# Advice needed for house training my greyhound!!



## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Hi there, I rescued my Greyhound bitch Luna in September last year & at first she had a few accidents in the house but I just put it down to her getting used to her new home. However she is still going in the house 6 months on! I have tried reward systems when she goes outside, I have tried taking her out very often so she does not get a chance to foul in the house but sometimes she will still go to the toilet in the house regardless, I have tried crate training her but she broke her crate because she did not like it. I do tell her no! when she does it in the house and praise her when she does it outside but for some reason she is not responding to my attempts at training her. She sometimes even goes to the toilet right in front of me in the house so it is like she has no idea that that is bad?!
She used to have behavioral issues up until recently where she would open all my kitchen cupboards and raid them for food (not sure how but she did). I would come back to this every time I left the house, I have put up a safety gate on the kitchen which has stopped her for now but she has tried to get it, I can see this from the biting and scratching on the gate itself and the doors in my house.
A friend suggested she may have separation anxiety as she fouls the most when I am out so I tried to break this by introducing a kong whilst I went out the house but it seems to have made no difference in the fouling in the house department. I tried walking her more often too in case of boredom but nothing seems to work! I am out of my house 3 days a week, roughly 5 hours on a Monday, 3.5 hours on a Tuesday and 5 hours on a Wednesday and she gets walked before i leave and i leave her with her kong and soft toys and she pretty much has the whole house to venture in except the kitchen (for reason I explained).
I do not know what else to do and I am so stressed out with it I am at the end of my tether with it all, Every time I leave the house I worry to what she has done whilst I've been away and this puts more stress on me which I think has strained my bonding/relationship with her  as I am a mother on my own with my four and a half year old and my own house, university and a job. I love Luna and i do NOT want to have to give her away or back to the kennels but i cant take this behavior any longer. Can somebody please help me!?
Thanks x


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2014)

First I wouldn't tell her off when she has an accident. Clean it up without drawing attention to it. First put her outside if your garden is secure then clean it up and allow her to come back in when it's cleaned up. When she goes outside praise like mad and give her a treat. Took ages with my dog when he was a pup but eventually they get it something clicks with them and they go oh if I go outside I get a treat so I need to go outside. It 's like a lightbulb moment when they finally get it imo.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Thanks for the reply!
My garden is not secure unfortunately so I have to take her outside on the lead and stand with her until she does her business. 
I was not sure if this was the only approach as its been 6 months now and she still has not grasped it and the kennels I had her from had been training her to go outside also and she seemed to manage it fine there. 
I guess I will just have to keep trying with the praising when she goes outside and hope it sinks in soon.


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## Lizz1155 (Jun 16, 2013)

I don't know what to suggest for the indoor toileting problem. However if she's trying to break into your kitchen cupboards for food, have you tried leaving her with some large cardboard boxes filled with newspaper/toys/treats? Since she's looking for food and wants to destroy things, it might be worth giving her something she's allowed to destroy. 

When you say she was fine when she was in kennels, are you feeding her something different to what they fed her?


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Hi, I might try that idea actually it sounds like it could keep her occupied for a while 
Yes I am feeding her on Nature diet now and she was on some kind of greyhound dry food mix when i had her, I changed her diet to a better quality one as she has bad skin from the food the kennels gave her.


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2014)

kate5124 said:


> Thanks for the reply!
> My garden is not secure unfortunately so I have to take her outside on the lead and stand with her until she does her business.
> I was not sure if this was the only approach as its been 6 months now and she still has not grasped it and the kennels I had her from had been training her to go outside also and she seemed to manage it fine there.
> I guess I will just have to keep trying with the praising when she goes outside and hope it sinks in soon.


Praise and treats worked wonders with my boy. I'd go back to basics and take her out every 30 minutes with a treat and as soon as she goes outside praise lime mad and give her a treat. Sometimes I walk Buddy round the garden if he hasn't gone right away. Do you use puppy pads?


