Bulldogs!!

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Lila

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I have a british bulldog just over 1yr old. hes such a handfull and just seems untrainable!! Its really getting me down. He wee's everwhere even though he go's out all the time.
I thought i was finally getting somewhere as he had been using his mats and yesterday i was out most of the day calling back about 3 times to check on him and let him go the toilet. He was great didnt wee anywhere excpet places he is allowed. But as soon i came home for the night he went for a walk and as soon as we came back home he wee'd everywhere.
Why is he doing it? He doesnt do it when im out (unless im out for hours on end and he cant get out) Its really getting me down now.

Anyone got any tips to try train him properly?
 
No i never thought of that. Sometimes he seem's not to be able to hold it and just has t go so you could have a point!!

Iv tried so many different way's of handling it, Shouting at him, ignoring him, Telling him of and putting him in the corrects place etc its just really getting me down now :(
 
I know how frustrating it can be - we had a lab that pee'd everywhere too - turned out he had a bladder infection and once that was sorted he was fine.

The way you deal with it can be important - and whilst it is really difficult not to get mad, try really hard not to yell at him or scold him or make him nervous - just take him straight outside if he appears to be ready to wee or has just done it. Remember the dog that pee'd on the carpet at 10am doesnt know why you are yelling at him at 10.30am - they dont connect the two things - kinda like horses, you need to take immediate action by leading him outside and praising him to the high heavens when he performs outside. Try taking him out after every meal, when he wakes up from a nap and as soon as he gets up in the morning - same as you would do with a puppy - and take a small treat with you and praise him and give him the treat each time he performs where he should. Positive reinforcement is the way to go.

If he has a bladder problem you might not need all that - but its worth tryiny anyway. Good luck :)

Oh and get him neutred - unless you are completely serious about breeding him for the right reasons he should be neutered :)
 
Male dogs don't just urinate cause they need to pee, they mark too. If he still has his balls he might be marking rather than just urinating.

Whats his daily routine?
 
Thanks hevs i will call the vets now and book him in to be checked! The praising him thing seemed to work for a while and then he started again!!

His routine is
Goes out around 9ish in the morning does he business and has a play
Comes in has his breakfast and has a sleep (often follows me to the toilet and wee's in he bathroom which i allow and praise him for) goes back out round 12ish
then thats when he starts to wee everywhere!! if i go out he just sleeps (well i think he does) and when i come back from the horse we go for a walk and he comes in for his tea around 7.30 then goes out around 9ish and then settle for the night.

He just doesnt seem to hold it very well. Seem's to me its more for attention??
 
I also have a boy bulldog and I've never had the problems you are experiencing, my boy kind of trained himself because I kept to a very strict routine with him. He started off with an early morning toilet break and one thing to remember is that its better to walk a bulldog until he goes because they are basically lazy, and if you just open the door expecting him to go it won't work as mine used to just sit on the step until I let him back in again. Same again twenty mins after every meal until he got the habbit.

He was honestly unmanageable ( mounting everything and everyone ) until he was castrated and then became a different dog.

You will probably have read that bulldogs are very sensitive and you must never scold them to the extent they feel threatened. If my boy had an accident I just ignored it and as I said he is completely house trained and has been from a young age.
 
Thanks LHS. He knows he being naughty as he does it and runs away. He is in a routine but it doesnt seem to make much difference. I know what u mean about them being sensitive hes like a little baby. He goes out for walks and we play outside once he's been good to show him its what i want. I think im going to have a serious convo with the OH about him getting his bits done
 
Yes I would really try and get his bits off as its made a huge difference to my dog. He still ' mark's but its only when we're out on a walk and his toilet habits are perfectly normal. Having said that if for some reason he can't get out when he needs he will not think twice about going indoors but thats my fault for interrupting his routine.

Good luck as I'm sure you're boy will get there in the end.
 
Also Lila, I would say you have to stop him weeing in the house completely. I assume you have pads down? He might be getting confused as to what the pad is, for instance, I pad trained my pups when they were young - for ages I couldnt understand why they'd wee on the bed.

Afterwards I thought to myself, my duvet feels a bit like those pads, soft and stuffed! Once I eliminated those pads my dogs suddenly understood, its garden and only garden for toilet!

Also what food is he on - has he a good diet?
 
At over a year old his habits are going to be hard to break. Why on earth do you allow him to wee in the house anyway? Poor dog will be pretty confused if you praise him for weeing in one room and then chastise him for weeing in another.
I bred dogs for years and all my puppies were completely housetrained by the time they went to their new homes at 9/10 weeks old but you have to be very diligent about putting them outside and never, ever have any sort of "training aids" in the house, that just confuses them. You will have to go back to basics and take him outside at every opportunity and praise him madly when he goes, like you would a puppy, but it will probably take quite a while to get him clean. A crate is very useful too.
 
I would pop him to the vet to eliminate a possible urinary problem and sneakily ask the vet about castration :p

Please be very consistent and persistent, watch his routine, watch for him circling, boy dogs IME are very predictable about where they are going to wee and it may take days of following him around and being ready to whisk him outside the minute he starts pausing and sniffing.

Re the nuts - is he going to be used at stud because he has something to offer the breed? Has he had all the health checks to make sure he carries no hereditary problems? Has he won in the showring? Has he got good bloodlines?
Don't use him at stud, just because he is entire and you can.
 
