House training the older dog.

MotherOfChickens

MotherOfChickens

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So have found a dog looking for rehoming. ticks all the boxes wrt temperament, age, training and even breed. However, the dog messes in the house overnight unless crated. Clean in kernel but not in run overnight. Animal is 3 years old.

How difficult an issue is this to overcome-will it need crating forever or can it be fixed? All advice gratefully received, can give a bit more detail by PM which may be relevant.
 
My adult dog is still crated overnight. He doesn't need to be any more (his issue was eating things, not toileting) but it's a rental property and safer for him too. He had a dose of the squits a few weeks ago and needed out three times during the night and made a racket to let me know. I'm glad he did that rather than pebble dash the hallway.
It also means he doesn't find it strange or startling when we travel.

It's really hard to house train a young dog that's been allowed to go wherever it wants, much more so a mature one.

Have you checked it's not a medical issue, or just fed at the wrong time/too much?
 
I adopted a 2 year old GSDx dog from a rescue (many years ago - before crating became the norm) and treated it just like I would a pup that was being house/toilet trained.

I let it outside and would go out with it, and praised it, if it did anything. I'd go out into garden with it last thing at night, would go to bed say about 11pm but would set my alarm for 3am when I'd get up again and let him out, then do it again at 6am.

Little by little I extended the time between 3am and 6am, at first to perhaps 2.45am - 6.00am til the dog managed to hold himself then extend a little more to say 2.30am - 6.am until eventually he'd go all night with no problems at all.

Of course having an untrained adult dog is a lot different to having a pup but only by the shear volume of wee or poo they deposit! But I found it no different in any other way than from training a pup. So I persevered and thankfully 'Yogi' learnt quickly. He had his bed in the kitchen (which had a tiled floor) and I put newspapers down near the back door. Once he learnt to be clean in the house, he was always clean and when necessary learnt to ask to go out to relief himself.

He was a lovely dog - a bit nutty at times but generally a good egg and I'm pleased I had him in my life.
 
We always have mature rescue dogs and the current JRT was a nightmare with regards to this. I do the same as Chillipup, and use the phrase, 'hurry up and be quick'. They soon pick it up if you are repetitive and consistent.

The JRT still has the odd blip if he is stressed, so could that be a factor to take into account?
 
Dogs regard a particular surface as their toilet area, most have been trained to regard grass as such (which is unfortunately really similar to carpet in texture). You will probably need to reprogramme her by crating when you can't supervise and ensuring she does go, after meals usually, on the surface you want her to use. Have her bed taking up the floor space in the crate - not many dogs will toilet in their own beds, unless they have a health problem. I did have a JRT who came at one year old and never was clean even with the old newspaper thing until I crated her, and she slept in her crate until I moved house. In the new house the floor was tiled rather than carpeted and she managed all night without her crate.
She did revert as she got older, but loved her crate as most of them do, they think of it as their den, so sleeping in the crate really wasn't a problem for her. Given the choice lots of dogs will sleep in a crate, so long as they have been introduced to it well, as a dining room not a prison.
 
All my rescue greyhounds (except Amy!) have come from kennels so theoretically were not house trained, but to be honest I've rarely had a problem with them (apart from Flick...she is another story.....) As Chillipup has said above I've treated mine like puppies - although in my case without the 3am alarm call - putting them out regularly during the day/when they have been fed/when they wake up/last thing, this seems to work
 
We got an 18 month rescue last summer that wasn't house trained. It took a little longer with her as she'd been battered and would wee out of fear. However it was easier than training a puppy, they are more capable of holding it in! We found just taking her out lots, especially straight after food, helped, and lots of praise when she did something, and it soon clicked.
 
All my foster dogs are crated at night, all come in not housed trained and by the time they are ready to be adopted they are, some take longer than others but there is no short cut it takes as long as it takes.

I do say to the adopter that the dog might regress in a home situation but this has not been the case so far, I think being crate trained it gives the dog added security in a new home situation and they settle very quickly.
 
thanks all-had some lovely advice via PM. Seems its not an unusual issue and I don't think that in time it would be with this dog either-although they will have a crate regardless at least at the beginning.
 
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