Just venting -- house breaking new puppy. How long can it take?

[scruffy_the_cat]

[QUOTE=twelvegates;7690640]
L(She’s been really really good through the night. No accidents at night.)[/QUOTE]

This dog is playing you like a violin! Why or how I’m not sure and how to fix it I’m really not sure but the fact that she’s not soiling in the house at night tells you something major. What a funny girl.

Crate training is very nice. My younger dog is 4 now and he still snoozes in his crate every day because he loves his nest. I just leave the door open all the time now. It’s a great skill to have for going to the vet or when he has to be crated at obedience classes or herding lessons.

[gottagrey]

I’d crate train her too - put her bed in there and keep her there for periods of the day. I would also add that maybe taking her out 5 minutes after eating might be too soon - try taking her out 15 minutes after eating… after eating keep her in a confined area in the house or crate. A friend of mine has had great success house training her puppies by hanging a bell on her back door. When its time to let the dogs out she rings the bell, gives them a treat out they go to pee/poo. Eventually the dogs will run to the door and ring the bell when they want to go out… Her one dog picked it up in about 2 weeks, her second pup was a little slower.

http://www.wikihow.com/Potty-Train-Your-Puppy-Using-a-Bell

[Roxyllsk]

I had great success confining my puppy to one room, then giving her more freedom as she’s earned it. I had to let her use potty pads in the garage as it was February and we had so much snow this year (she was 6lbs when I got her).

I restricted her to the kitchen at first since I spend a lot of time in there - I work from home and use the kitchen table as my desk. I also got a kitchen timer and set it to remind myself to take her out every 30 minutes. I built on that time every week.

She is still crated at night and when I’m not home, but has free run of the house otherwise. She is almost 8 months old and is 95% reliable.

She picked it up way faster than my last puppy. He wasn’t 100%reliable until he was 1 1/2 years old.

[cnigh]

I am having fun training Amber. She has been so easy, potty training only took a few days. I went with getting her outside every 30 mins and then extended it little by little. Now she lets me know if she wants out. I bought one box of pee pads and most of them were used for her water dish. She LOVES bringing me her dish - empty or not.

I do crate her at night next to my bed. It really does help them learn to hold it. Normally I wait a few months and then my dogs sleep outside our room, but Amber has almost out grown her crate already. She is 30lbs at 14 weeks. Lean but solid and only eating 2 cups of food a day. I made a mistake thinking the 40lb crate would be large enough for until she was a 5-6 month old pup.

Now we think she will end up 80-90 lbs full grown. Much larger than I thought - lol.

[twelvegates]

[QUOTE=S1969;7690689]
Is there a way to use baby gates to make her living quarters smaller? Generally speaking, dogs don’t like to potty in their own space, so they look to run elsewhere (basements are AWESOME toilets! ) and do their business. Gates are a pain, but useful.[/QUOTE]

Baby gate went up today! And yes, basements are awesome toilets! Ackkk!

[twelvegates]

[QUOTE=gottagrey;7691097]
I’d crate train her too - put her bed in there and keep her there for periods of the day. I would also add that maybe taking her out 5 minutes after eating might be too soon - try taking her out 15 minutes after eating… after eating keep her in a confined area in the house or crate. A friend of mine has had great success house training her puppies by hanging a bell on her back door. When its time to let the dogs out she rings the bell, gives them a treat out they go to pee/poo. Eventually the dogs will run to the door and ring the bell when they want to go out… Her one dog picked it up in about 2 weeks, her second pup was a little slower.

http://www.wikihow.com/Potty-Train-Your-Puppy-Using-a-Bell[/QUOTE]

More good ideas to incorporate. Thank you so much!

[twelvegates]

[QUOTE=Roxyllsk;7691538]
I had great success confining my puppy to one room, then giving her more freedom as she’s earned it. I had to let her use potty pads in the garage as it was February and we had so much snow this year (she was 6lbs when I got her).

I restricted her to the kitchen at first since I spend a lot of time in there - I work from home and use the kitchen table as my desk. I also got a kitchen timer and set it to remind myself to take her out every 30 minutes. I built on that time every week.

She is still crated at night and when I’m not home, but has free run of the house otherwise. She is almost 8 months old and is 95% reliable.

She picked it up way faster than my last puppy. He wasn’t 100%reliable until he was 1 1/2 years old.[/QUOTE]

I would like to try the one room thing, though it is a bit difficult, as I have an “open floor plan”. I can do this in my office. I still have to leash her up when I leave the office and take her directly outside, as she makes a mad dash for open territory in the house.

[Arrows_Endure]

Crates are your friends.

