Toilet Training - Help & Advice Please!

Hi guys

Beau came to live with us on Saturday aged 8 weeks. He's a lovely little beagle pup (I've posted pics on another thread) but he already seems very stubborn and has a mind of his own!

Beau is my first dog and I'm struggling a bit with toilet training to be honest . We take him out every hour and when he wakes up and after he's eaten. When he 'goes' outside he gets loads of praise etc.

Yesterday he had quite a few accidents inside but he nearly always did it on the puppy mat by the back door which I thought was fantastic. We are also crating him overnight and when we go out (I feel mean but it's better all round I think!). The first 2 nights he didn't have any accidents in his crate but when we got up this morning he'd pooed! He has his supper at 8.45pm, last walk outside at 10pm and then we take him out at 6am.

Today, everytime I take him outside he just wants to play. He's had a couple of wees but thats it. The rest have been in the house, all over! And he's pooed in the house twice today aswell, once even in the living room (thank goodness for wood flooring!!) .

I know he's only tiny and I haven't been punishing him but I just need a bit of guidance. We put him straight out when he's had an accident in the house but I'm wondering if there's something we're doing wrong? Everyone says to put them out when they start sniffing round, but Beau sniffs ALL the time! Probably because he's a beagle

Any ideas/suggestions/word of encouragement are welcome!

Thanks,

Vics

Hi there.

I think you are getting there, but I have a few suggestions that may help things.

It sounds as though your pup enjoys being in the garden in which case:

Don't bring him in as soon as he has 'been' - his reward should be some play in the garden.

Don't take him out in the garden as soon as he's had an acciden in the house - if, as your post suggests, he likes the garden, he could see this as a reward (i.e. pee in house= allowed to go and play in garden).

If you are quick, you should be able to catch him just as he starts to crouch to pee or poo - if you catch him at that stage, you can take him straight out.

Use a word of short phrase e.g. 'be clean' or 'have a pee' as he's doing it...he should then learn what these words mean and you can ask him to do it and then reward/play as soon as it is done. That way he'll learn that the quicker he relieves himself, the quicker he can get to play. Before he has done anything in the garden, don't show him any attention in the garden.

As for the crate, pups don't usually like to go in their crates, so hopefully this was a one off where he just got caught short. It will help him if you get to know his poo habits - e.g. when he last had a poo before you put him in his crate.

10pm-6am is quite a long time for such a young pup to hold on for - most people would get up once in the night to let them out.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll get there

Hi Vics Small puppies need to be taken out at regular intervals at times when they are most likely to want to go, this is after sleep/play/a meal/excitement/first thing in the morning and last thing at night and about once an hour to begin with.
If you do this and ignore any accident,no word/no eye contact and praise a puppy when it is in the middle of reliving itself outside (and give a treat the moment it has finished then give randomly/then not at all) your puppy will soon learn to relieve itself outside because it becomes a habit/is rewarding and going inside is not.

Are puppy mats puppy pads? I am not really keen on these, I think they make things confusing for a puppy because some of the time it is being indicated that the puppy should go outside to soil while at the same time puppy pads are encouraging it to go inside.

Sorry but personally I not in favour of shutting a puppy in a crate overnight and leaving it. Small puppies have no control over their bodily functions and if then need to 'go' in the night and are shut in a crate they have no alternative but to soil in their beds .This can then become a habit.

I have puppies with me at night to begin with so I know when they need to go out and I get up and take them out, this way they soon learn to soil outside in a chosen spot.

This is how I house train a puppy ..
http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8974

ETA it can also be helpful to teach your puppy to relieve itself on command, details below..
http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php...85#post1808585

Hi

I think you are expecting a bit much too soon to be honest. My current youngest dog wasn't reliably letting us know that she wanted to go out until she was a good 16 weeks old, if not more. They are all different. Some pick it up really quickly, others take a bit longer. I find that the lightbulb just goes on suddenly one day and it just clicks with them.

As others have said, you need to put him out after ANY period of movement, even if he has only been mooching around for a few minutes. Every hour isn't going to cut it...I put my nearly 6 month old pup out for a wee every hour or so if she is up and moving about. If she is quiet and calm, she can go much longer.

I think you are expecting him to hold it too long over night at this point. Most puppies will not be physically able to hold it for 7 or 8 hours at 8 weeks; that is far too much to ask. You'll either have to juggle your schedule so that someone is up late with the pup (later than 10!) and another person is up early, OR get up in the night. For the first couple of weeks really you should be getting up and letting the pup out. If you stick to your current schedule, I would get up and let the pup out at 2 or 3am each night.

Oh, and ditch the puppy pads! awful inventions. If you see him heading towards the back door, scoop him up outside ASAP and put him on the grass. The pads will only confuse him as dogs do not generalize well. A sofa, bed, carpet...any soft surface...could be fair game for him to toilet on and you certainly don't want that.

Just reading this bit again - makes me think that your pup is trying to do the right thing but that you are not paying careful enough attention. (sorry, I don't mean that nastily, but puppy training is a demanding period if you want to get it right).

If I had a pup who was heading for the back door, I'd be up and following them pdq to let them out.

Thanks for the help guys. It sounds like I am doing most of the stuff you suggest, I'll def try the other stuff tho!

