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by sgoerin

Question by Bethany: How to house train an adult dog?
I should have said “re-train” an adult dog. Our Rottweiler is a year and a half old. She’s been house trained for awhile, or so we thought. Within the last few months she has been having more “accidents” in the house. It almost seems like she’s being lazy, because she knows that she’s not supposed to do it. I have two other dogs that are house trained and doing well. We have a big backyard, so we let them out frequently. I just took her to the vet, and she was given a clean bill of health, and is on all the properly monthly preventative meds. Could it have anything to do with her going to boarding last month? Has anyone else had a dog that relapsed? I know we have to do something differently with her, but I don’t know what. Putting her outside when she has an accident doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve never had to house train an adult dog…is it different from a puppy? Thanks for your input.

Best answer:

Answer by Kate
Just go back to the basics with her, even adult dogs need ongoing training. Crate training is an excellent way to house train your dog. You need to start by taking away some of her freedom while she re-learns and don’t allow her out of your sight (just as you would with a puppy). Take her outside every hour without fail for some time and never react when she has an accident, just ignore it and clean up the scent. Sometimes if dogs are getting reactions from you (even negative) they will do it for attention.

Try this first and see how it goes. Its easiest to do this over the weekend, should only take a few days.

Also, reward her when she goes outside with treats and praise, this is very important for shaping new behavior.

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