If I can’t keep one eye on the puppy, he’s in a crate. When it’s time to go outside, we come out of the crate, go outside. Puppy has two minutes to potty. We go to the same place in the yard every time. On lead. If the puppy potties, lead comes off and we have a happy play session. If the puppy doesn’t potty, he goes back inside into his crate for ten minutes. After ten minutes, back out we go. Again, he gets two minutes to potty, or it is back inside we go and into the crate.

There is NO play time until puppy potties. There is no free time until he potties. Remember they have to go as soon as they wake up, in the middle of a good play session, after they eat, and every 10 minutes in between.

If it seems like she’s going more than you think she should, have her urine checked and make sure she doesn’t have a UTI.

Once my puppy learns to go in that two minute time span, I give the action a name. As he starts to go pee, I say “go potty” and praise. As he starts to poop, I say “good poop” and praise. All of my dogs all go on command within about a minute of going outside. I can tell them to go anywhere and they do. It just takes some time and consistency on your part to get it.

My boxer was 18 months old before he was reliable. Of course, he has a compulsive water drinking problem. My cattle dog/border collie mix was housetrained in about a week. My purebred cattle dog has been a challenge, or at least he was until I finally figured out his issue. He would go outside, then come in and poop in the closet. However, he’s a double pooper. He goes, then about ten minutes later has to go again. Once we figured out that, he’s been good.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

[QUOTE=Arrows Endure;7692664]
Crates are your friends.

If I can’t keep one eye on the puppy, he’s in a crate. When it’s time to go outside, we come out of the crate, go outside. Puppy has two minutes to potty. We go to the same place in the yard every time. On lead. If the puppy potties, lead comes off and we have a happy play session. If the puppy doesn’t potty, he goes back inside into his crate for ten minutes. After ten minutes, back out we go. Again, he gets two minutes to potty, or it is back inside we go and into the crate.

There is NO play time until puppy potties. There is no free time until he potties. Remember they have to go as soon as they wake up, in the middle of a good play session, after they eat, and every 10 minutes in between.

If it seems like she’s going more than you think she should, have her urine checked and make sure she doesn’t have a UTI.

Once my puppy learns to go in that two minute time span, I give the action a name. As he starts to go pee, I say “go potty” and praise. As he starts to poop, I say “good poop” and praise. All of my dogs all go on command within about a minute of going outside. I can tell them to go anywhere and they do. It just takes some time and consistency on your part to get it.

My boxer was 18 months old before he was reliable. Of course, he has a compulsive water drinking problem. My cattle dog/border collie mix was housetrained in about a week. My purebred cattle dog has been a challenge, or at least he was until I finally figured out his issue. He would go outside, then come in and poop in the closet. However, he’s a double pooper. He goes, then about ten minutes later has to go again. Once we figured out that, he’s been good.[/QUOTE]

This is how I crate train. I think a combo of your tether method when you want the puppy in the house with you (after a successful bathroom break) and adding crate training would work well. Crate training is so nice if you ever want to travel with the dog. They are not stressed.

You do need to watch the pup go to the bathroom all the time at this point so you can add the praise.

The big thing is differentiating potty time from play time. Always start with potty time. The pup will catch on real quick that if I don’t potty I go back in the crate and if I do potty I get to hang out with you and/or play.

I had more problems with this last pup than any other and I suspect it was because the breeder used pee pads in a kennel when she traveled with the puppies (but can’t be sure). It was like he thought peeing in the kennel was ok. Very frustrating. I’m not sure I like these pee pads.

[Limitless]

We used the every hour on the hour method and crated at night or if not in the room with the puppy. In January. During I think the #5 snowiest winter in 100 years or something. Brrr.

Anyway, at the top of every hour, outside we went. I think he was unleashed IIRC (we can do that at our house). Also we went outside first thing in the AM, last thing before bed, after playing and after eating. Praised him for any business that he performed and I’d say he pretty much figured out the house was not for peeing or pooping in about a day and a half. Like I said, PIA due to the winter! And, it seemed extreme, but it worked and worked quick.

[Spud_amp_Saf]

Another thing you can do between sort of falls between the tether and loose in the house. I always keep lead ropes on my new fosters for the first few weeks. They have no loop handle on the end to get caught on anything, and it makes corrections much easier because you can just grab the end of the rope. This may make it easier to catch and correct her when she’s doing the wrong thing. If you can stop her part way through and get her outside to finish, that is idea.

[twelvegates]

Crates, potty time with no playing, consistent praise for correct behavior, regular bathroom breaks and lead ropes – all incorporated or reinforced.

I hate to say it, but we have gone almost three days without an accident!

Thanks for all the ideas. You are wonderful!

[scruffy_the_cat]

Really? That’s GREAT!!!

