# Are boys harder to potty train?



## Bella & Biscuit's mom (Sep 9, 2011)

Funny you should ask this. I was wondering if females were harder to housebreak. Bella is the 1st female dog I have ever had. Seems like things take longer with her.


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## Bentley's Mom (May 19, 2011)

I don't think it's a gender thing. I think puppies are alot like children and some just get it a bit quicker than others.


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## akgolden (Jun 18, 2011)

How often are you taking him out during the day? When you clean up the accident in the house are you using a good order killing solution? If the dog still can smell previous accidents sometimes they will just continue to go inside. My golden was doing this quite a bit till I took the time to shampoo my carpets and I noticed a huge increase in her holding it till she made it outside.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

I didn't consider Jasper or Jasmine completely housetrained until they were 7 months old. Both of them had accidents right up until that age. Danny was completely housetrained at 5 months old. Now that I only foster puppies, I find that the lightbulb for most puppies doesn't come on until 4 months old. Then suddenly they know what the plan is and are pretty much housetrained.

I don't find either gender easier or harder to train, personally.


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## rhondas (Sep 10, 2010)

Jake is my first dog and first golden. He is 4 years old and came home from the breeder at 10 weeks old and has never had an accident in the house. So from my perspective males are easy to train ). However, I know each dog is different and if I get another one I can't expect him/her to be as easy to train. He only stand and stares at you when he needs to go if he's not in the breakfast area where the door to the yard is. Otherwise he goes to the door. As a puppy I would take him out after waking, after playing, after eating, after being crated and many times in between. I bet it averaged every half an hour.


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

My easiest dog to house train came from her breeder at 10 weeks. My hardest dog to house train came from her breeder at 7 1/2 weeks. I notice no difference in my dogs, boys vs girls. In fact, I don't think my 9 yo Georgie has ever eliminated in the house once he was trained. He is extremely clean... actually all of my dogs are. And I find most of them were not "foolproof" until 6 months. I usually have 1-2 pee accidents/month until 6 months. Could your pup have a UTI?


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## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I've only had two puppies, both male. The first we brought home at 4 months from the shelter after his first family took him there for too many accidents in the house. He never had an accident in the house as a puppy and the only time he did was during a surprise thunderstorm when he was home alone at 13 years of age. He could hold it longer than me! 

Toby was adopted from a rescue at 5 1/2 months. He took a little longer, but only went in the house a couple of times the first two months with us, both times it was my fault. He also let loose in the car one afternoon. We were driving to a lake park to walk and had the windows open around the ridge road. His nose started twitching smelling the air, he stood up (he was harnessed in the seat) and let loose :uhoh:, probably thinking he was outside since he was smelling outside smells. I saw it and said Toby nooooo and he snapped out of it and stopped, but hubby pulled over as fast as he could so we could get him to safe ground as fast as possible. Could it be your pup is smelling urine from previous accidents, deep in the carpet, and thinking that is a safe place to go?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Do you see any pattern in the accidents? Like your puppy peeing after meals or playing? <- Meaning, does he have a regular potty schedule that you've figured out with him and he pretty much is predictable about what sets him off? (If he's having accidents but they are pretty much predictable, to me it just means he just hasn't figured out that he absolutely can't go in the house. Because he's crated and views his crate as his turf, it could be he still thinks the rest of your house is the outside part. He probably needs more time to learn that the whole house is his turf and the outside is the outside part. <- Like the above posts say, 7 months is about that point where they need to go less often and have a solid idea of going potty only outside. 

Or is he going potty at very unusual times - in his sleep, while playing, while eating, after coming inside from play... <- I'd guess UTI. Our guy started having utis when he was 7 months or so and he kept getting them until I switched kibble and put him on cranberry juice. In his case it was mainly just peeing in his sleep. Though there was a couple instances where he went all waterfalls while standing there in confusion. 

He was the one who came home potty trained at 7.5 weeks and even on his first day with us was scratching at the door to go out to his patch of cedar that I spread out in the backyard. The breeder trained or raised him to go potty in cedar chips. He never had an accident until that first uti.


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## akgolden (Jun 18, 2011)

akgolden said:


> How often are you taking him out during the day? When you clean up the accident in the house are you using a good order killing solution? If the dog still can smell previous accidents sometimes they will just continue to go inside. My golden was doing this quite a bit till I took the time to shampoo my carpets and I noticed a huge increase in her holding it till she made it outside.





