sharonb1515

We have a 15 week old female basset named Roxy. We love her so much, but we are having a heck of a time housebreaking her. we are taking her out when she wakes up, after play, after eating and 100 times in between. she pees every time she goes out, but 20 minutes later will pee in the house. Does anyone have any suggestions?
sharon

Mikey T

umh this is true for every breed of puppy see Housetraining Your Puppy
A few caveates about house training bassets. I they are natoriously slow to house train. I have never seen a basset reliably housetrained younger than six months old. While there are many that claim faster result in my experience rather than being actually house trained the owner became very good at managing the dog to prevent accidents. The difference is just not semantics. If the dog is truely housetrained, reducing management standard will not result in house soiling which is the case in every basset under six month that I have seen, Six month is also very opttomistic a year is more typical. Strong diligent managment as outined in the article linked to above is key.

The other area if find that creates the biggest inpeadament to house training is a clear an concise signal buy the dog it need to go out. For some reason humans have the idea the dog should some how miraculious be able to comunucate it's need when often we routinely ignore its signals. For most the easier and more relieable way than some how you and dog merge on the same wave length when it comes to communicating the dogs need to go out. is to teach a specific signal for the dog to use. The linked article below is a good and easy way to do this
House Training: Ring My Bell!

LouieDog

Listen to Mikey, he's got some great advice. Our Louie wasn't fully house trained until about 7-8 months old and even now he still has the occasional piddle in the house when excited or if his schedule is off. One issue we had with Louie was a urinary tract infection. Make sure you check with your vet as well to rule out any medical issues. It sounds like you're on the right track. Just be patient and it will get better!! My husband and I were where you are right now and it seems like it will be forever before they get it and one day you look around and say "oh my gosh!! i haven't cleaned up pee today"...lol
hang in there!!!

Midge n Hazley

Bell training was the best thing we ever did with Hazley! We adopted her at 5 months old, she came from the breeder and was used to going where ever struck her fancy! By limiting her freedom in the house and using the bell, it made thing SO much easier! Best of luck to you.

P.S. Toughy has fantastic advice!

luvtheroo

Hi,
Rufus is now 14 mo. old. He was successfully potty trained at about 16 weeks. I was exhausted from getting up 2x per night with him and had just accepted the fact that he might not be trained for months and months because our previous Basset wasn't trained until probably about a year and a half. He would still have "on-purposes" when he'd get mad at us for leaving him!

What was different this time was my acceptance of crate training - but only at night. I felt guilty "trapping" him in a cage all night instead of letting him sleep with us. My sister insisted that this was how she trained her beagle and I wouldn't be sorry! Well, lo and behold he started sleeping through the night and not having accidents during the day while I was at work. He was previously cordonned off in an unfinished area of our basement but by about 4 months old I let him have free reign of the middle level of our townhouse and no accidents. HOWEVER, I let him sleep with our son for the last week and one night he went downstairs and peed in the kitchen. I almost killed myself the next morning when I slipped on it. It's back to the crate at night for him!!!!!

Jill

luvtheroo

Forgot to add...

I "bell trained" him also. All of our friends think it's hilarious when he rings his bells to go potty. He also rings his bells when he want attention. Even the kids know about THIS trick. "If I've already gone potty and I'm acting like a nut and ringing my bell, please play with me!!!"

Silly Rufie!!!

sharonb1515

Thanks. We did think she had a uti but it ended up being vaginitis. They put her on an anibiotic and it definately helped. She definately has less accidents. Luckily she is confined to the kitchen so it is easy to clean up. She has had a few medical issues since we got her, so it is a little frustrating. She is also having a loose stool problem. They cultured it and it shows nothing. Put her on flagyl it clears right up. As soon as she comes off it flares up again. She just finished her third course of flagyl and lasted 6 days until it started up again. It isnt an issue except for she has small accidents in her kennel so I know she cant help it. Guess I will be calling the vet again tomorrow. I have spent more at the vet than i did for the dog
sharon

shallhb

Crate training and bells--that's what we've done also. And yes, they do learn that ringing the bell brings one of us running. Having the dog used to the crate has got lots of advantages beyond housebreaking. We have portable crates we use when we travel with the dogs in motels, and know that they'll be quiet and safe in them. I also use them in the house when I want to go out for an hour or two, and don't want to put the dogs in the outside run, or if we have workers visiting. They have 'doughnut' dog beds in them, and they like to sleep in them.

__________________
Sharon Hall

Grace (puppy in training)
Bella, UD, VER, TD, RE, CGC
Pearl,UD, TDX, RE, CGC (Waiting at the Bridge)
Samantha, Theodore, CGC, Louella, Zeke and Arty, Bassets All; (All Waiting at the Bridge)