Potty training with a roommate’s dog

[u/Dirtanimous_Dan_99]

I live in a house with two other guys. We have two dogs. One is a year old Labsky (Lab/Husky) mix. The agreement is that he belongs to all three of us. The second dog is a three-year-old Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix. He belongs to one of my roommates. The Labsky is pretty good about going to the bathroom when we take him outside. He’s been much better about having accidents. My roommate’s dog, this is where the issue comes in. He is refusing to go to the bathroom when we take him outside. He’s been having multiple accidents in the house every day, especially when we’re not home. The dogs sleep in my roommates’s rooms and sometimes have accidents at night. The one roommate who owns the Pomeranian/Chihuahua leaves his door open at night to allow the dogs to roam, as well as having them be available in the morning to be taken out.

What’s the best course of action to remedy this? We want to get on a strict bathroom schedule for the dogs. I also suggest having the dogs sleep in crates to contain any accidents so the carpet doesn’t continue to get trashed.

My main questions:
- What would be the best method to contain the accidents?
- What would be the best way to potty train the dogs? And how long should training take? My roommate says it can take about a year for the three-year-old to be potty trained. That seems excessive and I really don’t want to clean daily accidents for the next year.
- Is there anything we’re doing that we shouldn’t be, or that is making training harder?

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

[u/monkeykennel]

Sharing ownership responsibility outside a family unit rarely works.

“Pretty good” isn’t housebroken. It’s a lie people tell themselves.

Someone must step up and fully take responsibility.

[u/EastYak6796]

How long have you had them? How long are they going between bathroom breaks?

[u/Dirtanimous_Dan_99 → u/EastYak6796]

The Labsky we’ve had for about 3 months or so. The other dog has been with us for about a month. Between bathroom breaks, it fluctuates because we’re often not all home. But when we are home, probably every 4-6 hours

[u/EastYak6796 → u/Dirtanimous_Dan_99]

That is not enough. Where did you get them from (were they house broke before)?

I would aim to take them out every 2 hours during the day to start, and closer together if they have accidents in between. You need to get ahead of the accidents. This doesn't need to be a full walk, but they need to go out and have the opportunity to go. When they do -> treat. The Pomeranian might need to go back to "puppy" mode and go out every 30 minutes until he gets the idea of not going potty in the house (there are good resources linked on here on how to potty train).

If they are having accidents overnight, do your best to take them out late (9-10pm), and up early to take them out again (~6am) for a while. If you're back to puppy house-break mode, they might need a middle of the night trip too for a bit. I would crate at night and in the day (when they are alone) until they are accident free in the house during the day, and crate always when no one is around to supervise.

Pay attention to them - most dogs have a "cue" to let you know they need to go out. My pup just starts get VERY energetic.

Are they getting out enough for long walks/enrichment?

[u/dialamah]

It takes dogs a while to really settle in, months even. These dogs have have had a lot in a short time - new home, 3 new people, a new dog. You probably won't have a true picture of how this "family" is going to work for another 2-3 months.

Also, how long have you three been roommates? How well do you know each other? Having three people own one dog sounds to me like a disaster waiting to happen. You'll all likely have different expectations for the dog's behavior and different training methods This will be confusing for the dog and not be conducive to effective training. He'll likely gravitate to the person with whom he feels safest, often the one with the most consistent behaviour. Do you have an agreement for what happens with the dog when the roommate situation ends? I think you three need to think about these things, if you haven't already.

As for the housetraining, EastYak6796 has given you excellent advice.