Some puppy advice please?

[poiuytrewq]

Daughters puppy!
In general he’s absolutely gorgeous! A huge hit with everyone and has been fairly good, as in no accidents at first. Wee’s as soon as she takes him to grass and says wee!
Then the last few days he’s started poo’ing in the house, when he’s been out, toileted then come back in and gone on the floor. Today he was playing in the garden, did a wee and poo, came in and sh*t in his bed (in the crate)
I’ve just been on the phone to her and the noise was unreal! He’s in his crate in the back of her car and was shrieking, she said that wasn’t usual (maybe because he didn’t have his bed?)
It’s been so long since we had a puppy! Do you tell them off for in house accidents?
The crying, he has to sleep in a crate because they live between her in-laws and own house, at the bf parents he has to sleep in it so they stick with that at home to get the routine, and he has go in the car in one for safety. Some nights he takes himself off to bed, others he howls- how’s best to deal with this?
Any tips would be gratefully received! I told her to play whale music in the car which she took seriously ? we need some proper advice please!

 

[Hexx]

Pooping - yes they do poop in the house! Don't make a big deal about it, clear it up and make sure you keep an eye out for the circling they do just before they poo. I set my phone alarm for every 1.5 hours to make sure Myrtle goes out regularly and she gets special praise for a poo!

Crying in the crate - earplugs!

 

[CorvusCorax]

Cover the crate so he can't see out and make sure it doesn't rattle too much (you can use bungee cords for this). She also needs to watch her driving, cornering, speedbumps etc as it can be very stressful to be sliding all over the place in a rattly cage. Wouldn't have music too loud.
My pup is nearly eight months old and a large breed and she still goes out every 2-3 hours. Don't bring him in immediately he poos, there might be more and some dogs need a good run to get themselves going.
Although some toileting can be stress related. All the chopping and changing and staying in different places suits some dogs but not others, some really need routine. I expect all my dogs to travel well and stay wherever, but they have to be introduced to it and they are generally quite mentally robust genetically to begin with.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Also, where is the crate in the car? With mine she went in a small carrier on the front seat, then moved to a sideways box in the rear (just behind my head really), then into the big boxes at the rear of the vehicle. Separation anxiety in the car is also a thing, where they can see or hear you but feel like they cannot get to you.

 

[Nasicus]

Aaah, puppies, aren't they wonderful?
Re the toileting, sometimes they just regress, for no discernible reason it would often seem! I've seen theories that human children often regress when they're working on their next growth breakthrough, so I just tell myself that to make me feel better hah!
Whenever I've had pups take a step backwards with their toileting, I take it right back to basics and treat them as I would an itty bitty baby puppy. Frequent toilet times (aka ample opportunities to get it right) and go absolutely batcrap crazy with the celebrations when he does the right thing. Watch them like a hawk in the house, and if they like to sneak off or seem a favour a messing spot, either block it off or keep pup on a house line whilst the rules are re-established.
If pup does have an accident, if it's literally just happened then just take him outside to where he should be going and give the toilet command to remind him. Praise like mad if he does finish off outside. Then clean the mess up (ideally with a specific enzymatic cleaner to remove and scents that would encourage repeated messing). If it's old, then just clean it up as above, puppy probably won't even remember doing it by then.

It might sound odd, but I've had great success with giving my pups different commands for what they should be doing. I use 'Go weewee's' for #1's and 'Go Toilet' to encourage #2's. It helps to know roughly how often you pup needs to poo, as you can then encourage them to do specifically that when they're due, as opposed to them just having a wee and then getting distracted and forgetting they need to poo at that moment in time.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I wonder if the swapping between 'homes' is confusing/stressing the pup, especially if the pattern isn't discernible to him. It also sounds as if travelling in the car is stressful. I would cover the crate and make sure that it is very firmly fixed into position.
As above just put the pup outside if the accident is fresh and clean up if it's not fresh resolve to watch pup more closely. Is pup put outside immediately after every meal? If you stay out with them until they have finished that usually works to avoid accidents.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Thank you all!

