Dog People- Bathroom Accident Help

[keyslover]

We are fostering an almost 1 year old Border Collie, plan to adopt.  He is well trained in many ways, he was rescued as a puppy with his litter-mates so he has been in foster care pretty much all his life.  

What is the issue?  HE POOPS AND PEES IN THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!  We are home pretty much all day, he is outside quite a bit.  He doesn't let us "know" or we haven't picked up ques yet.  So during the day, we don't know when he is going out to go to the bathroom.  At night, he is free and doesn't wake us up to go.  There have been times I am up at 12:30 and I let him out and I watch him go.  It is in the same spots each time- poop by the front door and pee by the back door (the one we use to go outside).  

How do I get him on a "schedule", it doesn't have to be on command.  Just during regular business hours   


One of my thoughts is to crate him at night and maybe he will 1) whine to let us know he has to go in the middle of the night 2) hold it and start realizing outside is  where to go.

Any ideas welcome.

[gottadobe]

You don't know when he is going out because you have a dog door?
Crate him. And start potty training like he's a puppy (regular times outside, lots of praise, etc).

[Jalapeñomel]

You need to crate train him.

[5thofjuly]

We didn't let our dog have free run of the house at night until he was around 2.5. He was reliably potty trained by the time he was several months old, but there was too much he could have gotten into (trash cans, etc.) at night while he was still a curious pup. I'd definitely crate train him next to your bed.

[TR]

If he can freely go out during the day (dog door?) but not at night, of course he's having accidents inside. How would he know to ask to go outside? I'd start with crating at night for now. And during the day, restrict access to the outdoors unless someone lets him out. And take him out at regular intervals, use a cue word (go potty, hurry up, etc), reward like crazy when he goes outside.

[jlt19]

I am lazy and love my dog door. BUT it was the worst thing we could have done while trying to potty train our dog. 2years later and she still isn't (though adding a potty trained dog to the house has been AMAZING for this).

She doesn't have free reign at night and sleeps in my bed, so I know she has to go out when she jumps off the bed. But, sometimes I'm not up fast enough so she wears a washable diaper nightly.

[icedcoffee]

Yep. Crate him.

[keyslover]

Feb 7, 2020 12:21:56 GMT -5 gottadobe said:

You don't know when he is going out because you have a dog door?
Crate him. And start potty training like he's a puppy (regular times outside, lots of praise, etc) - because he is.

Not a dog door.  Fenced in backyard.  I let him out frequently because I am home and don't watch to see if he pees/poops.  When I see him do it, I praise him.

[mel]

Feb 7, 2020 12:27:15 GMT -5 TR said:

If he can freely go out during the day (dog door?) but not at night, of course he's having accidents inside. How would he know to ask to go outside? I'd start with crating at night for now. And during the day, restrict access to the outdoors unless someone lets him out. And take him out at regular intervals, use a cue word (go potty, hurry up, etc), reward like crazy when he goes outside.

All of this. He doesn't know he has to ask to go outside to go potty, so that's why he's not whining or making a fuss to go outside at night. Crate train, restrict access to outdoors and put him on a schedule.

[joenali]

What about taking him in a nightly walk before everyone goes to sleep?

[circa1978]

Crate - for your sanity and his. We don't give our dogs free reign at night until they are well and truly over the puppy phase. Our 12 YO still prefers to sleep in her crate with the door open.

[devonpow]

Definitely crate him (assuming he is crate trained). Our dog is 3 and we still crate her at night (unless DH is out of town and then she takes his spot on the bed The rare times she needs to go out in the middle of the night she definitely lets us know - she starts with a low huffing bark and will progress to sharp barks if we don’t hear her etc.

Also definitely a confirmed successful bathroom trip before bed. Millie gets a quick walk sometime after 9 pm each night.

If he still needs to poop in the middle of the night consistently after that I would look at adjusting meal times to see if it helps

[devonpow]

Also - we used the dog bells on our door and she picked it up very quickly as a way to signal she wanted to go out (either for the bathroom or just to be outside). If you are worried you can’t tell your dog’s cues yet maybe try the bells and see if it helps

[keyslover]

Thank You all. I love different eyes on an issue, sometimes make mes realize I was overthinking or not thinking clearly at all!
Crating it is for now.

