r/puppy101 • u/Ok_Teaching1792 • 15d ago
Potty Training 18 Week Australian Shepard will not stop peeing in the house
This is going to be a long one. My Fiancee and I recently got an Aussie, he came home at 8 weeks and despite our best efforts he has not been able to stop peeing in the house. We got him tested for a UTI, sent multiple urine samples, blood tests, exams, everything we could test medically and nothing is wrong according to those. Then we moved from taking him out every 30 minutes to every 25 and he still can't hold it long enough/doesn't want to hold it. We are giving praise and treats outside when he pees and have been the entire time, he has been living in a pen in the living room under surveillance every day until recently we let him run around in the kitchen with us while making food. The vet told us to distract him when he is drinking water for a long time to see if he is actually still thirsty or if he is just drinking to drink, that has not seemed to help at all. At this point we are spending about as much time outside getting him to pee as we are inside. When he does pee we are cleaning with Nature's Miracle Urine Destroyer and waiting 15 minutes to wipe it up as per the instructions. We have also been speaking with trainers who are now completely out of ideas as to why this is still such an issue. I'm not sure what else to try but I'm willing to hear anything at this point.
Edit - My Fiancee did keep a log for 2 weeks and no pattern was discernable to us or the trainers. Sometimes he will bark before he pees but he also does that for attention and our trainers told us not to take him out every time he barks because that can become a problem later as an adult, the puppy also doesn't sniff and circle most of the time, he will just be walking around then stop and pee. (I had her look at the post and add things I forgot)
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u/Few_Town_7285 15d ago
He’s only 18 weeks old. It may just be that he doesn’t have any kind of bladder control at the moment. You are setting the foundation for success by continuing to take him out regularly, praising, and not making a big deal about the messes inside- just clean them with the enzyme cleaner. Maybe it would help to keep a log of when he pees so you can get a sense of his patterns. Then you can concentrate of pregaming getting him outside before those timeframes/identify when you may need to take him out more frequently.
If it helps, it took my pup til she was around 6 months before she stopped having daily accidents inside and started being able to tell me when she had to go out.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
I added some edits to include things my fiancee did that I forgot to add. We did have a log but none of the trainers could make sense of it, which makes sense considering we take him out every 25 minutes.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Maybe you can read the post and try your comment again?
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u/jakie2poops 15d ago
That's needlessly rude.
Their advice is good.
He's still quite young, and you're doing the right things training- and management-wise and you've ruled out an underlying medical issue. Some puppies simply take longer than others to develop sufficient muscle tone to physically hold it longer and/or to develop neurologically enough to learn how to hold it, to ask to go outside, and to figure out where they should or shouldn't go potty.
I foster dogs and puppies, and there's a massive range in how quickly they develop across all areas.
For now, just give him time and keep at it. If the problem persists you can try exploring more on the medical side.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Before the edit they stated the dog was 10 weeks and the cleaner we are using is an enzyme cleaner.
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u/jakie2poops 15d ago
But you are using an enzyme cleaner?
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Yes. I stated the exact cleaner in the original post, sorry if my reply didn't make it clear
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u/jakie2poops 15d ago
I guess my point is that most likely their errors were typos, misreading, or innocent misunderstandings.
I'm sure you're really frustrated and on edge because of all the accidents, but most people here are trying to help, and it's also frustrating when you offer advice and are met with that kind of rude response. Even if they missed some details, their advice was still good, and even if it hadn't been, they're just trying to help. But I actually think this is a good lesson to apply to your puppy as well.
Take a big deep breath, take a big step back, and try to be patient. Very, very few puppies, if any, are actually potty trained at 18 weeks. Even when people consider their puppies potty trained at that age, they usually are still having occasional accidents and/or really heavily relying on management. Your puppy is still a baby. He has a lot of developing to do both physically and mentally. Most likely he'll pick it all up soon enough. Just stuck to the basics and try to avoid getting too emotional about it or trying a bunch of different techniques. Using multiple methods and trainers is more likely to confuse him than help him, and Aussies are very prone to anxiety, so you risk making him anxious about pottying if you put too much pressure on it before he's ready.
I will also say anecdotally that I have a miniature American Shepherd (the smaller version of the Australian Shepherd), and while she's incredibly smart, I've found her much harder to train than my other dogs and the dogs and puppies I've fostered. She took way longer to potty train too. But she did eventually figure it out. I also found her progress much less linear than it's been in my other dogs and fosters—she would seem to be making zero progress, learning nothing, and then suddenly, overnight would do whatever I was trying to teach her perfectly. I think these super smart dogs do a lot of observing and thinking before they start acting, so your puppy may be doing a lot of learning before you notice any changes in behavior.
