Toilet training

[Grumpynan]

I’m really beginning to think we will never get there, she’s a springerdor absolutely beautiful, and I love her so much. She’s nearly 4 months old and we’ve had her 7 weeks. We take her out to the garden 20minutes after a drink or eating and every hour in between unless she’s asleep and then we take her as soon as she wakes up.

we reward her when she goes outside but she never shows she wants to go, she never goes to the door , she will just wee or poo where ever she is. We’ve tried mats but she eats them 🙄.

tonight she weed big time on the sofa and my husband went mad, shouted at her and said enough I have to get rid of her. That’s not happening, I love her.

more importantly we got her fir my adult daughter who lives with us, she’s been in a dark place and is finally coming through, the puppy is something she really wants and is doing so much good for her. But she’s beginning to feel a failure because of the training. We’re all working at it so hard.

does it get easier, honestly I potty trained 3 children I should be able to do this !

a picture so you can see how wonderful she is

Aww, how horrible, he should not have shouted at her :(

I stayed out until my puppy did a wee and rewarded like mad. If it took 40 minutes for her to wee then we were out for 40 minutes. And then she'd have a drink and we'd go back out. It was around this time last year so I understand how grim it is to be out in this weather, but it was worth it as once I was committed to standing about in the garden all day (or so it felt) the toilet training was very swift.

It definitely gets easier. She just needs to make the weeing/pooing is for outside association. You have to set them up to win which means being one step ahead of her bladder and bowels.

Aww. She's still a baby!

Best way to do toilet training is religiosity take her out after sleeping, eating and playing.

Also watch for signs that she needs to go... like sniffing the floor, some dogs do a little dance others will look a bit panicked.

When she does her business in the garden, lots of praise/ treat and a command like "toilet " so you can eventually teach her to go on demand.

At this age she should be perfectly capable of knowing the rules -
wakeup- wee .
breakfast -wee
play -wee
wake up-wee
play-wee
This over and over and over etc .
She's not messing in her crate is she? She should have it in a few weeks but you really really have to be on the ball . Oh no sleeping on the sofa .
Also take her preferably on a lead or a pen same place every time .

If she's going out every 20 minutes, she shouldn't have been able to have a big wee anywhere. So are you actually waiting until she wees when you take her out? When you say you reward her, it's it a quick 'good girl' or is it a fanfare of excitement and a handful of yummies? You need to make it so exciting to toilet in the right place.

Shouting won't help with toilet training (or anything).

Has she been checked by a vet in case she has a UTI? Even for a puppy her behaviour sounds a bit extreme.

However, I would say every hour while awake isn't enough if she's having so many accidents. I also wouldn't wait 20 minutes after meals or water - take her out straight away. We took ours out every 20 odd minutes at that age - it was tiring but he trained really quickly.

Get rid of any mats/pads and make sure you're cleaning up any accidents with a proper pet enzyme spray to eliminate the smell properly.

When you take her outside are you keeping her on a lead and standing with her to make sure she actually wees and doesn't just mess about? That's really important. You need to be right there when she wees and go really OTT with the praise and rewards.

I also found that if you catch her mid wee, the best thing to do is scoop her up and take her outside and then reward her for finishing in the right place.

I understand your DH's frustration but the worst thing he can do shout at her - it won't teach her anything and will just make it even more likely for her to hide away from you next time she goes.

Good luck.

Your husband is yelling at a puppy that you (both) chose to have on the furniture?! Tbh he sounds like a twat and if he’s ever shown that sort of aggression to her before I’d be more worried about that than her weeing. I hope he doesn’t have form for this?

TBH she shouldn’t be in the furniture anyway at that age. Accidents happen and it will happen again. If she’s jumping off the furniture that’s going to do serious damage to her joints

BUT on the topic in question takes longer with some dogs than others. Consistency is key. If she isn’t food motivated try a toy. Play or feed her a high value treat after she wees. Every twenty minutes. Don’t let her play outside. Take her out on a lead. wee. Back inside.

And keep your husband away from her.