[isabel]

Do you close the dog door at night? I'm sure I'll get flamed, but we never closed our dog door at night. Our dogs had free reign at all times.

But yeah, if you're closing it at night, I can see why he's going in the house. He doesn't know he needs to ask to go out. My dogs used to whine at the dog door if we closed it for some reason, but they were significantly older when we got them (they were my dogs as a kid and DH and I took them when we were in college) and were thoroughly potty trained when they learned how to use a dog door. He needs to be taught to ask to go outside and for a dog that young, I would be crating at night anyway.

[imojoebunny]

One other thing, we have to feed one of our dogs at a specific time, or he will need to poop in the night, whether he is crated or not. For us, that time is 7pm, but it will depend on your schedule and how long after the dog needs to poop. If we feed him earlier, he will wake us up to poop in the middle of the night. Good luck!

[wildrice]

I'd probably try to feed him earlier and maybe cut off water at a certain time? Maybe he won't have to go overnight if he doesn't consume things closer to bedtime (like humans!).

I don't think the answer is teaching him to make a fuss when it's time to go out, because presumably you don't want to get up and let him out overnight except in case of emergency/sickness. Keeping him from needing to potty overnight would be much more effective.

I think crating could also solve this, if he is crate trained?

[TBM]

Have you checked with his previous foster home to see what they were doing to train him? Maybe they will have some insight on how they handled the issue.

Other than that, all I have to offer is that ther others have given good advice and bell training is great. I just wish that I had kept it up as we added dogs over the years and when and moved to a new place. Now we have three small, very sneaky and quiet old dogs who only tell us they have to go when they are crated, so it is on us to herd them out often and keep an eye on them 24/7.

Also, it is free rein, not free reign. ;p


ETA: It is a good idea to choose a word/command for going to the bathroom, but you will be using the word a lot, so choose wisely.

We usually use "hurry, hurry", although DH occassionally says "potty, potty," and then if/when they ignore him he reverts to "hurry, hurry."

[Deleted]

I agree with all of the other posters that crate training is going to be your best bet. My dogs didn't have free rein during the day until they were over 2 years old, and they sleep in the bedroom with us at night with the door closed. We did train them to scratch at the door when they want to go out and come in, but don't do that, because now we had to install plexiglass next to the door because they were destroying my wall LOL But maybe a bell would work, just something for him to let you know when he needs to go out.

[mrst2]

I would definitely crate at night. We have a two year old border collie that we still crate at night.
During the day I would start going out with him and try to teach him the word potty and reward when he goes so you can get him on a schedule.

[dexteroni]

In addition to crate training at night, the most helpful thing would be to teach him to associate the word potty with going outside. That way you can say "let's go potty" before bed and he'll be more likely to go on your schedule. You can teach that just like any other behavior you want to positively reinforce - praise the heck out of him while he's doing it. So for this, I would go outside with him, and while he's going pee or poop, praise him with "Good potty, <name>!!!" a bunch of times. After you do it a lot (a lot) of times, he'll get it.

For the crate, get one that's big enough for him to sleep comfortably, but small enough that he won't be able go to the bathroom in one part and sleep in the other. Dogs are averse to peeing where they sleep, so he'll be more likely to hold it if there isn't room to go. And as long as he takes to the training well, the crate doesn't have to be forever if you don't want it to be. Once our dogs were trained, we gave them free run of the house at night. They sleep on a sofa, one of their dog beds, or with us.

[Doggy Mommy]

Our dog has been good about telling us when she needs to go since she was itty bitty, but she held on to the middle of the night potty break for a very long time - I’m thinking she was over a year and a half or even a little older before she ditched it for good. She could hold it for 10 hours during the day no problem but for some reason just had to go in the night. For now I would probably schedule it and set an alarm to take him out at night. It’s good that he will go outside during the night when you take him out.

For potty training we used a bell and taught the words peepee and poop. Both have been so helpful. She will go on command and still uses the bell. I agree with those who said potty train like he’s a puppy - schedule times, use the words when he goes, praise, etc.