I have an eleven month old dachshund. We got him from the SPCA when he was about 7 1/2 months old and he was house broken. Initially we had walked him a few times a day and he got used to only eliminating when we walked him. We are now trying to get him to go in the back yard, but he holds out for a walk, sometimes for hours. We have taken him to the same spot in the back yard over and over, but he is very stubborn. Eventually he will go, but he will only do one or the other. He never does both at the same time. We have to continually take him back in back out until he finally does both. We always praise him and give him a treat when he goes, and we take him for a walk once he does go. We are not trying to diminish his walks, we just want to be able to go on command in case of bad weather, etc. Is it too late to try and change what we did? We have been trying to retrain him now for a couple of weeks.

Any suggestions? Thank you very much in advance for the help.

Keep up what you're doing. I had the opposite problem - she would only go in our garden and NOT on walks. Made for a rough time when we first went on holiday. Eventually she learned it was all okay!

Yours will learn too - keep using the command you want and when he does praise him up saying 'good boy (and your command word)' and give him treats like is sounds as you are doing. He'll soon learn that producing in that spot gets him really scrummy things!

Eventually you will be able to phase the treats out.

Wendy

Thank you very much for the reply. How long do you think we should hold out if he doesn't go before taking him for his walk? He sometimes has gone 14 hours (overnight) without going. I hate to see him hold it in that long, but I also don't want to give in and have to start all over again (he is so darn stubborn).

I was going to ask the same question as Jeangenie! If you are taking him for walks anyway I wouldn't put off going for the walk. But AS he's doing his thing praise him up like crazy same as in the garden 'good boy go potty' (I use 'go potty' for my girls). Then he will associate what he's doing there with what you're asking him to do in the garden. If you've not been doing that no wonder he's staring at you like you're mad LOL!

Not to worry - we all start somewhere - at least he's not messing in the house -that's one thing to be really grateful for:)

Wendy

Does he 'perform' on command when you're out on walks? If not, that is the first thing to teach him. When he 'goes' (not before or after, but during) give him the command word and praise. Only once he's learnt what you want him to do will you be able to transfer this to going in your garden.
:)

Thanks for your reply too. We have not tried this (I don't know why, after hearing it is seems completely logical). My husband and I are completely new to dogs, Sam is our first. We were just told by so many people not to fall into the trap of having to walk him in order to go, etc. When we take him out for a walk, and give him the command, do we continue with the walk?

Certainly continue the walk after he's 'been' - for a start he'll be more comfortable and enjoy it more, but also you don't want him to realise that the walk is over once he's been! That way he'll hang on and hang on to extend the walk........
:)

Thanks a lot for your advice. I'll start trying this right away.

Sometimes the walk 'gets things moving' if you know what I mean. Mine might not go for hours normally, but once she's racing around the park it only usually takes a few minutes before she goes.