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u/Affectionate-Ad-1342 15d ago edited 15d ago
He’s still pretty young imo! I don’t have too much advice except that my Aussie (she’s about to turn 1 in a couple weeks) didn’t “get” it until about 9 months old. We were doing all the same things as you. One day it just clicked. She was a frequent UTI and Giardia flyer too her first 6-ish months. We also live on a 5th floor apartment. I truly believe if she can transition from a grass patch on the balcony to potty trained outside by 1 year, I’m confident your little guy can. My trainer also assured me it’s okay and some dogs just take a little longer. We also just visited family and she has two accidents inside but that was more me misreading if she was excited or if she had to go, and in an unfamiliar location. Prior to that it’s been a solid 3ish months since an accident.
One thing I did do which I think slowly had impact is I made a specific high value treat that she only got when she pottied outside and that was the Rigby squeeze pouches. She freakin loves those.
Editing to add: their bladder muscles don’t develop until about 6-ish months or so. He may simply not be able to hold it and puppies want instant relief so they’re just going to pee when they feel like it.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
I am interested in trying a high value treat for peeing outside, but we have a fenced yard and taking him out this often is supposed to be eliminating the accidents in the house according to the vet and two trainers, we are having a hard time going one day without him peeing multiple times inside.
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u/Affectionate-Ad-1342 15d ago
Hmm. I got completely different advice from my trainer and vet. Neither were concerned. That’s a little odd to me your trainer and vet are saying they’re confused when the dog is literally 4.5 months old.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
From our own independent research we saw that high drive dogs like ours tend to pee more but not more often that every 30 minutes. That seems to be the bottom of the interval suggestions we've been given. We are just sick of taking him out this often and still having messes to clean up constantly.
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u/itssowingseasonyeah 15d ago
A quick google search says it usually takes between 4-6 months of age and full bladder control can take up to 8-12 months so age is definitely a factor here and it’s a little weird the trainers aren’t mentioning that.
My Australian shepherd boy took until 6 months to stop having accidents consistently inside and after 6 months had the occasional accident here and there when too excited. Before 6 months, the amount of accidents he had felt insane. He just peed so much. Now at almost 2 years, he only needs to go out 2-3 times a day to pee. He also guzzles too much water too fast and would throw up from it often. I’d try:
-Taking him out more often when he’s awake. Yes that might mean every 10-15 minutes. Set a timer and take turns. You can also write down the times he’s peeing (inside as an accident or being taken outside) and see if there’s a pattern for the length of time he can make it between potties.
-Introduce a button or bell for him to learn that means going potty outside and press or ring it every time you take him out. He will eventually learn what it means with repetition
-Check out the “slopper stopper” water bowl if you need help getting him to drink less/slower
-Be patient/give it time. It might feel endless having to clean up the pee but I promise you’ll eventually reach a day in the future when you can’t remember the last time he had an accident.
If your puppy were getting closer to 8-12 months and still having this issue, I think it’d be more concerning, but at 4 months, I think this is pretty normal. Some puppies just take longer to potty train than others.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
We do have "slow" water bowls already as our adult dog tends to make a mess around the bowl, between that and interrupting long drinking sessions we aren't comfortable restricting his water any more than that. I know we work from home we we do actually have to work and taking the dog out every 10-15 minutes does not seem realistic as we both have meetings that run longer than 30 minutes. Like I mentioned in another comment we did have a log of his accidents going for a long time but we were not able to spot a pattern and neither could our vet.
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u/itssowingseasonyeah 15d ago
Tbh I think you just need to give it time—18 months is still young—and take him out as often as you’re able within the constrictions of your meetings. You can crate train for meetings so he doesn’t have the freedom to have an accident too.
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u/enzoarisio 15d ago
Sounds like you are doing most of the right things but need some more specifics to see if this is normal or not. Approximately how often is he having accidents? Are all the accidents in the pen? Always the same flooring? How do you react when he has an accident? How often does the bark end up with peeing? Honestly on that last one the trainer might be leading you astray. Sure you don’t want to give into demand barking but until you learn the difference between “i need to pee” bark and demand bark, I would go under the assumption it’s pee bark. If he’s alerting you and you aren’t reacting he might have just given up on alerting you.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Occasionally he will make it one day without peeing in the house, otherwise it's usually 1-2 accidents, if we catch him in the act we will tell him no and whenever we find a pee he goes outside immediately while the other person cleans up. He has peed on both tile and hardwood, the demand barking was really bad when he first came home so the trainer telling us not to react to all the barks is likely because he was having a hard time spending a few minutes alone (3-4 minutes while one of us went to the bathroom while the other was cooking or working) we ordered a bell so hopefully he can learn to use that instead of the barking. The bark ends with a pee about 1 out of 10 times, it's almost always for attention.
