Potty Training Tips?

[Hyshqa]

Kiska seems to be going backwards When I got her she was already used to going on paper. I went out and got some puppy pads and I use one of those covered in newspaper. I have that set up in the living room where she spends most of her time, and in the kitchen. I originally wanted to start getting her to go outside from the start but our house is so long that if I see her going in the living room by the time I get to her, pick her up, take her to the back door, unlock the door, and get her outside, she's done. She was doing really well and 95% of the time was going on the pads and paper, but then she started sneaking into the dining room and peeing. Now whenever she goes in there she pees without fail! I've scrubbed and sprayed wherever she's been but that doesn't seem to matter, she obviously just likes the floor in there because it's not always in the same place. And she's been peeing in the hallway too, and I JUST had to stop her going in her own bed! I KNOW she knows where she should be going. Whenever she goes on paper I've been giving her a little treat and she recognises this - if she goes on the paper she comes running right over and sits in front of me until I give it to her, whereas if she goes somewhere else she'll just walk on and not look for the treat at all. I've made sure not to get angry with her if she goes elsewhere, I've heard that's bad. But today I've been saying 'No!' then picking her up and putting her on the paper.

Does anyone have any pointers on getting her better at going on paper? Once she'd solid with that I'm going to try and get her to go outside.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

where abouts is the paper ?

maybe she needs to go out abit more frequently - after all shes just a pup n when uve gotta go - uve gotta go!

hope u get it sorted

[Arooroomom]

Try attaching a lead to her and you so she doesn't have the time to sneak away. Or restricting her access of the house. I would also try to get her to start using outside as quickly as possible, I personally don't like the idea of puppy pads as it allows the dog to ever urinate/defecate in the house. So i'm not much use with them as we never have used them.

[husky princess]

i didnt bother with newspaper or training pads (i just felt that meant there was a later training need - i now need to train him to go outside) so i took him outside after every nap, after every meal and after every drink and VERY regularly in between. we had a handful of accidents - quite literally we may have had 3 accidents. from 9.5wks he was pawing at the door to go out.

i would defo recommend you taking the lead by taking outside every hour. I have to say though that my breeder did a fab job and by the time i picked him up at 8wks he was able to wee on command which made life soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier. But your pup can learn to do this very quickly.

just keep saying weee weeee's (or what ever word) and when she relieves herself. Praise and give a treat. they will soon connect treat with relieving themselves.

good luck

[Chewbacca_&_me]

These are very good tips so far, good job all!

Pee pads are just a waste of money because if they use them, they are still thinking that peeing/pooing in the house is ok.

Bear in mind that some day, the pups bladder will be huge, lol, or at least seemingly huge, lmao.

I did both crate and leash training with my first two, and "reminder" crate training with the two that Ive taken in here in FL.

So far no accidents or issues. Its time consuming and sometimes it is monotonous,but totally worth it in the end result.

[HuskyCouture]

i'd stop with the paper, with embry it just made it harder to potty train him. i'd set a timer and take her outside every hour.

[Mazz]

Have to agree on not using paper or potty pads. Taking a pup out on a regular basis, praising and rewarding when they go outside, crate training (especially at night), and followup shortly after eating or drinking, will go a long way to properly training the routine.

[Hyshqa]

I totally agree, I wanted to start taking her outside from day one but it just seemed easier at the time to let her do what she knew to do and go on paper. She's crated at night which will work in my favour in the mornings since I can take her straight outside without putting her down anywhere else.

I'll definately be taking her out as often as I can now. Though it's a good 30 seconds or more from being in the living room to being in the garden, especially as I'd like to keep her on a lead in the garden until she stops swallowing leaves and mud and just about anything else! So do you recommend I keep the pads and paper down while I train her to go outside or does that send the wrong message? It's lucky I'm around 24/7 for a while! And if she does go in the house do I ignore it completely or say "No!"?

Thanks for the tips guys

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

ignore it if u dont catch her doing it - if u catch her say no outside - in a firm voice and then take her into the garden

[husky princess]

well what worked for me was - 'come on outside, come and do your wee weee's!!'...he would run out to the garden following me, i would then repeat wee weee's, weeee weeee's he would run on to the grass and do his wee wee!

i would rarely pick him up and take him i wanted him to get used to 'holding' on to it. when he had an accident i said nothing what so ever. it was my fault for not taking him out sooner (perhaps i was watching TV and waiting for the adverts). i didnt want him to have a bad association with relieving himself. however now that he is 14wks old and totally trained if he did have an accident now i would say 'no outside' and tell him to go outside as long as i had seen him do it and i was able to do this straight away otherwise he would have no idea it was linked to his accident.

from 8wks he only ever woke us up once in the night to go to the toilet

I would defo get rid of the paper and pads, it will just confuse her. keep a handful of nice tasty treats in your pocket and when ever she goes outside say the toilet command (wee wee's or what ever) and treat immediatly when she goes. Have a few quiet days at home and concentrate on this. Oh and put your coat by the back door!!

its worth looking at your feeding schedule too and trying to see if there is a pattern between feeding, digesting and going to the toilet. I am really lucky as thunder wants to go within 10mins of eating so that makes life easier somewhat. I feed at 7am, 1-2pm & 6/6.30pm (some pups will require 4 meals but smaller though in that case i would alter the times slightly and do the last meal before 8.30/9pm). In the evening i do encourage him to go out lots so he has lots of oppotunity to empty every last drop before bedtime!!

