# [HELP!!!] House breaking a Brittany Spaniel(Updated)



## Mystery Man (Jul 8, 2005)

Any advice? This dog is 8 weeks old and hyper, hyper, hyper! He's a little goofy too but we love him just the same. 

He pees. 

A lot!

Right now we only take him outside to go potty. Then its a hearty "good boy!" and its back in the house. He now starts running to us for a pat on the head when he's done. He's learning the word "NO" and his name, "Joey" (my daughter named him, she's five cut her some slack) and he difinitely knows when he's peed in the house its bad because we (gently) push his nose in it with a scolding. Nothing rough. 

Any other advice? How much water should we be giving him during the day? Any other tricks of the trade? 

I'd love to hear! I beg, help me save my brand new expensive carpet!!


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## GlassJaw (Jul 8, 2005)

Did you do any research on breeds before you got him?  All the things you cite are classic examples of spaniel behavior.  They are extremely active.  I would say contact your vet and ask for a recommendation.


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## Wulf Ratbane (Jul 8, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> Any advice? This dog is 8 weeks old and hyper, hyper, hyper! He's a little goofy too but we love him just the same.




If you are lucky, KidCthulhu will find this thread and help you. 

Some things you're doing right, some things you're doing wrong. The scolding for the peeing really only works if you catch the puppy in the act of piddling. You know, dogs don't really have the cognitive capacity to understand why they're being punished after the fact. He can't correlate the punishment to the behavior.

As someone who DIDN'T do it right the first time, trust me-- you do not want to screw up the Housebreaking portion of your puppy's training. (We just recently replaced the last of the carpet from our house with tile, at great expense. Which really just means he pees on the tile or the hardwood, but at least the house doesn't smell like pee anymore.)

Get used to the idea of crating the puppy when he can't be supervised.

Do a google search for Housebreaking a Puppy-- plenty of info out there.


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## Mystery Man (Jul 8, 2005)

GlassJaw said:
			
		

> Did you do any research on breeds before you got him?  All the things you cite are classic examples of spaniel behavior.





Oh definitely and I love spaniels period, they're my favorite dog. I grew up with cocker spaniel but my mother was the one who housebroke her, I was much too young at the time.

Joey is a very outgoing energetic sweet-natured goofball who is very well behaved _most_ of the time. He's great with our kids too, who do most of the playing with him so he's a very happy little guy.


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## Mystery Man (Jul 8, 2005)

Wulf Ratbane said:
			
		

> The scolding for the peeing really only works if you catch the puppy in the act of piddling. You know, dogs don't really have the cognitive capacity to understand why they're being punished after the fact. He can't correlate the punishment to the behavior.




Indeed, we only scold him and even then its a mild one with no soothing after the fact (he has to know that what he did was wrong) and only when we catch him doing it.


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## Turanil (Jul 8, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> Any other advice?



I recommend to bring the dog to a Chinese restaurant.


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## der_kluge (Jul 8, 2005)

Kill it and take... er wait, dogs don't have any loot.  Nevermind.

Seriously, the big mistake you made was buying a boy dog. They tend to want to mark their territory all the time, so they'll pee a little bit everywhere.  This is why female dogs tend to be a bit more expensive. They don't do that.

Other than that, it sounds like you're doing the right stuff. They sell some stuff that makes dogs not want to pee there.  You can also put their toys in the places where they have peed, so they won't view it as a toilet anymore. Or, move the food bowl around. Dogs won't pee where they eat.


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## Mystery Man (Jul 8, 2005)

der_kluge said:
			
		

> You can also put their toys in the places where they have peed, so they won't view it as a toilet anymore. Or, move the food bowl around. Dogs won't pee where they eat.




Those are great ideas thanks!


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## DaveMage (Jul 8, 2005)

When I first saw this thread, I thought you were trying to house-break Brittany Spears...


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## Wulf Ratbane (Jul 8, 2005)

DaveMage said:
			
		

> When I first saw this thread, I thought you were trying to house-break Brittany Spears...




Well, she is whelping a litter, from what I hear.


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Jul 8, 2005)

Do you take the dog into the yard, or do you have to leash him and walk him out in public?

