9 month old Border Collie bitch

[juliacornwal]

We collected a 9 month old Border Collie bitch on Monday from a lady who said she couldn't look after her anymore, however she promised us the dog was house trained and clearly she's not. What advice can anyone give me for getting her to understand that she must wee outside in the garden. I take her out regularly and keep urging her to go and when she does I praise her and give her a treat, but yesterday she was out in the garden for an hour or more, and then the minute she set foot in the kitchen she let fly all over the floor!
I am not able to leave her unattended in the garden because it's too big to completely enclose, so when I'm in the house working she must be in with me.
She has three long runs on the downs each day. 7am, lunchtime and late afternoon.
Thanks.

[raggies1]

It could be that she's just unsettled from the house move so she's marking your house to smell of herself and she could soon start going outside or it could be that she isnt house trained in which case you'd have to start as if she was a puppy. We found that teaching our dog a command really helped, every time he had a wee outside we'd say 'have a wee' as he was doing it, now when we say 'have a wee' he'll go and have one and we wont play until he has. If you do catch her doing it inside just immediately take her outside, i apologise if it sounds patronizing it isnt meant to, i understand how difficult it is to housetrain a dog, its taken us 9 months to train our dog, he seemed to grasp it then took a massive leap backwards (its usually when something upsets them, in our dogs case it was neutering). Just persevere with the obvious puppy methods.

[wolf63]

It is possible that this is the reason the 'lady couldn't look after her anymore'.

She's still young and raggies advice is quite good.

Have a lovely life together.

[juliacornwal]

Thanks both of you, actually in 4 days she's settling in very well and has a corner of the garden where we take her to do her business regularly, which seems to be working, she's making far fewer mistakes in the house.
She has fallen hopelessly in love with my husband and flirts with him outrageously every time she sees him - and she's absolutely adorable!

[ruby27]

I am really glad to hear things are improving, so quickly. I have read and found through experience that the older the dog is the harder it is to teach house training, but far from impossible - just a bit longer.

I think bitches instinctively know how to flirt with male humans, certainly all of mine have done this with my husband and very successfully wrapped him around their paw.

[leelapops]

Oh julia, she sounds adorable! I am so pleased to hear she's improving. We got our Collie dog a little late (14 weeks rather than 9 mths!) and he took some house training. Everyone's right, she will be unsettled too, and confused! Sounds as if you've made a lovely home for her, and it's not taken her long to settle.

Give her a tickle from me, the big floozy!

x

[wolf63]

I am glad that she is settling down. She is turning into a daddy's girl - as it should be.

Good luck.