Housebreaking an adult dog

[mathnerd]

My mastiff has been a primarily outside dog for his entire life. I want to make him more of an inside dog, but I'm worried about housebreaking. I'm pretty good with all other areas of dog training, but I've never actually housebroken a dog. I generally adopt adult animals, and one of the reasons is they often times come already housebroken. So, the giant wonder dog will be three at the end of June. He's never been in the house more than a couple hours. On really cold nights (by local standards), he's had a nice, heated doghouse to keep warm, so he hasn't even been inside a whole overnight since he was a puppy. He likes to be outside most of the time, but occassionally, he seems to want to be more in the center of family activity, hence the reason for wanting to make sure he's housebroken.

I've considered that it's possible that his instincts will kick in and this won't be a problem, but I don't want to set him up for failure. He's well trained in other respects. He's a giant dog, so of course he has to be well trained or he'd be miserable to be around. The little bit he's been in the house has shown he knows the "rules" (no running, no getting on the furniture, no stealing food, etc), so I don't think this will be a huge deal, but I'd rather stem any potential problems before they start.

So, any advise for converting an outside dog into an inside dog?

[jedimaster91]

Step One, get a crate. If for any reason he needs to be in the house while you're gone, he goes in the crate. Dogs don't like to potty where they sleep, so use that to your advantage. If you free feed (leave food out for him all the time) stop. Have scheduled meal times so you can better predict when he'll need to go. Learn the signs of a dog that needs to go (suddenly stopping what they're doing, sniffing in circles) and if he starts doing them, take him out. In the beginning, you may need to put him on a leash and take him out until he potties. Once he goes, he gets a treat and a "good potty!", then he's free to play in the yard or come back inside.

There will probably be the occasional accident while he's learning. You'll need an enzymatic cleaner to completely get rid of the smell. Don't let him have run of the house without supervision until he's completely trained. Any time you can't watch him, he goes in the crate. And remember linoleum is easier to clean up than carpet. Since he's older, he'll be able to hold it overnight. Puppies physically can't until they hit around 4 months.

As for converting from outdoor to indoor, most dogs will transition just fine. Our first dog was mainly an outside dog for the first couple years of her life and now she's snoozing on my couch. She still wants and likes to go outside, but she's also perfectly content being inside with us. Just keep his experiences positive and he'll be fine. Any roughhousing and he immediately goes outside. It won't take long for him to catch on. That's how we trained ours to not bark in the house. Having special inside only toys (like a Kong) will help as well.

One last thing to keep in mind is that dogs have 1-2 seconds to connect an action with a consequence. That's why it's not a good idea to punish a dog for a potty accident after the fact. He doesn't even remember doing it, so he's not connecting your anger with going where he's not supposed to. He will react to your body language, though, which is why they sometimes look guilty when you catch them being naughty. This works the other way as well. Rewarding good behaviors has to come within that 1-2 seconds.

As always, if you need to, consult a professional trainer. There may be classes at your local humane society, so definitely check it out.

[csquared]

First question: What do you want the behavior to be? From there, be consistant and reward for good behavior.

[mathnerd]

Jedimaster, I've looked for crates and haven't been able to find one large enough. Do you know of any place that sells them for larger animals? Baxter weighs about 150 pounds and is roughly the size of a small truck. Okay, maybe not that big. He's actually kind of skinny, but is very tall, broad and long. The few times I've had him inside, he's been pretty well behaved (after the initial excitement wears off...about 5 minutes.) I like the idea of special inside toys, but I'm worried that he could inadvertently get destructive because of his size. Maybe a special inside bed/blankie/snuggly toy would work?

csquared, I basically need him to be calm while he's inside, again, due to his size. I'm not terribly worried about him responding to commands, as he's already well trained in basic and moderately advanced obedience, with a few advanced commands (he thinks the whole world loves him and wants to pet him, so I had to train him to "ask permission" to approach a stranger). I'm mostly just worried about the housebreaking thing.

[Kheldarson]

How tall is he? My store offers a bunch of different sizes in kennels, but they're based primarily on height.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/brows...3Bcat104715180

[mathnerd]

That's a good question. I'm a terrible judge of length/height. I'm 5'8" and the top of his head comes to my waist when he's standing. When he stands on his hind legs his front paws easily rest on my shoulders without him having to reach up. He's quite a bit taller than me if he's standing like that. Let me see if I can find a good picture of him that shows him standing on all fours and has something in it to show scale.

[Kheldarson]

You want his height when standing on all fours, so the height of his head held up to the floor.

That way you buy a kennel with enough room for him.

[mathnerd]

That's good information to know. Thanks. I will get him properly measured tomorrow. I'd gone to a couple of pet stores with him a few months ago and nothing they had in stock was big enough, and the employees were less than helpful. One store was flat out understaffed, and they were just too busy and the staff at the other store was just rude and unhelpful. I've been wanting to convert him to inside for a while, but the thought of an accident in the house from a dog his size has been a real deterrent.

[Kheldarson]

I'm not sure about full housebreaking (our dog is an outdoor dog too), but there are a lot of places online that can offer some help. You might ask your local vet for some tips or suggestions of places that can help with the training.

[Seshat]

If he happens to be inside when he wants to go potty, does he whine and paw the door? If so, and if you want him to learn to use newspaper or piddle pads, then when he does that, take him to the newspaper or the piddle pad. When the inevitable occurs, reward him as per usual for 'good boy' behaviour.

Eventually he will associate needing to go while indoors with either using that surface or being in that location. Whichever happens inside his doggy brain, that's what you're stuck with.

If you don't want him to use newspapers that aren't in that location, don't use newspaper as a substrate.

And choose your location carefully: you might be stuck with it.

[Aethian]

My dogs used to go to the door and bark. My baby boy started coming to me. Then the others learned I moved a bit faster when they would come to me to tell me they had to go out. It led to me not needing to know their "I need to go Mom" bark from the "Mom I would like to go out" bark.

[Teysa]

My dog pretty much housebroke herself. She would mainly go to the door and whine when she wanted out. Another trick she had was pulling at the hem of my shirt with her teeth to get my attention. These days she'll whine at me or put her paw on my leg to let me know she wants outside. If I happen to be in the kitchen, where the back door is, she'll stare at the door until I open it for her.

[mathnerd]

I finally got Baxter measured. From the ground to his shoulders is 33 inches. From the ground to the top of his head is 42 inches. All measurements are approximate. He wasn't being very cooperative. He kept trying to lay down, so he might be a bit taller, but not much.

[wolfie]

Slightly O/T, but I heard (presumably a joke) about someone whose kitten would claw the sofa. He didn't like having the sofa clawed, so whenever he caught the kitten doing it, he'd put it outside. Training successful - for the next 16 years, whenever the cat wanted to go outside, it would claw the sofa.

[csquared]

You may have to make your own crate: couple pieces of furnature and a gate. Otherwise you might want to look at a modular pen. A few sections of something like this and a piece of plywood for a top.

Training successful - for the next 16 years, whenever the cat wanted to go outside, it would claw the sofa.

One of the down sides of training a pet to "tell you" when they want to go out.