Housebreaking a 1.5 year Labradoodle
I have a 1.5 year female Labradoodle who continues to pee when nobody is home. We work and are not home 9-9.5 hours a day. The dog does not want to hold it and wait until I get home and take her out. She always pees or poops at one part of the kitchen and I started putting puppy pads on the floor since I am tired of cleaning it up.
She is a smart dog, but has decided it was fine to pee and poop the house. If I am home during the day, she waits and lets me know she wants to go out and does not pee or poop. I punish her by raising my voice and showing her the pee or poop and she knows the punishment is coming when I get home, but does it anyway.
Anything I can do to break her pattern and get her to wait?
Thanks in advance.
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I punish her by raising my voice and shwoign her to pee/poop and she knows the punishment is coming when I get home...but does it anyway.
This. Does. Not. Work.
The dog knows that when you come home you will be angry. The dog knows you will show it the poop. The dog does NOT know you are angry about the poop, it just knows that for inexplicable reasons you go to see the poop with it when you come home and are angry, for reasons the dog does not understand.
I agree with the answers that the time alone is just too long, so: yes, a dog-walker is the way to go :).
My puppy is only 5 months old so take my advice with some grain of inexperience.
But, 9 hours seems like a long time to be alone for. She’s 18 months old, so in theory can hold it but that’s not necessarily the case in all dogs. My wife & I both work so we hired a dog walker to come in the middle of the day to feed/poop our dog. Our dog walker can play with her, tucker her out and then crate her. Then I come home a few hours later and keep her routine going.
Also, if she does eliminate then punishing her isn’t doing anything. She doesn’t know what punishment is; and all you might be doing is encouraging her to eliminate when you’re not there!
Finally, make sure you clean your floors after your puppy eliminates. The scent might linger and could encourage her to keep going in the same spot. Dogs work off of smells!
Putting down puppy pads is encouraging her to go in the house. They are scented with a pheremone that draws the dog to go there (rather than anywhere else in the house). IMHO, they are only useful for people who accept that their dog needs to eliminate in the house. As long as you put them down, the dog will continue to use them.
It sounds like your dog is pretty well house-trained, but that the day might be too long. Have you considered trying a dog walker to break up the day? Another alternative would be to go back to crate training.
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