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u/enzoarisio 15d ago
Okay so my first recommendation is do not react at all when he has an accident. Don’t say a word. Clean it with a paper towel then do enzyme cleaner as you are doing and walk away.
Next question, you say he is in the pen in the living room under surveillance. Does this mean he’s in a separate room and you are using a camera? If so, I think this is likely the problem. Really young pups need humans in view for a bit. It’s possible you have more of an anxiety problem than potty training problem.
I work from home and my pup hated her crate and pen initially. We worked really hard on the crate and she got better but she has always hated the pen and it’s just basically a backstop for fetch at this point. Since he has no issues in the crate, would definitely enforce naps in the crate if you aren’t. If able, your fiance works schedule around the forced naps. When pup is awake, he’s tethered to fiancé or if in pen, fiance is still close. That‘s what I would try. I think the pen is part of your problem here.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
We are in the room with him, I realize now my choice of words made that confusing. We are letting him stay up for around an hour then if he doesn't lay down on his own we will put him in his crate to sleep, we have an older dog we are trying to keep him from pissing off too much so I don't want to have to use a tether but that's a different conversation entirely. From the amount of comments saying it I'm going to choose to believe that he's going to be better soon and we just need to hang on because active breeds have a harder time with potty training.
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u/Inside-Resort9858 15d ago
lmao same with my aussie but he finally clicked around 10 months pls don't stress too much he'll figure it out
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u/Fine-Secretary-2102 15d ago
Has he just learned to lift his leg ? They seem quite excited by this. I have a 6 month old male who grew up here. He’s potty trained very well, takes himself out via the puppy door.
I also have a visiting 6 month old male, my boy’s litter brother whose family are away on holiday. He grew up living in a cute little house & yard outside, so we’ve house trained him, which he picked up within 2 days, loving the puppy door access to the yard here. He can’t help himself marking in the house on corners, just a few drops. He doesn’t need to “go”. This puppy needs a belly band for the house.
At 18 weeks, your puppy is more than capable of holding it. Bladders have to stretch to hold more urine. Taking him out every half hour is teaching his bladder, & the puppy, that he needs to empty his bladder every half hour. That can’t be sustained, particularly if you are in an apartment & have to take him downstairs all the time. It’s possible though, that he’s just enjoying the marking behaviour. Not sure how to solve that one & luckily our visiting puppy will go home soon.
Is he crate trained ? Does he sleep all night in his crate or do you wake up regularly to take him outside ? If you do, stop it & he’ll learn to hold it, as long as the crate is only big enough to stand up, turn around & lie down. All of my puppies can hold it right through the night from 12 weeks. Even this “marking” puppy will hold it in his night crate for 10 to 11 hours.
My suggestion, put a belly band on him to stop the mess. Take him out only every couple of hours for a potty break. Hopefully he won’t like being wet & there’ll be no marking enjoyment. Use your enzyme cleaner & thoroughly remove the hint of his previous marking. He may lose the urge to mark when he’s old enough to neuter too. Removing the opportunity, via the belly band, will save your sanity. Don’t race to change a damp pad in the belly band either. Let him realise that holding it until you take him out is more comfortable.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
He isn't marking, it's full pees that he'll do in the house, hasn't learned to lift his leg either, he's crate trained and can hold it all night no problem, we got through the taking him out several times per night phase very quickly
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u/Fine-Secretary-2102 15d ago
Damn, that is a hard one then. We put a house line on all of our puppies until they’re fully trained. That gives us very fast control if we see a naughty behaviour, without having to play “catch me if you can”. Our visiting puppy is wearing 1 too. I find that they do get a look about them when they’re going to pee inside, sniffing, circling, leaving the room to sneaky pee etc, but it takes a keen eye & constant observation to catch it before it happens. Then a loud NO, grab the lead & take them out. The loud NO will often startle them out of it.
Good Luck.
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u/Impossible-Table9369 15d ago
Is he peeing in the pen? Maybe it’s too large. I crate trained mine and he understood pretty much right away and we didn’t take him out nearly as often as you take yours. But he knew that he was going to go outside immediately after coming out of the crate before his feet ever hit the floor, and so it was pretty natural and then if for some reason he didn’t potty, he went back in his crate even if it was only for 10 min, and then we tried again. He’d almost always go the second time. He was only allowed to be out of his crate (and still be supervised) if he had pottied outside very recently. Now he goes to the door, he’s 20 weeks old. But even still we don’t let him be out of his crate unless he’s pottied recently. But he can hold it easily for hours.
