Expert: Angela Donald - 6/2/2009

Question
i have a female boxer she is 5 1/2 months ive tried everything with trainig her and still pees in the house if you tell its time to go out and do your duty or pee poop shell go but she look at and pee right in front of you in the house and you get mad she runs to the door help

Answer
Hi Kellie,
First let me explain that some boxers have what I call a weak bladder and can't hold it or get excited and go immediately when prompted by their owners, like your girl is doing. She will outgrow this behavior and you must remain calm and ignore this when she does this,don't scold her, if your not calm you are teaching her to submissive urinate and it could get worse. Also at her age she can only hold it about 3-4 hours.

Second thing is you must get the odor out completely everywhere she has had an accident in the house, use Zero Odor, you can find it online, it works great. If you don't get the odor out completely she will continue to go in the same areas. This is natural canine behavior as they use their noses to determine where to potty. A black light will help you detect any areas you don't know about.You can find these at petco or pet supply stores, its a neat little trick, turn the lights out and go over the floor in your house with it, the areas where she has had accidents will glow. This is the number one step to help stop this behavior.

Crate training her will also help and use the command outside but don't say it til you are near the back door so she doesn't have a chance to get excited and urinate before you get her outside. Don't get excited when you tell her its time to go outside use a calm voice,dogs are notorious for picking up on their owners energy, if your excited she will be and could prompt an accident. If you get angry then this may prompt the submissive urination as I described earlier. If she starts to have a accident in the house immediately pick her up, this should cause the urination to cease and take her outside immediately to the place you want her to go.At which time you could tell her "potty" to try and prompt her to go then on command.As this sounds like what she is doing, going on your command,which shows alot of intelligence!

Try to take her to the exact same spot in your yard every time.

Another neat little trick :
Hang a bell on your back door on a ribbon,the ribbon should be long enough for your boxer to reach it and the bell should be really large,say the command outside and ring it before letting her go outside to do her business, each and every time, I have seen boxers become house broken in as little as two days using this trick.She will learn to ring the bell for you to let her outside.

Patience and consistency is the key to training your boxer as well as getting the odors out.Never correct her in anger as this will exacerbate any unwanted behaviors.Good luck and please let me know if any of these tips help your boxer. Please remember 6 weeks is the normal time frame to completely eradicate unwanted behaviors in dogs.
Have a great evening!

Sincerely,
Angela Donald
Canine Behavior Consultant
http://www.hitowerboxers.com/caninebehaviorconsultant.htm