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## Linda2147 (Sep 26, 2013)

you have to retrain her as if she were a little puppy. You need to crate her, make the crate only big enough for her to lay down and turn around. Most dogs will not go where they sleep and if the crate is to big she will be able to go in one corner and be able to get away from it. Get a metal crate that she can't chew her way out. She will bark and fuss when she needs to go out. Take her out and when she goes give her lots of praise and a treat.

You should feed her a high quality food or raw, schedule is also very important, she will need to go out fifteen or twenty minutes after eating. Take some of her poop outside with you and put it where you want her to go. She will sniff it and it may stimulate her to go. Also a good run will encourage her to go.

No food or water a couple of hours before you put her down for the night, what goes in has to come out. Make sure she has the opportunity to go one last time before bed time. If she fusses in the night take her out, if she goes good, if not put her back in the crate. 

At her age it shouldn't take long for her to catch on. Good luck


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## Linda Weasel (Mar 5, 2014)

Is she an ex-racing greyhound? If so they come with their own particular set of problems. If so, and she didn't come to you directly from a racing greyhound rescue kennels, your local GR may still be able to advise you.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

No i have not used puppy pads as i didn't want to encourage her to go in the house :/
I have got her a crate which I tried to use and she broke out of it, she actually bent and chewed the bars off the lock and opened it which scared me to use it again.
I will have to take your advise and take her out very regularly with lots of praise, as she is almost three i am hoping she will catch on fast.
Yes She is an ex racing dog and i had her from racing kennels, i don't think she raced for long as she is only two.

Thanks!


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## Guest (Mar 13, 2014)

kate5124 said:


> No i have not used puppy pads as i didn't want to encourage her to go in the house :/
> I have got her a crate which I tried to use and she broke out of it, she actually bent and chewed the bars off the lock and opened it which scared me to use it again.
> I will have to take your advise and take her out very regularly with lots of praise, as she is almost three i am hoping she will catch on fast.
> Yes She is an ex racing dog and i had her from racing kennels, i don't think she raced for long as she is only two.
> ...


Good was just checking as they can confuse a puppy. Was it a metal crate too.


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## Sarah H (Jan 18, 2014)

kate5124 said:


> No i have not used puppy pads as i didn't want to encourage her to go in the house :/
> I have got her a crate which I tried to use and she broke out of it, she actually bent and chewed the bars off the lock and opened it which scared me to use it again.
> I will have to take your advise and take her out very regularly with lots of praise, as she is almost three i am hoping she will catch on fast.
> Yes She is an ex racing dog and i had her from racing kennels, i don't think she raced for long as she is only two.
> ...


Plenty of good advice for you, as everyone has said you need to teach her like she's a puppy and she'll get it 

A crate (if you feel that you can use one again), take her out as often as possible, something to chew (maybe an antler chew?) and lots of praise when she goes outside.

Have you tried contacting a greyhound rescue? They might have some ideas as they deal with ex-racers all the time that have never been house-trained so I'm sure they will give you some advice.

Hope that it clicks with her soon


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## zedder (Aug 21, 2013)

we had this with our lurcher tbh all we do is regurlarly take him out on lead in the garden and say pee and don't let him in till hes had one soon got the jist as he is a house dog and hates being outside.


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## L/C (Aug 9, 2010)

A few questions so I am going to bullet point them:


Can you tell us exactly when she is toileting? 
How often, is it just when you are out or when you are in the house as well? How often does she toilet? If it is very frequent then I would have her checked for a UTI to rule that out first. 
What do you clean up with? You need to make sure that you are eliminating the smell so she isn't tempted to go in the same place - does she have a preferred spot?

If it is an actual attachment problem (SA) then a kong won't help and you will need to work on building up the time she can be left alone. If it is because she is kennel trained rather then house trained (and thus has never had to hold it for 5 hours) then you need to build up the time between toileting so she gets used to holding it more.

