Very curious to know at what age people's puppies were clean indoors and whether you went with the using newspaper, or taking outdoors approach - or both.
We have a new addition of a lovely 9 week old puppy and I'm interested to know when the majority of you found 'accidents' become unusual,and finally,unlikely ( and whether any of you never managed full house training...)
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The doghouse
Toilet training puppy
37 replies
RunningLatte · 03/04/2012 20:04
OP posts:
RunningLatte ·
03/04/2012 22:45
I'm really struggling with the idea of crate training to be honest,but I'm trying to keep open minded.I do have an small room with a solid easily cleaned floor gated off,and I'm trying to get pup used to that for periods of time. But the puppy is out about the house for most of the time and we are getting a lot of accidents on carpets despite taking him out every hour.Its like we go out and spend a reasonable amount of time in the garden,but when we come back in he heaves a sigh of relief and poos or wees on the floor - as if to say 'thank goodness you let me back in as I was dying for the loo' 
Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon and a few more successes will enable me to reinforce rewards for toiletting in the correct place.
I think I may have to put him in his 'confined' space more and provide a litter tray with turf and see if this helps matters,but he does cry in there ( I know,I know - he has to get used to it).And I think I may have to prevent his access to the living room where his accidents are happening - I'm concerned a habit is forming....
You're all going to come on here now and tell me to crate train - well,I'm listening to all voices of experience!
OP posts:
cazinge ·
03/04/2012 23:01
I have friends who have used puppy pads, newspaper, crates, etc some successfully, some not so.
I despaired of DDog for the first day or so as she was similar to how you describe your pup (for wees only though) and following the horror stories the rescue told me at our 1-2-1 I was getting worried but 7 weeks in & I would say accidents don't really happen anymore and were pretty rare past the first 2-3 weeks. She even wakes us in the morning when she wants to go out 
this is not counting weeing on the sofa/her bed when the hoover is out, or something has upset her
Flatbread ·
03/04/2012 23:06
Well. I won't tell you to crate train 
. Do it if you and your puppy are comfortable, but it is fine IMO, if you don't. We didn't crate train. My dog absolutely refuses to be within a crate.
When she was a pup, I gated part of my bedroom that had tiles. I took her out every couple of hours, to the same spot. I think she had a couple of pee accidents on the floor, but that is it. (Now that I think about it, she may have already been trained as she never peed inside the car either, just did it before we left and after we got out of the car)
I think if you catch your dog peeing inside, just take him/her outside and use some code word that means pee or poop ( for us it was 'hurry up') They should get the message eventually. Even now our dog will squat and pee if I say 'hurry up'. I say it now absent-mindedly if I want her to move along, but she connects it with peeing in her mind
Flatbread ·
03/04/2012 23:33
Running, it was not really that confined, it was one and a half by two meters. There is a natural angle in the room that I could gate this area for her. No, my girl didn't cry, but she determinedly explored every part of the gate till she figured out how to escape to my part of the room and she would swagger triumphantly to me and then promptly sleep under my bed.
It didn't seem to matter that the dog had stopped peeing by the time we reached outside. I think she just made the connection, especially as I always used the same term/code for peeing. I did praise her each time afterwards, but no treats. Using the newspaper inside might be confusing the boy and he might think that you want him to go inside...hence, his relieved peeing once you step in
midori1999 ·
03/04/2012 23:48
Whatever method you use, even the 'rubbing nose in it' (which is cruel, please don't do that) will work eventually. However, the more quickly you can toilet train and the less accidents you have, the less stressful it will be for both you and the puppy.
It is entirely up to you whether you crate train, but I tend to think of it like this. To us, it is a cage, to a dog it is a lovely, cosy, safe den/bed. Crate training is about much more than just shoving the dog in and shutting the door, it is about making the crate a safe and really lovely place to be for the dog. Also, you say your puppy is crying when confined to a room, my puppies have never cried when they have been in their crates. If you get the crate training right, you won't have any crying.
I don't use Ian Dunbar's 'errorless toilet training' method, but I do use a crate for all my puppies. I don't keep the crate up once the dog reaches around a year old as I simply don't have room, but my dogs would prefer a crate tbh. When I had my last puppy, whenever the crate door was left open I would find two adult Golden Retrievers and the not overly small puppy crammed in there, falling out of the door in fact. They all wanted to be in there and it was only a 3ft crate, so too small for them all by far! I currently have a friend's puppy here and I keep finding one of my adult Goldens cosied up in the crate, she loves it. They probably spend 50/50 time in their normal beds or laying on the floor, but if there's a crate there, they'll be found in it. I have one crate up for one of my dogs still as he is very nervous and it helps him feel secure and he spends all day sleeping in it with the door open.
The key to quick toilet training is supervision. If you can avoid accidents inside then it will help your dog learn much more quickly where you want it to go to toilet. So, take the puppy out every hour or more if you need to and wait out there with him until he does go to toilet, then praise like mad and give a treat if you like. Watch him like a hawk when indoors and if you notice he looks like he needs the toilet, even if you are in doubt, take him out again. At times when you can't supervise him you can pop him in the crate if you use one and he shouldn't toilet in his bed, he will do his best to hang on, whereas if he is in a room on his own he will just go and the more times he has been indoors versus the number of times he has been outdoors will make things harder for him.
If you teach him to go on newspaper you will confuse him as he will need to learn two things and often if you paper train, once you remove the paper the puppy will still toilet in the same spot, because it was the place they were associating with being 'allowed' to wee in, not the paper.
I hope this helps. Sorry I've gone on a bit...
(BTW, you can download Ian Dunbar's books online for free I think. He is a very good and well respected dog trainer/behaviourist)
Flatbread ·
04/04/2012 09:11
Well, the good news is that he is learning to hold it in till he is at his 'toilet' place. The bad news is the place is not where you want it to be
Pups are creatures of habit and he will learn to do it outside. if you can use this opportunity to teach him do his business on command, it will be easier in the long-run for you. freshstartpetcoaching.com/dog-behavior/does-your-puppy-potty-on-command-mine-does/
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RunningLatte ·
04/04/2012 16:51
Just checked in and thanks all you lovely people for the advice!
He did a wee outside this pm (yay!) so I told him 'be quick' (our command words) and gave him a big fuss and training treat.
I am also gradually increasing his time in his 'confined' space and making it a happy place by feeding him there,so its somewhere he can go when we go out,but he doesn't always associate with him being left alone.
Flatbread thanks for the positive slant on what he's doing - you're right,he is showing the ability to hold on till he gets to the "right" place
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