Moving on from 'errorless' house training...

[Gracie123]

We've been doing 'errorless' house training with our puppy, and it's been mostly errorless! Hooray!!

The problem is I seem to be stuck in a rut. My puppy is now nearly 15 weeks old and I still take him out to pee every 2 hours.

I know he should have moved on from here, but I'm enjoying not cleaning up accidents

How do we move forward? How long should I let him go without taking him outside now?

I'm at home all day with my kids anyway, so it's not a problem most of the time (actually, it's great. I've never managed to get my kids outside so much before ), but I'd like to know how long we could leave him, so I can work out things like going to tesco without having to plan it round being home every 2 hours for a 30 minute play outdoors break, especially when it's raining!

How quickly does he wee when you go outside within 2 mins, 10 mins etc? What type of dog is he?

I would not worry now about having a wee inside. Dogs learn really quickly buy their mistakes. So if when he does wee outside, he gets praised attention, treats and a game. Then if he wees inside nothing happens at all, no reaction, backs turned on him, nothing is said to him etc. He will prefer to wee outside

If he is not weeing quickly when you take him outside I would lenghten the time between taking him out. If he does not wee immediately, back indoors, then out again a bit later. However you are there with him, you should be able to work out a pattern to his weeing etc.

Have you got a command word as that can often help . We use 'go quickly' and my boy always has a wee or a try so there is no waiting around . If your pup thinks you are going to hang about in the garden for ages playing there is no incentive for him to go quickly.

He does go very quickly (we use the command "hurry up") but sometimes it looks like an effort to squeeze out the tiniest bit of pee. He stands in position for about 20 secs, does a few drops then runs over for some strokes and cuddles!

He is a Labrador crossed with a bernese mountain dog, and weighs about 12 kg at the moment.