12 wk old just not getting toilet training!

[Jinnybean]

It’s driving me mad. I take her out every 30 mins but she shows no signs of needing to go or wanting to go out unless it’s for a poo. I don’t know where I’m going wrong! Please help lol

It’s quite normal, I’m afraid. Mine never gave out signs. It takes patience.
Take her out whenever she wakes from a nap, after she’s eaten, had a play, 15 mins after a nice drink. Confine her to the same spot so it’s boring and signals she’s out there for a reason. Say a word or make a swishy sound that she gets to learn is a signal - especially make it when you see her toileting then she’ll get the association. I used to squeal ‘pee-pee’ - still do now, and she’s year old, but she knows that means toilet time.
If she doesn’t go in her boring spot in say 10 mins, take her back to doing what she was doing, and take her out again a few mins later. Do you have a specific spot for toileting?
If she starts to wander off to play and explore, bring her back to toilet spot, and if she isn’t toileting, take her back in and repeat. Praise and treat for outside toileting. Don’t make a fuss if she has an accident inside.

Is a PITA, but you will get there.

12 weeks is very young. Ours are rescues but we had them from a few months old. It took one til about 6//7 months to be completely toilet trained, the other was a bit older.

What breed is she?

Some breeds "get it" a lot quicker than others do, and toy/mini breeds generally struggle the most, as well as breeds like chihuahuas.

The key is persistence, really. And keep her tethered to you where possible, so if she starts you pick her up mid-wee and whisk her outside so she learns that inside isn't the place to go.

One of our Shih-Tzu was nearly 10 months old by the time he caught on to the idea, despite us doing everything suggested. As a breed they are very slow to house-train but I have to say that once he understood, he taught every other dog who came into the house!

Follow DoubleTweenQueen’s good advice.
You’re expecting far too much for her to be house trained at twelve weeks. She’s still a baby, you wouldn’t expect a human baby to be out of nappies would you? It takes months not weeks, the more vigilant you are the more successful you’ll be.

I read the title thinking that it was a bit much to be potty training a 12
week old baby. As you were. I'm going to bed!

You're doing nothing wrong.

She's still very, very young.

Keep persevering. She will get it. She's just not ready yet.

I have found that sometime between 12 and 16 weeks house training can click for puppies. So your pup may be just at the cusp of being ready. How is she doing overnight? What breed is she?

Do you always take her to the same spot and praise her when she pees or poos there? It can also be helpful to have a word or phrase that they associate with toileting (we say "hurry up"). Sorry if this advice is useless, since you may be doing all of that already. As for a sign of when she needs to go, some people train their dogs to ring a bell. I wanted to do that with my current puppy but he was quite agitated by the bell each time I tried to introduce it. And he is not a nervous character so the reaction was quite unusual for him. So I haven't really pursued it.

We were the same and then it just clicked at 16 weeks.

Graeme Hall (the dogfather) reckons it's 4 months when it falls into place, unless you're really lucky.

She's a baby! You have to teach her way beyond this stage. She's a dog- they don't speak our language so teaching them something new and confusing can take a great deal of time, patience and consistency. Please be patient with her.

Follow the great advice on this thread. Although In our case I tend to stay outside until they have "been" even if that takes a very very very long time. Not much fun if you're busy or it is raining.

Pick them up to take them out for a wee to the same spot. Wet cold grass seems to make them need a pee. Have them on a lead until they've done it so they can't muck about too much until they've been.
Also massive praise and treat when they've done. We'd read not to praise too much and puppy was still having accidents inside till we gave up and made a huge fuss and treated.
Also clear up inside with something that covers up the smell so they don't keep going in same spot. We used watered down Bio laundry liquid which does the job too.
Good luck. My cheeky 13 month old had done a cheeky wee on the bathroom floor the other day. Luckily the only floor upstairs not carpeted. Not sure why but luckily it's very rare these days!

It took our dog till nearly 8 months to crack it. It will come, in the meantime, the most important thing is that your frustration doesn’t impact your relationship with your puppy. Any anger or frustration leakage will just make your puppy anxious of you as they’re not yet capable of doing what you want. Not saying you are acting frustrated but my DH was starting to when he felt we’d never crack it.

We never mentioned any accidents just cleaned them up and if we caught the puppy mid wee (we usually missed it) we just gentle said “outside for wees” and picked them up mid wee and popped them outside. Ours has cracked it now at nearly a year old and wines at the door when he wants to go out for a wee. Like toddlers they all learn at slightly different ages. Having a phrase when they go helps as you can say it when they go and then start to say it when you pop them outside to encourage them to go.
Good luck with it all! At 3 months, I spent a lot of time wishing we hadn’t got another dog but by 9 months I’m completely smitten.

Our pup didn't give signal he wanted out until around 15 weeks. He had barely any accidents in the house but that was down to us taking him out not him.