The only circumstance I would personally recommend pads ifs if the owner is vigilant and watches the dog for signs of him heading for a pad, which should be infront of the door of whichever room u are in at the time, this way you follow him and opent the door and lead him out, the pad should be used as a cue not something to actually got to and eliminate on, always keep him in the same room as u and when he shows signs of attempting to pass urine, again straight out ("come on wee wee's) as a command or assosiation and a treat when he is near to finishing the flow as not to disturb him, otherwise keep all doors closed and stop him roaming from room to room when u are not present, if u are not present u cannot correct or guide him.
When u are out, also keep him confined to one room, pref a small space, working from small to gradually bigger in space is always a good rule of thumb for toilet training.
I would also have him done, as suggested part of it could be marking, and obs he needs as suggested to be proven a good specimen to breed from, so you definately need to take responsibility to get those carried out, if he is a pet, I would not hesitate to have him castrated.
 
Thanks for everyone's advise.

The problem we have is were in an apartment on the top floor so getting up and down every half an hour is hard. I use the bathroom for him to go as if he's desperate its easier than trying to get him to make it down the stairs. That's one of the reason the pads are still down. He loves the garden when were in my mum's and were currently looking for a house with a garden. We got the apartment before the dog and were planning on moving out shortly after but the way money has been its just not been possible.

Kitsune (think it was you lol) I know what you mean about the pads's and weeing on the bed iv never thought of it like that so think the pads are gunna have to come up!!
 
First of all, personally if my bitches had an accident indoors because nobody lets them out in time, I count that as my fault and not as that they're not housebroken, dogs are not as stupid as humans and doesn't hold themselves until their urinary bladder bursts. So I don't count those of his accidents, as part of the problem.
About allowing him to urinate in the bathroom, I knew an old lady with a Chihuahua that didn't want to go out for a last pee about 22 o'clock when it was dark and she lived close to the middle of a city, so every evening she put down a newspaper on the floor and told her bitch to go and pee and that worked just fine. But that doesn't matter, if it does make your dog confused, then it doesn't work for him.

As for the other times, I can think of two simple and one more unusual explanation to his behaviour, but the first thing you need to do is to buy cleaning stuff that is designed to remove the scent of dog urine and faeces, like Piss Off! or similar. It can be difficult enough to solve the problem, without tempting him with the scent of that he has marked there before.


One explanation to why he does it when somebody is at home, is that he wants to mark your house as his territory. Then you possibly have a dominance problem, but there can be different things that triggers it. Maybe he feels that he is the leader, maybe he was born with a dominant disposition etc. If that is the case, then this might sound weird, but by allowing him to pee in the bathroom, where his nose most likely can tell him that you pee in your toilet, can actually help giving him the wrong ideas about whom of you that are in charge. Because from his point of view, you encourage him to mark his territory where you mark your territory.

Other than that, to me, the solution isn't always to become more bossy, showing him who is in charge, without small simple things can be just as important. For example out on a walk, don't allow him to decide where and when to walk, even if you "always" turn right at a certain point, if he begins to turn before you - turn around and walk back in the direction you came from/turn left and walk a few to several metres, before turning back and approaching the point where you usually turn right again. If the path you walk on have trees next to it, walk past some trees on the "wrong" side and so on, so that you're not just something in the other end of the lead that sometimes gives him treats, without that he looks at you to see where you have decided that the two of you should go next.


Another explanation to why he does it when somebody is at home, is that he is stressed. Maybe he is overstimulated or understimulated, maybe there is something in your life situation that stresses him, either way, he can't just walk up to you and say "All these things happening all the time makes my head spin/I need more things to do/I object about this or that!", without instead he has found this way to object or release his tensions, just like some other dogs reacts with becoming destructive. If stress is the cause, you need to try and change what is causing the stress, perhaps also letting him spend some time in a crate with a good gnaw bone and/or a stuffed and frozen Kong.


A more unusual explanation could be, that if you give him any sort of attention when you catch him peeing indoors, he can simply have learned that it is a guaranteed way to become the focus of your attention, no matter how that attention is expressed. That might sound very weird, but e.g. I've read about a dog that used to ride on the family's children, friends and other guests that visited their house, simply because he adored the mother of the family and guess who the children called for if he rode on them? Guess who was the first to react if he rode on a guest? So he rode and it never failed, SHE turned up, carried him away and tried to talk sense into him and he loved being at the focus of her attention, even though she was using her you've been a naughty boy voice!
The solution was that she took him up and with a minimum of body contact, without looking at him or saying anything to him, she carried him to a room where he had to spend a few minutes alone and after a while, when his behaviour no longer was rewarded with her attention, he stopped riding at people. But as said, it is a more unlikely explanation.


Regardless of what is causing the problem, I think you should consider whether his genes really are a valuable asset to his breed? Because personally, I feel that no matter if he for example becomes Best of Breed at Crufts judged by a breed specialist, have no breathing problems and comes from several generations of ancestors being born through natural births, that still doesn't matter as much to me, as how their temperament, disposition and character affects how they are to live with on a daily basis.

If it is caused by some medical problem, you need to consider if it is caused by something that could be inherited and if it is not caused by a medical problem, then the frustration that you probably feel over not being able to make him stop with this behaviour, ought to make you consider, whether there is something in his disposition that contributes to the current situation and if so, if you really want to risk creating more Bulldogs which perhaps could inherit that disposition.


Good luck. :)

Some random Bulldog photos from Flickr
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Definately agree about castration. I'm not an expert but friend's I've known with dogs with similar problems have found this to help.
My dogs associate outdoors with weeing so hopefully it will be better when you move.
Good luck with him.
 
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