What age was your puppy toilet trained?

[Bordercollierun]

Just that really as I’m struggling massively. I wondered if my expectations are just too high?

Puppy is 10-11weeks and has no concept of going to the toilet outside. She’s weeing or pooing constantly. I take her out every 30mins and heavily praise for anything done outside but then she comes in and is still not getting it. Sometimes I’m standing outside for ages walking around and she’s lying down, playing or doing anything but going.

She will literally wee infront of me anywhere, she hasn’t got a place.

She also plays in and drinks water constantly which sees to be making it worse but I’m not sure restricting it is the right thing to do.

Any thoughts much appreciated as it’s getting me down now.

My childhood pup only seemed to get it when she started to squat and my mum yelled ‘no!’ and swept her up and outside. That seemed to click in her head what was expected, maybe try watching for her getting ready to go and whisk her outside praising her when she goes.

One of our boys, 10 weeks, one of our girls 16 weeks, the others all somewhere in between, but girls take longer than boys. A bitch weeing indoors at that age is perfectly normal.

And yes, your expectations are way too high!

Depends on the dog, the breeder and the owner.

The dog, because some dogs are house trained quicker than others. Breeds like Frenchies seem to take the longest, retrievers/Malis/GSDs/Collies tend to be the fastest from my experience.

The breeder, because those who are 'cleaner' (i.e. breeders who put effort into maintaining a clean whelping pen and start house training the puppies as soon as possible) will sometimes send puppies home almost fully housetrained. The puppies will have learnt from a young age the importance of going to the toilet in a particular place, and that carries over to their new home.

The owner, because you need to be consistent and know what you are doing. Cue words. Look for their signals. React. Reward. Be watching and waiting etc. You can't be placid when house training.

My youngest was house trained at 8 weeks which was pretty much as soon as her litter-mates went home. Her brother likewise about 8 weeks. But I had been 'house-training' the litter from 5/6 weeks and was incredibly consistent.

Lots of people don't manage toilet training until the puppy is well over 20+ weeks tbh. What breed is your dog?

10-11 weeks is really little. Be consistent - every 30 minutes isn't really what she needs. She needs to go out for a wee:

• every time she eats
• every time she drinks
• every time she plays
• every time she wakes up after sleeping

Use a key word and use it every time she wees in the right place. We used 'be busy' but 'quick' will do. So at first you're going to say it as she starts to wee/poo "Be busy!", then you'll start using it when you take her out before she wees/poos. Praise gently but enthusiastically when she goes in the right place. Treats, 'good girl', etc.

Don't scold or yelp if she wees inside - it will just teach her to hide it. Just carry her outside (even if you think she's finished), then quietly clean up with no fuss.

She'll get the difference very soon.

Thankyou everyone. She’s a Newfoundland.

My last puppy (6-7 years ago!) was pretty much trained from day 1 hence why this has been a shock to the system.

Im doing pretty much all of the above but she doesn’t see to improving at all hence wondering if this is normal or not! I’m basically catching her just after, cleaning it without fuss and repeating plus rewarding her every time she wees outside with praise and treats.

Ive avoided puppy pads so far but is it always a bad option! My poor floors can’t take much more 🙈

Best part of six months here… I was tearing my hair out, then one day he clicked! I had been warned that his breed (terrier) can be slow to house train, but I’d foolishly dismissed that.

5 months until ours was reliable, she’s a frenchie cross and they do take longer apparently. Thought we were never going to get there at one point!

6 months!! I can only imagine how frustrating that was 😬 Glad you got there in the end!

Maybe I am being too harsh for thinking there’s a problem then!

16-17 weeks. About 7 weeks of training. DH stayed up with pups and slept on a camp bed to take them out a couple of times during the night.

You say she's drinking all the time, now I know Newfies love being in the water but drinking a lot does seem excessive. Might be worth a trip to the vets just to check things out if she drinks much more than normal.
But some puppies are slower than others. I've toilet trained a lot (I foster for a rescue) and have had 6 week olds who were ringing the door bells to go outside and toilet, and others who I despaired at and it took weeks and weeks with older puppies. My current little friend is a dream who toilets on command which is amazing!

Also, personality and time of year. Our first lab got toilet training very quickly - we brought her home in September and she was happy to be outside. Our second is a lot more timid, we brought her home in January, and hated going outside.

