Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 June 28

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June 28

Advice on housetraining an adult dog?

Hi all. I was just wondering if anyone has any advice on the headlined topic. We have recently gotten a lovely corgi-dachshund mix. Sweetest creature ever. She is a rescue from a kill shelter. Problem is she is not well housebroken. She mostly goes outside because we give her lots of opportunities to do so--lots of walks, and we have a fenced backyard--but she is going dumpies in the house still fairly often--almost always early in the morning (but apparently not peeing in the house). This does not seem to be the case of a stubborn dog. She is totally innocent--or at least we believe she has no idea she is doing anything wrong, because she shows not the slightest remorse/guilt/slinking off when she does this, which in my experience is invariably seen in dogs who have been trained not to go in the house but who then have accidents. She also seems to be a dog who greatly wants to please. Here's some baselines to contextualize my question:

• We have housetrained past dogs (succesfully), but they were all puppies who we crate-trained, and I don't feel it would be okay to try crate training with her--she is already an adult dog, and she has had traumatic experience in her past with cages, coming from a kill shelter.
• I understand that catching her in the act, and then saying a stern "NO" might be one way, but we have not been able to catch her in the act (and are not willing to rearrange our lives to the extent of being up at 5:00 a.m., day-after-day for an extended period, while watching her like a hawk for say two hours, until she starts to go).
• We already give great praise ever single times she does her business outside. This associates going outside with good stuff, but hasn't been effective at all, thus far, to fulfill the other side of the coin--that going inside is bad.
• I remember vaguely reading or hearing somewhere that showing a dog their scat in the house, long after the act was committed, and then punishing (verbally, we do not believe in any form of physical discipline whatever) is a waste of time, because the association is too abstract for a dog to understand this relationship (if you think that what I related is incorrect, please let me know).

• By the way, if you want to see her, because she is SOOOOoooo cute: picture of Lillie!

--185.230.127.240 (talk) 16:32, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Generally speaking this reference desk is not an advice forum.^[dubious] However, somebody here might find a source with useful information. Simply googling your headlined topic yields many possibilities, but I haven't checked any. —107.15.157.44 (talk) 21:12, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

https://www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-advice/house-training-adult-dog Hotclaws (talk) 14:46, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Take her out after every meal for a good frolick. That usually does the trick. Earl of Arundel (talk) 02:36, 6 July 2018 (UTC)