I have a five month old basset named clyde and it seems that all he does all day besides sleep is leave little surprises for me. He poops about ten times a day and it is a good amount each time, I am wondering if this is normal? I live in an upstairs apartment and go to class about five hours a day so i have been trying to pad train him and nothing seems to work he just pays no attention to it. I have had to have the carpets cleaned twice since i have had him because of his constant accidents it is getting very frustrating I love the saggy little fella but its rediculous. when i am here and take him out he will not potty outside but will as soon as we come in and i turn my back. I just had knee surgery too so his trips out are very hard on me especially when he doesent relieve himself. Cleaning his many messes are even harder on crutches aswell. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated...PLEASE HELP
Clyde the poop machine
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I hate to say this but the only real solution is going to mean a lot of up and down the stairs for you. It sounds like Clyde has imprinted on going where he goes, not where you want him to. If you haven't already consider crate training him (do a search for threads here about that), that will reduce the messes in the house (but also realize you can't leave a 5-month old puppy alone for 5 hours straight or you will have messes in the crate too).
To get him to go outside is going to require a bit more coaxing. If you haven't already discovered this the only real way to get a basset hound to pay more attention to you than to what they are smelling is to offer them treats. Lots and lots of treats. Take him outside, wait until he goes potty. If he doesn't go within a few minutes, take him inside and put him in his crate. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until he does go outside. Then immediately praise him (a lot - make a huge deal out of it) and give him all kinds of treats.
Unfortunately he's already got it in his head that he goes wherever he wants to in the house so you are facing an uphill battle, but trust me it's worth it in the end. These dogs have a way of tapping into your heart.
Good luck, and check out the other answers that are sure to follow. This is a good group with lots of helpful hints and experience to draw on.
To get him to go outside is going to require a bit more coaxing. If you haven't already discovered this the only real way to get a basset hound to pay more attention to you than to what they are smelling is to offer them treats. Lots and lots of treats. Take him outside, wait until he goes potty. If he doesn't go within a few minutes, take him inside and put him in his crate. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until he does go outside. Then immediately praise him (a lot - make a huge deal out of it) and give him all kinds of treats.
Unfortunately he's already got it in his head that he goes wherever he wants to in the house so you are facing an uphill battle, but trust me it's worth it in the end. These dogs have a way of tapping into your heart.
Good luck, and check out the other answers that are sure to follow. This is a good group with lots of helpful hints and experience to draw on.
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First and foremost, it probably wouldn't hurt to have a vet visit. Bring a poo sample with you so they can rule out parasites/worms.
Do you crate him while you're gone? You might look into crate training as it will help to teach him to "hold it."
American Dog Trainers Network -- How To Successfully Crate Train Your Puppy
Dogs are den creatures and don't like to soil their sleeping areas. It will also help him to understand what going outside it for. I understand that trips outside are hard on you but I would highly recommend picking either pad training him or outside potty training. Switching back and forth can confuse the puppy and lead to delayed housebreaking issues.
It will also help for you to establish a routine/potty schedule. Take him out every couple of hours. If he doesn't go while outside, then place him back into the crate for a while and try again later. This will help him get the idea that going outside is for going potty. Also make sure that the he isn't allowed too much room in the crate or he will just go in one end and sleep in the other. A large box or wire panel can reduce the area of the crate until he get's older.
Also watch Clyde carefully to look for his potty behavior. (like sniffing around, sudden changes in activities, etc). Once you start to see signs of this behavior, take him outside to go potty. Be sure to use lots of praise while he's in the act of going (such as go potty, good boy) and reward with a treat after he's done. Bassets are very food motivated and this is a good way to help reinforce desired behavior.
Potty Training Dogs: How to Do It
Most of all, be patient. With bassets potty training takes time. They are a little slower to catch on but they will also long as they have consistent training and reinforcement. Hang in there, it will get better!
Do you crate him while you're gone? You might look into crate training as it will help to teach him to "hold it."
American Dog Trainers Network -- How To Successfully Crate Train Your Puppy
Dogs are den creatures and don't like to soil their sleeping areas. It will also help him to understand what going outside it for. I understand that trips outside are hard on you but I would highly recommend picking either pad training him or outside potty training. Switching back and forth can confuse the puppy and lead to delayed housebreaking issues.
It will also help for you to establish a routine/potty schedule. Take him out every couple of hours. If he doesn't go while outside, then place him back into the crate for a while and try again later. This will help him get the idea that going outside is for going potty. Also make sure that the he isn't allowed too much room in the crate or he will just go in one end and sleep in the other. A large box or wire panel can reduce the area of the crate until he get's older.
Also watch Clyde carefully to look for his potty behavior. (like sniffing around, sudden changes in activities, etc). Once you start to see signs of this behavior, take him outside to go potty. Be sure to use lots of praise while he's in the act of going (such as go potty, good boy) and reward with a treat after he's done. Bassets are very food motivated and this is a good way to help reinforce desired behavior.
Potty Training Dogs: How to Do It
Most of all, be patient. With bassets potty training takes time. They are a little slower to catch on but they will also long as they have consistent training and reinforcement. Hang in there, it will get better!
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Ugh. Feeling your pain-- sounds like you might be in need of noseplugs.
Agree with everything that's already been posted. A little concerned that your pup poops 10x/day. Not a vet or breeder here, but it sounds like a lot. Worm at 4 months was going 2-3x/day max. If there are GI issues, better to have them addressed by the vet, otherwise, hard to housetrain due to the diarrhea/loose stools and sense of urgency (like people, they are not able to hold it as well when having GI problems).
