House breaking a young puppy, advice please?

[MamaBear81]

I brought home a 6 week old jug puppy last week (now 7 wks old).. I know that's very young, but I recieved confirmation from the breeders vet that it was ok for the pups to leave, as the mother was stressed by their presence and the puppies were fully weaned. She had her first vaccination before she left, but is not due her second until she's 10-12 wks. . Until then, I have been vet advised not to allow her to go down on the ground outside. But where does this leave me with house training? If I train her to use puppy pads or newspaper for the next few weeks, wont that confuse her when it comes to teaching her to only pee outside when her jabs are up to date? Im using newspaper at the moment but it's not going great.

[Floralnomad]

Taking her into the garden should be fine ,if you're particularly worried take her out on a lead . I think the vets mean don't take her to public areas and put her down .

[tabulahrasa]

You can't take her anywhere that other dogs go and put her on the ground, your own garden is fine as is the house/garden of someone with fully vaccinated dogs.

[MamaBear81]

I had a jack russell who caught parvo and died a few months ago, so im a little 'parvo paranoid'.. she used the garden the whole time I had her, and the vet told me the virus can last in infected areas for up to a year.. so I'd rather be safe than sorry until my new pup is fully vaccinated

[tabulahrasa]

Oh yes, no, your own garden's not ok then :(

Training her inside might confuse her a bit, but if you can get her going on a certain material and then when she's older move it outside it should be do-able, just harder work than being able to go out now.

This might be a stupid idea...but, seeing as she's a tiny puppy - could you put turf in a cat litter tray and train her to go there?

[Floralnomad]

I agree try to litter box train her , some stores do extra large trays .id keep it by the back door then move it outside when she is vaccinated .

[moosemama]

She is very young to be away from her litter mates, the only time I've had one that young was when we took on Oldgirl as an emergency rescue and it does make things harder in lots of ways.

It's a shame she's been taken away from them so young, as much of her social skills learning, bite-inhibition etc would ordinarily have been done through play and interaction with her mum and siblings. Difficult situation if mum had had enough, but imo, really the breeder should have kept the litter together, but away from mum for another week or so.

She'll need to start puppy classes as soon as she's cleared to start mixing with other dogs and in the meantime needs to be carried everywhere and introduced to lots of things for socialisation purposes.

I can really understand why you don't want her to go down in your garden till she's vaccinated, under the circumstances.

If you want her to go on grass when she's older you could create a litter box for her - they do it a lot in America, where dogs often live in apartments, but people still want them to 'go' in parks etc.

You basically need some sort of plastic tray and get some turf cut to size to fit in it and reward her for going in it. If you have a back porch area it would be a good idea to put it there, so it's as close as possible to the garden, then when she's had all her jabs and is cleared to go out you can just move it outside and to whichever area of the garden you'd like her to toilet in. There are a few videos on youtube. You can see one in use in (although the video is actually about home-alone training). You can also buy ready made litter trays, but they tend to have astro-turf, rather than real turf in, which means you would still end up having to teach her to go on real grass, although I suppose you could possibly buy the tray and put your own turf in it.

Alternatively, if you have a patio you could buy some parvocide disinfectant give it a really good scrub and fence off an area for your pup to go on.

[moosemama]

Took ages to type my post and cross-posted - twice!

[MamaBear81]

The litter tray sounds like a good idea. Any tips on how to train her to use it would be appreciated. I've never raised a puppy from such a young age, my previous dogs have come to me already house trained so im not sure the best way to go about it.

[moosemama]

Same as outdoor training. Put her on there every time she wakes from a nap, has something to eat, has a vigorous play session and if she shows signs of sniffing and circling.

As soon as she does something, give her a treat and/or lots of praise and fuss to make it far more rewarding to go there than to go anywhere else.

[MamaBear81]

Iv got her s 4ft by 4ft pen at the moment (she's the size of a guinea pig) .. in her pen iv put her bed, some toys and her feeding bowls, and coveref the entire area of the floor with a few layers of newspaper. When she eakes/eats/drinks I leave her in her pen until she's done her business, then give her a treat and lots of praise before letting her out. When she's in the pen, she tends to do her business in roughly the same spot :) ... but when I let her out, she doesn't return to the toilet spot (I leave itoopen for her) .. instead she pees wherever the fancy takes her :/

[MamaBear81]

Sorry for the typing errors in my last post.. bloody touch screen phone is too fiddly for my thumbs lol

[moosemama]

She's still very young to be getting the idea that she should return to a specific toilet spot. You need to be vigilant and take her there regularly, plus any time she starts showing signs of needing to go.

If you say a particular cue word/phrase as she goes every time (people tend to use, be-quick or get-busy or business), then reward her immediately she finishes, eventually she will pair the cue with going and you will be able to get her to go pretty much on demand (provided of course she actually needs to go) which makes life a lot easier in the long-run.

[MamaBear81]

I use the word "toilet" when coaxing her to go, and ad I said, when she's in her pen she returns to the same spot.. its just get her to return there at all times o have to work on, rather than just when she's in the pen.. I know it will take more than a week for her to pick up on this, but as long as I know I'm on the right track I'm happy :)

[moosemama]

Sounds like you're doing fine.

[sweetkitty]

I always though your own garden was fine, out garden has not had a dog on it in about 6 years so I assumed it was safe?

[moosemama]

It should be sweetkitty, but the OP's previous dog had Parvo and obviously had access to the garden for toiletting, so it's sensible to avoid there until her new pup is fully covered by her vaccinations.

[sweetkitty]

Right I see, our garden should be fine then. Weve been busy securing it looking for anything as all puppy could damage herself on.

I keep thinking I've potty trained 4 children a dog should be a doddle

[ameliaesmith]

Sorry to post on an ancient thread but we have recently got a jug pup, he's a lovely yet overly energetic little tyke, we found this site on jug dog housebreaking extremely useful over the last few months, he's a much calmer and more house friendly dog now!

Any other mumsnetters got a jug dog?