What age was your dog toilet trained by?

[Newyearnewmewoooop]

11 week old Maltipoo, not using pads apart from in playpen and I’m attempting to toilet train outside. She’s still weeing every hour or so, sometimes more often, and definitely hasn’t grasped any concept of only going outside yet

I know it’s early days, but trying to get an idea of how many weeks/months it may take!

I didnt use pads at all as didnt wanthim to think it was ever an option to go inside. Just outside every 20 to 30 mins at first then longer. I used an app too where you add in all meals and drinks etc and it let's you know when they likely need. He was pretty reliable at around 4 or 5 months with just a few occasional accidents.

It's a lot lot harder in bad weather. Why wee outside when the kitchen is warm and dry?! Take umbrellas, make sure you always go out with her, and reward her as soon as she finishes weeing - not when she returns to the kitchen or she'll learn to do a lap of the garden and come back in for her reward! My pups generally crack the basics within two weeks, but getting reliable when there are other pressures (bad weather, noone in the same room as them to ask to take them out, asking to go out) took several months.

Different breeds take different amounts of time. From what I've seen/been told, smaller dogs are particularly challenging. Puppy pads are a terrible idea as they do just encourage the dog to toilet inside.

The breeder also plays a huge factor.

An 'average' (although I would call it bare minimum in turns of responsible breeding) breeder should be sending a dog home 'clean' as a bare minimum. That means that within a few days the dog learns not to go in it's crate etc - and they will have done this by cleaning the whelping box rigorously the second a puppy does an accident so the puppies do not get used to playing or laying in their own filth.

A 'good' breeder (depending on dog size) will have started taking the puppy outside from about 5-6 weeks to get them used to going outside.

I use inverted commas simply because so many people don't seem to think breeders should have any input into toilet training - and I 100% disagree.

You have to be completely constant and on the ball. You cannot give them any reason to think peeing or pooing inside is normal. That means outside after every meal and every drink, rewarding when they do perform outside (use cue words) and as soon as they wake up/finish playing.

FWIW, my latest litter were nearly all completely housetrained before they went home at 8 weeks. The puppy I kept was clean overnight from night one and has had one accident in the house since (she's just over 4 months now) and that was a frightened tiddle rather than deliberate. From 5 weeks old I was house-training the whole litter and I was rigorous about cleaning the whelping box.

But Goldens (and retrievers more broadly) are particularly easily to toilet train - very rarely do I hear of one, even from a bad breeder, who is not mostly clean by about 14/15 weeks.

I think we were lucky to be honest, got our puppy in January and it really only took a couple of weeks for him to get the hang of it. We took the advice of consistently taking him outside and reward him for doing his business. Don't wait and look for signals but just take outside often and praise praise praise. We did have a chirpy 'wee wee' added as well!

We have a Cavoodle, she was trained by about 14 weeks. She slept in her crate over night and never soiled (I took her out in the middle of the night). Then she moved to the laundry room with a baby gate across the door and she kept that space clean. We have a dog door going from the laundry room to outside, she worked that out pretty quickly and from then on she was great. I don’t like puppy pads as I don’t like to allow toileting inside. We do live in a warm climate though, that helps I think.

It took about 2-3 weeks with my puppy, but that was being really consistent with taking him out,

advice is being mindful: he’s had a play, he’ll need to go to the loo, he’s had a drink or food, out to the garden, he’s woken up so out we go. it was not too bad as it was spring/summer. Then making a big production of ‘good boy!!’ When he’d successfully eliminated his waste.

ditch the puppy pads, they just teach it’s ok to go inside.

if they do go inside, they’ll think that place is ok to go again so putting furniture or blocking that place off.

a strong ‘ah, ah!’ If they try to go indoors and swift relocating.

good luck, it must be hard work in the crap weather!

Every puppy is different. My 4 year old was trained within two weeks. But current puppy wasn't reliable until about 4 months old.
I used the same method both times of going outside every hour, after every play/meal/drink/sleep etc. Ignoring if they toilet inside and praising for outside.

One arrived pretty much house trained at 8 weeks, the other took a few days. Obviously at that age they still couldn't wait for hours, but we had no accidents in the house and they would sit by the door to go out. Labs so relatively easy to house train. Oh, and they both came home in summer so never had to coax out in the rain/cold which I'm sure helps

We didn’t get our puppy until he was 12 weeks and I would say he wasn’t completely safely house trained until 16 weeks, and he is an “easy” breed to train too, a lot of breeds take longer.

