider? She should only have enough room to get up and turn around but otherwise she should have as little space as possible to dissuade designating a potty corner in there. Keep feeding her in the crate- that will let her associate it with positive things. When she starts to have an accident, make a big ruckus and try to startle her! I yelled, waved hands etc. Though my dog trainer told me to avoid using specific language for this (i.e. "bad dog")

regarding poops- It helped me a lot when we switched to a FrozenRaw brand since they poop a lot less frequently and volume on this diet....we went from 2-3 messy poops a day to just 1 or 2 small, clean poops. Also: Water. Don't just leave a free bowl of water out. I made this mistake when I first brought Samson home, he loved to drink more often than he needed to and it just made potty training that much harder. Only give her a set amount of water a day, don't let her free-drink until she has potty-training down.

Lastly - from reading your post I assume that you do not have a doggy door/free outside access for her - Have you thought of trying a potty bell? (I really recommend this one)


Potty-training is 100% consistency but those weeks of uncertainty it sure can be a rollercoaster. When Samson finally "got it" and I could relax when he left my sight knowing he wouldn't have an accident it was such a relief.... you'll get there eventually, keep at it!

 

[2bullymama]

Frenchies can be difficult... if she is walking in it with out issue, then you need to go back to basic trading and try to start fresh... small area in her crate and make a big party out of it when she goes outside.

Schedule , as you know, needs to be consistent.

Try to stay patient... it will come. Cheli took 2 full years before he fully GOT it. He was a stubborn bugger


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[mattcantwin]

Nothing to add on the training tips, but we have high baseboards, too.

I stood a piece of wood vertically on each side of of the gate within opening and then secured the gate.

This way you do not need to lift the gate up from the floor.

Depending on your molding, this may or may not work for you.

 

[Lois]

My problem is not as severe as yours. But I will sit with Baby outside and repeat "go pottty" - praise her when she goes. Since I work from my home I take her out often, tried the tethering as that worked for a 2 year old Aussie that was given to me. That Aussie ended up being the most wonderful girl of my life. We became very attached and it took almost a month of corrections and redirecting to train her. She was bad! Had babies at the time and when I left the kitchen she would jump on the table and clean it "spic & span" other than dog paw prints.
Tethering has not worked for this Frenchy. She is 8 months, belongs to my daughter, and I don't believe trained properly in the beginning. Then she fell, broke her leg which was pinned, and allowed to poop when convenient. I'm not giving up. We have a permanent dog door so she has 24 hour access. Hoping she will eventually learn through repetition. She does not poo in her crate and she loves it. Usually goes in their to get away from the other girls. It is small.
She is a stubborn girl and I can imagine the thoughts going thru her head when I get mad.