Expert: Alan J Turner, SATS LL1 - 9/17/2006

Question
I own 4 smalll dogs, and I can not seem to get them potty trained. I work all day and they have no at home with them. I need hepl, any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Answer
Dear Malonadok,
Thanks for the question. House training 4 dogs is a challenge - but of course I needn't tell you that.

I'll highlight some specific instructions here; however, you should goto http://www.howsbentley.com and download the Free Housetraining Guide for complete instructions. It's very detailed and five pages long!

Your most difficult task is preventing continued mistakes - while you teach them. Every time they eliminate inside, it's "money in the bank" for increasing the unwanted behavior. One accident will offset your hard work and will set back the program! Housetraining 1 or 101 dogs requires that you manage the environment so that none of them gets an opportunity to practice their poor potty habits!

This means that they can never allowed to roam unsupervised - until you are successful. They can be in your lap, outside, in their crates (or confinement area) or inside directly in front of a very observant supervisor.

You didn't mention dogs' ages or more importantly how long they have been eliminating inside. Both of these factors will have an effect on how long it takes to teach them.

Regardless of the amount of time they have practiced, your first job is to clean the floors so that your home does not smell like a bathroom to them. If you cannot eliminate the odors, it will be almost impossible to teach them.

In addition, please rule out any medical problems. Dogs with urinary tract infections (UTI) are impossible to house train.

Teaching dogs to seek out a particular area for elimination requires that we only give them access to that type of area.

Since no one is home wtih them, they must be confined to a crate or other confinement area with the same type of "flooring" as the target area.

If they go in their crates, or if you don't use crates, or you are gone too long, you can set up a confinement area with a bathroom. Obtain an exercise pen to keep them confined when you are gone. Place some plastic on the floor and then lay some pieces of grass sod to cover the entire floor of the area. Raise their dog beds so that they have a place to rest that is not on the grass. I've seen cot-like beds that work well for this.

When they eliminate inside the area, they will be standing on the sod which will help them learn to seek out sod whenever they need to eliminate. Buy enough sod to rotate the flooring. Have some outside, clean and ready, and some inside being used.

If you don't want to use sod (although that would be the quickest route- assuming the target area is grass), you could use newspaper instead.

Are they defecating inside? If so, place their meals on a rigid schedule- no free feeding (free feeding is when food is always available). If the food goes in at a particular time each day, it is more likely to come out at a particular time.

The logistics of working with 4 un-housetrained dogs can be overwhelming. Perhaps you can get a neighbor or someone to let them out during the day.

The bottom line is: If you provide many opportunites for your dogs to eliminate in the wanted location and you provide zero opportunities for your dogs to eliminate in the unwanted loactions, they will learn to seek out the wanted location.

Please visit http://www.howsbentley.com and download the FREE House Training Guide. There you will find tips and suggestions that I haven't mentioned here. Thank you and Good Luck!

AT