As for getting up through the night, I was going to do this initially but then I thought that this might be a bit of a bad habit, i.e would he always expect to be taken out at night? Also, he cries at first when he goes in his crate (only for a few minutes!) but he is quite loud and I didn't want to risk waking the whole house up at 2 or 3am when I put him back after taking him out! I will have to try this though as I don't want to upset him by making him sleep in his own mess

Can anyone recommend any 'treats' that I can give Beau as a reward for 'going' outside? I've been looking but the only ones I can find seem to be for dogs over 4 months.

I am really trying to keep an eye on him, but I do have to leave the room on odd occasion and I also have 2 children to look after so, with the greatest will in the world, I can't always be there to watch for him going near the door

Vics

No, it won't get him into bad habits. The idea of getting up in the night is that you move back the time you get up slowly each night. So if you start by getting up at 2AM and he is clean when you see to him, move it back by another ten minutes the next night so you get up at 2:10AM. If he has an accident overnight, move the time back to when he was clean. It might take a couple of weeks of going back and forth but with a month or so he should be going a full 6 hours or so overnight without too much trouble.

But, 7-8 hours is definately far too long to expect a pup to hold it over night at this stage.

My pup is now 10 weeks, and to begin with I was up during the night to let her out to wee, it lasted 2 weeks, then I would put her out at 11.30, and was up again at 6am, to let her out, she has now got the hang of going to the door to be let out, although we still have accidents, but not that many...and she does not go out during the night at all now...

You need to watch the puppy, not the clock. Take it out at what seems random times to it, and it will only be confused about why you are taking it out. Learn to identify when it needs to go out , and take it out then. Raven is our 19'th young puppy, 8 weeks, since 1991. We have had her about a week. Things are going quite well as usual.

Much of housebreaking is not training the puppy, but making it easier for your puppy, you, and your carpet while its body to catches up to its instincts. At around 8 weeks when the puppy goes to its new home, the time from when it realizes it has to go, and when it can't wait any longer is a matter of seconds. Only time will fix that. You can hardly be expected to be attentive enough to avoid all accidents. There is no sense punishing the puppy for your inattention. It is not fair to punish you either, but you still have to clean it up if you didn't have the puppy outside in time.

Housebreaking starts before you get home with the new puppy. If you don't have a crate, buy one. I prefer the more enclosed, den like plastic ones. Skip the bedding. At first it gets wet, and later it can be chewed into choking hazards. A wire grid in the bottom will help keep the puppy up out of accidents at first. They are available with the crates, but expensive and hard to find. A piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. I am now using a plastic vegetable bin with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom. It helps block off part of the crate for the smaller puppy. If you already have a metal crate, covering it may help. Just make sure you use something the puppy can't pull in and chew. Dogs that start out in crates as little puppies, accept them very well. Never leave an unattended puppy loose in the house. If nobody can watch it, put it in the crate. I suggest letting the dog have its crate all its life. A crate needs to be just big enough for a dog to stretch out in.

Choose a command and spot you want it to use. The less accessible to strays, the less chance of serious disease. If it is a female, choosing a non grassy spot will avoid brown spots later. When you bring it home, take it to the spot and give it the command in a firm, but friendly voice. Keep repeating the command and let the puppy sniff around. Sometimes you need to walk it around to stimulate its body to eliminate. If it does anything, praise it. Really let it know what a good dog it is and how much you love it, and maybe a treat. Note, being out there not only means you can praise it, but it also keeps it from being snatched by a hawk. If it doesn't go, take it inside and give it a drink and any meals scheduled. A young puppy will need to go out immediately afterward. Go to the spot and follow the above routine. Praising it if it goes is extremely important. If it doesn't go, take it back inside and put it in its crate and try again soon. Do not let it loose in the house until it does go.

At first it is your responsibility to know and take the puppy out when it needs to go. It needs to go out the first thing in the morning, after eating, drinking, and sleeping. If it quits playing, and starts running around sniffing, it is looking for a place to go. Take it out quickly. You will just have to be what I call puppy broke until it is a little older. How successful you are depends on how attentive you are.

By the time most dogs are about 3 months old, they have figured out that if they go to the door and stand, you will let them out. The praise slowly shifts to going to the door. Some people hang a bell there for the dog to paw. If your dog doesn't figure this out, try praising it and putting it out if it even gets near the door. When you catch it in the act, give it a sharp ''Ah, ah, ah!'' and take it out. Clean up accidents promptly. I mostly keep the little puppies out of the carpeted rooms. Still I need the can of carpet foam sometimes. First blot up all the urine you can with a dry towel. Keep moving it and stepping on it until a fresh area stays dry. A couple big putty knives work well on bowel movements. Just slide one under it while holding it with the other. This gets it up with a minimum of pushing it down into the carpet. This works with even relatively soft ones, vomit, dirt from over turned house plants, or anything else from solids to thick liquids. Finish up with a good shot of carpet foam. Note, do not let the puppy lick up the carpet foam. Once the dog is reliably housebroken, your carpet may need a good steam cleaning.

Many people strongly strongly push cleaning up all evidence of past accidents. I am slower to suggest that. Dogs will return to the same spot if they can find it. When you see one sniffing the spot, that is your clue to run it out.