advice on toilet training needed please!

[sue_ellen]

I am so thrilled, finally got my first ever dog two weeks ago, had dogs when I was a kid but hubby wasnt keen so never had one, until he finally gave in to my 12 year old daughter and I found the cutest Lhasa apso puppy in the paper. Thought she'd be ideal as they dont grow too big, and she is fab, really cuddly, and a nice "doggy" dog, if you know what I mean! Now the problem. She is 18 weeks old and was sold because the elderly owner couldnt cope with such a young pup. I asked if she was house trained and was told that she was but guess what - she isn't! She is sort of, to be fair, but I cant get her to poo outside, and I've got those training pads but she goes on the carpet next to them, and she will go outside then come in and wee on the carpet. Sometimes she goes outside but it seems to be more luck than judgement, and I try to stick to taking her out every so often but it doesnt really seem to be working. I haven't really got any experience with dogs so am not sure if I am doing it right or not, or if I am just expecting too much too soon. Any advice or tips will be very gratefully received. We all love her to bits already, even hubby! Sorry its a long one, thanks for getting this far!

 

[celesteyates]

hiya, it is hard work toilet training with some persistance it will soon pay off. I have a chihuahua that i got from 7 weeks old and is now a year old and he is excellent at toilet training. What i did when he was a puppy is i had those training pads and everytime i saw he was going to go i would grab him and put him straight on the pad. Even if he has finished peeing (or still peeing) i would still take him to the pad so he can learn the association. If however he did pee or even poo elsewhere which he did numerous times as a puppy i would just clean it once i found it and just be more alert for the next time he goes. You should some find that there are certain spots that your puppy will go and so the best thing you could do there is either not let him in the room with the spot he likes to pee or poo on or if you do have an eye on him at all times and if he even suggests that he might go grab him and put him on the training pad. I know all this sounds a bit tedious and there will be days when you think its not working but sometimes puppies go back before they can go forward with their learning, and before you know it he will be doing his business on the training pad all the time. When you said he goes next to the training pad i would suggest putting a load of newspaper around the pad to make the space for him to go on a lot bigger and once he is only going on this area then slowly decrease it down to just the training pad. I did this as my boy use to go next to the pad at first before i put newspaper around to start. Once you have your puppy trained to go inside then i would suggest training to go outside by simply watching him go off to the pad and grabbing him and putting him outside. However it doesnt hurt from now to take him out first thing in the morning and at night and every few hours during the day so that he may realise what you want off him. But if your dog ends up being anything like mine he may not want to pee outside when it is raining and so initially just concentrating on the pad will help with this and avoid any possible confusion. Right i feel like i am babbling now but i hope this helps and keep up the good spirits as it will all of a sudden click for your puppy.

 

[GinaB]

Toilet training is hard work. I use old fashioned methods of putting out every hour, lots of praise when they go in the right place (no food treats though) and out straight after brekkie and dinner and before bedtime at night. Most dogs then tend to pick up what they have to do.

If they go to the toilet in the house, a firm no and put outside and if it still doesn't work I put their nose to it (not in it) firm no and outside. If all else fails this tends to be a fool proof method, but many don't agree with it.

Never used training pads, never needed to

 

[Jellymoon]

We did it in 3-6 weeks with our pup. She was getting the idea after 3 weeks, then totally clean, even through the night by 6 weeks.

Our method was taking her out pretty much every hour and going totally overboard with the praise when she did something outside. I think we may have occasionally given her a little biscuit, but it was mainly just praise.

If she did something inside and we saw her do it, then we would say 'NO!' very strongly, pick her up, and put her outside. I don't agree with pushing their noses in poo, so we never did that. If we didn't catch her doing it, then we just had to forget it.

We'd take her out for a last night outing quite late, then put her in her puppy playpen with her bed inside a cage but with the cage door open and lots of newspaper down. I'm not a great fan of shutting them in cages overnight when they're very young - I know the idea is that they hate messing their beds, but when they're so young they can't hold on all night.

Anyway, we'd just clear up the mess on the paper in the morning and not worry about it - ultimately, they don't want to mess in the house so we knew we'd get there in the end.

Then after a four weeks, she went all night without doing a poo or a wee in the playpen, so we knew she had enough control to last, so we did shut her in the pen at night from then on, and if we went out for a couple of hours in the day.

And bingo, she was housetrained day and night from that moment on. After a week or two, we were able to dispense with the cage and the playpen totally.

I think the key is that you need to be around all the time at first. I took two weeks off work, and my husband works from home so we were there to take her out all the time and listen for wimpers or see her walking over to the door. A great moment was when she took herself to the back door and whined to be let out, and thankfully we were there to see it!

 

[Jillyy]

Firstly, throw away puppy 'training' pads..And i use the word training very loosely... Worst things ever imo! They confuse the puppy. One minute they can pee on pads indoors then they have to go outside... It's confusing and if you have a garden (which you always should have if you own a dog imo) then there should be absolutely no need for puppy pads.
Bring the puppy out as often as is possible...I took my lot out every 30-60 minutes..When they done the deed i praised and i rewarded with a food treat, because it strongly reinforced the good behaviour.

2 of my dogs were brought home at 7 weeks old.... and both of them were fully toilet trained in less than a week....
My 3rd pup took a little longer...But what you have to do is be consistent. Reward when the pup does it outdoors.
Remember that walks are great for getting the pup to relieve itself too....A nice stroll or walk helps promote bowl movements.

Goodluck and enjoy your new pup xx