i have been trying to house train my puppy for a few months now. shes four and a half months old and not getting it. she sleeps in a crate at night and we bring her out right after we feed her but she still goes in the house. what im wondering is if there is a service offered where i can send her somewhere to be house trained. if so could you please tell me of some examples prefferably near massachusetts.
Even if a trainer can help you, it is still at home, together with you that it needs to work, so for example, let us say that you find a place where you can send her and they housebreak her, if she then comes home and she still can smell her previous pees and poos, because you haven’t used products especially designed to completely remove the smell of such accidents, she might not understand that she is not allowed to continue peeing and pooing on those places.
When housebreaking doesn’t go the way the owner planned, the probably most common reason to why the training doesn’t work, is that the puppy simply have NOT understood the owner’s housebreaking training and/or that the owner have unrealistic expectations.
After that comes health problems and lots of other reasons.
Even though I’ve had puppies that was already beginning to understand the housebreaking training, when they were only 2 to 3 months old (NOTE, beginning to understand doesn’t equal being fully housebroken, small puppy = small bladder, so if the owner doesn’t let them out often enough, they simply can not hold themselves the way an adult dog can), I’ve also had puppies who wasn’t completely housebroken until after that they had passed 6 months of age (that was many years ago, so with a selective memory, I’ve managed to repress how long it actually took with some of my first puppies).
In fact, I also know of dogs who has had housebreaking problems long after that they’ve passed 1 years of age, so overall, that a puppy is not housebroken only 4½ months old, is actually not that uncommon.
Besides the causes that I’ve already talked about, other reasons to why housebreaking isn’t going as planned, can for example be that :
Stress can cause housebreaking problems.
A puppy/dog that objects about something in their situation, can sometimes show it by having indoor accidents.
A puppy/dog that feels insecure, can sometimes pee or poo indoors and/or in their sleeping area, to sort of feel more secure, i.e. because it tells them that this really is their territory.
Some breeds are known for that puppies of their breed can be more difficult to housebreak.
Sometimes a behaviour starts for one reason, but continues because it simply have became a habit.
Although I don’t like the idea of sending your puppy away for housebreaking training, I recommend that you try to find a good dog club and take a puppy class with your puppy. You can e.g. use Google Maps and search for dog trainers in your area, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl .
When checking up dog clubs, don’t just compare prices without also look at :
Where does the training takes place (as in, do they have an indoor or outdoor area)?
Max number of dogs per class?
How many times equals a class?
Is it both practical and theoretical training?
What sort of training method do they use?
What education does the trainers have?