I found with our last couple of dogs that if we just made a habit of getting up, going outside, and taking the dog with us to play every hour or so during waking hours, they'd learn pretty quick.  They'd just go if they needed to, or if they found a neat smell, get their praise and treat, and pretty quickly learned to scratch at the door when they needed to.


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## Mystery Man (Jul 8, 2005)

Rodrigo Istalindir said:
			
		

> Do you take the dog into the yard, or do you have to leash him and walk him out in public?




Backyard. On a leash, we found out very early on that he's got some speed to him.


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## Captain Howdy (Jul 9, 2005)

Have him "speak" to go out. In other words, stand by the door and have him bark before you open it. He will learn to let you guys know when he needs to go out. Before we did this, our dog would go to the back door and wait for us, and if nobody realized he was back there, he would end up getting impatient and peeing on the floor. He learned really quick that he had to bark before the door would open... Although, getting him to do it the first few times involved me making little puppy barking noises. The best time to train this is first thing in the morning, when he really needs to relieve himself and he really wants to get outside.

Once he speaks and you go out (and it is good that you have him on a leash) then take him to wherever you want him to relieve himself and tell him 'do your business' or 'make it snappy'. Any little phrase that you can repeat to make it known that he is out their for the sole purpose of relieving himself. This helps later on when you need to go out somewhere and you want him to pee before you leave. My dog is about 2 years old, and I can take him outside and tell him to do his business, and he will go even if he doesn't really need to.

After he is done with that, you can give him a treat and praise him, then take him inside. When he is housebroken a little better, you can reward him with playtime outside when he is done, but for now, keep bathroom trips and playtime trips seperate. Take him outside about 15 minutes after every meal, and maybe once every hour or so (depending on your dog) specifically for going to the bathroom. Also, activity stimulates the dog's bowels, so if anyone is playing with him really actively (like running and chasing) then take him out for a bathroom break.

That's all I can really think of at the moment. Mostly, it's just a matter of patience. Even the best trained dog won't be completely reliable for a good 4 or 5 months. Accidents happen, so expect to be cleaning up for a while. On the bright side, if your dog is only about 8 weeks old, then his bladder control isn't anywhere near what it will be soon. His control should be 10x better in just a matter of weeks.


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## Angel Tarragon (Jul 9, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> Any advice? This dog is 8 weeks old and hyper, hyper, hyper! He's a little goofy too but we love him just the same.
> 
> He pees.
> 
> A lot!



Ne sounds a lot like one my nephews, and both are dogs, miniature Italian Greyhounds to be exact. His name is Blaze and his brother-in-law is Lucky.


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## ragnar99 (Jul 9, 2005)

Crate-Training is where its at as far as house-breaking a puppy.  Its important that the crate not be too large now so you need to make sure his space is restricted to a fair degree to avoid accidents.  Assuming you plan ahead and buy a crate large enough for him as a adult simply rig up a bit of plywood for now.

   Just as a warning my experiances with a 8-week old puppy would say that they can only "hold it" for about 4-5 hours at the most.  Keep them alone longer at your peril, since while a dog in general won't relieve himself in his crate they will if they have to go long bad enough.

   And if you have any further questions hopefully there is a dog obediance club near you, they would easily be able to answer anything else.


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## Mystery Man (Jul 9, 2005)

Hey great advice!

I got a wire kennel that is big enough for him to stretch out in but not to big that he can get riled up and crash around in. He spent his first night in it last night and seemed to be OK. He did get me up in the middle of the night to go potty but made it until morning after that. 

I shouldn't keep him in it all the time right? Right now we're keeping him in there when we can't keep an eye on him at all times. 

Total noob here if you haven't figured that one out yet. 

Thanks for the help all.


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Jul 10, 2005)

I can't really give any advice on housebreaking (our springer spaniel came to us pre-housebroken), but I will give you one piece of advice. Probably the most important one I can give about having a new dog. 

TAKE AN OBEDIENCE CLASS! 

We took ours through the local SPCA, and it was the best $ we have spent on the dog. We learned how to teach him, and he "learned how to learn", if that makes sense. They offer classes for both adult dogs and for puppies (puppy classes will probably cover housebreaking quite a bit). Seriously, if you haven't thought about taking an obedience class, look into it. It has made our life SO much easier. The dog learns some important things, you learn how to teach it new things, and he gets socialization and "thinking" time, both of which will tire a dog out like you wouldn't believe.