We didn’t use puppy pads btw, just took him outside regularly and gave lots of praise and treats for weeing/pooing outside. Take outside no more than 30 mins after eating and if they go or start to go in the house take them strait outside.
I spent a lot of time in the garden in the rain that autumn, have a coat with a pocket full of puppy treats near the door!

We didn't get our dog until he was 4 months old and he'd not been toilet trained but he picked it up really quickly. I didn't use pads just vigilance. From 6 months I'd let him roam wherever in the house and knew there'd be no accidents at all.

About 10 weeks for our working cocker, two weeks after she came home to us. We didn’t use pads as didn’t want her to think she could inside at all, just took her outside every 30 mins and a couple of times through the night to start with.

My current two the cardigan corgi cross took a while she was easily 5 months before it fully sunk in and she's the smartest little thing, it wasn't constant just the odd little accident every couple of days

My cardigan corgi boy took 2 weeks of constant accidents then it suddenly stuck
He did however cock his leg at 6 months on the dining chair but only the once and hasn't done it since

Previous dogs have taken 1 week to 6 weeks

Different breeds and even different dogs of the same breed are so different

Keep at it, in this weather its not pleasant Standing in the garden but it's worth the effort

Both of mine were trained within a week. Never used pads. Second puppy was last January (sprocker) and she did take the full week but first (working cocker) was a few summers ago so we were outside a lot. We train with the word “quickly” with a pointed finger motion in a circle so she pees to command.

Both my dogs took a couple of months to be 100% toilet trained. Within weeks they did 90% of their business outside, but very occasionally they would have a little accident, and to be fair, it was mainly my fault as I got distracted with putting the shopping away or something

We got our dog in October half term, 12 years ago, it rained all week and I remember spending hours in the garden with my umbrella and the puppy. I think I was a bit obsessed with taking her out, as well as after every meal/drink/ wake up - every time she circled I’d be in the garden with her. She was toilet trained with a couple of weeks and had the last accident inside in the December, and that really was a one off.

I’ve never had one take longer than about 10 days
But if you insist on using puppy pads you are in for a much longer,harder journey I’m afraid

Mine tried but in retrospect i was too impatient; they are still babies. Just take it one day at a time.

Going against the grain, I found pads a godsend. Inclement weather, hotels, visiting family, or when i had to put in the occasional full day at the office. Or even just overnight.

I left a pad in the utility and they never failed. But would still readily go into the garden.

we had our current dog at 8 weeks, and she was trained in a week. In that week she had 2 accidents, and that was usually while waiting for us to put our shoes on. We were aided by the fact that she cottoned on to going out through the cat flap when needed. This is especially funny considering she’s 40kg fully grown. The only other time she had an accident was just after being spayed, so totally understandable.

By 6 months my dog was completely toilet trained and he was pretty good from 3-4 months old, it was more I left it too long before reminding him to go.

You really have to reward them with high value treats when they get it right and keep on them to notice the signs that they need the toilet.

Ours took about a week - Labrador.

Ours was about 5 months old.

Pads are an awful idea as they just teach your dog that it's okay to pee in the house. Get rid and take your dog out every half hour, after food, drink, play, sleep and training, as well as when she shows signs of needing to go (sniffing, circling, squatting).

Ours was very young and was pretty much bomb proof within 3 weeks of arriving (so 12 weeks). He still though will hold it for 18 hours if raining and is a very large breed (55kg +) which apparently helps.

I was told to never use puppy pads and instead we just followed him round instead looking for the signs. A major pain at the time, but worked.

We got our Labrador in January and I'd say within 3-4 weeks he was there. Then 2-3 accidents in total in the following couple of months, and only when someone else was looking after him or we missed a sign he wanted to go out. We didn't use puppy pads. Just took him out constantly for the first few weeks and gave him praise and treats. When he had an accident inside, no telling off - just picked him up mid wee and took him out without a fuss. It was tough going but worth it to get the toilet training done quickly.

1-2 weeks for a young puppy and up to a week for an older dog. I don’t use puppy pads as for me they just teach a dog to toilet inside. I also crate train as dogs don’t like to toilet where they sleep so first thing in the morning it’s straight outside. Crate shouldn’t be too big otherwise dog dog will toilet on one side and sleep on the other. I foster dogs and have probably toilet trained over 100 at this point 😂. I also give a toilet command to help with learning.