Play substituting potty signal

[phishman]

I have tried to train my rott to sit by the door when she needs to go potty. Her first potty signals were biting and pawing the blinds. She is now sitting by the door a couple times a day. At first, most of the time she was going potty. Now, she is starting to use it to go out and play more. Unfortunately, I don't have a fenced in yard.

I was wondering if anyone has an idea how to try and get the play sits by the door eliminated and to only give me that signal when she wants to potty? I want to reward her for giving me the signal, but most of them have turned into play sesssions. Initially I've dealt with the problem by being adament about her going potty, and correcting her urge to go play. Thinking maybe I should start using a leash and show what is expected. It's so damn cold right now, I've been lazy to try this out. Thanks for any help!

[Ethár]

"...it is so damn cold right now..."

This was a bad point of view.
When buying a dog one KNOWS that it sometimes is "raining nails from heaven" - and yet, still one SHALL take the dog out.

The weather shall not become a problem, think of that my friend.


So, you have learnt your dog to "tell you when she want's to go out" (laughing a little).

I do not believe a dog bother to feel any different if she wants to pee or just snuff around a little.

You don't say how old your dog is - if she is a puppy she shall have the opportunity to go out after:
-playing
-eating
-sleeping
...and somewhere in between also...

If she is a grown up dog, housebroken, it should be enough with 4 - 5 times a day.

Just don't pay any attention to her sitting by the door. Say no and make her do something else. AS LONG AS YOU KNOW THAT SHE DOESN'T NEED TO GO POTTY!

Ambrosius TRIED to get us open the door in a period (he was approx 7 months old).

Suddenly he understood that "if I put my paw on the door my humans comes running and I can go out and play..."

He just loved this "game" - until I found out that this was a dominance thing from him. I stopped and just told him no! get away from the door. And then ignored him.

After a while he stopped with this behaviour.

...but we can not blame them for TRYING... wouldn't WE try it if we COULD???? hahahahahhaha

Give your furry one a big kiss on the nose from us!

[spidey]

I agree with Ethar - she just knows that she wants to go outside, not that there are rules about only going outside when she needs to pee. I wouldn't even try to change this, myself, I see no reason to, she wants to go out whether she needs to pee or not - at least she's asking to go out! You can train a command to encourage her to go if she has to right away (you need to be there with her, wait until she starts, give the command, praise her when she's done, keep doing this), which can be very handy, but I don't see why you'd want to limit her asking to go out to only when her bladder is full. :)