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## Romnipotent (Jul 10, 2005)

I have a Brittany, headstrong and now about 2 years old. Just keep an eye on him, if he starts to pee rush on him and take him outside to the spot in the garden you want him going potty in. We have a few "prime" areas where we can always find most of his poop. You have to be persistant and very attentative. He'll associate going pee's and poo with being outside and maybe at that spot. Most important thing is consistency.

Brittany's can be very headstrong (and will ALWAYS be Hyper) so obedience school is a MUST! My father stopped taking Geordie (our brittany) and he's a mess. Then again my fathers an idiot, conflicting sets of commands for same words.

We've always had him sleeping outside and mainly staying out there too, but he comes in during evenings after dinner and during the day if we're all lounging about. 
Your brittany wont "mature" till about 16+ months. And will probably become Ball Crazy/Obsessed if its allowed to, which is a good attribute for FlyBall.

Best of luck with this breed, and get it used to shotgun shots, take them hunting


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## Mystery Man (Nov 20, 2005)

Romnipotent said:
			
		

> Brittany's can be very headstrong (and will ALWAYS be Hyper) so obedience school is a MUST! My father stopped taking Geordie (our brittany) and he's a mess. Then again my fathers an idiot, conflicting sets of commands for same words.
> 
> We've always had him sleeping outside and mainly staying out there too, but he comes in during evenings after dinner and during the day if we're all lounging about.
> Your brittany wont "mature" till about 16+ months. And will probably become Ball Crazy/Obsessed if its allowed to, which is a good attribute for FlyBall.




W'ere at 6 months old now and 30+ pounds of solid muscle. He's still staying in his kennel with the other half of his time spent outside or running around the house under _close_ observation. He will ask to go outside by running at the screen door and dancing in front of it. So we're making good progress. However I have some "submissive piddling" issues I need to deal with. He gets overly excited if he knows he's going to get a good scratching or any kind of attention (scolding, feeding, etc.) and he squirts a little. It's especially a problem if he's been in his kennel all day while we're all at school/work. 

And yes, he's developed an obsession bordering on the psychotic for anything round. He eats *everything*, case in point; he tore a 2 foot long strip off his blanket and ate it. I know this because half of it was hanging out of his ass and I had to wrestle him to the ground and pull the other half out, hanging on for dear life on the end of it was one of my daughters plastic dolls.    

Any help to get a handle on these excited piddling issues I can get will be appreciated!


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Nov 20, 2005)

Mystery Man said:
			
		

> And yes, he's developed an obsession bordering on the psychotic for anything round.




Can't help you on the excitability piddling issues, but I know EXACTLY where you are coming from with the roundness obsession. Our springer spaniel can be kept happy for hours with a tennis ball (or any other ball for that matter). We have several around the house that he has removed all the fuzz from but he won't break the ball itself. They are easily the cheapest and most effective toys we ever bought for him!


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## Bront (Nov 20, 2005)

Am I the only one who initialy thought this thread was something about House Breaking Britney Spears?


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## Kahuna Burger (Nov 20, 2005)

random thoughts. Most dog professionals call it house training now, not house breaking. The reason isn't just a nicer sound, its a question of training the dog to pee outside rather than just breaking it of the habit of peeing in the house. 

Do the crate thing for sure. Dog comes out of the crate and goes straight outside. If dog pees outside, "Good Boy!" treat and inside play. If dog does not pee outside, back into crate, wait half an hour, repeat. Make sure you set a time limit on how long you will give him before bringing him in, and do not let him run loose or have a lot of outside play time until he has a handle on this. He needs to associate the outside, going pee and getting rewarded. I cannot count the number of puppy owners who let their dog out to romp about and then it comes back in, remember it needs to pee and goes on the floor.  :\ 

Outside of being crated at night, one rule of thumb is that at puppy can hold his urine for one hour for each month old he is. So make sure you are taking puppy out every two hours when you are at home. If he doesn't pee when you take him out, again, wait in the crate for 30 minutes or so.

8 weeks is very young. He is not going to be house trained at that age. So use the crate to control the peeing in the house and strongly reward outside peeing.

Oh and get some Natures Miracle or other enzematic cleaner for the spots where he has peed. You have to get all the smell up or he sees the spot of a former accident as a big "PEE HERE" beacon.


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