Puppy won't ask to go outside to wee/poo?

[anniebear71]

my puppy is nearly 5 months old , she does the majority of her toileting outside, but only because we take her. Otherwise she will sniff around and stoop n poop!!! Anywhere in the house.

As I said it's not lots as we take her out still plus She can hold it longer. I read by 6 months accidents are rare, but can't see anything been different in 5 weeks! Do some dogs never let you know they need to go out?

I still praise her when she has gone out and ignore when she has done it inside. Although how does she know she has done wrong? I know praise and positivity is what we are told to do but would be be so bad to tell her off if she does it indoors now?
Thanks

At the moment her sniffing is her signal in some dogs it can take a while to develop a signal.
The mobile mop was a sniffer and it wasn't till he was about 11 months old that he developed the urgent look that means I need to go outside.

My youngest dog was exactly 6 months & one day it just clicked for her. No idea what changed but we got up one morning & she started asking to go out. We've had no indoor accidents since. Was a massive relief for us!

Yes. Very wrong to tell her off for doing it inside. Don't do it.

She's not even 5 months old, so you should expect her to be some weeks away from being perfectly house trained. She is already giving signals that she needs to go, so watch carefully for them and whip her outside straight away.

To be honest, the accidents in the house are your fault for not watching carefully enough. She's still very, very young and physically unable to control herself perfectly.

My fault??!!! I watch her as much as I can do which is a lot. Does everyone else follow their dogs round all the time? I was with her and then had to see to my daughter in the hallway! She had done it then straight way! That's not my faullt, and I haven't told her off for doing it. I don't think it's very helpful to tell somebody who is asking for advice that it's their fault! When it clearly isn't.

Thanks everyone else for the advice. I do put her out when she does a certain type of sniffing! I can just tell ! She normally poos and wee's outside first thing, but she didn't do it today, I was with her in the lounge and literally just went into the hallway to help my daughter. That's great to know that yours suddenly did let you know. I know she is only young still. Thank you

I suppose you read about other peoples letting them know when they need to go out and also no accidents. But sounds like my pup is doing ok, thanks

When our ddog was still young we fed him and took him out for a "walk" first thing for around 1/2 hour until he did his morning pee/poo. Didn't bring him back in until it was done (I know they say not to walk far at this age, but it wasn't walking, just mooching about in a grassy bit on lead).

We also wrote down when he ate/drank and worked out when he went roughly went each day and took him out either in garden or "walk" again.

If she hasn't done her morning pee/poo and is indoors I wouldn't be taking my eyes off her for a second until it was done.

Our ddog probably wasn't fully toilet trained and didn't "ask" until ~6-7 months, but we didn't really notice as he didn't have an accident (bar a couple of diahorrea incidents) from 13 weeks onwards (we got him at 12 weeks) because he was always out/praised when he needed to go.

Just thinking about your title first "Puppy won't ask to go outside to wee/poo?" my first question would be in what way are you thinking she would ask? Have you taught her some kind of "let me out" behaviour or are you expecting her to scratch at the back door?

It sounds to me like she is giving signs just ahead of time. The sniffing around is a sign she needs to go to the toilet. Then is the time to act. As soon as you see her sniffing around, jolly her outside if it is not far, or happily and gently scoop her up and get her to the back door.

She doesn't know yet how to tell you so at this stage you need to carefully watch for those little signs.

You also need to reduce the likelihood of indoor accidents even happening in the first place as each of those puts things back a bit. Like you say, as much as we wish we would watch them every second, it's almost impossible. So she needs to go out for toilets after every morning and last thing at night, after every meal and every hour in between and she needs to stay out (with you) until she toilets. No coming in if she doesn't go. I sit and pretend to be reading a magazine or something (so they don't feel stalked, lol) but really have an eye on her the whole time and the minute she is finished, loads of praise and you can both go in again. Make sure the prise is instant, as soon as she is done. She'll love that she pleased you and she'll start to get it. Now business is done you know that when you both go back in nothing will happen indoors. Then every hour take her out again for a wee. Keep doing this religiously so no accidents can even happen in the house.

Good luck.