Thanks for your replies, she can hold it, she goes from about 10.30 to 6 over night which is good. But we can take her in the garden she does a little wee maybe 2 we do a wee dance 🥳, have a treat ( 2 for a wee and poo )but she can come in and 10/15 minutes later do a wee indoors and they can be big ! Well for her size. It’s as if when we take her out she does some to please us.

shes a very cuddly baby and is allowed on our chairs with us, so yes I got weed on last night as well as the chair. She will actually go into her crate to go if she’s near it, I wondered about putting a mat in there but don’t really want a huge dog litter 🙄

No mats - all they do is encourage the dog to go in the house.

If she does two little wees then waits and does a big wee inside - stop bringing her in after the little wee. Keep her outside for a bit and wait for the big wee.

in the garden she does a little wee maybe 2 ... but she can come in and 10/15 minutes later do a wee indoors and they can be big

At the moment she's used to go inside...
If you know that she hasn't done a proper wee, ddon't take her into the house.

Just stay out there and repeat the command for wee and only give a treat when she's done a proper one.

PS: you have a very clever dog!

I'm not there yet - puppy is 12 weeks and we're still having some accidents. Solidarity! I do remember with my older dog, she seemed to take ages, probably because my sister swears she house trained her spaniel in 2 weeks (cough bollocks cough), however, it seemed to click between 4 and 5 months. I do think that it will depend on your home environment - dogs can associate gardens with play as well as pee, so they might be ready to play and forget about weeing when they go out.

I do think as puppies get older they need the mutual reinforcement of saying 'bad dog!' when they do something in the house. There's no point trying this on a very small puppy, but I did notice that as my dog got to the 4 month mark, she knew perfectly well that I liked her to go outside. However, she had not realised that I didn't want her to go inside. I said 'bad dog!' sternly when I caught her in the act (not if I missed it happening), and it helped her to get it. When I was young, dogs would have been shouted at or spanked or had their noses rubbed in mess indoors - I'm not advocating that, but I don't think it does any harm to reinforce that indoors is not the place to go with a stern word.

@TooExtraImmatureCheddar that can backfire badly. The dog can learn just not to pee/poo near you, so can start hiding it. I think it's fine to say "Oh no, no, no" or similar as an interrupter, if you witness the start of a pee, at the same time as scooting them out into the garden, then praising their finishing the wee outside. But not telling them off.

Do you walk the dog? I'd walk your dog at least twice a day. That should encourage her to go. For a while one of my dogs seemed to wait til we got home to suddenly poo, but he got the hang of it. I also crate trained my dogs - they very rarely messed in their crate.

I genuinely never told off my dog for accidents, even when caught in the act.
I just grabbed him and went outside. And blamed myself for letting that happen.

I really don't know how they manage to go from "cool things seem to happen when I pee outside" to "I will never for the life of me pee inside (whatever the inside is, home, train station, shop...) ever again" with just positive reinforcement, but truth is, it works!

Are you waiting for her to finish going before the praise starts? If you start praising as soon as she starts going, it's likely that she will associate being praised for starting, and not for actually emptying. Make sure you only praise after she's finished.

I do think as puppies get older they need the mutual reinforcement of saying 'bad dog!' when they do something in the house.

This is really old-fashioned advice and you take the risk of it backfiring spectacularly.

If your older puppy is toileting inside the house then that's on you as the owner IMO - either you're not taking them out regularly enough or you're missing the signs that they need to go.

Telling them off just risks them losing trust in you or they'll start running off and doing in secret because they're scared of the consequences.

Accidents should be ignored and cleaned up properly, heaps of praise when they get it right.

Agree with this. You have to wait for them to wee ans not go inside until they have.

It can take longer than you think.

But have to wait it out

Your husband sounds vile and no one should be shouting at a pup who is learning. It took my pup until he was about 8 months before he was completely house trained but he was NEVER punished in any way and nor should he have been.

Gentle, routine and plenty of praise is the only way to housetrain.

Patience, praise, ignore mistakes, and more patience. It will get easier but may take longer than you think/want! She’ll get there.

I think it’s very common to feel that your puppy/young dog is never going to get it. It always seems to take longer than you think. But consistency is key and eventually, one day, it will just ‘click’. Keep the consistency (praise, routine, etc) afterwards to bed in the behaviour. And if it fails later on, back to basics.