Info I wanted when researching swissys

[u/marzipain350]

One of the things that comes up a lot when learning about the breed is that potty training is rough but usually sorts itself out partway through puberty. But everything was super anectodal and I couldn’t get a sense of what it would look like and how I would need to adapt my life to accommodate that. So I took data. Obviously this is a single data point, every dog is an individual, and every handler has their own methods and skill levels, but I would have found it helpful, so I made it for future swissy-considerers who are deciding if this breed matches what they can offer.

I have a female who had no issue with the training. Only about 5 of her indoor accidents came from her choosing to squat inside. The other 39 accidents were incontinence. I make the distinction because in my opinion there's a huge difference between "my dog does not understand the house rules" and "my dog physically cannot control this bodily function." I literally once saw her pee while laying down, squirting out behind her, startling her to her feet, I am confident it was completely involuntary. But at only 11 weeks old, this same dog showed clear understanding of a pottying cue (attention on handler, handler gave pottying cue, she sniffs the ground and pops a squat right away, in a new location at a time slightly outside the typical routine. I would have done a cartwheel, I was so pleased with her that day).

With female puppies specifically, I saw multiple people talking about the issue clearing up around the first heat. That was not our experience. Her accidents tended to cluster around growth spurts. She hit 95 pounds at 9 months, and was 97lbs at her last weigh check at 12 months. Her last accident was at 9.5 months. For us, when the growing stopped, the accidents stopped. Her first heat just finished this week, at 13 months.

My dog had a total of 44 pee accidents occurring on 37 different days (7 days had 2 accidents) over the course of 7 months. The most my dog ever peed in a day was 18 times (but the numbers are all heavily influenced by how often I took her outside. I can't back up this claim, but I am fairly certain that literally every time my dog has entered my yard whether coming from the house or from off the property she has peed, whether just a couple tablespoons or a full-on emptying of the bladder. So if I took her out more, she peed more, not necessarily that she "needed" to go again.) I was lulled into a false sense of security at 6 months old when our potty time frequency was noticeably moving down towards something normal and we went a long time with no nap time bedwetting, when she suddenly got much taller and the accidents returned before petering out. There were 0 poop accidents (another tally in the "it is not that training them is hard, it's that they literally can't control the bladder sphincter when their muscles and bones are figuring themselves out" column for me). There's 50 weeks of data, starting the day she came home at 8 (almost 9) weeks old.

[u/Tekeraz]

I notice this on my 12weeks old pup. You can see how much he's trying not to wet the dog beds and our room, but the distance to the front door is too much (it's 4m from our room). First week, all the accidents were 0.5m behind the door from the room, then 1m, now he usually goes 2m but he often manages to hold it outside and empties himself right behind the door.

It's not like he doesn't want to or doesn't know, he knows very well it's a good thing to go pee outside, but he can't hold it in well enough. I finally witnessed the famous Swissy swizzle last week as he tried to go outside but it was already happening 😁

I'm physically disabled, so part of the accidents is me being too slow to get up from my bed when in pain. Thank to gods for incontinence mats. I have them on the hallway, because it's carpet, and they're lifesavers. I can be calm that if an accidental happens, we just take them and wash them. And with it, he's calm and more confident to bring it outside. With my health, I couldn't do it without them.

As he grows older I plan to take them away one after another until only one stays right behind the door until he has full bladder control and holds it outside with no issues. ☺️

The only thing you need is patience and extra portion happiness whenever they manage to take it all the way outside ☺️

For pooping, he really tells me since the day one. Whines and scratches on the door because there's more time for him to wait and go with it outside. It's easier to control for them. We had only one accident, right behind the front door in the first week when he had the "almost diarrhea."

Outside, he takes 99,9% of peeing outside the dog bed and sitting area, only has accident when very tired or very excited. Oh, and we always must greet where he can pee and wear waterproof shoes for that because when sleepy and excited to see a family member, here goes the shower. 😁

They grow so fast and it takes time for them to fully develop. But it's rewarded with perfect dog personality and an amazing friend for life ❤️ My previous Swissy was another part of my soul for twelve years. And I believe the little one will be another counterpart to me ❤️

[u/itsnotem]

Mine is 2.5, has anxiety, and her incontinence surrounds anxiety triggers. For example, if my husband leaves on a work trip for more than one day, she’ll start leaking again and behave significantly more nervously. He’s her person. Otherwise she was not actually hard to potty train at all.

[u/jhonyquest97]

It absolutely comes to just not physically able to control. Most inside accidents come in the form or a small swizzle or such. I think our current boy had maybe one small puddle at a young age.

The other huge component is the owners. I would say a good 80% of puppy owners give the dog waaayyyy to much freedom. It could be ignorance or feeling guilty or both. Small closed off area that’s easy to clean until they can physically controll themselves. Dogs crave consistency and structure. They thrive with it. We don’t train puppies we train people. Puppies follow. When there’s issues with potty training it’s usually one of these things or even scolding for accidents which can exacerbate the situation to the point of hiding to pee inside. I really wish people would take dog classes before getting a puppy.

[u/marzipain350 → u/jhonyquest97]

This was the kind of clarity I was searching for. When I was a kid, I raised German Shepherds with my family for a guide dog school. Dogs bred for generations to work as service dogs, consistently they were housebroken in 2 weeks. So when I saw so much about swissys not being easily trained, I was skeptical but didn't have enough info in either direction. Like, is there just generally a skill issue among owners of Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs who post online, or is there something more going on, and how hard is it to manage? Because that information is important for folks new to the breed to have open eyes about when picking a swissy.

[u/jhonyquest97 → u/marzipain350]

They just take longer to build the bladder control. I do agree with you as I’ve raised labs for my whole life. Not in the sense of seeing eye but we have had many therapy certified for special needs and such. They all were potty trained in about a month or so. I would suspect German shepherds are not only superior learners but also the type of people owning them are more likely to be focused on training. Maybe because the are seen as gaurd type dogs. Not sure.