Puppy pooing inside after being outside

[sweeatpea1989]

Hello all this is my first puppy. She’s a beautiful 9 weeks old golden retriever.

We are taking her outside every two hours or so, she’s generally really good at wees but as soon as we get inside she tends to poo on the kitchen floor if she needs one.

I have a large garden and she seems to be getting distracted to me. I’m not really sure what to do to break the pattern. I can’t really segregate the garden and we haven’t started lead training yet as the advice was it’s too early.

It was pretty bleak out there in the wind and rain at 5:30am this morning!

She's only nine weeks! At this stage it is just a question of starting to build the habits that will allow her to learn to poo outside as she develops control of her bowels.
Just keep on doing what you are doing. Ignore her when she poos indoors, and when she eventually poos outside give her some calm praise. You'll get there!

A soft collar and lead would help her concentrate and be less distracted and not wander off after fascinating scents. I've always had Labradors and started getting them used to a collar and lead as soon as they came home, though I used a harness to train everything.

All mine have been late autumn- or winter- born puppies (one October, two November and one December) so standing outside in the cold, dark and wet comes with the territory! You'll be all right in the end.

Also put some of the poo in the area you want her to use.

this may be useful @sweeatpea1989

Congratulations on your beautiful wee retriever 🐕

We have a 14 week old Golden Retriever so not too far ahead of you. Our pup was so distracted going out in the garden, we picked up an old play pen from Facebook marketplace and pop him in there and ask him to “go toilet” and that worked well for us. Good luck!

And lots of praise when she does poo outside.

My advice would be to make sure you’re really cleaning where she’s pooing inside, the smell will make her want to go there again. I think there’s special pet sprays for this?

It’s never too early for lead training.

Get a house line, keep it on her even in the house and when you go outside so she can’t run off and sniff. Only let her go to the same place to wee and poo, and use a cue word and a reward when she does as you expect.

Goldies are super early to house train so within a week, and with consistency, she should be well trained 🙂

Every time she poos inside, take her straight out for a couple of minutes.

If you are using pads, fill the area she’s using, then reduce the amount each day, just a couple at a time until you’re down to one.

Also, dogs tend to circle when they’re about to poo, if you see this, take her straight outside.

No punishment for inside, loads of praise for outside.

Good luck but we also need a photo!

With our golden retriever puppy she also did the same thing. We worked out that about 50% of the time she’d pee, and then around 5 mins later she’d poop (sometimes the other way around). So if you took her straight inside after peeing you’d risk her pooping inside. What we did was she’d pee outside, we’d then set a timer for 7 minutes and wait, if she hadn’t pooped in that time frame she wasn’t going to and we were good to go inside.
The other advantage to waiting for a period of time outside after going to the toilet is that they don’t associate going to the toilet outside with being carted back inside when they want to stay outside. If you do this the puppy can then hold on outside because they don’t want to go inside. Then as soon as to take them inside they’ll go to the toilet inside. So waiting a period of time did stop that happening.

We have a puppy, 15 weeks now. I take her out on a retractable lead (only used for the garden not on walks) so she has some length to go and explore but still attached to me! We’ve bought the bells to hang off the door too and getting her to ring those! I too wait out after she’s done either a wee or a poo to see if they will do the other. We take ours out every hour in the day and make a large declaration of something like ‘let’s go for a wee’ before we go out and then say ‘you did a wee’ when she’s done either outside as I got the feeling she didn’t know why she was going out! It’s getting much easier now, it will do for you but it is hard on a dark, wet morning! One other thing is I got a head torch so I could see what she was doing too, else I could miss that she’s done something and therefore not praise! Good luck!

There’s some great advice here guys thanks so much!

Take her up and down the garden on lead immediately after eating and stick at it til she does go. Then get excited beyond all belief

Oh I remember this, so frustrating! She is only 9 weeks though keep at it, loads of praise when she finally poos outside

Our Lab puppy used to do that exact thing. He had zero understanding that doing it outdoors was better than doing it indoors.

It may well take a few more weeks but as long as you keep showing excitement every time the puppy happens to poo outdoors (& a treat) they will get the hang of it in time.

9 weeks is too young to expect much (anything!) in the way of house training.

This, you need the enzyme cleaner, or vinegar to break down the smell to a dogs nose.

Standard floor cleaner/bleach won’t cut it.

Really clean where she’s done it inside. Leave the poo where she does it outside. They do poo within a certain time after eating.

Plenty of time outside for playing and sniffing. No lead, they need to have their freedom and willingly come back. Sometimes you do just have to stay outside until they do it
Start saying a chosen command when start weeing and within a few weeks they will wee on command and usually a few minutes after they wee they poo. Labs and retrievers are easy to train to wee and poo on command, I’ve just trained a GWP to do it. Makes it very easy on long car journeys.

Oh man, I remember those early days! The good news is this is super common with puppies, so you're definitely not alone.
A few things that helped me when I was going through this:
Stay outside longer - I know it sucks in the cold and rain (been there!), but puppies sometimes need more time to "get everything out" if you know what I mean. Try staying out for at least 10-15 minutes after she wees. Walk around the garden a bit to get things moving.
Boring is good - I know you said she's getting distracted, which is totally normal at 9 weeks. Try making outside time super boring - no playing, no talking much, just standing there waiting. Save the excitement and praise for AFTER she goes. It sounds counterintuitive but it works.
Watch for the signs - Goldens usually start sniffing around in circles when they need to poo. If you see that behavior inside, scoop her up immediately and get back outside.
Timing - Puppies usually need to poo within 15-30 minutes after eating. Try taking her out right after meals and staying out longer during those times.
The rain at 5:30am is brutal though, I feel for you! Hang in there, it does get better. Most puppies click with it around 12-16 weeks once their bladder control improves.
Good luck with your golden girl! They're such sweethearts.