In case this helps, this is what we did with Worm: HIGHLY recommend crate training. As someone posted, being in the crate helps them to hold it because they don't want to soil their living space. At 4 months and beyond, Worm was able to hold pee/poo 4-6 hours during the day, and 8 hrs at night staying in the crate overnight. Just be sure you really come back every 4-5 hours to let him out to go bathroom. Worm has never soiled his crate before (knock on wood).
Also, would GET RID of the puppy pads. That is because it is simpler to have them learn that it is unacceptable to go ANYWHERE in the apartment. We are in upstairs apartment too, btw. This is my bias, because my last dog, we newspaper trained him in the kitchen, and it was too confusing. he ended up going in every room in the house. he was not able to understand it was only ok to go on newspaper in the house and not everywhere else. Would not use the puppy pads to be able to stay away longer from the house. We always made sure we were home every 4-6 hrs for Worm and still do now (he is 9 months).
Also, like someone mentioned, it was super important to watch him like a HAWK. Follow him everywhere. Some of the best learning took place when we caught Worm in the act. Even if he peed a little indoors, that was good, because we picked him up and went outside, and he finished peeing out there. He figured out what we wanted pretty quick from this. Although we were super-tired, we had to watch him like a hawk for 1-2 months, and then not so much anymore because he understood it. He was actually pretty much housetrained by 5 1/2 months (we started at 4 months).
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
ps. reading your post again, you might need some help, given you just had knee surgery. We had to take Worm out all the time at that age. Also, want to stress the importance of never turning your back to him, as you wrote in your post. When you need to shower or do other things when you can't watch him, that is the time to put him in the crate. If he doesn't go outside, and you come back in, watch him and if he starts to make an accident, you gotta pick him up and head back outside again to finish the job. or put him in the crate as vb3 wrote-- so he can "think about pottying" for 5 min, and then take him out again.
Agree with everything that's already been posted. A little concerned that your pup poops 10x/day. Not a vet or breeder here, but it sounds like a lot. Worm at 4 months was going 2-3x/day max. If there are GI issues, better to have them addressed by the vet, otherwise, hard to housetrain due to the diarrhea/loose stools and sense of urgency (like people, they are not able to hold it as well when having GI problems).
In case this helps, this is what we did with Worm: HIGHLY recommend crate training. As someone posted, being in the crate helps them to hold it because they don't want to soil their living space. At 4 months and beyond, Worm was able to hold pee/poo 4-6 hours during the day, and 8 hrs at night staying in the crate overnight. Just be sure you really come back every 4-5 hours to let him out to go bathroom. Worm has never soiled his crate before (knock on wood).
Also, would GET RID of the puppy pads. That is because it is simpler to have them learn that it is unacceptable to go ANYWHERE in the apartment. We are in upstairs apartment too, btw. This is my bias, because my last dog, we newspaper trained him in the kitchen, and it was too confusing. he ended up going in every room in the house. he was not able to understand it was only ok to go on newspaper in the house and not everywhere else. Would not use the puppy pads to be able to stay away longer from the house. We always made sure we were home every 4-6 hrs for Worm and still do now (he is 9 months).
Also, like someone mentioned, it was super important to watch him like a HAWK. Follow him everywhere. Some of the best learning took place when we caught Worm in the act. Even if he peed a little indoors, that was good, because we picked him up and went outside, and he finished peeing out there. He figured out what we wanted pretty quick from this. Although we were super-tired, we had to watch him like a hawk for 1-2 months, and then not so much anymore because he understood it. He was actually pretty much housetrained by 5 1/2 months (we started at 4 months).
Good luck, and please keep us posted.
ps. reading your post again, you might need some help, given you just had knee surgery. We had to take Worm out all the time at that age. Also, want to stress the importance of never turning your back to him, as you wrote in your post. When you need to shower or do other things when you can't watch him, that is the time to put him in the crate. If he doesn't go outside, and you come back in, watch him and if he starts to make an accident, you gotta pick him up and head back outside again to finish the job. or put him in the crate as vb3 wrote-- so he can "think about pottying" for 5 min, and then take him out again.
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I agree with all of the above mentioned suggestions! Virga was a little more difficult to potty train than Doppler was. She would wander around behind furniture and pee there and we wouldn't see it until we were walking through minutes later. What we decided to do was to block off the areas of the house she has access to. It started as she only had access to the living room where we were most of the time anyway. Then we gradually expanded her "territory" until she got free reign to the main part of the house (we have a very open floor plan). We simply shut doors to the other rooms. We were still having some slight problems with it so we put a bell on Virga's collar. Then we would notice if she started wandering away and could follow her. This helped immensely and now that Virga is 8 months old she hasn't had any accidents in about a month! Knock on wood.
Just keep at it and you'll get the hang of his hints he has to go. Good luck!
Just keep at it and you'll get the hang of his hints he has to go. Good luck!
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No it is not normal it indicateds the dog is eating way to much food so either 1. you are over feeding the puppy may or manynot be over weight but excessive amount of food can bass through the digestive tract of a puppy much faster with poor absorption leading to loose stools. or two, the quality of food is to low with and too much fiber. Too much fiber will cause loose stools as well. 3. Some food just don't work with individual dogs. There are many on here that swear by wellness. And looking at their dogs it works for them, Each and every time I have tried to feed it I end up with what you are experiencing now. I think a swich of dog food is in order.
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