Hi,

Oh please help me...

I have two dogs, a boy and a girl that are 9 and 12 months old with well established bad habits. I have completely gone the wrong way about house training them. I have scolded them too much and now they are afraid to eliminate when I'm around making it pretty difficult to properly house train them. I've never hit them but they seem to think that I'm going to anyway and it's really frustrating. Now they just fear me in general and have become very skittish. I've also been using newspaper in a tiled corner of my living space which has only taught them to go potty inside the house. I want to remove the paper but they go there at least half the time during the night and it's easier than cleaning the carpet.

I now know how to house train them properly but while they don't trust me they won't eliminate in my presence so they go at night all over the carpet while I'm sleeping. The lounge room smells like a latrine and I'm at my wits end trying to remove the smell. Is it just patience with proper house training technique over a few months that will stop this or is there something else I can do?

How can I get them to trust me again so I can properly house train them and how do I stop them from soiling the carpet at night? Can anyone please help me undo the damage I've done?

Clint

First of all never scold them. Never tower over them. Never hit them or act like you are.
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/retrain-dog.pdf Here is some info that may be helpful since your dogs are older. Here is some additional info from that site. Behavior & Training-Dumb Friends League/Humane Society of Denver (http://www.ddfl.org/tips.htm)

I rescued a dog that had been abused pretty badly over pottying in the house. I would just let him out in my back yard every 1/2 hour or so and while inside kept an eye on him.
If you have to put them on a leash , just take them for short walks around the yard or past a few telephone poles... etc and praise them maybe give a small treat when they go potty. But never let them see you upset over their potty habits.

Someone may come along with more helpful info also at the top of this page you can search potty training issues of other posters and there is also a stickey provided by Labman that covers poty training.

Okay, take a deep breath and start over. These are dogs that you are going to housetrain properly. You are starting fresh. We've all made mistakes and learn as we go along.
First off, you need to limit their space so they will be less likely to potty in the house. Crate training is the accepted method, and there are several posts on this site that describe how to do it. Even a small tiled bathroom or laundry room would be acceptable. A crate really leaves no space for a "bathroom area", which is good if you plan to train them to the outdoors. In a room, you would make a sleeping/eating area and do the newspaper thing in the rest of the room. They can go where they eat and sleep or on the papers; most will choose the papers. When they are loose in the house with you, watch them as if they were small puppies--active attention or physically attached to you with a leash hooked to your belt.
Clean the carpeted areas thoroughly with an odor neutralizer designed for pet odors, and limit their access to these areas for a while.
Begin some basic training using quiet praise and treats. Even if they just learn to sit and shake hands, they are learning how to earn good things.
Now try to catch them eliminating in the proper place. If you actually see one of them going, stay where you are, don't stare or hover, but use your quiet praise voice. You are praising the dog for the LOCATION, not the act of elimination. Messes on the papers or outdoors are cleaned up in an upbeat, no-big-deal manner.
If an accident happens, you are allowed to roll up a newspaper and smack yourself in the head for not watching the dog close enough!

Hey, thanks a bunch. Their a little too big for a crate but the bathroom will do just fine. I won't give up until their properly trained. I guess a lot of patience and never scolding or letting them see me in a bad mood is all I can do to gain their trust again. Thanks again.

Carol had some very good advice. The timing is different for dogs at yours ages, but the sticky at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/information-articles-our-dogs-expert-labman-53153.html#post251809
Will help you recognize when to take them out. Take it out on leash and keep it moving except when it stops to sniff. A dog can only walk and hold it so long. When it happens, lavish praise on it.

It is much harder to undo mistakes that to do it right in the first place.