puppy potty training

[Bernadette]

I would welcome any advice and help in training our new little dachshund. Sophie is 9 weeks old and is super smart. She sleeps all night and outside of harrassing her big 9 yr old sister, Marcie, she is a good puppy. She will go outside to poop and urinate at regular intervals as we take her out. She will come back into the house and will pee on the floor 5 min after being taken out. We only keep her in the family room and kitchen. She does this more frequently in the evening. How can a little 5 pound dog pee every 15 min. She will go on the puppy pads but also in her bed or anywhere she stops. It has been 9 yrs since I had a puppy and I have exhausted all the ideas I have had. Any helpful suggestions would be so very much appreciated!!!

[StarryEyes]

Hi there!

Please keep in mind that she is still a baby and doesnt have full control over her bladder. Housebreaking takes time. Just keep up with what you are doing and use lots of praise when she goes outside. Dont punish and show disappointment unless you catch her in the act of having an accident. Try to find a phrase for going out and relieving herself. I use "Go do your business".

Good luck!

[Bernadette]

Thank you so much for your encouragement. I will continue in my efforts and hopefully meet with sucess. :circle:

[Missy]

I had the same trouble with both of my doxies and trust me keep working with your baby and she will come around !
When I take mine out I get them all excited and I keep saying do you have to go potty...do you have to go potty in a real happy voice and then we go outside to do our duties.
Watch her and when you see her go give her a treat and lots and lots of praise but if she has an accident in the house try not to yell or get upset cause sometimes that can make it worse.Good luck with you new baby and I hope this helps
Missy

[cruzenmac]

I feel the same way as the other responses. Remember that she is only 9 weeks old. My Kona is almost 4 months (he was born 5/8/02) and sometimes he has accidents still. It's true when they say you have to have a constant watch. I would find Kona sneaking around to pee. One thing that helps is making sure you take your puppy out to the same spot everytime and say the same thing to her as you take her out (as suggested in a previous reply). That way, she'll get used to a routine.

By the way, I have been told that it takes about 6 months for a puppy to be 'dependably' potty trained and for small dogs it can take even longer. Have others heard the same?

Good Luck...I too will be looking out for potty training advice!

[Molly's Mom]

I know that many people are against them, but have you considered using puppy pads? When Molly was that young, she just didn't understand WHAT she was supposed to do outside. Our vet discouraged it, but we decided it was either let her ruin the carpet with all the accidents or use the pads in addition to teaching her to go out. The vet wasn't going to be buying me new carpet, so we used the pads.

Molly had a better understanding at that age that she could use the pads. Of course, I don't think it hurt that we kept them in the bathroom. Whenever I went, even if it was to wash my hands, Molly was closed in the bathroom and was told "time to potty". We didn't come out of the bathroom until she did.

Meanwhile, we still have scheduled times we went outside. Sometimes she used the bathroom and she was praised. However, she didn't seem to get why she was praised since she didn't do it each time.

Then we got our other dog Sammy, who is a month older and understood what to do. We learned Molly lives for attention, while Sammy will do anything for a treat. We use that to our advantage in training because we teach Sammy first, then Molly wants the attention and will follow him. That's how she learned to go outside. Sammy would go, we'd slip him a treat but make a HUGE fuss over him, making sure we ignored Molly at that time. Sure enough, Molly was jealous! :angry: She learned that if she wanted to take the attention off of him, she better learn to do whatever he was doing.

We still have the puppy pads down as a back up for when we forget to take them or for when we are gone. However, using the pads didn't stop them from going outside. If we take them outside, they go.

[Bernadette]

Thank you for this suggestion. I have tried puppy pads and they do work well. I put a used one in the same spot in the yard. When she goes out and smells the pad, she will go and I praise her tremendously. I don't use a crate but a plastic playard enclosure that I bought from a pet catalog. I put the puppy pads in there and she uses them when we are away. She doesn't like the confinement but it is safer for her to be in there when no one is home. She always seems to get into trouble if not watched closely! Why is your vet against them?? Thank you again for your helpful information.