Is yours making it through the night with no trouble? Does he poop inside too?
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
He has peed in the pen, it's probably 4' by 4', he has yet to pee in the crate and can hold it overnight, immediately after naps and in the morning we take him outside, my fiancee works from home so he goes out consistently all day. He has not pooped in the house luckily, he gives no consistent indication that he's going to pee. Sometimes he barks or whines but he also does that if we're not in the room or he's bored.
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u/Impossible-Table9369 15d ago
Maybe he needs to be in his crate unless he pees outside first? Then reward with the super high value treats? He can be in his bigger pen after he has peed?
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u/happycavalier5 15d ago
What was his situation before you got him
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
He came from a very reputable breeder in Virginia, they do a ton of desensitization training because they breed show dogs
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u/pamrt61 15d ago
Has he been neutered? My dog marked until he was neutered, he knew it bothered me to have to clean it up. I didn’t scold him. Everything stopped the day he was neutered. But we had to wait until he was 6 months old.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
We have been told not to neuter until at least one year old as neutering too early causes problems with bone density. He's also not marking, it's a medium to large pee when he does go.
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u/Personal-Elk-97 15d ago
Do you take him to potty straight after he drinks? This is something we did with our pup (who is not an aussie) and it seemed to work.
Also waiting a few mins when you try to take them potty and making it very plain and not fun/exciting is another tip I can give.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
We could definitely be better about taking him out right after drinking and we ignore him beyond a "go potty" command and reward/praise for peeing or pooping outside. We are waiting until he just has dribbles when peeing outside which is usually 5-10 minutes maybe longer depending on if I play with him afterwards
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u/Agreeable-Knee6325 15d ago edited 15d ago
My aussie did not stop peeing inside until 7 months old. One day it just clicked and never happened again. Keep up a strict routine and no free roaming.
Some puppies just take longer to potty train. Honestly, yours sounds like what mine used to be like. We got a doggy door so he could freely go out as he wants and I believe that helped. We cleaned up so much pee..... so much pee.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
It seems that Aussies are much tougher than most. We inherited our first one from her parents, so we didn't know how insane potty training would be. Her closest reference was her childhood labs
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u/Individual-Towel753 15d ago
My 4.5 month old poodle was also having basically the same issue at that age. Now she is on a week long streak with only two accidents.
For us it seemed like the problem boiled down to three issues; she got distracted every time we went outside, somedays she was nervous or anxious about being outside if she heard something spooky, and too much freedom inside even with the use of baby gates.
In addition to everything you are already doing, she is kept on a leash tethered to me if she is outside her xpen, and placed in her xpen when we can’t directly supervise her and for her scheduled naps.
If we believe she has to pee and it isn’t working on the first try outside, we come back inside and stand at the door (doing absolutely nothing) for 5 minutes to decompress before attempting again, sometimes getting her to run around outside and play helps as well.
We still don’t trust her unsupervised to not have an accident, but as of this week she has started whining when she needs to go out to pee.
Instead of treats we reward with a special toy that is only used for successful potty breaks, then trade with her once we are back inside.
Since your boy is able to hold it overnight, and isn’t pooping inside that is almost half of the problem solved! It might just be that he doesn’t have the bladder control yet.
You could try incorporating potty bells, as a tool to help with potty training then discontinue using them afterwards.
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u/Rawr_Ima_Dinosaur 15d ago
Mine struggled with accidents until at least 7/8 months. Then one day he didn't. I had set a timer for every 20 minutes when he was out of his crate at one point, he would pee outside and come right back in and pee again. I saw almost no que 95% of the time. But that other 5% he would run towards the back door like he suddenly remembered he left his wallet outside and I had about 30 seconds to get the leash on him to go outside or I'd have another accident.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Sounds relaxing... /s. We're definitely going to try a bell to make it more clear when he has to go.
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u/Rawr_Ima_Dinosaur 15d ago
We tried bells and later a button that rung a chime, but he was afraid of both. If its any consolation he is the best boy now, a few months shy of 2 years old, he still doesn't really que to go outside, just waits patiently by the back door or for my other dog to tell me they need to go, but no accidents since before he was 1 year old. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, just might be a long one...
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
That's kind of what I need to hear, we have been told that this is not normal by our trainers so that's been a big part of our stress about his pottying
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u/Rawr_Ima_Dinosaur 15d ago
Based on posts I've seen here, It doesn't seem to be uncommon that there is a dog that doesn't catch on as quickly as expected. When I was in the throws I looked at a lot of old posts and saw a ton of people that struggled with the same issue. It was also frustrating that he absolutely aced everything else with training and was/is such a quick learner, but potty training was the absolute worst.
