8 Months Old and Frustrated

[FrustratedFrenchieMom]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong and my patience is at it's end.

Kelso is now 8 months old and we're not housebroken yet. He cannot hold his urine for more than 4 hours maximum and still continues to have accidents in the house. My wife has to wake up every 3 hours at night to let him out. This has been ongoing since he got home.

He displays a bit of incontinence upon waking up. For example, he was asleep on the couch and he got up and urinated. It's almost unconscious but it doesn't occur to him not to do it.

If we go for a car ride, he has to wear a belly band or he does the same thing. This week the accidents have been more frequent but not a normal cadence. He's normally confined to the dining room and kitchen where we have hard floors. We had to take away pee pads and bedding b/c he would try to hide peeing in the bed or on the re-washable pee pad. Yesterday he had an accident in the kitchen after going outside, and I don't immediately let him in after going outside in case he hasn't emptied his bladder. Then my wife took him upstairs with a belly band, he managed to push it off his waist and urinated on the couch. After our evening walk, he peed in the kitchen again. It was a BAD DAY.

We don't do the xp-pen anymore because he was jumping over it and it was causing him more stress with the confinement.

When Kelso is crated I tried reducing the space in his crate and taking away bedding so he wouldn't have accidents in the crate. We did this gradually until nothing was in the crate, and we left for 2 hours to come to him standing in his pee shaking. Since then I granted him an inch of more space and tap a potty pad to his crate, so he couldn't kick it up.

Here's a summary of Kelso's dog history:

1. Kelso was the only dog in his litter, and our breeder had to have him raised with a pack of Norwich Terriers for him to thrive, from another breeder he works with.
2. He went back to our breeder's house, and the breeder decided he needed surgery on an umbilical hernia which resulted in our breeder keeping him for 3 additional weeks before he came home to us. He was about 4 months old when we brought him home.
3. 4 weeks after we brought him home, we had a planned trip for 2 weeks where he was at home with our other dog James (also a Frenchie). My mother-in-law watched him for that timeframe while we were away.
4. Kelso has a crate. We crate him when we leave the house and at night.
5. We work from home. He isn't being crated for 4+ hours ever.
6. Kelso will pee in his crate if not let out in 3-4 hours. This happens often.
7. Kelso has been tested for a UTI and it came back negative.
8. Kelso is not neutered yet.

I get it, most of the posts say "Frenchies are stubborn and hard to housetrain". Our first frenchie was a walk in the park. He was house trained in 6 months.

We have the bells, but Kelso thinks the bells are to go outside to sniff around. He rings them for attention, and isn't getting that queue. Yes, we do the ::ring bells:: "Kelso, this means potty" and go outside to go potty. When he is successful he gets a treat and plenty of praise.

Kelso does go on demand potty outside when asked to most of the time. He does understand that #2 is for outside, and we haven't had that accident in a month.

I can't help thinking that we have an issue where a dog has been sitting in their own filth for the first portion of their life, and thinks going potty in the crate inside the house is ok. I'm really frustrated by our circumstances and can't imagine going through this for another year. I don't want to give up on him, but I'm close to it. I'd appreciate any advice.

 

[2bullymama]

You have done everything I can think of to train him… the only thing left is to neuter and see if that helps.

I have a one year old still intact and he will pee at will in the house but runs to door for poo. He knows to go outside for potty but will left his leg and go anywhere he is standing. He is crated when not at home but will occasionally go within the four hours we leave him… we are trying to make two years before neutering but at this rate we may not make it.

Your boy is adorable and looks similar to my guy, Cubby.

One other thing, try not to make a fuss when he goes in house.. just clean it up with no attention to him. Attention is attention.. so try to only praise when he dies right and not scold when he pees in house. He will eventually get it…. Our first took two years even being neutered.. he just one day stopped doing it.

 

[sheila]

I’d have to agree with the other poster. Get him neutered. Also, spring for a NEW CRATE. He can smell the urine in his old crate and will continue to pee there. You may think it’s clean, but a dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 times ours. Take his water bowl up early in the evening to reduce night time “accidents”. He’ll be fine until morning for water. At 8 months of age he SHOULD have better bladder control…at least 5-6 hours by now. I’ve always used crate training in the past to teach my pups bladder control. As a last ditch effort…IF you have a walk-in shower, it would be easy enough to train him to walk into the shower and urinate down the drain. My Frenchie did THAT the day I brought him home as a 2.5 month old puppy! I was using the bathroom and he waltzed right by me into the shower and peed right into the drain! I started to yell, “No!”, then I thought…”Do I REALLY want to discourage this behavior?” LOL! When he’s at other’s homes when I’m out of town, I’ve been told that he HAS done that at their house when they waited too long to take him out! He has a memory like an elephant! Anyway, good luck and don’t give up on him. He’s only 8 months old. Oh..DON’T try to put a diaper on him! I still have the video from when I tried that! Tucker immediately took a crap in the diaper just to teach me a lesson!

 

[FrustratedFrenchieMom]

Thank you for all the advice! After we moved Kelso's crate out of our bedroom back in October, we started seeing progress. He is now crated in the same room as his brother and can hold it all night. However, he still wakes up at 7:30 a.m., regardless of whether he has had 6 or 8 hours of sleep, to be let out. He has matured into a good boy, although French Bulldogs can be quite stubborn! We still occasionally encounter issues with him wanting to mark his brother's bed, and I hope he eventually outgrows this behavior.

The only other issue he has is riding in the car. He still has small accidents even when his bladder is empty. I'm sure the car is overwhelming for him, and it seems to be anxiety-related.

 

[sheila]

Put him in the car and take him thru the Burger King Drive thru a few times. Buy him a plain hamburger each time. He’ll be BEGGING for car rides in the future! That’s how I got Tucker to LOVE car rides. I no longer take him thru the drive thru to “bribe” him, he just now enjoys “the ride”. He’d actually take the wheel if I let him!