# 11 months old and not Potty Trained?!



## Maxsmom (Aug 5, 2007)

I know that I am bombarding you all with questions, but I have had no one to that understands and doesn't charge $150 an hour. Max is my 11 month old malt that I bought when he was 6 months old. He was crypt-orchid so I quickly had his neutering completed. He was hiking his leg on everything! I was questioning at that point if my husband was going to let me keep him. I hired a trainer that came to my house for a day for a lot of $$$ and I really don't think that I got much from her. She was very harsh with Max. She would scruff him off the ground when he growled at her (a stranger). He would scream and finally submitted to her, I just wasn't excited about that approach. I learned nothing! Max learned to be very afraid of people you don't know. 

Max lives in our Laundry room at night. He has a large crate, the door is open he sleeps in there but can come out for food and water. I keep a pad on the Laundry room floor for emergency's but he has never used it. First thing every morning he goes poo and pee potty outside and I always praise him with "Good Potty Max!!" The rest of the day is a fiasco. If I go somewhere, if it is permittable he goes with me. Carpool the kids, swimming, visiting, everywhere. It's when I am home. He normally stays right by my side. He leaves me only occasionally. I try to catch him and take him out, nothing works. My 4 year old will pull his clothes out of his closet and throws them onto the floor and Max will potty on them. He only seems to potty in closets, on clothing and towels. He will skip right over his Pee Pad. We have all large walk-in closets in our house and he has started pottying in my husbands closet (which I'd like to do myself at times LOL!) but I have to scoop it up and scrub the carpet before DH finds the gifts. We have Mexican Tile and Hardwood throughout most of the house. The boys rooms and our bedroom are carpeted and those are the closets that he chooses. I use Natural Miracle to spray the places that I know that he's been. He even has a doggy door (we are on 27 acres and he is an only pet!), but prefers the closets. I don't want to send my children to school smelling like Dog Tinkle. I can take him out and say "Go Potty Max!" he will run around, play, everything but. Comes straight in and hikes his let on my ottoman! He sneaks around to do his poos. I'm just getting that good morning potty. Is there a rhyme or reason to his behavior? I'm getting out of frustrated.


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## revakb2 (Sep 8, 2006)

You should probably start at the very beginning with potty training. There are many threads on potty training on this forum. Just do a search. At 11 months your puppy should have the physical ability to hold it for at least 4 hours, so unless something is physcially wrong, I think you pup has gotten into some very bad habits or possibly acting out for attention. Puppies are just like babies, but they are usually more easily trained. It does take consistantcy and lots of patience. Good luck.


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## Tina (Aug 6, 2006)

Asking questions is perfectly correct when you want to learn something. It is time consuming to potty train any dog. Max is being the alpha in your family. When you go out with him do you use any words to let him know what you want him to do? Like "Go potty"? If you take him out and he doesn't do his job, then put him in his crate. Take him out again and again if he doesn't back in the crate. He will get the idea, but it is hard on YOU. He will try to make you feel guilty about confining him. You need to take the lead and be his boss so he knows what it is you want him to do. A lot of dogs trained on potty pads sometimes will potty on other items left on the floor. One known way of keeping track of your dog while they are being potty trained in the house is to keep them on a lead attached to you in some way. That way you know exactly where they are. But if you aren't paying attention they can still get into some things. I've had one shred paper towels right beside me while I was preoccupied with something else. The only person I had to blame was ME. :smrofl: 
Don't give up. Max is worth it. Husbands sometimes growl more than they bite.
Tina


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## gatiger40 (Jun 7, 2007)

Also the belly bands might be a good thing to keep on him. After a few wet pee's on himself, he may decide to give up on hiking his leg inside. I would get in the habit of taking it off and taking him out every 3-4 hours. He will get the idea pretty soon.


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

Yeah, I would confine him until he's going where he's supposed to go. You don't necessarily have to crate him, maybe just gated in his laundry room, etc. Are you catching him in the act of going in the closets? If not, he probably won't break that habit--until you are watching him at all times, getting him in the act, and sending him right outside to "go potty" the very moment he's about to do it. 

