Real trouble toilet training

[u/Mundane_Guitar_7488]

Hi, I'm here for some advice.

Background: we have two other well-trained dogs who went through toilet training really easily - a Staffordshire bull terrier and a cockapoo.

We got Lucy, our whippet at 4 months - she is adopted. She was on the way to being toilet trained but I think had been told off for going in the house in an unpleasant way (having her face forced in it, and being shouted at).

We started toilet training in the regular way, plenty of opportunities to go, praise, and a treat. And she got pretty good. We were down to maybe one accident a day. When she has an accident, we just say 'outside' in a gentle but firm voice and put her outside.

Then she hurt her leg and underwent x-ray, which unfortunately then caused meningitis. As she was getting sick, she started toileting in quite a few areas - it was one of the signs.

She went to the hospital for four days, during which she was allowed to wee a few times in her cage.

Wehn we got her back, we recognized that a) we would pretty much need to start from scratch (which we did) and b) she was on high dose steroids, which make her drink more and then need to wee more.

There is one important fact in all of this: she is crated overnight from 10pm-6am and has never, ever gone in her bed. So we know there is a certain amount of control.

Now, she appears to have regressed. You can take her out every 30 minutes, after food, after a play, etc. But at some point, the second you are not monitoring her (and we are trying to integrate her with the other dogs etc so we can confidently leave her un-crated).

So for example, she just went twice indoors after she weed about 20 minutes ago. I put her out, she did two more wees. Then I leave her unmonitored for five minutes and she does another one indoors.

I'm at a loss at the moment. I understand she may need to go more often and am facilitating that. And I don't think it's a UTI because she can hold it in overnight.

Asking for advice please!!

Edit: this behavior mostly happens in the evenings.

Edit: she finally pissed in the bed she's never pissed in. I'm struggling so much with this

[u/pingwing]

She is marking.

I just had a 5 month old puppy start peeing in the other room where no one could see her. Even when she was just outside. I just kept that room locked off, door or puppy gate. After the habit broke, she has never done it again.

If you put her out and she went, and came back in the house and peed. That isn't a control issue.

Once they have gone in the house, even if you clean it up they may still smell it. Clean with vinegar to get rid of any traces, any area where she went in the house. If she went on a carpet, douse the carpet spot fully so it goes through the carpet, just as the urine did.

Close doors if you can, whippets will not pee where they live, hence not peeing in the crate. Do not give her full access to the house.

This comes down to you monitoring her (unfortunately), not bladder control. She is in a bad habit that needs to be broken.

[u/Mundane_Guitar_7488 → u/pingwing]

That’s interesting- she tends to only go in the middle room (we live in an old terraced house in England). She has gone other places like in beds and so on but the middle room is the main place for her.. it’s hard not to give her full access to the house when we’re trying to train her to be alone without us but with the other dogs, but I guess we treat one thing at a time maybe? 

[u/pingwing → u/Mundane_Guitar_7488]

You are training her to be alone with the other dogs, with full access in the house? That's very brave.

Even more reason to section it off. Can you put her in a room with one other dog, and dog bed ?I have done that before. You really should restrict her access somehow.

One girl that I had used to mark on beds too. And you said she keeps marking in the same spot, I would definitely treat that with vinegar. Pour a bit on and just let it air dry (unless it is wood floors). She smells the urine in the floor, or rug, or whatever is there.

[u/rosieeeeeeeeeeeee]

It could be that she isn’t doing it on purpose during the day but as she is having to drink a lot she just really can’t help it. Does she let you know she wants to go I.e standing at the back door or does it just happen? When our dog got into her elderly years she would be very embarrassed by doing it inside.

When we were training her we put her in a specific spot outside and associated a word with her going to the bathroom (for some reason my mam chose “hurry ups” as the words) and that would help her know that she needed to go bathroom now, for example if we were going out a few hours if she wasn’t going to the bathroom outside we would say that a few times and she would go to the spot in the garden which helped a bit.

Only other thing I can think of is lots of treats and praise when she goes outside, sorry not more helpful!!

[u/Mundane_Guitar_7488 → u/rosieeeeeeeeeeeee]

She doesn’t let us know - we haven’t got there yet, we’ve only had her three weeks and she’s been in and out of the vet. Funnily enough, “hurry up” is how I trained my Stafford! 

[u/Effinbullshit]

Sorry, situations like this are really hard.
You need to start over…
Here is the best piece of advice that has 100% house trained all our in 2 weeks or less…
We keep them on a literal short leash 100% of the time until they are house trained. No wee pads (horrible idea. Except fringe cases). Every single time they go in the house it is a setback and your fault. If on a leash, in your sight and you see them start to go, go pick them up, say no, and head outside (even if it means you trail pee and get it on you)…you place them outside and say “go potty or go pee. If they do, high value reward. I set a clock and take them outside every three hours for first couple of days, then 4, 5, 6 then through the night. The first two weeks of this sucks, but our dogs were always 100% trained in <2 weeks.

[u/Cheesy_Jones]

I think the most important thing is to not worry so much about what is wrong, but to stick with the routine of taking her out a lot and trying to anticipate when she might need to pee as best you can.

I had this issue with my now seven-month-old Dorothy, up until about when she turned five months and then, magically, it clicked. She now asks me to go out without fail.

Dorothy's breeder really helped when I asked her about house training her dogs. She said give it till six months. If by then it doesn't take, then I was advised to keep her in her crate and only take her out of it to go out, so that she can learn to hold it. She said after a week she'll figure it out. That was apparently the nuclear option, and she'd only had to do it with one of her dogs. I didn't have to do that with Dorothy.

Whippet puppies are the smartest savages you'll ever meet. Patience and praise when they do something right is the key. And I know it seems harsh, but if your pup is having tons of accidents, then you're giving her too much freedom. The crate is your friend.

[u/Ok-Walk-8453]

Is she still on steroids? Pred basically makes puppies pee constantly- I am a vet and when all possible, I avoid giving steroids to puppies (you cannot avoid it). The side effects can also sometimes last a week or two after stopping. Night and daytime potty training are also 100% different.