Which room does she spend most time asleep in and does she toilet less in it? I would treat that as her kennel and babygate her in there while you are training her to hold it for longer. Start by taking her out every half an hour and then start pushing back the time by 5 or 10 minutes - building up slowly to the 5 hours that you want her to be able to hold it. Don't be tempted to skip ahead as you don't want her to fail and have an accident. Be methodical about it. I've used this on lots of kennel trained greys and it normally works.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Yes it was a metal crate the normal kind of dog crate with the metal bars that everybody gets and she broke her way out of it! 
Every time I put her in a position where she is not keen (such as crate) or does not have total freedom she seems to find a way out of it, I used to close my doors to stop her going on my sofa when I was out and the kitchen but she has learned to open doors now and I cannot shut them because she will scratch them quite badly trying to open them now, so I now have no choice but to let her on the sofa when I am out now. It was the same with the destructive behavior in my kitchen she watched where I put food and figured out how to open my cupboards and I would come back to a ransacked kitchen. I have a safety gate that kind of works now, as most of the time she cannot get into the kitchen but she has jumped it before now and she has forced the gate completely off the door frame too.
I have even put a dining room table in front of the door to the upstairs in a desperate attempt to keep her from going up because she was fouling in mine and my sons room and she completely broke two chairs and still managed to move the table out of the way and its a big table too!
I am running out of ideas apart from maybe trying another safety gate on the stairs too. She is seriously like an escape artist :skep:
As for the fouling in the house I have got a clicker from pets at home and I am currently using that combined with a treat, so fingers crossed she responds to that.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

-She goes to the toilet mainly when I am not home, she rarely goes in the house when I am in.
-I would say she does not go unusually frequently, I take her out to the toilet when I am home I would say every 2/3 hours so i know she can hold it for that long.
-She is very random with her behavior so it is hard to note when she does things really, It is like some days she will go outside and she will hold herself till I am home or i get up in the morning (if I let her sleep in my room she rarely ever fouls) and other days she just fouls in the house willy nilly.
-She spends most of her time in my dining room which her bed and toys etc are in and she does not foul here as much, I have noticed she will always go into my lounge or in one of the bedrooms upstairs.
She behaves quite well when I am out really other than if she can get her paws on food but most the time it is just the fouling problem so I am not clear if she has a separation disorder or not, she doesn't chew nor cry :confused5: I have been leaving her alone for 6 months now, how long does it take roughly for this kinda thing to clear up if she does have this?
Like i said I have not noticed nay other signs of distress whilst I have been out the house.
Sometimes I will take her out to the loo and she will not go and once I have put her back in the house and I am gone she will go to the loo inside. Also I use pet disinfectant which contains a de-odour formula to clear up her fouling so she cannot smell it.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

-She goes to the toilet mainly when I am not home, she rarely goes in the house when I am in.
-I would say she does not go unusually frequently, I take her out to the toilet when I am home I would say every 2/3 hours so i know she can hold it for that long.
-She is very random with her behavior so it is hard to note when she does things really, It is like some days she will go outside and she will hold herself till I am home or i get up in the morning (if I let her sleep in my room she rarely ever fouls) and other days she just fouls in the house willy nilly.
-She spends most of her time in my dining room which her bed and toys etc are in and she does not foul here as much, I have noticed she will always go into my lounge or in one of the bedrooms upstairs.
She behaves quite well when I am out really other than if she can get her paws on food but most the time it is just the fouling problem so I am not clear if she has a separation disorder or not, she doesn't chew nor cry :confused5: I have been leaving her alone for 6 months now, how long does it take roughly for this kinda thing to clear up if she does have this?
Like i said I have not noticed any other signs of distress whilst I have been out the house.
Sometimes I will take her out to the loo and she will not go and once I have put her back in the house and I am gone she will go to the loo inside.


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## Burrowzig (Feb 18, 2009)

Are we talking wees or poos indoors, or both? Has she been checked for urinary infections which can make the urge to 'go' very urgent? 

For house training, I used a lead about 5 foot long tied to my belt, so I was always aware of what the dog was doing, and could get her outside quickly if it looked like she needed to go.

