As a dog owner myself, one of the most challenging tasks of dog ownership was getting my dog to be house trained. I adopted him when he was still a young puppy and he almost defied all my usual house training methods.
Getting your dog potty trained isn’t impossible but it does take some effort and patience. Some dogs are easy to work with while others have a strong belief that the world is their toilet.
But what if you have a 7 month old puppy that is still not house trained despite your best efforts? In most cases, a 7 month old puppy should already be fully house trained. However, you can still expect a few toilet accidents given that they are still young puppies. A puppy this age should have developed bowel and bladder control to control their toilet needs. You might have to start potty training from scratch again and take your dog to the vet to rule out any underlying urinary health issues.
In this article, we will be looking at some possible reasons that can cause your dog to still not be house trained at 7 months of age and what you can do about it.
Can You Still Potty Train A 7 Month Old Puppy?
First of all, please do not be discouraged or see yourself as a bad dog owner if your puppy isn’t properly potty trained.
It takes some time to acquire the right potty training skills and even experienced dog owners struggle with this aspect of dog ownership at times.
Every dog is different and learns at its own pace.
Your 7 month old puppy can still be potty trained regardless of what you may feel or think.
How Long Does It Take To House Train A 7 Month Old Puppy?
To all you impatient dog owners, house training your dog isn’t something that you can rush like buying a meal from a fast food chain.
On average, it takes about 6 months for a puppy to be well potty trained. There are some dogs that can do it within 2-3 months if the owner has a really solid house training process in place.
Even if your dog is a fast learner, it is still a puppy and puppies tend to regress in their behaviors at times.
So make it a point to keep on reinforcing potty training in your dog.
A much better way of training your dog is to use a lot of positive reinforcement. Lavish it with tons of praise and some treats when it eliminates outside.
Your dog regards you as the leader of the pack and giving it praise and pets means a lot.
This would make your dog want to do the same thing in return for the same attention.
Attention is definitely a currency when it comes to dogs.
How Do You House Train A 7 Month Old Dog?
When it comes to training a dog of any age, always revert back to the basics when there is some regression in its behavior.
Bringing a puppy into the home is like bringing a human baby into the home. It is a lot of work, but they also bring you such devoted love and joy.
Don’t Let Your Puppy Eliminate Inside The House
The number one rule when trying to potty train your puppy is to not even let it have a toilet incident at home on in its crate in the first place.
Not to worry if your puppy has already eliminated inside the house. Make it a point to not let it happen again.
Your puppy looks to you for behavioral guidance and by allowing it to eliminate at home, your dog will take it as a signal that it is ok to do so.
Your biggest goal should be to prevent accidents inside the house and set a new behavior, which is only going outside.
When you take your dog outside to use the toilet, give it some time before allowing it back into the home.
This gives your dog more time to express itself if it wants to and prevents it from doing it inside.
Most dogs have some form of bladder and bowel control from 6 months of age but your dog could be a late bloomer or still has some problems controlling its waste movements.
Watch Your Puppy Closely
After bringing your dog back into the house, your job is far from over. Do not start doing your own things and let your young puppy roam freely around the house.
You need to watch your dog as your life depends on it.
Leash your dog to you if need be or place it in a playpen or crate right in front of you while you watch tv or work.
You need to closely learn and observe how your dog communicates and its body schedule.
Your dog will usually tell you when it wants to go outside to potty. All you then need to do is to bring it to the right place to do it.
The second you hear your puppy start to vocalize or behave erratically, immediately bring it back out for a potty break.
You will probably have a number of false alarms but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
If your puppy does go potty the house, clean up the mess with white vinegar or an enzyme cleaner to get rid of the odors.
Get Someone On Night Toilet Duty
Your job isn’t over when your little dog does to sleep at night. Most puppies still need to use the toilet throughout the night or they might start to eliminate indoors.
A rule of thumb is that for every month of age a puppy is, it can hold its waste in for an hour.
This means that a 3 month old puppy can hold it for 3 hours, a 4-month-old puppy can hold it for 4 hours, etc
A properly potty trained 7 month old puppy should be able to hold it for the entire night but since your dog is still in basic house training, frequent potty breaks are necessary.
Take your dog out to use the toilet every 2-3 hours even if it doesn’t make an indication to do so.
Set an alarm clock to ring at these intervals. Just gently wake your dog up and take it outside to do its business.
Some dog owners feel that by crate training their puppies, it can prevent them from going inside the house because dogs generally don’t like to potty where they rest.
However, this rule doesn’t quite apply to young dogs.
Try telling a kid to not play in the rain or mud and you’ll get what I mean. They don’t care if they get dirty.
Hire A Professional Dog Trainer
I understand that we are all not like Cesar Milan or some celebrity dog trainer even on our best days.
And the last thing that you want to do is to teach and ingrain something wrong in your puppy.
If you have the resources, hiring a professional dog trainer might be a good idea.
A good trainer will be able to easily spot the problem in your dog or you and quickly correct it.
This can drastically cut down on the training process and get your dog potty trained in no time.
How Do You Punish A Puppy For Pooping In The House?
You never punish your dog for anything. Period.
Never hit your dog when it does something that is wrong or outside of its training.
Punishing your dog for something that it isn’t doing right is so primeval and doesn’t work well contrary to what some dog owners might think.
Some say that you should grab your puppy by the collar, drag it to where it pooped or peed in the house, shove its nose in the mess and give it a good scolding.
If that isn’t considered animal abuse, I don’t know what is.
Not all dogs learn and progress at the same pace. If you have a blind puppy that’s peeing in the house, it will take longer than a puppy that can see normally.
Hitting or shouting at your puppy when it eliminates indoors is instilling in the dog that you are a scary monster and it is wrong or bad to go in front of you.
This negative association will cause your dog to not want to use the toilet when you take it outside.
It will wait until it is back in the house and do it somewhere when you are not around.
Should You Use Potty Pads At Home?
The use of potty pads at home whilst potty training your puppy has been one go great debate.
A potty pad is basically a giant pet diaper in a shape of a square that you lay out on the floor for your dog to use.
Some dog owners feel that a potty pad serves as a good backup when the dog isn’t able to go outside to use the toilet.
It is possible to train your dog to use the pad when it needs to go.
On the other hand, some feel that using a potty pad only serves as a crutch and can hinder a dog’s potty training process.
And the process of having to wean the dog off the pad when needed will take more effort.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with using a potty pad. It comes in handy for dog owners who are not at home all day and are not able to take the dog out when it needs to go.
But training your dog to be able to use the pad and do it outside is key here.
Should I Bring My Puppy To See The Vet?
Most 7 month old puppies are able to get back on track after some corrective potty training.
However, they might be times when your dog’s toilet habits are affected due to an underlying medical condition.
Here are some common medical issues that can affect your dog:
- Urinary tract infection
- Kidney or bladder stones
- Injury to the spine
- Physical deformities
Some symptoms to be on the lookout for:
- Excessive urination
- Blood and mucous in stools
- Diarrhea
- Yelping or whining when using the toilet
- Straining when using the toilet
- Loss of appetite
- Lethargy
If your dog is showing any of the above symptoms, it might be better to have the vet take a look.
The vet will probably do a blood and urinary analysis to see if there’s anything wrong with your dog.
It is always best to quickly seek medical treatment for younger and older dogs as they do not have very strong immune systems.
Nora is a passionate writer with a love for books, animals, and gardening.
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