Toilet training

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Does anyone have any tips on how I can toilet train my 1 year old whippet? From a pup he has been using puppy pads and we had slowly been moving them near to the door with the aim of getting him to go outside. He then started going backwards and going to toilet all over the floor and not even on a pad.

We make sure he goes outside to toilet before bed around 11pm but by the time we are up at 6.30am he has been to toilet again and sometimes it's on the pad, other times randomly on the floor. We try not to let him upstairs but if he runs up there without us seeing he immediately goes to toilet up there. I'm finding it really hard work and I'm worried that now he's so much older we might have missed the boat in training him properly.

Does anyone have any tips? I really need him to go to toilet outside. What am I doing wrong?

My own personal opinion is whilst some dogs are trained on puppy pads and progress to not needing them it can confuse others. Basically they don't really understand why it's ok to toilet inside sometimes but not other times.

I wound ditch the pads entirely and go back to basics like you would an 8 week old puppy. Take him outside after a meal, walk, sleep and frequently inbetween. Praise like mad when he toilets outside and introduce a command when he goes so he associates toileting with that command. You can then use it to say 'toilet' when you want him to go.

Any accidents inside clean up with enzyme cleaner. Limit where he can go in the house so you can supervise and if you spot him toileting inside pick him up and run outside with him and then praise.

Set an alarm for overnight and take him out to toilet to avoid the need for him to toilet inside and then slowly push that time back so eventually he is clean overnight.

It takes time but be consistent and try and avoid accidents and always go outside with him to toilet so you can praise him until he is completely toilet trained.

Unfortunately I think your use of puppy pads has complicated things for him. I know some people rave about them, but all they do is teach the dog to toilet indoors.

I would get rid of puppy pads completely and invest in a proper pet enzyme cleaner for any accidents. Then, go back to basics. Take him out regularly, after meals, drinks, play, training and sleep. When he does go outside, add a command word with it and make sure to give lots of praise and treats.

Ignore any accidents and clean them up using the enzyme cleaner. If he's peed on carpet you may need to treat the underlay as well to make sure you get rid of the smell properly.

For overnight, I would set up a camera and find out what time he's toileting, and then set an alarm to wake up beforehand so you can take him out instead. Good luck!

Some dogs house train really easily and others just don't. I can vouch for the 'getting up in the night to put them out' method. With ours, we eventually decided we had no choice but to get up in the night and put her outside before going back to bed, and then someone would come down for good very, very early (5a.m.). The night-time put-out-for-a-pee was moved later and later, until it was about 20 mins before the early up. After a few dry nights, the early up could slowly be moved towards a more civilised hour.

It's an absolute killer, but it should work within about 6 weeks.

Set alarm, get up between 4 and 5am to take him outside to the garden. We will be doing this next week with new puppy. There's no easy solution. It's a lot of hard work.

Stair gates to block off access to upstairs. Limit where he can go so you have less to clean up if he has an accident.

Thanks all. I hadn't really thought the puppy pads could be making things worse as the breeder had been using them, but it does make a lot of sense that he would struggle to understand why it's ok to sometimes go to toilet on the floor!

I will get rid of the pads and go back to basics and wake up to take him outside. I like the idea of recording him at night so I can work out when he normally goes... I might see if I can somehow use the ring doorbell to monitor that and try to get up at those times.

Thanks for all your tips I really do appreciate it as I think I'm starting to go a little bit mad with all the mess!