I remember one time shortly after Ollie was trained...he had never lifted his leg in the house. The ONE TIME I saw him do it, he was about to pee on the leg of our kitchen table and I ran over and shouted NOOOOOOOO!!!!! Scared the daylights out of him, lol. Took him straight outside to go. He NEVER tried it again.


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## sassy's mommy (Aug 29, 2005)

I think you answered your own question. When Sassy was very young and I was potty pad training her she was fine as long as I left her pad in her potty box, but a couple of times I put her pad on the floor. Then after that 2-3 times I caught her peepeeing on a towel i had thrown on the laundry room floor. I realized that she thought the towel was her potty pad and so she peed on it. From then on I only put her potty pads inside her potty box and the problem was resolved. Personally I think you baby is mistaking your 4 year old's clothes or any other clothes on the floor as a potty pad. You might want to think about adding a potty box with the potty pad. I also like the box because it defines the potty area. As long as Sassy is in her box she can potty any where she chooses in there.


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## MalteseJane (Nov 21, 2004)

Something else. Don't give him the opportunity to go in the closets. Close the bedroom doors were you have carpet.


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

> I think you answered your own question. When Sassy was very young and I was potty pad training her she was fine as long as I left her pad in her potty box, but a couple of times I put her pad on the floor. Then after that 2-3 times I caught her peepeeing on a towel i had thrown on the laundry room floor. I realized that she thought the towel was her potty pad and so she peed on it. From then on I only put her potty pads inside her potty box and the problem was resolved. Personally I think you baby is mistaking your 4 year old's clothes or any other clothes on the floor as a potty pad. You might want to think about adding a potty box with the potty pad. I also like the box because it defines the potty area. As long as Sassy is in her box she can potty any where she chooses in there.[/B]


Oh, I didn't think of that--I bet that's it! I know even with enzyme cleaner I am convinced that a dog can still smell the scent of their urine. He will keep going back to it until you add that box and put him right in it when you catch him trying to go elsewhere......


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## Max & Rocky (May 20, 2004)

> I know that I am bombarding you all with questions, but I have had no one to that understands and doesn't charge $150 an hour. Max is my 11 month old malt that I bought when he was 6 months old. He was crypt-orchid so I quickly had his neutering completed. He was hiking his leg on everything! I was questioning at that point if my husband was going to let me keep him. I hired a trainer that came to my house for a day for a lot of $$$ and I really don't think that I got much from her. She was very harsh with Max. She would scruff him off the ground when he growled at her (a stranger). He would scream and finally submitted to her, I just wasn't excited about that approach. I learned nothing! Max learned to be very afraid of people you don't know.
> 
> Max lives in our Laundry room at night. He has a large crate, the door is open he sleeps in there but can come out for food and water. I keep a pad on the Laundry room floor for emergency's but he has never used it. First thing every morning he goes poo and pee potty outside and I always praise him with "Good Potty Max!!" The rest of the day is a fiasco. If I go somewhere, if it is permittable he goes with me. Carpool the kids, swimming, visiting, everywhere. It's when I am home. He normally stays right by my side. He leaves me only occasionally. I try to catch him and take him out, nothing works. My 4 year old will pull his clothes out of his closet and throws them onto the floor and Max will potty on them. He only seems to potty in closets, on clothing and towels. He will skip right over his Pee Pad. We have all large walk-in closets in our house and he has started pottying in my husbands closet (which I'd like to do myself at times LOL!) but I have to scoop it up and scrub the carpet before DH finds the gifts. We have Mexican Tile and Hardwood throughout most of the house. The boys rooms and our bedroom are carpeted and those are the closets that he chooses. I use Natural Miracle to spray the places that I know that he's been. He even has a doggy door (we are on 27 acres and he is an only pet!), but prefers the closets. I don't want to send my children to school smelling like Dog Tinkle. I can take him out and say "Go Potty Max!" he will run around, play, everything but. Comes straight in and hikes his let on my ottoman! He sneaks around to do his poos. I'm just getting that good morning potty. Is there a rhyme or reason to his behavior? I'm getting out of frustrated.[/B]


