Puppy venting-long

conanabanana02 · July 2009

We've had our puppy for 3 weeks now. She's 5 months old and a sweet little lady. But we cannot get her to let us know when she needs to go out and potty. I understand that she's a puppy, but it's still frustrating.She wakes us up in the morning. Usually about 5:45am, like clockwork, to go out. But during the day...nothing. She just randomly squats and goes. No warnings. I watch her like a hawk and manage to catch her a few times and toss her outside with me before she goes in the house. But fi doesn't watch her as close as I do. And accidents end up happening.When we take her outside and she DOES go potty out there, we praise her and often give her a small treat. When she goes in the house we swat her butt, tell her no, and get her outside immediatly. That's IF we manage to catch her as she's doing it. Anything we didn't see her do, we can't exactly scold her for. Since she won't know WHY we're scolding her.I'm trying to be patient. I know this stuff takes time. But does anyone have any tips?

ddumire · July 2009

You need to teach the puppy to go out on a routine. Take her out more frequently, or use crate training. Eventually she'll get it. Three weeks isn't a huge amount of time, if I remember correctly most places say that it takes 6 weeks for potty training.

karenttrouble · July 2009

Don't scold her. Only take her outside immediately and say "outside". Scolding dogs for going inside is why I've dealt with pathetic foster dogs who are afraid to go when we're looking. It's so sad. I haven't had a dog that young but I think it might just come with the territory. I'm not sure how old dogs are when they learn. Our current foster is about 9 months old and she has accidents kind of frequently still. We just take her outside as often as we can. We crate her when we're not home and never leave her alone uncrated. When she gets out of her crate, we immediately take her outside. We praise her a lot if she goes outside, especially since a week ago she wouldn't pee unless we left her alone.

vallyhoo · July 2009

Everything karenttrouble said.Especially not scolding her.

CurlyQ284 · July 2009

Our two year old bulldog STILL doesn't tell us. We make the dogs go out every 1-2 hours just in case. If she drinks a lot of water (it's hot in Mississippi!), the babygate goes up so she's in the kitchen only and she gets let out every 20 minutes for an hour before she's allowed back onto carpet. It's been working pretty well.

Beadlz · July 2009

Ditto everyone else. Also, while potty training our puppy we hung a bell from the door and rang it every time we went out side. She began to equate this with going potty and every time she needs to go she goes to the door and taps it with her nose.

engaged2Q · July 2009

Everyone has given good advice so far. One thing I did with my puppy was I put bells (like little craft jingle bells) attached to a piece of string hanging off the doorknobs down to her height. Everytime I took her outside (every hour, or whatever amount of scheduled time works for your puppy) I hit the bells with my "paw" and said outside. Then we would go outside and she would be praised for doing what she was supposed to do when she was out there. Eventually, she was hitting the bells when she needed to go outside.Also, make sure you are cleaning up her "accidents" with something that removes pet odors so that she won't be tempted to mark (which you probably already know).I hope this makes sense.

conanabanana02 · July 2009

Sorry for the post and run. I was booted off for my break sooner than normal. I'll certainly look into what everyone said.It's not just when she starts to show signs, but even when we DO take her outside, she comes in and 2 minutes later she poops in the house. If we're just bumming around the house watching tv, I'll get up every once in a while, "Abby, wanna go outside and go potty!?" in my cheery voice. I'll take her out, she may/may not go. I bring her back in 20 minutes later. And sometimes she'll go right after I bring her back in.

engaged2Q · July 2009

Oops, Beadlz beat me to the post...sorry to repeat info.

conanabanana02 · July 2009

Thanks ladies. I keep telling myself, "She'll learn eventually. She's still a puppy." It's so frustrating, though. I'll try and make time to be out with her the whole time until she goes potty. Oh, and she is small enough to carry. She's a rat terrier. Tiny little thing. :-PAnd I like the bell on the door idea.

vicmo5 · July 2009

The best thing I did for my pug, who is a almost two years old now, was start her on a schedule. She would go out first thing in the morning, after breakfast, every one or two hours when we were at home, after dinner, after playing and before bed. I gave her lots of praise when she did it right and I only scolded her a little when she didn't. Eventually she didn't have to go out so much, but some dogs never learn to warn you or they do it in a weird way. My dog scratches at the floor or the couch when she has to go potty. You could get her a bell and teach her how to ring it. But really it's just as much about training yourselves as it is training her. She's only five months old so you're on track. Good luck!

karenttrouble · July 2009

I would leave her out until she goes, even if it takes a logn time. That sucks though.

mps06d · July 2009

hmmm...as annoying as it can be, you might want to not let her back in until she goes once you take her out. Mom did this with her pup too. She would take her out for 15 minutes, come in the house and two minutes later, she'd poop on the carpet. She started waiting until she went and, when she did, praising her like crazy. Once she got inside she'd give her some shredded cheese. Now the dog runs in the house and does laps like a crazy because she knows the cheese is coming.

vicmo5 · July 2009

Oh, one more thing, and you may already be doing this-bring her out on a leash. If you just send her out in the backyard by herself you can't be sure she went potty and if she didn't you don't want to praise her. You should praise her on the spot, while she's doing it.