But this has worked for me and thunder and may not work for you

[Arooroomom]

Putting a command to it made it 10 billion times easier. Every time we'd go outside... "Cheyenne go pee pee!" *Cheyenne pees at some point* "Good peepee Cheyenne!!"

I looked like a total ass but I swear it helped so much.

[Hyshqa]

I only pick her up in the mornings - she's not allowed to go up and down the stairs on her own (she doesn't know how to come down anyway ) but her crate is in my bedroom so in the mornings I let her walk out of the crate then pick her up and take her to the garden (well usually the paper in the living room but I've taken her to the garden for the last 2 days). If I put her down beforehand she just stops and pees.

I've been using "wee-wees" whenever she's peed inside so I'll keep saying that when she goes outside. No more rewards when she goes inside either

[Rob]

Definately stop using the pads/paper, we didn't use them at all with our first and the breeder didn't, we took him outside to the same spot after anything he did, eat drink, play etc and he got praised for going outside.3 accidents in the first 2 days then he's never gone in the house since.

Our second was/is paper trained by her breeder and were finding it alot harder to house train her, she's getting there but we can't take out eyes off her as she's still very hit and miss at going to the door to let us know.

[SarahNukka&Shadow]

Yep I'd just say the same as the others, no paper or pads just set your watch to take her out very regularly and add a command, mine both know what "go toilets" means and will go within a couple of mins of me saying it and actually still get a buscuit for their last thing at night duties just to keep re-inforcing this as well as get them back in the house instead of off wandering around the garden while im in my PJs and wanting to go to bed! LOL!

[princessmom]

I'll echo what everyone else has said about taking up the paper and making sure she goes out every hour (or less). I'll also suggest that she's peeing in the dining room and hallway because she doesn't consider them part of her den. Milla did this in our front room and upstairs hallway after she'd been given a little more freedom, because those were places she wasn't supposed to go. We allowed her to spend some time in the front room (under strict supervision) and she stopped peeing in there that day. (It's now "her room." When she wants to be left alone with her bone or toys, that's where she goes.) The hallway was a bit more difficult just because we don't really spend time in the hallway ('cuz it's a hallway, duh). I brought treats and a ball up to the hallway and played fetch with her a little bit with lots of treats. I also brought her treat ball up (it drops food when you roll it) and left it--full--in the hallway for a couple days so she would associate the hall with food and toys. She quickly stopped peeing up there, too, although it took a couple days of this to get her to understand that the whole house was her den and not to potty there.

[Hyshqa]

Well she's been doing really well today! I've taken away all of the newspaper that was on top of the pads, and I've also gotten rid of all but one pad. I've left one in the living room because she is absolutely refusing to poo in the garden - I took her out right after her lunch because she sniffed at her pad and was clearly looking for a place to poop but when we got to the grass it looked like her body was kind of asking her to arch and poop but she was trying her hardest not to I had her in the garden for about half an hour and it didn't look like she needed to go anymore, she was just running round trying to eat EVERYTHING >_< I brought her in and she still hasn't pooped, and this was hours ago! She's taking a nap right now so as soon as she wakes up I'll take her to the garden again and see if she'll finally go She's been peeing out there fine - when she does I've been jackpotting her with a handfull of treats instead of just one and I think she's getting the picture

[elenamarie]

Putting a command to it made it 10 billion times easier. Every time we'd go outside... "Cheyenne go pee pee!" *Cheyenne pees at some point* "Good peepee Cheyenne!!"

I looked like a total ass but I swear it helped so much.

I read about the command to eliminate and honestly didn't think it would work. How wrong I was! After two days of taking Sarah out and when she went saying, "good potty!" while petting her, she learned that potty means eliminate. Now, three weeks later, when we go outside and I tell her to potty, doesn't matter if she went ten minutes earlier, she'll squat and let go with what she has.

I'm really grateful I live on five acres and my nearest neighbor is 500 feet away! I didn't have to endure the embarassment.

[Hyshqa]

I've got no reservations about telling her "wee-wees!", people can think what they like I've been doing that since she got here, so hopefully the connection between relieving herself and the word "wee-wees" is already making its way there, I just need to change the location

[HuskyCouture]

I do the same with the command, we use potty, when we're walking to the door I say Zoey, Embry Potty Outside? and they both bolt to the door

[Hyshqa]

I'm happy to say she's finally pooped She's coming along nicely now, she just loooves being in the garden in general Still having accidents but we'll get there!

[francham]

i started with paper by the back door and then spoke to the vetenary nurse who gave me this fantastic advice which i followed to the letter

1. ditch the paper in the house - your telling them that its ok to pee in the house

2. take them outside every hour through the day and treat them when they pee / poop. dont let them outside any other time. and i even woke him up if the hour fell when he was asleep

3. continue this though the night - i didnt do every hour though i set the alarm and got up twice through the night and put him outside

4. after about 5 or 6 days i upped it to every 90 minutes, at which point he started to tell me when he wanted to go out, and only once through the night. always treat them for going to the toilet outside.

did this for around 10 days and that was all it took.

good luck!!

[Hyshqa]

Thanks She sleeps fine through the night, I take her out just before she goes into her crate for bed at night and she goes straight out there very first thing in the morning so I'm not going to start getting her up through the night But she's peed in the house a lot today despite me taking her out regularly. I think tomorrow I'm going to make it more regularly