Is there any reason to believe that a dog that has been a show dog and is to be sold as a pet at 5, who is nearly house trained, is to old and set in their ways to bcome completely housetrained?

Hi peaches, I have re-homed older ex-show bitches who are not reliable in the house and with the right handling have been house trained as quickly than you would expect a puppy to be. the only prob really is that when they do wee, its a flood, rather than a little puddle! Older dogs can take quite a while to actually learn to ask to go out, though will perform if they are just taken out on a regular basis, every hour or so to begin with, and respond to praise and treats very well. Show dogs may well be used to being crated and so can happily sleep in a crate and night times will be"sorted" before you really start. If she is nearly house trainedanyway, with correct handling will almost certainly become clean quite quickly.

I rescued a cocker spaniel once who was 3 years old and had spent her life in a coal hole, literally a hole under the house - poor darling. I am sure she had hardly ever seen the light of day, let alone had any idea of being clean. It took about 2 months to get her clean in the day, and a couple of months more overnight, and I quite expected when I got her that she would never be 100% clean because of her early experiences - she was also terribly nervous. Within six months she was a confident clean happy dog, who never had an accident in the house. I am sure a nearly house trained happy healthy dog will respond much more quickly.

As a matter of interest how does a show dog get to this age without being properly house trained

Good question :-)

Because most of my dogs are kennelled. They are paper trained along with the whole litter and live in the house, having the odd day in the kennel/run if I am blitzing the house or have to go out for more than a couple of hours, or my son has rowdy friends to play. When the next puppy I keep is born, which could be 6 to 18 months later they then go to live full time in the kennel. Some remain 100% clean and some do not.

Isn't it funny WL how some dogs remain kennel clean if they were clean in the house. My older dogs refuse point blank to *go* in the kennel run under any circumstances :-)

Hi, Ive rehomed dogs from show homes and working Labs who have never set foot in a house and they soon adapt to home life and usually are ver clean,it doesnt take long My Mattie was a kennel dog when I bought her and she adapted straight away to living in a house never really had an accident

I have always found that a dog of any age regardless of where it's lived in the past will generally not be 'housetrained' to their new environment ie your home.

I now advise people that my puppies and the odd adult dog who isn't happy with us, are house trained to my home not theirs and tell them to be patient with the dogs. Non of my dogs live outside so that could be a reason for them being a tad sensitive when they go to new homes but it doesn't take them long to settle down and become housetrained again.

I would assume some of the bigger Kennels have dogs out in kennels all the time so they wouldn't be housetrained just kennel trained.

So if I take my 6 month old, completely housetrained pup to my mum's for example you're saying she may not be housetrained there?

It could happen thistle :-) When you get to your mum's show her the garden and encourage her to go outside. She won't automatically know which way is out or where she is allowed to go. When she goes praise her. Once she has learned where the exit to the garden can be located you should be ok.Just keep an eye on her when you get there,until you can see that she has got the message. O, by the way..the above applies to your puppy and not your mother :D

Thanks Leigh, actually my mother is coming here for Christmas so I'll keep a close eye on her until I'm sure she has caught on to the toileting arrangements LOL

I bought a show GSD a number of years ago who had been kennelled for the whole 2 years of his life. He was brought straight into the house and never once had an accident. We did however have another fully housetrained dog so maybe he just learnt off him the only problem we had with him was trying to teach him what stairs were for! It took him months to pluck up the courage to climb the stairs and when he finally did he had to be carried down on a number of occasions before he finally got the hang of it. On the same note I once tried to bring one of my kennelled bitches into the house and she hated it and messed everywhere so I suppose it just depends on the dog. Good Luck

Welcome to the forum Lisa :-) Leigh