amalama · July 2009

The owner of the dog we are getting did the bell thing. She is a year old and they still have a bell on their door. When she stayed with us one night she went to the door and scratched every single time, and didn't have a single accident. So I'd say go with that method!

conanabanana02 · July 2009

Oh, one more thing, and you may already be doing this-bring her out on a leash. If you just send her out in the backyard by herself you can't be sure she went potty and if she didn't you don't want to praise her. You should praise her on the spot, while she's doing it. Oooh, yeah. I do that. Not on a leash, but I walk with her in the grass to a designated area and wait. I just stand there and wait. She sniffs a bit. Sometimes gets distracted and eats a leaf (or a lightning bug), and I have to remind her "Abby, be a good girl. Go potty outside." lol.

conanabanana02 · July 2009

The owner of the dog we are getting did the bell thing. She is a year old and they still have a bell on their door. When she stayed with us one night she went to the door and scratched every single time, and didn't have a single accident. So I'd say go with that method! That might be the first thing I try. I think I'm a tad spoiled. The dog I had growing up was REALLY good about letting us know he had to go out. From nudging us in our sleep, scratching on the door, to (as last resort) barking if no one was getting up fast enough. lol.

Hwrd2be · July 2009

We had a similar prob. We got our dog when she was 8 months old.. 8 months of bad habbits... We tried and tried but the only thing that worked is that we would take her out every 2-3 hours and walk her around for 5-10 mins until she went potty.. yes, she will have an occasional accident but that is ussually our fault.. Now, she will come let us know when she has to go potty.. It is kind of a pain... but its better than her having accidents all over the carpet.

pantsarella · July 2009

This happened with our puppy, too. If she won't go while she's outside, take her for a walk. The physical exertion sometimes makes them realize that they have to go sooner rather than later. Then do the praising. Eventually, she'll get used to the routine.

jenbat · July 2009

I can't tell from your post...are you taking her for a walk or just going outside. You should be walking her 30-60 minutes two times per day - am and pm. Exercise will get her bowels moving.Also, I feed my dogs only twice a day, even as puppies. If she's gone in the house and can still smell it, she'll go again. I prefer Simple Solution to Nature's Miracle. You can try and pick up her poop and take it to a spot outside. Sometimes the smell will get her to understand to go outside. I also take puppies out every hour and stay with them until they go. In the am and pm, I stay with them until they poop. My schnauzer would take up to 45 minutes if we were standing around, but much less if we started walking. Finally, if the dog is peeing outside then peeing again inside, make sure it doesn't have a UTI. The schnauzer got those all the time and couldn't hold it when she had one.

ac_in_dc · July 2009

Dogs learn to "go" on certain texturesMy lab is a sick little puppy. He was 5 when I got him, and enjoys finding the spikiest bush/cactus/shrub possible to poop on. I've mastered the art of walking him over to a spiky bush and then pulling him on to flat ground after he squats and before he poops

katiewhompus · July 2009

If the cousins taught her to go inside she's just doing what she was trained to do. She probably is holding it the whole time she's outside so that she can go when it's appropriate (aka, to her, once she's back inside where she's used to using the potty). Along with all the good advice above, you can also try teaching her "go potty" or "go pee". This worked with my dog (we started her training when she was 9, she was used to being in a yard). When she starts peeing or pooping outside say "go pee" and then reward her when she's done. Soon it will (hopefully) get to the point where you just say "go pee" and she will try to go. This way she'll know where it's appropriate to go :)If you punish her for going inside she may just hide when/where she goes, which will go into a whole other ball game.

conanabanana02 · July 2009

I do take her for walks. Once a day, usually at night when I get home from work. But I run around with her and toss her toy lobster around in the yard. I have noticed that running helps her get pooping quicker. I stay out with her the whole time. Our command is "go potty." When she does it outside, she's given praise and a small dog treat. Yesterday after work I began scratching on the door each time I took her to go out. Hopefully she'll pick up on the "go outside to potty" with the door scratching. I also started giving her a "special" treat for when she went potty outside. A small piece of cheese when she comes back in the house. She LOVES the cheese. So hopefully that will be a bigger incentive to do her dirty work outside rather than in the house. :-PPatience. Patience. Patience. Thanks again for the advice. :-)

conanabanana02 · July 2009

And don't swat her butt - completely unnecessary. A firm "no" is enough. You're physically punishing her for a bodily function she obviously doesn't have control over yet. This I will be stopping. I feel terrible when I do it. Not that I hit her hard or anything. I know that she can't control it, that's why I feel so guilty about hitting her. So no more butt-swats. :-)Though her going into the garbage....we'll have to beat my brothers dog for that one. She NEVER went in the garbage until she spent the day with Tweek. My brother has the same kind of dog and he is BAD with going in the trash. Now Abby is doing it, too. Ugh.

meriamjuicy · July 2009

When I take my dog out and she seems to take forever to poo, I can run her a bit in small circles or have her chase a laser in tight circles. This seems to work the poo right out of her. We started doing it after watching her spin EVERYTIME she wants to go #2.

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