Toilet training a puppy.

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Josh_p

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Just wondering if anyone has any tips for toilet training a puppy? She is an inside dog ( a Lhasa apso) and she will be getting a doggy door when she is abit bigger but likes to wee inside even when the door is left open for her.


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It takes time unfortunatly and alot of "mistakes" on the floor. My advice would be to get some of those puppy training pads and lay them down on the spots where she mostly goes to the toilet (front/backdoor), plus every few hours just take the puppy outside for about half an hour. Our dogs eventually learnt to go to the door when they wanted to go to the toilet.
 
When she does wee on the floor, mop it up with the puppy pad, and leave it on the ground, hopefully she will come and look and eventually learn
 
do you have grass outside? Just take her outside every 30 mins or so and they soon get the idea. I can be a bit of a punishing process though
 
Don't rub it's nose in it! Praise it heaps when it goes out side to toilet. And those puppy pads are great as when you see puppy going to toilet you pick it up and place it on pads and tell to wee wee ect then the pads get moved closer to the door until it's toilet trained.
 
bit like toilet traiing a small child takes a bit of patients and time if you see its about to wee pick it up will stop then take it outside and then will learn also give treats for a reward as well
 
when she/he goes to the toilet just say bad and put her/him outside and when she goes out side give her a treat
 
Don't ever punish her for accidents, unless you catch her in the act. She will only learn to hide it from you. We went through this for a long time with my grandfather's dog, his mentality seemed to be "if it does something wrong, hit it with a stick. If it does something right, hit it with a stick" As soon as we found this out we took the dog away from him, but the issues were well and truly in place already, and took years worth of rehabilitation. He's a great little dog now though :)
Be super vigilant, you will learn to read the signs. It makes your life easier if when she's not supervised, she's outside (don't leave her outside all night though, that's mean :p), that way she's toileting in the right area already, and less messes for you to clean up.

When you praise her for going outside, start low key, just a soft "good girl" as soon as she starts going, when she's finishing her wee, ramp it right up to become the most amazing thing EVER! You want her to know she's done the right thing, but you don't want to distract her from the task at hand by being too exuberant at first.

I'd strongly suggest a toilet command, for example, mine all know "go toilets" means either wee (if they're already outside); or get up, go outside and go wee.
It makes life soooooo much easier when it's freezing and/or pouring with rain, toileting before bedtimes means a 2 minute trip outside as opposed to waiting around for 10 minutes until she decides she wants to go.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, forgot to add. If you catch her in the act, just a "no" will do, take her straight outside and praise like crazy if she goes while outside (see above note about starting softly though)
She may not start to urinate immediately when you take outside after interrupting her, that's fine, just be aware that she does need to wee and watch her extra closely, take her out every 5-10 minutes until she goes. Remember, every time you avoid an accident is one step closer to being toilet-trained :)

Also, don't expect miracles. I'm guilty of this, because our pup has slotted in so well and has picked up most of the house rules pretty well, I tend to forget she's a puppy with a tiny puppy bladder, and can't be left inside for 3 hours without having to go wee-wees. My point is, even when she is toilet trained, she will still be a pup and won't have the control of an older dog.

Also, I'm really sorry if my rambling didn't make any sense, I only got 3 hours sleep today because my stupid family came over to my house and were playing with jackhammers or something (that's what it sounded like anyway)
 
The three Ps of training for any animal with intelligence
patience,
persistence
Praise

And be consistent - don't change the 'rules'
 
Im in the process of doing this myself, those pads are great as our little toy poodle Otis has now learned where he should be going. Most accidents are half on or very close to the mat so hes going well, we put the mat where we found he was going most and he got the idea. For a 9 week old hes learnt pretty quickly :)
 
I have a few tips for you. Puppies need to wee or poo every 2-3 hours. So take you puppy out every 2- 2 and a half hours and you will be set. There may still be some accidents. I have an old english sheepdog who is now 9 months old. By 3 and a half months old she was fully toilet trained and no accidents to here of. She is an inside dog and no just goes and waits at the door for the toilet. I didn't bother with the puppy pads as I had it all set from day 1. Once you get into a routine you will be fine. Good luck. Also remember a puppy is a puppy until 18 months with there food. My dog is 9 months and already 22kg and still has heaps of growing to go. If you need any help don't hesitate to pm me.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I know it's all about time and patience, but I will try some of the other ideas to help her along.


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When avoiding accidents i would stick to this;
If it eats or drinks take it outside,
If its just woken up or got up from lying down take it outside,
If its just had a big puppy-run/playtime take it outside
After all of these things you can almost guarantee that toilet time is coming shortly. Keep it outside until it does its business (with my dog I would say "do wees" when she was doing it and praise her when she was done) then she got to come back inside. It only took her a few weeks to get what was going on and the accidents were greatly reduced. She can now pretty much wee on command which is so handy when you are about to go to bed and when you are going in the car etc. like Disintegratus said.
Oh and enjoy the puppy stage, its never long enough. Put in the hard yards training and socialising with other dogs in the first 6 months and you should have a great easy going dog for the rest of its life.
Good luck with everything,
Aaron
 
I house trained our dog (spanatrever) I put her in the laundry, where the doggy door is, put her bed, food bowl and water in there and blocked it off so there was only enough room for the things I mentioned next to the door, she learned not to poop or pee where she slept and ate, over a couple of weeks I moved the barrier further back until I removed the barrier all together, 2 or so years on when ever she is in the house, no mistakes or mess and the kids have her in for long periods
 
I had forgotten half of this as it has been so long, I unfortunately had to have my best mate of 14 years put to rest today due to some age related issues that were causing her pain and discomfort. When she was a pup I remember taking her outside just about everytime she moved lol. There is definately a lot of good advice in here that you should put into practice, especially praise is better than punishment (you catch more ants with honey than you do with vinegar). I suppose sometime in the coming months or year when I can bring myself around to having another dog I will be looking for this thread as a reminder. Good luck with the training and enjoy the hell out of your new furkid.
 
^ sorry you had to make that call today Shaggz.
 
Sorry to for your loss Shazzy.
When the time comes to get a new friend you will know, remember you arent replacing your best mate, you will always have your memories.
It's always great to hear the ages of older dogs because you know the owners love them.
 
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