The swapping between homes isn’t ideal no, they are lambing at the family farm so if it’s their turn to do nights he has to stay there.
I think they are pretty much finished so will be home home all the time as of next week, I think this will help.
Pretty sure the crate is in her boot. She only has a small car and I know she said she can’t get it in the back. So I assume it’s in the boot. I did say she could borrow my cat carrier as he’s small enough!
Ok so re the toilet training I think she’s pretty much doing all she can correctly. Our last puppy who’s now 6 took an eternity, she’s only had this one just over a week. I suspect the fact there were no accidents the first few days gave a false sense of how easy it was ?

 

[poiuytrewq]

I think, he has food down all the time as he doesn’t eat much but will go back and fore and take a tiny bit as and when. She’s taking him out regularly and stays with him as he’s so tiny and the gardens not secure.
He’s very good at “do a wee” on command.
She’ll get there! She was never involved with toilet training our dogs so probably thought it automatic ?

 

[TGM]

I'd get her to read the free e-books on the link below, they were my puppy bible and deals in a practical way with crate-training, toilet training etc. Worked for my two pups.

https://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

With the change in toileting behaviour, is it possible he has worms? Worth worming if he hasn't been done recently.

 

[Equi]

Set meal times and no food available at any other times, hopfully they can regulate the poo times more. They may not appear to eat a lot but if it’s just getting topped up all the time how can she know?

 

[poiuytrewq]

I'd get her to read the free e-books on the link below, they were my puppy bible and deals in a practical way with crate-training, toilet training etc. Worked for my two pups.

https://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

With the change in toileting behaviour, is it possible he has worms? Worth worming if he hasn't been done recently.

Thank you! Very helpful
He’s been very carefully bred tonne fair and she has all receipts from vet checks. He’s supposed to be wormed to date. The lady she bought him from is seemingly fantastic but I’ll tell her to look into that

 

[poiuytrewq]

Set meal times and no food available at any other times, hopfully they can regulate the poo times more. They may not appear to eat a lot but if it’s just getting topped up all the time how can she know?

Ok thank you. I’m not sure how much a tiny pup like him is supposed to eat really. We only had lab puppies who ate madly at each opportunity so we never worried about it

 

[Equi]

What kind of pup is it?

 

[splashgirl45]

my tiny puppy was really difficult to housetrain. i would take him out every half hour and after he woke up and after meals and after playing. he would wee outside but wanted to poo indoors and also ran into his crate and pooed in there. i couldnt work out what i was doing wrong as i had always been able to housetrain my previous pups with no problems but they were bigger dogs.. he had never been outside before he came to me, the puppies and mum were indoors with paper on the floor for the pups to use and i think he was uneasy squatting for any length of time outside. i started giving him a treat if he did anything outside and eventually he got more confident and i never had any more problems

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Ok thank you. I’m not sure how much a tiny pup like him is supposed to eat really. We only had lab puppies who ate madly at each opportunity so we never worried about it

I would expect any suitable kibble to have a feeding schedule, according to weight, on the pack. That would be a good starting point, which can be adjusted up or down depending on how much he eats at a meal. I would feed him 4 times per day. Routine is the key to successful house-training, ime.

 

[gunnergundog]

If you regulate the input you can regulate the output!

So, four meals a day - quantity, timings and feed to duplicate what the breeder was doing a week ago or whenever your daughter picked the pup up.

If very small breed....out after every sleep, out after every play, out after every meal, out every hour max. Keep a pee and poo diary and learn from YOUR (your daughter's) mistakes! No chastisement for the pup - only the daughter for missing the signals.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Small dogs have small bladders and bowels. Will also depend on how they are raised/what surfaces they are used to. The litter mine was from all peed and pooed on the shavings and slept on the tiles ? but even from very young they differentiated between the place to sleep and the place to toilet.

 

[scats]

JD was house trained fully by 16 weeks... Bess and Lily-Rose were a nightmare! They were both around 10-12 months before they completely had it nailed and random accidents stopped. You’d go weeks with them being absolutely brilliant, then there’d be a random poo in the house even though they’d been out 5 minutes before. Never tell them off for it, they won’t associate being told off with where they’ve done it but more what they’ve done and it can encourage them to start hiding where they go or purposely waiting for you to take your eye off them (when in reality, you need to be able to recognise when they want to go)

The joy of pups!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

Ditto previous replies, sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back/sideways.