She seems to be delighted to be outside which is slowing things down because she’s messing about so much. She’s also constantly covered in mud which is soul destroying. My older dog has a gravel run type area but she will not toilet on that at all so she’s allowed on the grass which is soaking and boggy at this time of year. I’m just complaining now there are some lovely bits since having her it’s just this issue that’s the worst bit!

I have worried about the drinking. She’s obsessed with the water bowl so I have to lift it up and give her an hourly drink or she will make herself sick. I’m debating just leaving free access to it and hoping it evens out a little? I will take her to a vet, she’s been checked twice and hasnt any other issues at all but I will speak to them when she’s there for her next vaccination.

Exactly the same happened here. She peed all down my arm as I ran to the door but it worked!

You need to create a “spending area”. Somewhere fenced off from the rest of the garden, not too large an area where there’s nothing else to get up to apart from sniff around and go to the loo. Since she doesn’t like the gravel (maybe a sensory thing) could you get a couple of slabs to put down in there?)

I have a huge fenced off patio which I normally include in the ‘dog area’ over winter. It’s been brilliant for minimising mud and mess. However she will not entertain the thought of going on it. It’s grass or nothing!

She can wee on the patio if she wants but she chooses not to.

I was hoping to do outside first then graduate to the patio area so it wasn’t outside and a different surface all at once.

My 4 year old was house trained within two weeks, so I expected the same of my next puppy.

She came home the weekend of a blizzard and would sit outside shivering, rather than toileting. By 10/11 weeks old, it was really getting to me. So I googled how long it took to house train a puppy and was told the average was four months. That changed my frame of mind and it became less frustrating after that.

It probably did take four months for her to be reliable. I'd take her out for a wee before I sat down to eat and she'd still go on the carpet.

Have you tried taking her outside on a lead? Once she has performed, her reward can be off lead play.

Disagree with most of the PPs, all of our pups have come from their breeders at 8ish weeks fully toilet trained. Yes they’ve still had occasional accidents at the start when their bladders were small and they couldn’t hold it for long, but the principle of going outside has been well ingrained in all of them.

Do you use puppy pads in the house OP? Because if you do/did, that’s likely to have confused the dog about what your expectations are of them going outside. Likewise, they can no doubt smell it in the house now and that’s reinforcing the behaviour to continue going there. If you haven’t already, it’d be worth trying to reset things by investing in a professional deep clean of any carpets and/or cleaning any hard floors with a pet odour neutralising detergent.

Also, could you invest in a small piece of artificial grass to put on the patio? That worked for a friend of ours who lived in an apartment and could only let their dog out on the balcony in the middle of the night. Garden centres often have small off cuts that you can buy cheaply.

yep it seemed to click that that was the part we wanted her to do, the actual poo/pee outdoors. It was like an immediate click in her tiny singular brain cell.

Our terrier is 4 months now and is completely clean in the house. He was getting the hand of it about 12 weeks. Odd accident 12-14 ISH weeks.

I'm chuffed and think he's done amazing and this is early to be totally clean (older dog here to copy). I'm still putting him out regularly.

You're expecting way to much at 10 weeks.

Puppies are hard work! Of course it's weeing and pooing! It's a tiny baby animal!! What did you expect?

Seriously... it was the better part of 9 months before we could be sure of her. I only remember because we went to a BnB for a week and we were on tenterhooks about their floors.

Well to be honest @stillchasingdereksheppard I didn’t think it would be this relentless with the toileting. I’ve had loads of puppies (GSD and border collie) and never had a problem. The odd accident but I’ve never had one that comes in after me standing outside for 30mins in the rain and wees on the carpet…

Artificial grass on the patio is a really good idea I’ll try that!

No puppy pads. She was using my doormats initially so I got rid of those…now it’s just anywhere. I mop constantly!

Are you using an enzyme cleaner? Normal detergent doesn't work. You either need to use a specific pet hard floor cleaner, or biological laundry detergent. The enzymes hang around otherwise.

Sometimes you just have to stay out for as long as it takes. Even now my 1 year old lab won't wee if she thinks it means she's missing out. I got home this afternoon, let her out, she refused to pee because she wanted to say hi and wanted her dinner. She had her dinner and immediately cried to go out for the wee I knew she needed.