Toilet training - where am I going wrong?

[Mabelgirl]

I have a lovely miniature poodle puppy. She’s an absolute dream except toilet training and I need some help as I don’t know if my expectations are off or if I’m doing something wrong. She’s 16 weeks old now and for a while I thought we were doing ok but it’s like she’s gone backwards! She doesn’t seem to indicate or even know when she needs a wee. I take her outside very frequently during the day and if I say ‘wee wee’ she will generally do it in a specific area of the garden and I reward her. However at least three times a day (almost always in the afternoon) she will just do a wee somewhere in the house! She’s not crated during the day but has a play pen that she spends time in when we’re not playing/training etc although she often does a wee in there. She’s crated at night and sleeps from 10-7 without accidents so she can hold it. Am I expecting too much at 16 weeks? If she does it inside I take her straight outside. I watch her like a hawk but she goes from sniffing to weeing in about 3 seconds so I don’t get to her in time! Is there something else I should be doing? I have a friend with a puppy a week younger than mine who trots to the door and scratches when he needs to go out. I feel like I will never get to that stage!

Have you tried training bells?

Pop them at her height by the door, and everytime you take her out for the toilet, ring the bells. She should start ringing them on her own when she needs the toilet :)

You will get there, it's just that some dogs are much more obliging than others. In our case, our third puppy was an absolute doddle, reliably trained night and day, rain or shine, by about 17 weeks. Our fourth puppy, on the other hand, drove us to distraction.

Even now, at 9 months, we still get the odd pee inside from a combo of a full bladder and desperate excitement: she doesn't like going outside into the cold to pee.

I watch her like a hawk but she goes from sniffing to weeing in about 3 seconds so I don’t get to her in time!
Yep, I sympathise. I haven't much actual advice except keep at it and don't lose hope.

When you say you take her out very frequently through the day, how often do you take her out? You probably need to go out more often. Other than that it sounds like you're doing all the right things. The training info I've been following advises against bells or training them to ask to go out actually. Then they learn to go when you take them out. Are you making a big fuss of her when she pees outside and ignoring if she goes inside?

16 weeks is still very young I think at that age I was putting mine out every 15-20 minutes. Always straight after any kind of nap or play. We didn’t have too many accidents but we kind of just lived in the kitchen.

Although to be fair we had our pup during the summer so spent a lot of time outside so it was easier to avoid indoor accidents and probably helped him to associate outside with peeing.

Thanks everyone. It’s reassuring to know she will hopefully get it eventually. In terms of frequency I take her out every 30 mins whilst she’s awake and then straight after she wakes up from any nap even if very short. I think I need to stop any play/training half way through and take her out as she seems to get overexcited and do a wee. I’m not making any fuss when she goes inside just immediately picking her up and going outside and then obviously praising and rewarding her like crazy outside. I’m actually embarrassed at how often my neighbours must hear me say ‘wee wee’ and ‘good girl’! I will have a read about training bells too

I’d keep her tethered to you on a house line when you are doing other things then if you do miss the cue you can grab her quick , mid wee if necessary and run to the garden saying wee wee outside ( as wee wee is the word you are using , we used go quick ) . We got our dog as a totally un house trained 16/17 week old from Battersea , and he’s not the brightest dog in the world and I’m sure it was the picking him up mid wee and running to the garden that finally got him to understand .

Our miniature still occasionally has wee and poo accidents at 7.5 months. I think miniatures are a bit slower to “get it”.

I have a 10 month old mini poodle (well she has a tiny bit of lab in her). At 16 weeks she wasn’t reliably toilet trained at all. I did everything you’re told to do but she just kept having the odd accident until probably 8 months. She’s now very reliable. You’ll get there.

Also OP I think we need a picture!

They often regress a bit don't worry. I also think it's common to take your eye off the ball...when they're tiny you're obsessed with taking them out every half hour, then start to relax a bit so they have the odd accident. Bells hanging off the door handle can help (I taught one to use it by nudging the bell myself when I let them out and encouraging them to do so)

Countdown is on till 7/8 months then! Thanks for all your advice. I feel more positive that we’ll get there eventually! I’m going to try and be super vigilant tomorrow and stick to the schedule of going outside to see if we can do a full day of no accidents. Not sure how to add a picture but think I might have done it. This is her living the dream on the sofa with my husband (who totally adores her!)

We have had exactly the same. At 9 weeks he was great, going to the back door (but on a pad) but pretty much every time going on his own even if in the middle of playing. We were advised by the vet to not let him out due to a fox problem.

At about 15/16 weeks he started to ask to go outside for every poo (using bell) but started weeing wherever he was. He was worse than the day we got him at 8 weeks. This went on for about 3 or 4 weeks as we assumed he would just get it but we had to go back to basics completely.

He is 22 weeks now and is almost there, especiallyfor the earlier part of the day. Still does the odd wee in the kitchen in the evenings when he's tired though. He definitely knows its wrong as when he wees outside he comes to me for a treat, when he wees inside he either comes to see me and just looks at me or just sits near the wee.

Its so frustrating but just going back to basics is the only thing that is working for us.

The bell is great, we started ringing it and saying 'outside' every time we went out and he does that now.

The cold is definitely an issue though, pugpup sometimes stands outside for 10 mins then comes in and wees on a nice warm blanket!