Puppy toileting/sleep

[HotelNewHampshire]

This week we bought home a 10 week old Labrador puppy. There are 2 main problems I would really like some advice on:

1. She often preferentially poos and wees indoors after being taken outdoors for up to 20 minutes and refusing to produce anything. In fact, she often wants to come in straightaway and will scratch at the back door to get in. I understand that before she left the breeders she was having only the occasional wee accident.
2. Having had 2 nights of little/no crying she cried on/off nearly all last night. She had had some crate training before she came to us and I had been able to close the door for the first 2 nights. But now she goes ballistic when she is left with the door closed and will not stay in it if the door is open. I've no other way of keeping her out of the rest of the downstairs.

I've mainly ignored the crying but after 2 hours last night she was extremely agitated and I spent an hour sitting next to her crate, trying to get her to calm down and settle.

Any ideas?

use paper/ puppy pads for the weeing, when you catch her weeing else where pick her up and put her on the paper/ pad. Gradually move the pad closer to the door then outside.

As for the whining, you are not helping by pandering to her. She whines, you sit by crate (which is what she wants) and she learns that if she wines you come running, don't plan on getting much sleep but leave her crying. Only go to her when she stops or you just reinforce that crying = you coming running. Or kennel her - that is always my preferred method and I have 9.

Hold on. Are you just putting her outside by herself and hoping she'll pee? It sounds like it - otherwise why would she be scratching at the back door to come back in?

You need to teach her where to pee in your house - she won't just work it out for herself. She knew what was what at the breeders - you need to show her what to do at your house.

Also, don't underestimate the trauma - she has just left all she knows to come somewhere completely different by herself. That's a big deal and is likely to upset behaviour for some time. The first couple of days are usually quite easy while they find their feet, and then as they gain confidence it gets a bit harder - as last night demonstrates.

With regard to the crate - either go cold turkey and ignore as Lally says, or give up on the crate and use a puppy pen, or take the crate upstairs.

My advice is go cold turkey. Cover the crate, give her a stuffed kong, a chew toy and a big teddy and leave her to it. She is likely to shout, she learned last night that crying brings you running so will do it again. Lab pups are very, very bright, so fully expect trouble. It will pass though, and after a couple of nights of shouting it will go quiet.

I wouldn't use paper or pads at all but would follow the advice here from Lilcamper
Toilet training is all about creating good habits. Young pups have very small bladders and very little bladder control so they need to be in the right place when nature calls.

To toilet train successfully in as short a time as possible you must take your puppy to the garden:

When they wake

After eating

After taking a drink

Before, during and after a period of activity

When you come in

Before you go out

Before bedtime

During the adverts

And every twenty to thirty minutes in between unless they are asleep. During periods of activity change that to every ten to twenty minutes.

Stay outside with your pup. Do not nag or distract him just mooch about and he will do the same and eventually eliminate. Quiet praise is sufficient. Once pup has eliminated you can either stay out and play or go back indoors. If you stay out for a game then he will often need to go again before you go back indoors so stop the game and stay out for a while longer to give him a chance to go again.

If you have to take him back in and he hasn’t eliminated outside then either confine him to his crate, sit him on your lap or tuck him under your arm (small breeds only) as you go about your chores and try again in five minutes.

It is imperative that you do this, especially if you have started off with newspaper down or puppy pads because your puppy may prefer to pee indoors and he could simply be waiting to be taken back in. Give him zero opportunity to go wrong.

If your puppy toilets in the house it is because you haven’t toilet trained him yet and didn’t take him outside when he needed to go. When this happens take a rolled up newspaper and hit yourself over the head whilst repeating the words “I forgot to watch my puppy. I forgot to watch my puppy” If your puppy laughs at you when you do this – praise him.

Common mistakes during toilet training.

Using newspaper or puppy training pads. Whilst it may aid the clearing up process it can be very confusing for the pup that is taught or permitted to toilet in the house to make the transition to going outside and will often result in a pup that when playing in the garden will simply hold on until they are back indoors because that is where the toilet is.

Leaving the door open. This does nothing to teach the pup to toilet outside only.

Reprimands for toileting in the house will result in a dog that believes you disapprove of what he did not where he did it and is damaging to your relationship with your pup.

Giving treats for toileting in the garden, again the dog is being rewarded for what he did not where he did it. Whilst this is not going to be as big a problem as the reprimand, the clever dog will learn to do lots of little wees and never fully empty their bladder. The insecure dog may wee indoors to appease you if you get cross about something else because they know that this is something that pleases you and gets rewarded. NB using both reprimands and rewards is very confusing for your pup.