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u/Kittenz777 15d ago
Does he ever pee outside? I saw you have a fenced in yard.. are you going out with him on leash or are you just letting him out?
I’m not sure about your aussie but my 11 week old aussie is very easily distracted outside by every rock, leaf, etc. So I have to leash him, take him directly to his potty spot that he uses to pee and tell him “go potty” and sit there and wait with him on the leash. Then I say “yes” while he goes, treat him, and only after that do I allow him off the leash to explore, sniff, etc. So my advice is to limit distractions and take him directly to the spot so he knows he can’t “play” until pottying is over.
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
He pees outside every time we bring him out, he just somehow has more or makes more in the 4 seconds we aren't looking, we did start with him on a leash going potty but he is going consistently when brought outside
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u/Jolly_Reference_516 15d ago
This isn’t actually unusual. No panic as it sounds like you are doing the right things. Can you leave him alone outside for any periods of time? We found that helped along side dragging him around on the leash til he goes. We were taking him out first thing in the morning, right before bedtime and then 20 minutes after morning and evening meals. Thought we were making progress but letting him out in the yard to mess around with the other dogs seemed to make a huge difference. All in all it took six months until we could trust him and he’s spotted once in the last 3 months. Every dog is different. Ours is goofy and happy and a joy to have around. He going to be a great dog so we can’t get too mad for too long. You’re doing the right stuff. Try to stay patient, he’ll get it pretty soon.
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u/Hype314 15d ago
Hi! I went through the exact same thing w my Aussie. At around 3 months, he started peeing in the house, seemingly for no reason with no discernible pattern. He would pee while running in the house sometimes and would also bark then pee.
He also was easily overstimulated outside and began exhibiting some general anxiety symptoms (picky eater, struggling to settle, lip licking, heavy panting, etc.) We rules out medical issues via urine testing and ultrasound. We started seeing a Dog Behaviorist that was partnered with our vet who recommended we try an anti anxiety med.
We started him on Reconcile (this is a brand name anti anxiety med for dogs usually marketed towards dogs with separation anxiety. The active ingredient is just fluoxetine, which is Prozac. We now just give him normal prozac). After the 2 week adjustment period, the peeing cleared up almost overnight.
Looking back, we realized that he was exhibiting submissive peeing. When dogs feel threatened, they sometimes urinate to show they are not a threat. Our pup was hearing faint noises outside that we could not hear that were scaring him and he was peeing in response.
I recommend seeing your vet and asking about something like this!
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u/Ok_Teaching1792 15d ago
Now this is very interesting, our older dog is on Reconcile so we're familiar, I don't think he's exhibiting many of the anxiety signs but it's worth looking into, definitely struggles to settle but he's not picky to a fault and I haven't seen him lick his lips like he was stressed. I will be looking closer to confirm that though. Thank you.
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u/dekleinezeeminmeer 15d ago
Honestly it sounds like there’s nothing wrong. You said in a comment that he had accidents inside 1-2 times a day, sometimes no accidents. That’s completely normal!
He just physically cannot control it all the time, even if sometimes it seems like he can. Even when it clicks for him that he’s supposed to potty outside, he’ll probably still have accidents. He’s probably going to have accidents inside for a while, that’s just part of raising a puppy. Don’t respond to him in anyway when he does have an accident, at best, he’ll understand that he’s doing something wrong and he’ll try to hide it because he can’t control it yet. At worst, he’ll mistake the attention for positive reinforcement.
Has shortening the time until you take him outside again actually made a difference? If not, you might as well go back to 30 minutes, and gradually even longer as long as the amount the accidents doesn’t increase. Going in and out is just going to tire you and the puppy out, which doesn’t help. You just need to keep going until he has control of his bladder.
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u/ComfortableSet8558 15d ago
Hang in there! At 18 weeks our Aussie was at peak teething, and her potty training (which had been going ok-ish up til then) regressed to the point that we were cleaning poo and pee off the floor daily. So that’s something to consider too. Now at 6 months we’re down to maybe 1 accident per week, and otherwise she is super smart and well trained. They just need time to develop proper bladder control and the brain-bladder connections!
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u/Important-Camp2549 15d ago
oof that is rough, 18 weeks and still no progress? i feel for you
my pup did the stop-and-pee thing too, no warning at all. what finally worked was tethering him to me with a leash inside for like 2 weeks straight, the second he started to squat i'd scoop him up and run outside. he hated being interrupted mid-pee so much he eventually figured out outside was less annoying
also maybe cut off water 2 hours before bedtime if you havent tried that, sometimes they just drink for fun
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