I personally do not think much of trainers like what you apparently hired. Training may be useful when the trainer trains the owner and the dog... but as you say... not a lot of that happened. Also...NEVER be harsh with them... Our Malts are so sensitive that they surprise me from time to time even after all these years. If anyone in this house even slightly raises their voice, they all get really upset. There are days I come home where I am tired or just maybe not feeling all that great and these guys can somehow sense that... Anyway, my point is that if you always treat them with love, you will be rewarded so many times over for that love, you will be amazed. I'm sorry but I just do not have the words to express this... but trust me, it is real.

From reading your post, I'm getting a picture of a lot of things which maybe aren't being done correctly and if you want him to learn how to do this, you are going to have to start pretty much at square one to train him. You need to have a routine that works for him and you and then stick to it, at least during the training phase.

We typically tell people to take a puppy outside for potty every couple of hours during the day as well as after waking, after play, etc. Use the potty command when you do take him out and when he does go out and have a successful potty... make a big deal out of praising him. He will love the attention and your excitement and do everything possible to get more of that. This is exactly what you want. 

You indicate that you have a doggy door... this is great... just make sure that the outside is totally fenced in and covered area which is secure from flying predators as well as coyotes, snakes and such. I do not know where you live but trust me... you do not want him ranging over 27 acres... When you are not actively playing with him, he should either be restricted to the area with the doggy door... or you need to make potty pads available to him (or have some other potty method in mind). Giving him free access to a moderate or large size home and immediately expecting him to know that if he has to potty, he has to go to the doggy door just is not going to happen quickly and may never happen. We use the doggy door routine ourselves and our home is just under 2200 sq feet and even in a small house like this, if we give our Maltese unrestricted access every day... we will sooner or later have an accident. Maybe one day they play in the front room all day... maybe it is raining outside or too hot for them... whatever... From their point of view, they think going potty behind the sofa is just as good as going outside...  When we were potty training them and we were not home, they were restricted to a single fairly small room. We very gradually over the space of a year or 18 months, gave them increasing amounts of freedom... but as I said, even today they do not have whole house access 24 x 7.

Pay attention to the time of day and circumstances of when he does potty. Short of having an upset tummy or a significant routine change (a bad thing), he will develop a normal schedule and you can use that knowledge to slightly adjust the training routine. But even with this, there will be other times he is going to need to go which may not occur exactly on the schedule you anticipate. That is why a potty area inside on potty pads is really good. It gives them another option.

Another thing I need to mention is that you do need to limit his ability to free roam around the house. Unless you have used special enzyme cleaners on the sport around the house, especially when you have a carpet and a pad under that carpet... I would bet that he can smell his urine scent at those locations. Observe closely when a dog does go potty and you will see that they are checking things out with their nose all the time. So you want to limit his ability to get around in the house.

The laundry room may be ok for the night, but he is going to want to be near people or you during the day and anyplace where he can not see you and interact with you just is not going to work. Baby gates work really well to keep them in a certain area of the house.

Also... marking and having potty accidents are slightly different things. For example, a alpha dog may go outside and pee... but they always reserve a little in case they want to leave their scent in a particular place. So you can have a dog that is potty trained... but one that does a little marking at times when he is stressed. As an example, our Rocky has marked a couple of times in 3 years... Once we had just arrived home from a few nights at the dog boarder... He had apparently picked up the scent of another dog who had been caged next to his bed... There was another time when we moved furniture around in the house and we moved a chair which he was not familiar with and may have had another doggy smell on it into his area... So I do think that if he does not smell other dogs and is not stressed... it may reduce his tendency to mark.... Whatever the case... some dogs are more prone to marking than others.... so if he is one of those who is going to do it, put a band on him.


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