Don't let mature behaviour make your daughter forget that he's only a young puppy, who have just left his littermates. Hiccups happens on the road to getting a well behaved adult dog.

It might just be a few days left of lambing, but I think you should suggest again that she borrows your cat carrier for the car travels, if it's big enough for the puppy, but small enough to be placed closer to your daughter in her car. Within view of your daughter + smaller area to slip around in, could help. A few puffs with an Adaptil spray might also help.

As Scats mentioned, whatever they do, they really do not want to teach their puppy that he has to poop indoors when people are not looking!

Besides, I prefer to not see it as neither the puppy's, nor the human's fault if/when indoor puppy accidents happen, but if it has to be someone's fault, I would say it's the human's fault. I have some ancient dog training book which says about housebreaking accidents, to hold the puppy's nose close to the poop/pee, and say No!
Blaming myself before the puppy, without even trying it myself, I realised that holding a poop up to my face, and tell myself "How could I let this happen" would not help one iota.

Sometimes there's resemblances between baby/toddler behaviours, and puppy stages, but other times they do stuff that don't make much sense to us. I think that the most likely reason behind why the poops in the cage happened/happens is the already given suggestions about that maybe he simply needed to poop a second time, maybe 4 regular meals, and food removed between mealtimes helps, etc.
Less likely, but something that can happen is that puppies/dogs can pee or poop in or nearby their sleeping place when they feel insecure, seemingly to sort of scent mark it as their territory, and thereby tell themselves they're allowed to be there/give themselves some sort of reassurance that this is their spot.

How to know which reason/reasons it is in this puppy's case, is usually trial and error. Presume it is one of the more likely reasons first, but if those things doesn't work, then remember that it can have to do with insecurity, and scent marking.
If it is the later, the only way I know of how to solve it, is to accept that you're expecting the puppy to be more secure, and mature, than what he's able to at the moment. Go back a few steps in the training, with how far away from their humans you expect them to be able to handle, for how long etc.

 

[misst]

I have only just really got my 16 month old truely reliable with housetraining. I have never had a problem before. We do not tell her off if there is an accident but I point to it and then the door and say outside - she understands and goes into the garden and will usually manage a small wee (on command of wee wee). She gets praise for this. If it is a poo accident she will not produce another poo but she understands and goes outside for a wee at least. Usually it happens because I missed a sign - she basically looks out the patio door and then if no one notices she goes somewhere else. We have cracked it I think as her accidents were in the evenings. I put her out 2 hourly on the dot from 6pm until bedtime.

My dogs have always been small terriers and they eat tiny amounts as pups. We do not let them "graze" they have set meal times and then out for a poo. Obviously now Ruby is on 2 meals a day and is very regular in her poo so only a problem if she has eaten something on a walk causing an upset....she is a scavenger when not watched.

I would not tell a young pup off but would simply pick them up and put them outside and praise repeatedly (I give a tiny treat eg chicken) on any wee or poo.
The other useful thing is to always take them to the same area so it smells of their wee and poo even it is cleared. I think this can encourage them. Ruby still uses the same corner of the garden to perform that I took her to the first day.

 

[poiuytrewq]

? oh god, so today she called in and played ponies with my horse while I puppy sat.
He’s really just too gorgeous!
I was firmly told off for being a bad “grand dog” because he sits in his crate while people eat meals and I released him to play when they were still eating.... isn’t that what Granny’s do? ?

 

[misst]

? oh god, so today she called in and played ponies with my horse while I puppy sat.
He’s really just too gorgeous!
I was firmly told off for being a bad “grand dog” because he sits in his crate while people eat meals and I released him to play when they were still eating.... isn’t that what Granny’s do? ?

That is definitely what they do

 

[poiuytrewq]

That is definitely what they do

I’m very much looking forward to my next baby sitting opportunity.
can’t wait for lockdown to end and to be able to properly visit

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Echo what someone above said about not coming in straight away after pooing. Mabel is the worst for doing a poo, running around and forcing another bit out as I finish tying up the poo bag ???. I never told off for accidents inside, she just got ignored. Whereas wees/poos outsides were the greatest things ever, loads of praise, excitement and treats.

Can’t help re the car, Mabel has always loved the car!