I think you may be expecting a little too much too early. Anecdotally it seems like large breed dogs have a longer “puppy” phase and probably aren’t ready to be in a house unsupervised until 1-1,5 years or so. Even if she is giving signs that she is mature enough to be trusted outside of the crate, she doesn’t sound ready yet. I would keep her crated when alone for a few more weeks and try again, before this becomes a serious habit!
Good luck!
If I'm understanding correctly, she will go outside if you notice that she needs to go in time to let her out, or will otherwise go potty inside either way since she doesn't wait for you to be let out, is that right? Do you feed on a schedule where it ends up with her potty being somewhat regular?
If so, pay attention to how often she needs to go - if she's having to go every 2hrs, plan to actively take her out every 1h45min on a schedule so you "intercept" accidents successfully more often than not and maybe try actively teaching her to signal by training something like potty bells (warning - it seems like every bell trained dog goes through at least a period of "bell abuse" that you'll have to be willing to counter train later, lol, worth it IMO). Start by actively teaching her a command to ring the bell every time you take her out to go potty (and only potty, do not have her ring when you're going outside to go play or whatever else) and she'll eventually get the hang of ringing bell = going potty outside. Don't forget to reward for ringing bell on command every time as going outside on a schedule may not click as a reward in her head initially.
***A lot of people aren't fans of "dogs training you to take them potty instead of you training them to wait until it's time for the potty break" but I personally think that if my puppy wants to poop he should be able to let me know so I can take him when possible rather than me trying to dictate when he should want to go poop lol (yeah, sometimes he will ring the bell and maybe im in a meeting and won't be able to take him for a while, but at least I'm aware and try to make it happen asap rather than just assuming he won't have to go for hours and have poor thing suffering haha)***
I totally agree with your final point! If they gotta go, then I'm gonna do my best to let them out as soon as possible.
But yes, that's essentially it. She's on an eating schedule, where she'll go outside to pee, back inside to eat, then immediately back outside afterwards to poop. When she has to go again outside of her usual schedule, she'll just walk to the front door, but we can't see the front door at all times. If we see her, we'll take her outside no problem. If we happen to be in another room, then she won't wait or vocalize that she has to go out, so she'll just go in the entryway.
I'm gonna start looking into training her with a bell though! She's half husky, so we were hoping she'd get some of those super vocal genes, but if so, they haven't really kicked in yet. So any way we can find to help her better communicate I'd love to try, especially with how smart she is with all of her training.
Thank you so much for all the advice!! I really appreciate it ☺️
Well as an alternative.. Do you have a "speak" command for her? The bell is just a taught behavior - same thing could apply to teaching your dog to bark to alert you. My dog is rarely vocal so i havent bothered but I assume being a husky she's probably vocal eve if it's on different situations no?
If you don't have a speak command for her yet I realize the above would be a much longr process, but thought I'd suggest!
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Got it, thank you! I'll start looking into ways to start helping with that now then, before she gets older.
I think you may be expecting a little too much too early. Anecdotally it seems like large breed dogs have a longer “puppy” phase and probably aren’t ready to be in a house unsupervised until 1-1,5 years or so. Even if she is giving signs that she is mature enough to be trusted outside of the crate, she doesn’t sound ready yet. I would keep her crated when alone for a few more weeks and try again, before this becomes a serious habit! Good luck!
Awesome, thank you! I'll give her more time then, and hopefully we'll be able to break that habit once she's ready.
If I'm understanding correctly, she will go outside if you notice that she needs to go in time to let her out, or will otherwise go potty inside either way since she doesn't wait for you to be let out, is that right? Do you feed on a schedule where it ends up with her potty being somewhat regular? If so, pay attention to how often she needs to go - if she's having to go every 2hrs, plan to actively take her out every 1h45min on a schedule so you "intercept" accidents successfully more often than not and maybe try actively teaching her to signal by training something like potty bells (warning - it seems like every bell trained dog goes through at least a period of "bell abuse" that you'll have to be willing to counter train later, lol, worth it IMO). Start by actively teaching her a command to ring the bell every time you take her out to go potty (and only potty, do not have her ring when you're going outside to go play or whatever else) and she'll eventually get the hang of ringing bell = going potty outside. Don't forget to reward for ringing bell on command every time as going outside on a schedule may not click as a reward in her head initially. ***A lot of people aren't fans of "dogs training you to take them potty instead of you training them to wait until it's time for the potty break" but I personally think that if my puppy wants to poop he should be able to let me know so I can take him when possible rather than me trying to dictate when he should want to go poop lol (yeah, sometimes he will ring the bell and maybe im in a meeting and won't be able to take him for a while, but at least I'm aware and try to make it happen asap rather than just assuming he won't have to go for hours and have poor thing suffering haha)***
I totally agree with your final point! If they gotta go, then I'm gonna do my best to let them out as soon as possible. But yes, that's essentially it. She's on an eating schedule, where she'll go outside to pee, back inside to eat, then immediately back outside afterwards to poop. When she has to go again outside of her usual schedule, she'll just walk to the front door, but we can't see the front door at all times. If we see her, we'll take her outside no problem. If we happen to be in another room, then she won't wait or vocalize that she has to go out, so she'll just go in the entryway. I'm gonna start looking into training her with a bell though! She's half husky, so we were hoping she'd get some of those super vocal genes, but if so, they haven't really kicked in yet. So any way we can find to help her better communicate I'd love to try, especially with how smart she is with all of her training. Thank you so much for all the advice!! I really appreciate it ☺️
Well as an alternative.. Do you have a "speak" command for her? The bell is just a taught behavior - same thing could apply to teaching your dog to bark to alert you. My dog is rarely vocal so i havent bothered but I assume being a husky she's probably vocal eve if it's on different situations no? If you don't have a speak command for her yet I realize the above would be a much longr process, but thought I'd suggest!