How To Train - Rain Is Ok

[Sammie Dunn]

My puppy Coco (now 5 months). Is afraid of rain. I have already posted this on another section and had some great replies about getting him a little umbrella and a rain coat and so on. We have tried all of the answers that we had but Coco still will not walk out in the rain. We even tried luring him with some treats. :/ I don't know what else I can do because he needs to go out no matter what the weather is. Which I hate. Never get a puppy in Scotland if he is going to be afraid of rain hahaha

Has anyone found anything other than a rain coat and such that might help. I end up having to drag him about 5 minutes and then he eventually does his business and basically runs home!

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Is it the rain or is it thunder, lightning, etc?
I'll have tips to add once you answer that...

 

[Sammie Dunn]

Hi, Sorry for the late reply.

My internet isn't working properly at my house so unless I am at a friends i can not reply very quickly.
Well I am on about only rain. If we are outside and it starts while out, he doesn't seem to mind it. But if we go from inside to outside then he freezes and won't walk.
As for thunder and lightening , I don't know how he will be with those yet as we have not had any since we got him.

Dog coats, holding an umbrella over him, luring him with food - none of these work All I want is for my puppy to be happy to walk no matter what the weather. Will be fun when winter comes and I have to teach him about the snow and ice lol.

 

[Dodge]

I ve put this on your other thread already,lol,but hey . . .get him a coat,put some wellies on,jump into the puddles and make it fun,fun,fun you said on the other thread that he s ok when he is out already and its starting to rain,so maybe its the going out to get wet in it, that he doesnt like Dodge used to be a right baby,used to drag towards shops and any doorways to get away from rain,but he s kind of ok now,if he starts to look worried I just run around with him jumping into puddles again and when he s at the park for a run he doesnt even notice the rain anymore,result

 

[Sammie Dunn]

As I said above using a coat doesn't work with Coco. And also jumping into puddles with him is not something I wish to do as I want him to go to the toilet before play. And jumping in puddles is not enjoyable for me or him as he gets freaked out around people jumping - something which I am trying to train is ok also. Secondly getting a dog to wear wellies I believe is cruel. I do not think that dogs should wear shoes or that. Or the fancy coats that say stuff like Diva and I'm A Bitch ect. They are all cruel. Especially people that dress their dogs in full outfits including "trousers" and wearing hats! So wellies are NOT an option.

 

[running_dog]

I'm not all that keen on fancy dog clothes etc myself but sometimes dog shoes/booties are very practical eg/ for sled dogs and on slippery surfaces. That said, I think you have misunderstood Dodge here - I'm pretty sure the wellies are for you! And the jumping in puddles is simply a euphemism for anything that gets your dog excited. It is a pity that Coco is one of the coat hating dogs, it would have been such a simple answer .

I gave some ideas on the other thread but I just thought you could maybe forget the training toileting for now and every time it rains (Okay, so you live in Scotland, maybe not EVERY time ) go outside, maybe give a simple command (sit, spin, paw, shake body ) once obeyed you can quickly come back in, and then after a few minutes repeat, and repeat until the rain is just part of the furniture? It'll be all over the floor anyway even if it isn't part of the furniture .

Hopefully tx_cowgirl will have some better ideas you can use

 

[Hayley Thompson]

I dont really know any "sure fire" ideas for this either as Riley was never scared of the rain...but what if you approach it like you were just potty training him outside from scratch:

Take your dog outside and see if he'll use the bathroom. Give him five minutes or so. If he does, reward him. If not, go back in, but then take him out again about 10 minutes later. Do this every 10 minutes until he does use the bathroom. Reward and praise him when he does. (Although this seems reallllllly time consuming to me, especially if he is like no way, I dont care how many times you take me out here, I'm just not doing it! lol)

I don't know if this is an option either but some people say just getting them used to water in general, on a nice day run a hose if you have it and let him play in it?

I dunno if this is helpful at all, but let me know how it goes!

 

[Dodge]

oh dear,oh dear,thank you running dog,I didnt think it was that badly explained,I would never ever put wellies on my beautiful boy btw,we ve got a very simple weather proof coat,no fancy blingy stuff . . . cant stand those either,I ve got a dog,not a puppet
I dont jump right up in the air for a huge splash,just really the tip of the wellie to make it fun, first he thought no way,eww thats wet,but after a couple of puddles he started to try to catch the water and had real fun with it and stopped at every puddle,waiting for me to ruffle the water around