Dogs with set mealtimes normally develop a schedule of when they need to toilet. For instance, my Kite needs to poo about an 20 minutes after breakfast and an hour after dinner. Ziggy poos first thing before breakfast, again at about 4pm and then just before bedtime. Once you've established that (keep meals regular), you can pre-empt her and be outside on time.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Yes she will wee and poo in the house, she has not been checked for urinary problems no because she does not go all the time she can go a normal amount of time between going to the toilet but it is something i could check just to rule it out.
yes she has her morning routine which is breakfast about 7:20am then I will take her out after she is finished for a wee and maybe a poo but if she does not poo i will take her out again for that about 8:30 before I leave the house. She has her dinner about 6pm and I take her out 15 mins afterwards to the toilet. Inbetween her meals if i am home I will take her out to the loo every 2 hours or 3 sometimes. It is when i am not at home that I obviously cannot take her out and she sometimes has accidents.
I know she can hold herself because sometimes she manages to do it like 5 hours when i am out and other times it is as if she does not want to hold it so just goes int he house.
She is not always a consistent offender that is why I know she has the capability of holding it, i just want to get her out of the habit of thinking that going in the house is okay :/


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## goodvic2 (Nov 23, 2008)

My bitch would never toilet on a lead she would need to be off lead. 

Whereas my males will pee anywhere 

Please ignore all advice ref a CRATE. Terrible advice to give when u have made absolutely clear that she got so distressed when u put her in there. 

Unfortunately cages are quite popular with some people but they are not ideal. Animals are just not meant to be in cages!

Surprised u got her if u do not have a secure garden. Is there a way of making it secure?

My foster will raid cupboards/fridge/freezer etc. For some dogs it is just a scavenging behaviour. 

Good on you for going through rescue!


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## goodvic2 (Nov 23, 2008)

I'm reading that she has the run of the house. Can u not confine her to one room? They are less likely to toilet in one room, but of course still can. 

You also ask how long it takes.. She spent the most part of her life in a kennel and you need to change this mind set. Ideally u need to be with her 24/7 for a few weeks. Everytime she goes to toilet inside she is not learning. 

Imagine a smoker having a crafty ***. Everytime they do they are failing to break that addiction. Bit like housetraining.


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## kate5124 (Oct 14, 2013)

Yeah I am not going to try create training again as she gets too stressed by it.
She will got to he toilet on the lead, so I did not think that having a secure garden was a big enough issue not to give her a home with me. We are always going on walks on the Chase and other exciting areas she can explore safely so she does not miss out.
I have started clicker training combined with a treat and she has responded to it wonderfully!  since about 5 days ago she has had not one single accident in the house, she is already getting excited to go to the toilet outside and as soon as she hears her clicker she looks for her treat.
I am going to carry on with this and hopefully I will banish the accidents all together soon enough! I have her in her room atm which is the dining room so hopefully with time she can have full access of the house again when I am out Thanks for all your input, I have appreciated it! X


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## Sarah H (Jan 18, 2014)

kate5124 said:


> Yeah I am not going to try create training again as she gets too stressed by it.
> She will got to he toilet on the lead, so I did not think that having a secure garden was a big enough issue not to give her a home with me. We are always going on walks on the Chase and other exciting areas she can explore safely so she does not miss out.
> I have started clicker training combined with a treat and she has responded to it wonderfully!  since about 5 days ago she has had not one single accident in the house, she is already getting excited to go to the toilet outside and as soon as she hears her clicker she looks for her treat.
> I am going to carry on with this and hopefully I will banish the accidents all together soon enough! I have her in her room atm which is the dining room so hopefully with time she can have full access of the house again when I am out Thanks for all your input, I have appreciated it! X


No I wouldn't want to crate her after the stressed it caused before.

I'm really glad she's making progress, some dogs respond really well to clicker training. Sounds like she's a clever girl, I'm sure she'll improve quickly


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