Help! The detriment of my dad's babying.

[TheIdget]

Our family has four dogs at the moment, and the most recent two we've actually acquired as puppies, and my dad treats them like his babies. This has a variety of unfortunate consequences, but the one I come to you about is simply getting out-of-hand to me. While the two older dogs can be let outside to go to the bathroom, my dad's puppies (one is not so much a puppy anymore) were not trained correctly and must be walked outside, lest they try to run off and cause problems in neighbors' yards and commit other general misbehaviors. Walking the dogs every time they have to even go pee is an incredible nuisance that comes to the responsibility and pain of everybody in the house, though my dad does not see it as such a problem, especially when these two dogs will have to be taken on a wild goose chase to find where they are finally willing to go. The reason they got like this was because my dad has always walked them to go outside to house-train them in the first place, but he never transitioned to letting them do it themselves. I really wish they could be let outside to take care of their business and then be let back in a few minutes later, but I have no idea how to go about teaching them.

The first of my dad's 'babies' is a boxer named Kenobi that is 1.5-2 years old. He is a bit more obedient on the leash in that he at least walks with you, but he has to be walked distances as long as a football field just for him to go poop (we live in a rural area). Kenobi is fixed and will go pee all at once without trying to mark. We have a choke-chain/leash for Kenobi.

The second of my dad's puppies is a miniature pincher named Sid, and he is about 9 months old. He is constantly trying to run away on the leash even when it is at max tension. Unless he really has to pee, he won't pee all at once and will try to mark whatever is in the yard, peeing just a little bit here and there. He is not fixed and tries to run after and bark at any other dogs he sees, whether they be the neighbors' or even our own dogs. We have a harness/leash for Sid.

I googled this problem, but all I could find was house-training information for puppies, so I was wondering if anyone here might have an idea or training method that could be used to fix this problem. We have no fence, and getting one is both too expensive and ineffective because Kenobi could easily jump it/dig a hole underneath it.

[Bill]

Regardless of what you think, the answer to your problem is a good chain link fence - maybe a 5' one. Don't assume that a dog can get out. With a properly installed fence, this is very unlikely. Both of these two dogs seem to be acting normally for their breed and age. You can teach a dog to go in only one place but usually after they have been able to go anywhere, its very difficult to teach them one specific place to eliminate.

[RubyRoo]

How do you know that Kenobi would jump a fence or dig under it, as you don't have one? The sensible and responsible thing to do would be to install a fence, possibly with an overhang into your yard making it difficult to jump, so that the dog's can be taught where it is appropriate to go, with less tension involved. This would involve taking them out as you would a puppy after waking up, playing eating, and in between as well. If they produce anything at all, praise, reward with a treat and put a toileting command to it, so that your dog learns what is wanted. This of course will mean standing around quite a bit, but there you go any puppy owner knows all about that. If the dog doesn't go within a few minutes, then take it back indoors for perhaps half an hour, and then take it out and try again. Don't stand over your dog while he thinks about going or not, do something else like taking a cup of coffee out with you, and pretend not to be watching, which of course you will be, but not too obviously. I think that if no other option is given to the dog's, perhaps not walking them until they do 'go', may produce results after a while. There is no reason though that they can't be played with in the yard, to get some exercise.

The other thing I must mention, is why is one dog wearing a choke chain? The association of this being used, which will cause a certain amount of pain or discomfort, could be being associated by your dog, with being taken out to toilet, which may explain why you have to go further and further to find a place where the dog is willing to go. Also it has been found that apart from hurting your dog, a choke chain can cause front leg paralysis, a collapsing laranyx and injury to the spine along the neck. Is this something that you would want to inflict on a dog. There are more humane ways of training a dog, after all would you teach a small child not to do something this way, of course not. Put some time and effort into teaching your father's dog using reward based methods, like clicker training. Plenty of advice on this on-line.