Toilet training woes

[Trufflethewuffle]

We are experienced dog owners but this is a slightly different situation for us.

We bred our puppy, she is now 5 months old. We had to keep another pup on for a while as she needed a plumbing operation as she had ectopic ureters. Sadly, she was unable to be fixed and we had to have her pts just over a month ago.

So the difficulty we have is that, due to the incontinence issues with the other pup, we were getting nowhere fast with toilet training whilst we were permanently in a sea of wee. We did what we could but we were fighting a losing battle and the healthy pup was unable to differentiate between what she was supposed to do and what was happening with the leaky pup. Poos were a bit better to deal with. We hoped we could just push on once leaky pup was no longer an issue.

However, when we were away for a couple of days to see the specialist with leaky girl, our pup was in daycare and home boarding for that time. Sadly, we came home and that evening had leaky girl pts. We collected our pup straight after. She was fine that night but had picked up a nasty gastric bug which has taken us a month to clear.

As you can imagine, the poo side of the toilet training regressed in that time so we are now not much further on than we were to start with.

At night, we usually get one wee and one poo. She goes to bed at about 10 and I get up around 6. I have had a chest infection and have felt so grim that I haven't been able to face getting up any earlier but I'm going to try that starting tonight. I think I can manage 11 to 5 now, hopefully that will help.

As she is bigger, she can go longer during the day between wees than an 8 week old can. I take her out hourly and after sleep and meals but it is still hit and miss.

We don't seem to have a pattern at all yet, no doubt due to the various problems we had previously. She likes to be clean and is good with her personal cleaning so I think we will get there with patience. Thankfully we are going towards better weather.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

All you can do really is go back to basics. Take her out as you have been doing after each meal, drink, play and sleep and frequently in between. Praise like mad when she goes outside and if she has an accident inside if you see her pick her up and run out and praise if she finishes outside. Say a word or phrase when she goes so she will start to associate that word with toileting which helps when you need them to pee on command.

Wasn't sure whether she was still peeing and pooing in the night? I would set an alarm to take her out in the night if she still is and then extend the time so eventually she is dry throughout. What you want to do is to break the habit of going inside and reinforce that outside is good.

What a nightmare time you've had.
Every hour isn't enough. Sounds like this pup has yet to learn that outside is the place to go. Take out after playing, eating, drinking, sleeping and every 20 minutes in between. If no wee then back in and out in 10 minutes.
Can you sleep by pup at night? 10-6 is too long to expect a pup to be clean and dry.

I think you need a good solid 3-4 days with every second of your day spent with her. As soon as she starts going, pick her up and carry her outside saying something like 'toilet outside, good girl' and praise lots once out. Doesn't matter if wee dribbles everywhere. Have her attached to you with a 10 ft lead if you have to so you can always see her. The repetition of it will get into her head eventually. You need a good stretch of time with no accidents inside at all, hence commitment of a few days.

My eldest is 10 now and I can chuck him outside any time of the day and say 'go toilet' and he will religiously do something for me. He wasn't toilet trained properly until he was 5 or 6 months.

The intensive 3-4 days sounds good, I've set aside time after tomorrow to do this. And now I'm feeling better I'm going to take her out in the night too, just wasn't able to up until now.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. She does go for longer than an hour between wees so going out more frequently, which we have tried, can be almost counter productive as we were getting nothing outside for two out of three goes. We are using a phrase which she seems to be getting the hang of.

I'm sure we will get there, we know it will take longer than usual but she is such a sweetie.

One of the really frustrating things is that our tiled kitchen floor is uneven and the grouting is deeply recessed so a small wee can run several feet across the floor. Cleaning up is a real chore, no simple mopping, we have to soak up all the channels first.

Picture just to show how gorgeous she is.

Bless that face. You can only do your best. If you've been too unwell to get up at night that can't be helped. Good luck.