" Does everyone else follow their dogs round all the time?"

While housetraining? Yep pretty much, it's one of the many reasons why it sucks, lol.

It doesn't end there either. When they get old you find yourself doing it all over again. Accidents in the house, dementia, struggling with the stairs, hand feeding... you name it.

You need to confine her. Wotsit pup is shut in the kitchen with a stair gate with the back sour in to the garden open if I'm doing anything where I can't pay attention. Then he takes himself out and can. He is a lot younger - 2 months but if you are juggling kids maybe this would help. He is doing brilliantly but I wouldn't risk him loose inside unless it's immediately after a poo and a wee and I watch him still.
Also if you are getting repeat incidents maybe she can smell her wee in the house - have you tried the odour remover spray? I was amazed

Sorry you're cross I said toileting mistakes are your fault.

They're not the pups fault though - and in my house, all puppy mistakes are my fault. If they chew something they shouldn't, it's my fault for leaving it in their way. If they pee in the house, it's my fault for not watching them carefully enough.

I've brought a lot of puppies and absolutely believe they shouldn't be setup to get fail. Once a puppy learns that chewing the chair leg is is pleasurable and passes a few minutes happily, they'll do it again. And again. And when their adult teeth arrive there'll be little left of the chair. If any of mine did that, I would view it as my fault because I'd not stopped the beginning of that process.

And yes, as tabula said - house training does mean following your pup around all the time! Means there are as few mistakes as possible and it's over and done with ASAP.

Yes as pp have said the sniffing around is the signal you have to watch out for.

As soon as her nose hits the floor and she looks as if she's on a mission you have to take her outside. that way she'll learn that going outside and peeing/pooing follows the desire to sniff out an appropriate place. And you stay out there with her until she's done what she needs to do.

Don't tell her off because all she'll learn from that is not to do it in front of you and she will just wait to make sure you're not around to do it. And it could also lead to her not wanting to 'perform' in front of you when you're walking her.

They do learn to give a better signal: my dog has a particular bark that she only seems to use when she needs to go outside to pee/poo. My DD's dog used to bash at the cat flap. Not sure how she worked that one out but suspect she might have heard the noise of the cat flap, seen the cats go out and concluded that you had to make that noise to get into the garden.

My dpup was giving a signal aged around 4 months, sort of a cross between and whine and a bark, then stopped. He's 6 months old now and doesn't tell us but rarely has accidents because he's pretty good at holding it in and I have got to know when he needs to go. Part of the problem for me is that the back door is kind of round a corner and not very visible so I think he sometimes goes to the back door to be let out and if no-one sees him he wanders off again. I am just hoping that things will fall into place a bit more as he gets older.

This sort of method might work for you...

We had an old ships bell (the sort they ring in pubs at last call) and put it by the back door at nose height for dpup. We started ringing it and then taking him outside. After the first day we gestured at the bell and when he made contact we took him outside. Then we did the same but didn't let him out until the bell had dinged. After about 2/3 days he got that ringing the bell means go outside. But it was a bloody nightmare! He asked to go out every ten minutes (Didn't actually need to go, just wanted to make noise and play outside) ringing the bell DING DING DING DING!!! So we had to take it away. We had chains hanging on the door anyway(for tethering it open in summer) and he cottoned on that dinging that would make us come and open it too. I guess since it's less dramatic a noise it wasn't as exciting so he only asks out when necessary now.

A bit of a complicated sequence but it might work for you. Or you can try this

Good luck with the toilet training it's the toughest thing about puppyhood IMO.

No particular advice I'm afraid but just wanted to add that our springer pup uses a similar method to above.
She realised that jumping up to rattle the keys in the lock of the patio door meant that someone let her out, I think she learnt this around 6-8 months but before that had very few accidents from about 16 weeks but we were lucky as she was a pup over the summer months so it was easy to leave the door open or whip her straight outside at the first signs.

Eric was quick to house train so by eleven weeks he was reliably clean. It wasn't though, until he knew he needed to go out that he learnt to yap at the door so that was a couple of months later. Now he does his Lassie routine where he comes to me whines and gets me to follow him to the door.