Expecting your pup to tell you when he needs to go out. Once a pup understands that outside is where the toilet is then he may start to let you know he needs out. However if you are not there to ask or you fail to notice him asking then the housetraining will break down. Far better to have a dog go out to the toilet on your schedule once they are house trained.

Giving your pup an ensuite in his crate. Do not encourage your pup to toilet in his crate by putting puppy pads in there. If you have to leave puppy for a while and he is going to need to go then best to have the crate inside a larger pen or blocked off area and leave the crate door open so that he can get away from his bed to toilet.

N.B. Areas indoors where pup has had an accident are best cleaned with a dilute of biological washing powder. Avoid using disinfectant as this contains ammonia and can encourage pup to pee there again.

Overnight.

Young pups will need to go to the toilet once or twice in the night for anything from a few days to a few weeks.

If your pup is sleeping in a crate in the bedroom with you then they will wake and should let you know they need to go out. Carry pup to the garden to eliminate and then straight back to bed again. A few nights of this and it will take you longer to find your slippers because of sleep deprivation and consequently pup is learning to hold on and will soon be sleeping all night.

If you choose to leave puppy in the kitchen or utility room to sleep then do not shut them in a crate and simply clean up in the morning without comment.

Why punishment does not work for house training.

A typical morning in the life of an 8 week old pup.

7:00am Puppy pees in the garden – Owner present. Gets praised

7.30am Puppy pees in the kitchen – Owner present. Gets a reprimand

8:15am Puppy pees in the lounge – Owner not present. Nothing happens except relief

9:00am Puppy pees in the lounge – Owner present. Gets a reprimand

9:30 am Puppy pees in the kitchen – Owner not present. Nothing, just relief

11:00am Puppy pees in the garden – Owner doesn’t notice Just relief again

11:30am Puppy pees under the dining room table – Owner not present. Nothing happens

12:15pm Puppy pees in the garden – Owner present – gets praise

What we think we are teaching puppy is that it is good to pee in the garden and wrong to pee in the house but what the pup is actually learning is that sometimes it is rewarding to pee when the owner is present and sometimes it is dangerous. However it is always safe to go when the owner is not present and that so far the safest place is under the dining room table.

NOTE. - Never deny your dog water in the mistaken belief that this will aid toilet training. It won't. It will make the urine stronger, it may impact on your dog's health, i.e. cause kidney problems or urniary tract infections.if the dog drinks greedily and excessively when it is available knowing it will be taken away.Dogs must have clean fresh water available all of the time.

It is hard work at first but within days of our puppy being home he had very few accidents (only really when I wasn't paying attention) and he was fully house trained by 11 weeks and we've had no accidents since then.

Thanks all. As she is not out of the vaccination window period yet I have made a fenced dog run with artificial grass outside the back door. (We have foxes, badgers and all sorts in our garden so wanted to play it safe, also to create a designated space for the future.) I take her our there at all the times suggested and stand there with her, even in the middle of the night, for up to 20 minutes. We have a cue word as used by the breeder and she also has toys out there to keep her interested. I take a cuppa and my phone and leave her to get on with it. However, even so, she seems to decide she wants to go in and scratches the door, jumps up at it and has even given me a little bark. She also sometimes just lies down and even closes her eyes. The only thing I can think of is that when my kids are inside playing, she can hear them and would rather play with them than hang around outside but this doesn't explain the nights.
As for the crate training, we had only 30 minutes of crying last night and then she settled so that is certainly improving.
It's definitely true that the first day was easier.
Thanks for your advice everyone.

The run is probably not helping. We don't have the fox or badger problem and so pup had free reign in the enclosed garden. The sniffing round encouraged him to go I think I would just wander round with him until he went. Nowadays (he's seven months) he has a cast iron bladder and only pees and poos on his walks going twelve hours at times overnight because he doesn't like to soil in the garden.

If puppy was going outside on real grass she may have developed a substrate preference for that, and be put off by the astroturf. We put up a puppy pen on a patch of the lawn as if given free reign he got too distracted to go. We do have foxes but not badgers. Have you discussed the risks with your vet as ours assessed the risk as very low?

Don't ignore her out there - work at it!

Play with her because movement stimulates bowels and bladder. Lying down or mooching doesn't.