Struggling with toilet training!!!!

Our springer pup is 7 months old!!!

He now goes to newspaper in the kitchen and we reward him when he goes to the toilet outside! He gets walked about 2 miles twice a day. When we are at work (11-4.30) he rarely goes to the toilet in the day..... he has his evening walk but then always goes all over the kitchen in the night!!! Is it because its overnight and he cant see where to go (On the paper) or just because he needs to go because he hasnt got full control over himself yet???

If we let him out in the yard he does nothing.... we tried using the command 'toilet' when he does go, to associate the action with the command!!! And said it when we let him out!!! But he looks at me like i'm daft lol.....

Are we expecting too much too soon....?

Thanks in advance!!!

Plus he has just been castrated.... does that make any difference do you think?????

Personally I would expect a dog to be fully house trained by 6 months at the latest.

If we let him out in the yard he does nothing.... we tried using the command 'toilet' when he does go, to associate the action with the command!!! And said it when we let him out!!! But he looks at me like i'm daft lol.....

First of all you cannot just let your dog out into the yard and expect him to know what he is supposed to do there!

Secondly, this is one of the major drawbacks of training a dog to eliminate indoors, you have demonstrated that you think this is fine, so he is only doing what he has ALWAYS done!

Thirdly, putting newspapers down is part of the cue to go to the loo!

Fourthly, if said "oud" to you when you came in, would you know what to do? Not unless you spoke arabic you would not!

Fifthly you have to TEACH a dog what you want. So you need to go to the spot outside with the dog on the lead and just stand around in a relaxed way, the MOMENT the dog starts to squat praise the dog and when finished give the dog a treat. The more often you reinforce what you want the more likely you are to get it!

After a while start saying the word(s) you want to use in order that your dog will eliminate on command WHILST the dog is doing it. Then you can start giving the cue BEFORE hand.

It is not that you are expecting too much too soon, it is that you are expecting anything at all fromyour current methods!

I may not have been clear but we have been using the command while he was doing a toilet outside for a month or so now! We're not completely stupid!! Lol....

But thanks for the advice about not leaving paper.... that does make sense when we think about it.... we are just signalling that its ok to go inside i guess....

Has anyone used the enzyme sprays.... would they help to stop him going inside do you think!!!

Thanks again!

Never use any product containing ammonia to clean up urine spills......................

Hi Dee may I make a few comments no critisism intended.

Puppies begin to get control of their bodily functions at around 16 weeks of age. I would guess your puppy isn’t actually house trained at all, he must be very confused, you are signalling to him that it is ok to soil in the house by putting newspaper down and yet he is also expected to go outside.
I hate newspaper and never use it prefering to teach a puppy to go outside every time. I appreciate you are away some of the time which can't help matters and makes it difficult for a puppy because there is no one there to take him out regularly.
I would go back to basic training when you possibly can , this means taking your puppy out at regular intervals, first thing in the morning / last thing at night/after sleep/play/excitement/food and every hour and giving lots of praise when your puppy is reliving itself to reinforce the wanted behaviour. If you take him for a short walk to an area frequented by other dogs this will stimulate him to go. Letting him out alone will not give you the opportunity to teach him anything.

Comanding him to ‘toilet’ means nothing to your puppy unless you have taught him what the word means and doing this takes careful timing. When you puppy is in the middle of going use your prompt word (I say beclean )so that it associates the word with the action, then the moment the puppy finishes going reward with a treat like a bit of chicken and praise. Gradually phase out the treat but always give praise.

It may take a while and a lot of patience to teach your puppy to be clean because he has got into the habit of soiling in the house.

Soiled areas should be throughly cleaned to remove every trace of the scent, biological washing powder is good for this purpose.

We have been doing that... giving him the treat when he goes outside. I def think its the newspaper inside that has def been causing the confusion....

I knew we must be doing something wrong thats why i asked!!!!

We're def trying 'taking' him out rather than just 'letting' himout the yard!!!!!

He's a clever little monkey so i'm sure he'll get it soon!!!!

Thanks all.....Any advice is appreciated!!!!!

We trained our pup and our older kennel living girl in the same way, we took them both outside and as we went say 'outside' we then said 'weewee' the second that they squated to do the wee, in a really high pitched happy voice and praised highly as they wee'd.

We watched like hawks for circling or any sign that they wanted to go, and quickly either picked them up or ushered them toward the door and followed above 'outside' and 'weewee' Once they were fairly reliably going outside we started when we needed them to go started to say 'outside weewee' so they knew the purpose was to go and do their business because we needed them to as we may be going out or to bed, they will now if they need to go do it on command.

For any indoor accidents we just ignored and cleaned up with sprays etc to eliminate the odour.

I would get rid of anything that encourages him indoors, our pup went through the night of about 6 hours from 9 weeks with a late wee at 11ish and then a morning one at 6 ish, we did take his water away at about 8pm initially and put it back in the morning.

The younger pup only had a handful of accidents indoors and was trained in a couple of weeks, the older girl who was used to pooing/weeing when she wanted also took to this very quickly and in around four weeks or maybe less we have had her just over two months and no accidents in a long time.

We now have both dogs who go to the door when they need a wee/poo and stand there till we let them out. They both have full access to water till bedtime around 10.30pm and we let them out just after 7am.

*Jealous* lol....

crate training is quick and simple