New Greyhound Won't Pee Before Bed

[cococabana]

Hi all! My partner and I adopted a 3 year old ex-racer a week ago. She is very sweet and settling well, the only issue we're working on is getting her toilet trained. She poops outside no problem but when it comes to peeing, she's very fussy.

She had an accident on the carpet of our rented home a few days in. Since then I've brought her out very regularly to give her more chances to pee, particularly before bed time and have followed advice I read here. The rare time she goes at night - I give her praise, treats, and let her sleep with us. But most of the time she just won't go, no matter how long I stay out with her. She pees once a day at the moment, and there's quite a lot of it so she must be holding it. 

If she doesn't go, we crate her downstairs to prevent any more accidents on the carpet. She doesn't like being crated when she knows we're just upstairs (she loves her crate otherwise) and we would prefer her to sleep with us but I'm not sure what else we can do but wait for her to learn.

I know some people say you just have to stay out until they go but I've been out until 2am some nights and it's not like I can force her to pee.

Do I just continue like this and give her time?

[1Moregrey]

Keep up the training and she will get it in time.  She needs to build trust and learn the new schedule.  As you already know the crate is your best friend during house breaking anytime she gets out of the crate she should go out to potty.  As she starts to pee outside tell her to “go potty” or whatever you want to call it then praise her and let her know she did good.  If you constantly do this it will not take her long to figure things out.  Soon all you will have to do is use the potty que.

Do you have a fenced in yard or are you leash walking?  If she is used to going in a turnout run it sometimes takes a little bit to do it on a leash.

[HeyRunDog]

Grace pees after her tea at about 4:30 pm and then doesn't pee again until her morning walk at 7 am when she also does her once a-day poops. She'll pee a couple of times during the day if the opportunity arises.

Do you take her for a walk when you want her to pee before bed or just stand in the yard waiting? Grace seems to need to have a short walk before going.

[Onyfalk]

My girl is a bit nervous and doesnt like the garden so we got for a short walk to the end of our road and back so that she can have a sniff and a pee before bed. Maybe a little change of scenery would help your girl too?

[cococabana]

5 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:

Grace pees after her tea at about 4:30 pm and then doesn't pee again until her morning walk at 7 am when she also does her once a-day poops. She'll pee a couple of times during the day if the opportunity arises.

Do you take her for a walk when you want her to pee before bed or just stand in the yard waiting? Grace seems to need to have a short walk before going.

Good to know once a day poops are normal! Yes, I take her for a short walk, she never pees on the walk and then I bring her to a grassy patch opposite my house where she usually poops without encouragement and where she pees in the morning. Maybe there's something about night time that doesn't make her feel as safe to relieve herself. 

[cococabana]

5 hours ago, HeyRunDog said:

Grace pees after her tea at about 4:30 pm and then doesn't pee again until her morning walk at 7 am when she also does her once a-day poops. She'll pee a couple of times during the day if the opportunity arises.

Do you take her for a walk when you want her to pee before bed or just stand in the yard waiting? Grace seems to need to have a short walk before going.

Yeah, we bring her for a short walk and then to the grassy patch near the house.

[cococabana]

6 hours ago, 1Moregrey said:

Keep up the training and she will get it in time.  She needs to build trust and learn the new schedule.  As you already know the crate is your best friend during house breaking anytime she gets out of the crate she should go out to potty.  As she starts to pee outside tell her to “go potty” or whatever you want to call it then praise her and let her know she did good.  If you constantly do this it will not take her long to figure things out.  Soon all you will have to do is use the potty que.

Do you have a fenced in yard or are you leash walking?  If she is used to going in a turnout run it sometimes takes a little bit to do it on a leash.

I think the leash walking could be what's making her shy about peeing. We don't have an enclosed garden so we have to leash walk and she was definitely used to going in a turnout run. She also seems to be on high alert outside at night, maybe because she hears foxes or something, so that could be putting her off because she does always go in the morning.

I think she will catch on eventually, just feel bad leaving her in the crate overnight. Unfortunately our bedroom is too small for the crate.

[1Moregrey]

You could try a longer leash to give her more space from you while she goes potty too.  If she is to nervous on a regular length leash.  Either way she will get it in time.

[cococabana]

10 hours ago, 1Moregrey said:

You could try a longer leash to give her more space from you while she goes potty too.  If she is to nervous on a regular length leash.  Either way she will get it in time.

This is a good idea - we were planning on ordering a longer leash to give her more breathing room in the park anyway. 

[Hubcitypam]

Again - I sound crazy but when I got the dogs off the farms they really did lean the difference at turnouts between "go potty"  and "go potty go to bed".