Dallas Gold said:


> I've only had two puppies, both male. The first we brought home at 4 months from the shelter after his first family took him there for too many accidents in the house. He never had an accident in the house as a puppy and the only time he did was during a surprise thunderstorm when he was home alone at 13 years of age. He could hold it longer than me!
> 
> Toby was adopted from a rescue at 5 1/2 months. He took a little longer, but only went in the house a couple of times the first two months with us, both times it was my fault. He also let loose in the car one afternoon. We were driving to a lake park to walk and had the windows open around the ridge road. His nose started twitching smelling the air, he stood up (he was harnessed in the seat) and let loose :uhoh:, probably thinking he was outside since he was smelling outside smells. I saw it and said Toby nooooo and he snapped out of it and stopped, but hubby pulled over as fast as he could so we could get him to safe ground as fast as possible. *Could it be your pup is smelling urine from previous accidents, deep in the carpet, and thinking that is a safe place to go?*


That was one of my first thoughts, I went through this and it took a while to figure out why. I couldn't smell anything (or got use to it). I stole my moms carpet shampooer one day and just deep cleaned all the floors and it was almost overnight the accident went away.


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## ozzy'smom (Jun 18, 2011)

Not a gender thing. Ozzy is our second golden and had been really easy to potty train. We've certainly had our share of accidents but overall he's been much easier than out last Golden who was a female. We got him at only 7 weeks but the breeder had started to take them out. In fact, when we went to visit at 5 weeks she brought them all out and they all immediately pooped. 

We HAVE had issues with Ozzy in our basement. We just ripped up the carpet last night and it's clear that the previous owners had dogs who went down there. I think that's been causing his isses there. Can't wait for the new carpeting!


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I didn't find a male/female being easier or harder than the other. 

My last puppy was my bridge boy almost 16 years ago, I took him out with my other dogs I had at the time which were two females and one male. He caught on very quickly within a week with very few accidents. 

I currently have two adult goldens, a male and female that I adopted at different times when they were two. My boy is now 2.5 and my girl is 6.5. It took a couple of days working with Roxy with maybe a week of a couple of accidents and that was it-she had never been an inside dog before she came into my household. My boy Remy was pretty much so housetrained, he had one accident which I felt was more my fault because I didn't take him out one last time before going to bed. He's had no accidents since. I don't know his history at all, not sure if he was an inside/outside dog prior to joining our family.

All in all, I have found both of them very easy to train even though they are adults.


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## mygoldenkids (Oct 4, 2010)

Thanks everyone for all of your input. To answer some questions from some of the posters:
1. Henry goes out several times during the day--I'd say maybe once every hour, unless I leave (then he's crated and fine until I get back.) He rings a bell to go out.
2. I always take him out after he eats and after I take him out of his crate.
3. He usually needs to go out after playing w/ Molly (my other golden)--even if he's only been out 30 minutes prior to that.
4. I use a cleaner called Urine Gone to clean both my hardwood floors and the carpets. It supposedly gets rid of the urine smell. However, I cannot vouch for this 100%, as I don't have the nose of a golden! 
5. I have cleaned the carpets w/ my own carpet shampooer, but I think I will call a professional service. I guess I've been waiting to call the service until he's fully potty-trained...
6. He drinks a normal amount of water and a little extra if he has been playing w/ Molly. He urinates in accordance w/ water consumption. He never leaks urine, nor do I find random drops. His urine seems to be normal in color. I'm not thinking UTI...

His accidents usually occur when I don't take a bell ringing request seriously (or quickly enough.) Sometimes he'll ring the bell 30 minutes after being out and pottied, and I think, "Seriously? You were JUST out!" My bad. 

I guess I'm just trying to figure out a way for him to learn to hold his potty just a wee bit (pun intended) longer--just for a few hours if he is out and about in the house. I'm perfectly okay with taking him out several times during the day, but I would also like to be able to get my work done with just a few less interruptions. I know I could crate him for awhile here and there, but he's already crated at night and also if I have to leave the house, so I would prefer not to add to his crate time. Hmmm...


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## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

I think it is dog dependent. My golden Lucky was an angel. Got him at 6weeks and he was housebroken my 9 weeks. No accidents after that and he would go to the door and cry to go out. Had a Bichon at the time- he would go to the door wait a little while and then go "you took too long" and would pee. My yorkies took forever to be relaiable and I had had 3 of them from birth.

Good luck.


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