House training a 4yr old rescue spaniel

[Bev G]

Help guys! I recently got a 4yr old ex breeding girlie, shes a wee beauty (the red shocker in the pic with my OH) and we love her to bits but she has been in kennels all her life and isnt housetrained. We have 3 other rescues and they were all trained withing a month but we are now 6 weeks down the line and theres no sign of Koko  understanding she shouldnt use the house as a toilet. She can be sitting on my knee and will jump down and 'go' where she lands. When we grab her to take her outside, she will run peeing all the way down the corridor.
Since we got her someone has been in the house almost every day, my sons been on study leave and when he wasnt there my OH has worked from home, now Ive been on holiday for 2 weeks and Ive been taking her out into the garden every hr or so and playing with the dogs so she gets into the way of going in the garden but its making no difference. The back door is always open and we have a good sized garden but she will poo and wee in the hall rather than go outside....,wouldnt even mind if she went in the kitchen or conservatory as theyre laminated/tiled!
I got puppy pads but she ignores then....and the cat used them lol
I dont think shed been out the kennels in her life as her reaction to sand and grass on our first walks was unbelievable and she couldnt run without tripping over her feet. We wont give up but Im beginning to think she isnt the sharpest tool in the toolbox Any ideas?

[dizzytrish]

Bless her!
sounds like my Ella, not very bright!!, there again, she gets her own way, so maybe it is me that is abit stoopid?
not much advice apart from the normal keeping up the routine, but you sound as though you are well versed in that already!!

best of luck!

[mlynnf50]

Hi well done for taking her in and giving her a forever home, things for her must be so difficult, I am no expert, but I think I would perhaps start like you would with a puppy, which is taken then out often, after play time and after being fed, and using the word wee wee so she associates the word with the action. Good luck. Am sure she will soon grasp what shebs suppose to do.

[The crazy hut]

Hang in there Bev, it really does get better. 

In your post it could easily be Perri you are talking about. We had all the exact same issues with her (we call Perri 'Ditsy Dinah' as she really is a bit of an airhead sometimes ) .

It changed when I had to go back to 'regular' hours and was at home less.  She seemed to sleep while I was out so I made sure the first thing I did was open the back door when I got home and put her outside.  She soon got the message. We sometimes get the odd accident if we haven't quite read the signs but overall she's almost there.

Even tho we're 3 1/2 months down the line, she still can't sleep on her own and needs Wisp in the crate with her! so there are still other 'issues' that we are trying to manage.

[ejp]

We had the same problem with Lara, it did take a while, so I do symapthise.  It was the one area I made no progress on for quite a while, and was demented    Lara would be outside and do a poo, then come back in and pee in the house.  Even now, she doesn't have any real signals, so we stuck to the startegy of regular outside trips, treats for success and dancing about like a loony, that seemed to please her more    I am still in the habit of popping her out on a regualr basis and I think that is just how it will be.  Hang in there, I know it's easy to say, but you will get there. 

[Poppypuppy09]

I too have a rescue ex pf breeding girlie and it took us about 4 months to get her in a routine  We had to take her out to the garden at regular times as she woulgnt ask to go out but as long as we took her out every 3-4 hours then no problem. I think apart from obviously not understanding that they need to toilet outside Bella didnt feel comfortable or relaxed out in the garden for many of the reasons that your girlie has experienced. I used to talk softly to Bella whilst we were out there to try and help her to relax and so that she knew she hadnt been left

You will get there 

[LilahLoo]

Reading your post I realise how lucky I was with Delilah - we've only had a few accidents and I've had her 18 months.  But when I think about it, it's only recently that she's actually started going to the back door and telling us she wants to go out.  Previously we would just put her out regularly and wait until she'd go and I still do that with her.

Your comment about tripping up over her own feet so reminds me of Delilah as well, she is such a clumsy girl.  One day my son was stroking her in the kitchen and neither of us know how but she just fell over, from standing to flat on her side -if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed my son.  We recently had to make the decision to have her front leg amputated and my first thought was how on earth will she manage on 3 legs when she's hopeless enough on 4 

I'm sure you'll crack this problem with patience and kindness.  She's a lucky girl to have found a home with you.

[fizzyntiffy]

Had the same thing with Tiffany when she came to me at 4yrs old.   She would just squat and go anywhere with no warning - and was a little  for eating her dinner then dropping to squat and widdling as she walked away     

Is there any way you can restrict access to the hallway so that Koko can only go there when she's 'empty'?  I'm probably talking rubbish but if she's been in a kennel the narrowness of the hallway may feel a safe place for her to go, and by restricting her access it would help to start breaking the cycle?  Just a thought anyway 

It took about two months for the lightbulb to go on with Tiff, & bar the odd 'caught short' moment when I've been at work she's clean mostly   

Keep going, you'll get there 

[PennyB]

I would may be just use going out to the loo as just that rather than playing out there with her as well as she may be getting mixed signals here + she won't understand yet re the open door thing

[Bev G]

I did wonder about the hall seeming a bit like her kennel as it is about the same width and is nice and quiet and darker than other rooms. She's just so lovely in every other way and is obviously enjoying being part of our pack. She's glued at the hip to Cody our springer to the point of jumping over walls with big drops on the other side (ouch) and into streams she cant get out off as the banking is too steep. Like I said....not the sharpest tool in the box...if she was paler I'd say she was a typical dumb blonde  No offense to blondes out there as I'm one....or a bottled one!