[JumpQH]

That IS great! Congrats! Summer has been my friend for potty training, I’ve discovered. Doggie has learned that if I take her outside in the heat, if I give her “the command” and she pees right away, she gets to come back inside right away! Now…if I can just get her to understand that “the command” encompasses pooping, too!

[AddieMarie]

Ahhhh…a story close to my heart. We have a three month old lab puppy who is smart as anything. Congrats on the three days! That’s amazing!

It takes a long time to potty train. We also have a big multiple level home. Bought a cheap baby gate from Walmart and we use it to keep miss pup on the same house level we are at. We have a kitty so I leave enough room for her to get by it. It’s not installed, just propped up there in front of the stairs so pup can’t go by it.
We also have her crate trained. We got a big wire crate and she sleeps in there at night and is crated when we are gone. She cried a lot at first but is fine now.

I do believe confining the indoor space is key. Dogs won’t potty in their “den”, so make the living area the den. Use the baby gate, close doors, etc. for the first few weeks we had our bedroom and office doors closed on the main level because she would go in there and potty…wasn’t part of her den.

Now 90% of the time she gets it. We still have accidents.

[kiwifruit]

Following this thread as well. I have a 3 month old border collie puppy who pees outside like a champ but likes to poop on the carpets. My question is how long do you stay outside? I’ve waited over 30 minutes with no results. And she will either try to play or just lay down and wait it out with me. Ugh. Do I wait it out or just put her back in crate when she refuses to poop and try again in an hour?

[My_Two_Cents]

If the pup was paper trained, have you thought about putting paper out where you want him to go?

[JumpQH]

twelvegates, how’s the potty training going?

Mine had a wee (so to speak) setback last night. No accidents for quite some time, and then blammo, it happened. Sigh. Any more hints, guys? Every time she goes to the door, I open it to show her that’s what she needs to do if she has to go to the bathroom, plus she’s going “on command” outside, but obviously it’s not enough - she’s still not connecting the dots! I also use baby gates to keep her confined and a close eyeball on her at all times (which is why I caught her in mid-stream!).

[alto]

[QUOTE=kiwifruit;7710894]
Following this thread as well. I have a 3 month old border collie puppy who pees outside like a champ but likes to poop on the carpets. My question is how long do you stay outside? I’ve waited over 30 minutes with no results. And she will either try to play or just lay down and wait it out with me. Ugh. Do I wait it out or just put her back in crate when she refuses to poop and try again in an hour?[/QUOTE]

Wait her out.
Separate outside play time from doing our business time, e.g., out for biz lasts all of 2 min, then back inside to crate, then back out after 15 min (depending on how long since potty, how long since food, how old/size the dog), out for 2, etc

This is where a designated, defined potty area really helps - the scent is there, & you establish patterns & word associations.

Always just reward the positives, ignore & quietly clean up the accidents - you don’t want to assign import to them, and it’s easy to create a dog that is convinced that pooh/pee is meant to not be seen rather than not in the house.

Some dogs just seem to “get it”, they (almost) potty train themselves by 8-10 weeks, others just don’t seem to connect the dots & may still be having the occasional accident at 9-10 months.

Pups that are slower on the uptake, you just need to put more time/effort in it - set up The Spot, take them out (don’t just open the door & send them on their way & hope for completion), reward every pee & pooh (of course some dogs also begin to fake the gotta pee, squeeze out a few drops for reward :lol: - so then you need to reassess & consider if you’re rewarding enough for other behaviours, so dog can earn more cookies in various ways).

Always use the leash when establishing the pattern, you want to be able to control & not end up play-chasing pup all over the yard or house, when it’s supposed to be Learn to Potty Time.

[alto]

[QUOTE=JumpQH;7714642]
twelvegates, how’s the potty training going?

Mine had a wee (so to speak) setback last night. No accidents for quite some time, and then blammo, it happened. Sigh. Any more hints, guys? Every time she goes to the door, I open it to show her that’s what she needs to do if she has to go to the bathroom, plus she’s going “on command” outside, but obviously it’s not enough - she’s still not connecting the dots! I also use baby gates to keep her confined and a close eyeball on her at all times (which is why I caught her in mid-stream!).[/QUOTE]

Just think of the wee accidents as your failure rather than hers = you’re the one capable of planned adventures so need to be the one tracking what’s what.
Teach confirmed Potty Outside before you worry about teaching door - you might ring a bell on the door everytime before you go out for Potty Break but then there’s always the chance of creating the Bell Ringing Monster - which now you’re afraid to not respond to, as dog is still not confirmed in potty habits.

I don’t explain these things very well, there are loads of video that have done better explanations :lol: