What can I cover my carpet with-puppy housetraining.

[Duckegg271]

Our living room is carpeted. I had a brainwave that a couple of picnic blankets would cover it-the ones with the plastic backing, if I turned them upside down I could just wipe them.

Is there anything more practical though? I saw on a YouTube video someone had like a felt type cover, plastic backed. She said it was for when you’re painting, she had a big roll of it. Anyone know if you can get that in the uk?

Never needed anything like that in all my dog owning years!

Just be vigilant after eating and drinking and keep taking them outside.

You can hang a bell/bells on door and teach them to jangle it to ask to go out.

You can buy puppy pads but I’ve never used them as always taken them outside to go. It’s repetitive but worth it and they catch on quickly.

So once they’ve done a wee outside, how long would you say you’d be ‘safe’ to have them in a carpeted room before they need to go again?

Never tell them off if they were to go indoors, but you can reward for when they do go outdoors.

Careful with edible treats as they can then come to expect it. I’ve always rewarded toiletting outside with vocal praise.

I use the word ‘toilet’ as a command.

? You can house train in 10 days if you do it properly.

I always just had a professional carpet clean for £50 ish post toilet training. Stair gate so they can't pee upstairs.

It's really not worth covering carpets

We use sticky back carpet protector at work to save us from glitter, confetti etc - it’s literally clear and you put it over your carpet, but when you’re done pull it up. Would that work? I think it’s designed for painting and decorating so it should work for puppy training.

Thanks Soola, my plan is to watch them like a hawk, big praise when they do wee outside.

Spandang yeh that’s the kind of thing I was thinking of. Our house is all carpets except for our little kitchen and utility room. I don’t want to be trapped in there.

If you have an 8 weeker, every 20 minutes. Add 5 minutes per day.
When they are outside say your command while they wee. Lots of praise. Make yourself look like a right twat.

The trick is absolutely not allowing them to fail. Take them out religiously. Do not take your eyes off that puppy. Lead onto your belt loop if you have to.

10 days later, no fails, should be job done. They can regress a bit when they hit toddlerhood but then just go back to the old routine.

@NotYourHolidayDick that’s exactly how I’ve always done it.

Dogs/puppies want to please and I’ve had different breeds and found it easy to house train this way.

NotYourHolidayDick thankyou, I’ll be on it 100%! What have you found works best at night? I don’t particularly want to crate train, our plan at the minute is for puppy to be in the spare bedroom in a puppy pen, with bed and waterproof floor cover. She’ll be within earshot.

Ah, good old nights!

I have puppy on my bed. To date, and with lots of rescues as well as resident dogs I've not had an accident on my bed.

Or, box by the side of my bed. Take puppy out last thing, 11pm. Set alarm for 2am. Take out for happy wees. Set alarm for 5am. Take out for happy wees. Attempt to go back to sleep until 7am.

By 12 weeks a puppy should be able to go 7 hours overnight. Just like a 4/5 year old can. You get the odd exception of course.

If you have a Beagle then good luck for the next 15 years 😂

Yeh you see, I’m a puppy on the bed kind of person. DS slept in our bed until he was 3, it was just easier!

We’ll see how the puppy pen in spare room works out first.

A friend told me to let them just pee/poo on a puppy pad during the night and they’ll eventually just stop once they can hold it for long enough but doesn’t that confuse things in the day?

We bought a large piece of vinyl - an off cut so not very expensive and had that down for the first few weeks.
We gradually cut it down in size to fit the puppy pad until we didn't need it anymore.