[www]

So I'm a little discouraged. Our 9 month old has been pretty good. We keep him in the kitchen and at night allow him into the family room but not the rest of the house (mainly because he would eat the legos, socks, etc. our three kids leave around). Tonight he decided to pee in the kitchen which was his first accident in probably two months. So what is the deal? When are dogs basically 100% trained? Is this unusual or not? I would like to open up the rest of the house to him but when he takes a step back I want to keep him in the kitchen or crate? Is 9 months still too young to expect this?

Thanks for the feedback

 

[jwemt81]

If you're not already doing it, start crate training. It's the only way to go and it's never too late to start. Tucker started his crate training the minute we brought him home as a puppy and the last accident that he had in the house was when he was about 4 months old. He's now 17 months old. If a dog has too much freedom and access to too big of an area, they will surely find a place to go potty. Dogs don't like to go where they sleep, which is what makes crate training so effective. It also gives your dog a haven to go when he wants some quiet time away from everything. Tucker slept in his crate every single night until he was about 10 months old, which he when we started leaving his crate open.

 

[Loisiana]

My experience has been that the males tend to have occassional accidents a lot longer than the females.

 

[Oaklys Dad]

There is no set time when they "Get It". You may want to revert back to puppy style training where you take them out on leash every single time (early and often) and praise them to high heaven when the go. Also tell them to "get busy" or some other command when the just start to go. In time you will be able to get them to try on command. It is a bit of a pain but it works well.

 

[Lucky's mom]

Lucky was unstable in anything he learned before 1 year. After that....things anchored down and he was much more predictable. I didn't trust him at nine months....but he was in his crate all through the day (in and out) and at night so there was no opportunity for accidents.

I will say though....prior to him turning 1 year he used to occassionally "leak" when he was sleeping. The vet told me that nuetering would take care of the problem...but I never understood what the "problem" was...Whatever it was disappeared..

 

[zeke11]

Knocking on wood....Duffy is 13 weeks and hasn't had a single accident in the house since he was about 10-11 weeks.

He knows how to go to the back door and ring bells when he needs to go out.

That being said, we crate him when we aren't going to be at home, because he still gets into anything and everything if not supervised!

Kris

 

[iamswiss]

Bailey didn't have any accident since she was maybe 11-12 weeks old. During the day she's always in our kitchen/dining room area (tiles) or when we are gone for 1-3 hours in the crate. We left her alone just a week ago for 5 hours outside the crate (we made sure that nothing was close on the counter and the kitchen island) and she was just doing fine and no accidents at all.
At night we let her in the living room with us (after putting all the kids toys away) and she sleeps upstairs in our bedroom on the couch (just started leaving her out of the crate at night), and so far no accidents.

 

[www]

Crate

We have crate trained him and he is great in the crate with no accidents ever. I would like to keep him out of crate unsupervised but after this accident it doesn't give me much faith. Also, someone mentioned that he will find a place in a large space and we have a fairly large house which also concerns me. Ideally he would have full run of the house but right now it seems like he will either be in the crate or outside of it just in the kitchen or family room when completely supervised. We also take him out on a leash to walk him and do praise him and say get busy. Maybe we just need to wait a little time until he is over a year old?

 

[Willow52]

I'm sure it differs from dog to dog, but Hank hasn't had an accident since he was around 12 weeks. Hank only has full run of the house when we're at home. Not because I worry he might pee/poop but what he may get into. At night he's in his crate, when we're out during the day/evening, he's in the laundry room. We have a fenced yard, so he is let out whenever he asks. I was gone 6.5 hours Christmas Eve and he was fine.

I don't think an accident at 9 mos. is unheard of though and probably just an isolated incident. But, I would expect 99% reliability at 9 mos. Did you forget to take him out at his usual time or maybe missed his signal? If he all of a sudden starts going in the house numerous times, I'd check with the vet.

 

[Debles]

I am with Willow and wondering if it was you and not him? He can't hold it forever and sometimes we miss their signs.

My dogs both were totally house trained by 10 weeks. They were crate trained but were out most of the time and stopped sleeping in the crate before 1 year (I can't remember now they are 6 and 10)

My boys must have bladders of iron because sometimes I miss them standing by the door (they are with me all day at home) and when I let them out they pee FOREVER. I feel so bad!

Maybe he couldn't hold it and was in the kitchen too long? I wouldn't be too upset by one accident.

 

[cubbysan]

I kept Brady crated at night and when we were not home until he was 18 months old. He also did not have access to the second floor until that time. He is 99.99 percent housebroken, cannot even remember him having an accident, except when he had the runs.

We are doing the same thing with MacKenzie. She has had a couple mishaps, one day, multiple accidents due to a UTI, then two other accidents - our fault for not believing her when she rang the bells. (She rings the bells when she has to go outside to chase the leaves too )

 

[LibertyME]

They are considered housebroken if you have not had a single accident in the past 6 months...
Nearly every dog Ive had through adolescence has had an accident around 9 months old...
Liberty, Lexi and Tracer ....plus a few that were visiting during that age/stage... :-(

 

[Blondie]

Read the book, "House Break Your Dog in 7 days."

I was at Border's and a woman told me to get this book. I don't even have my puppy yet(pick up is January 29, 2010), and this book is fantastic for as small as it is and only about $8.00. It has many options and ideas and tips. The average age I got from it, is that the program is made for the average 16 week old pup for the best outcome, give or take a few weeks. I highly recommend it. It gives great tips on training older dogs and different options as to how to go about housetraining. You really need the crate, but there are options to that also. Check it out.

 

[AmbikaGR]

I'm sure it differs from dog to dog, but Hank hasn't had an accident since he was around 12 weeks. Hank only has full run of the house when we're at home. Not because I worry he might pee/poop but what he may get into. At night he's in his crate, when we're out during the day/evening, he's in the laundry room. We have a fenced yard, so he is let out whenever he asks. I was gone 6.5 hours Christmas Eve and he was fine.

I don't think an accident at 9 mos. is unheard of though and probably just an isolated incident. But, I would expect 99% reliability at 9 mos. Did you forget to take him out at his usual time or maybe missed his signal? If he all of a sudden starts going in the house numerous times, I'd check with the vet.

I am with Willow and wondering if it was you and not him? He can't hold it forever and sometimes we miss their signs.

My dogs both were totally house trained by 10 weeks. They were crate trained but were out most of the time and stopped sleeping in the crate before 1 year (I can't remember now they are 6 and 10)

My boys must have bladders of iron because sometimes I miss them standing by the door (they are with me all day at home) and when I let them out they pee FOREVER. I feel so bad!

Maybe he couldn't hold it and was in the kitchen too long? I wouldn't be too upset by one accident.

I agree with both these responses. It will vary fro one dog to the next, there is no time table. And if a dog has been okay for a while and then out of the blue has an accident I would be willing to bet the human part of the team missed the signal. It happened to me on a few occasions with Oriana. I then figured out she was trying to tell us we were just too "busy" to notice. :doh: