# average age for being house trained?



## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

How do you react when she pees in the house? Are you there when she does it, or do you find it later? Do you confine her at night or during the day, and she does it in her crate? Where does she primarily do it? Is there a surface that she is more likely to pee on? Have you spoken to her breeder about this issue, sometimes they might have some insight?


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## Rkaymay (May 12, 2014)

Link is 19 weeks and still has occasional accidents - usually my fault. We tried to train him with a bell, but he doesn't like jumping on the door. When he needs to go, he'll just go stand by the door. So I do miss his cues occasionally.  He holds it for about 1.5-2 hours currently, and I also monitor his water intake. He has an accident maybe every 4-5 days, so about once a week.

P.S. You said 16 months in the beginning of your post, but I'm assuming you meant 16 weeks.


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## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

I thought Noah was reliably house trained at 6 months, but then he decided to pee in the middle of my parents' living room (they live 8 hours away - I only get to go there twice a year). I was mortified! LOL

That was his last accident. He did have a #2 accident at home this week - but it was from an upset tummy, and I could see he tried to go out (hit potty bells were off the door and on the floor). I came home from lunch and he looked at me to see if he was in trouble. I told him "no worries, baby - mommy will fix it". Thank goodness we invested in a steam cleaner a few years ago! But I don't consider that a house breaking issue - I don't blame an upset tummy/bowels as a house breaking accident, but a case of he really just could not hold it. Not his fault. 

So, each dog is individual, but I think 16 weeks (vs 16 months) is too young to expect reliability.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

A 16 month old bitch is a bit different than a pup. 

My first golden never really house broke. When she was 9 months old I brought home another golden puppy. The second pup house broke normally. The older pup never really did. She had accidents all her life. Usually on concrete in the garage or shop at work. But sometimes in the kitchen. She had a hard time in crates and rarely made it through the night without having an accident. Looking back I think it was just her personality. We brought her to work with us every day, so she wasn't locked up in crate all day. She could go outside anytime. She got plenty of exercise. We did obedience classes together. We tried getting upset with her, we tried rewarding her when she went outside, we tried everything we could think of. Nothing really worked. It wasn't every day, it was only occasionally. 

But she never really was house broken. 6 goldens later, and we've never had the same problem again. Don't know why she was like that.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Your dog is housetrained if he has gone 2 months since the last accident.


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## lkw626 (Dec 19, 2015)

Tucker is almost 7months and is still having the occasional accident in the house, he had one this week but I also just took him to the vet today because of a cough he has Kennal cough and a slight fever so I don't know if the coughing and the pressure from thy contributed to it as he had gone about 4/5 weeks without one. Trust me I feel your pain though my other golden was house broken within two weeks of coming home but Tucker is just much more head strong and also tends to have accidents when I leave him alone he hates when I leave him and go into another room even when he is with other people. I think it's all about personality I'd say just keep trying and going back to the basics hopefully it will eventually click I'm praying that it does for Tuck also.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Our training school always tells us that, regardless of what we do and how we manage it, a dog will become housetrained around six months of age. This was true for our Labrador, and for our last Golden. My daughter's toy poodle certainly understood the rules at six months of age, but did not choose to follow them until he was well over a year old. Our current pup, Duster, has been remarkable in that he's now 15 weeks old and hasn't had an accident in the house for about a month. I don't consider him fully housetrained, though, and will be keeping a careful eye on him for at least another couple of months.

I'd say that, at 16 weeks, you're well on the way but not quite there yet. Another few weeks ...!


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## BestGirlMaya (Nov 30, 2015)

I meant 16 weeks not months! Sorry all! If she was still having accidents at 16 months that would be a very different conversation ? I have been able to catch her most of the time and scare her by clapping loudly and saying no. We then head outside where I encourage her to go/finish and then praise if she does. There does not seem to be a specific spot or surface that she usually goes on. It is more random. Other times she will go to the door and sit there like "well are we going out or what?!" Maybe we are just at the inconsistently doing well part of things lol. I appreciate everyone's advice and support. I love this forum!! We will keep at it and hope that we are close to being done with house training. Thank you!! ???


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## BestGirlMaya (Nov 30, 2015)

Oh and she is in a crate at night and when we are at work during the day (with a mid afternoon break).


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## Altairss (Sep 7, 2012)

Sometimes scaring them by clapping will make them try and hide from you when they have to go. They associate the scare from you with the act not that the act is wrong. Its best just to quietly say no and scoop them up and out they go.

I sat down the other day and figure out that I have potty trained about 15 or more dogs and can honestly say when you think you have it figured along comes one that is completely different. They develop differently body wise and their bladders are just all different and so is that moment when it clicks that going outside is the right thing all the time.

Back to basics make sure all the spots are thoroughly cleaned the smell can stay around and trigger the response to go. After they wake even from a small nap out they go, eat food or some treats out they go. A break in play out they go every 20 to 30 minutes while she is loose. She sounds like she is starting to get it so just really reinforce it again for awhile. Big party when she goes have a treat bag near the door if she goes to it and asks to go out. Then go out with her and reward lavishly big production even bigger then when you take her out to go she will start to get it that its so much more exciting for her if she goes to the door. 

It all take time and each one gets that magic moment at different points I have had some really quick dogs and some that just took forever but they all got there eventually. The P in puppy stands for patience you know lol


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## Cpc1972 (Feb 23, 2015)

Your getting close at sixteen weeks. Chloe started reliably going to the door at about four months. It was like a lightbulb went off over night. She had her last accident at about 3.5 months. Keep watching your pup and stay on top of it and I bet you will have a lightbulb go off soon. Don't give to much freedom yet.


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## Rkaymay (May 12, 2014)

I will say Link seems to do better on days when he's crated more, almost as if holding it in his crate = practice holding it all day. On days we're home and he isn't crated, he seems to have more accidents. But he also gets more water on those days, so maybe it's that? Lol


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## macdougallph1 (Oct 13, 2013)

I trained my guy on potty bells and he has been reliably using them since about 10 weeks. He had a few accidents after that, but I think they were few and far between. To this day every time he rings the bell, I say in a very happy cheerful voice "Ok, you have to go potty?" And when he goes out and goes potty, I praise "good potty!!" However, similar to Rabernet's story, last week I had a babysitter over and he was playing quite a bit and apparently he peed on the floor out of no where (he's 6 months).


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## BestGirlMaya (Nov 30, 2015)

Thank you everyone! Great thoughts and good to know I am not in it alone  I love the "P in puppy stands for patience"!!! So very true lol


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

BestGirlMaya said:


> I meant 16 weeks not months! Sorry all! If she was still having accidents at 16 months that would be a very different conversation ? *I have been able to catch her most of the time and scare her by clapping loudly and saying no.* We then head outside where I encourage her to go/finish and then praise if she does. There does not seem to be a specific spot or surface that she usually goes on. It is more random. Other times she will go to the door and sit there like "well are we going out or what?!" Maybe we are just at the inconsistently doing well part of things lol. I appreciate everyone's advice and support. I love this forum!! We will keep at it and hope that we are close to being done with house training. Thank you!! ???


First thing - stop this part. It's not fair to scare her for something that she is just doing out of natural need. Limit her freedom, watch her 100% of the time, and if you can't watch her, put her in her crate. If she squats, just scoops her up (she will stop peeing), say (gently but firmly) "no, outside" and carry her to the spot where she is supposed to go, put her down, and if she finishes, throw a huge love party. Treats, lots of love, big huge praise. But go back to taking her out every 60 minutes (I'd usually say 30-60, but she's a bit bigger now and her bladder can probably go 60 minutes no problem). It will come. But you have to make accidents impossible to happen, if that makes sense. (which is TOTALLY not possible in the first few weeks). But you have to make it hard, if that makes sense. Constant supervision, consistency, etc. 16 weeks is still very young. The odd accident at 16 weeks is not at all unusual.


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## GoldenLabMix (Dec 3, 2015)

Wilder was about 5 months when he had his last accident. He didn't have many because we watched him like a hawk due to our wood floors. And took him out like 1,000 times a day I read that while they may get that they are supposed to do their business outside fairly quickly, the whole process of being able to have the bladder capacity and maturity to hold it long enough and communicate it to you will occur between 4 and 6 months of age. First he would go to the door but not communicate so we had to watch him. Then he got to the point that he realized he needed to alert us. We have the pebble smart doorbell and he would use that sometimes and bark or whine sometimes once he got the hang of it. Now it's almost always the doorbell. It's really cute! Though when he's bored, he will ask to go out and come back in like 5 times an hour.

*disclaimer, he did pee on the floor the day after he was snipped but he was still a little out of it and he gets a free pass on that one.


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