[Molly's Mom]

The vet didn't really say too much about why she was against them, but just said crate training was what they recommended. I think the office viewed the puppy pads the same as newspaper, which they acted like was worse than the pads. Basically, if you let them go on paper, they thought the puppy would go on ANY paper. Pretty much, in their view, the pads are the same.

However, doctors don't know everything, and vets are the same. Sometimes you have to do what is best for you. We decided that for us, we needed to use the pads because Molly just wasn't getting it. The more time went on, she did learn to go outside, and when she does go in the house, she uses her pads. She's never done it on paper lying on the floor or anything like the vet claimed would happen.

If you are having trouble getting your doggie to do anything outside, it might also help if you make a certain spot where you want her to go. Take her there every time you go out. Let her walk around as far as her leash will go, but you stay put. She's more likely to get bored since she can't run around and learn to do her business. After she goes, you can let her in the rest of the yard, but try to keep her away from the "bathroom area" as you want that to be a special place.

[Cindi]

In my limited experience of crate/paper training (I've raised dachsies for over 22 years and started with shepherds and elkhounds before that), I've always papertrained first and still do. When going to motels, for whatever reason you are traveling, it is so much easier to put down papers (you know for those infrequent times when it is pouring down rain and you just don't want to go outside to walk the dog?) in the tiled bathroom and say 'go potty' at 11:00 p.m. and then go to bed :circle: !!
Once the dogs learn to go potty on the grass they truly aren't confused...they know what grass is for...and the suggestion for standing still and they will get bored and go potty is EXCELLENT! Just calmly keep saying the command words, don't get frustrated, don't raise the voice, just be calm...be boring :)

[lauraleeno]

I agree with everyone on using the puppy pads. I think they are wonderful. If your pup is having accidents there is a spray you can buy to place on the pads for additional odor to attract the dog to the pads. I have never used newspaper because I think alot of dogs have an attraction to it for chewing. Also praise is very important when they do go on the pads , you don't have to give them a treat each time they use the pad, maybe a pat on the head and a encouraging voice to let them know you are proud of them. i try to anticipate my pups time to urinate. First thing in the mornings, after playing and eating. Watch the pup for a tendency to walk in circles and sniffing is a great indicator that they are searching for a place to go, then pick them up and take them to the pad using your choice of words to get them to associate with elimination, such as "potty". Use a odor eliminator on the places the pup has urinated on before, "Simple Solution or Natures Miracle" are good to use. The younger a pup is, the shorter their attention span is but they want to please you and will work hard in doing so the older the pup gets before you know it the pup will start doing as you wish. Hang in there. I hope this helps.:circle: :dog:

[Molly's Mom]

One good thing about using the puppy pads vs. newspaper is that the package says there is an odor from the pads that attracts the puppy to them. I don't have a sense of smell, so I have no idea if this is true. However, these dogs are the first I've used the pads on, and they almost immediately went to them.

Just remember to change them at least once a day. Puppies are like cats. They won't go if they have to step on something dirty.

Cindi's right about being boring when it's potty time. If the puppy wants to play, don't give in. Just stand there and firmly remind her why you are out there.

[TessieMom]

I have only tried potty pads one time and my results were not what I wanted. Everything went well until we tried for the transition to the outside and potty pads suddenly became something to shred. As a result I had a dog that would only go inside on the pads if they were down or anywhere else inside if they were not down. Since that time, I discovered that my pack will train other dogs to go outside. In fact, my senior girl pushes puppies out the dog door and holds the door open for them to come in if they go outside and take care of their business. Unfortunately, she is approaching 15, so I am not sure how much longer I can count on her help. I have had several people ask to borrow her and I think she could earn her way in potty training. Rena and the 4 girls and 2 foster boys

[LisaH]

Your pup is still just a little infant! She pees every 15 minutes because she's a baby. We used newspaper when Annie was a puppy, since we had to leave her alone 8 hours a day several days a week, and she couldn't possibly hold it that long. When she was very tiny she'd shred the papers just for entertainment, but that diminished when she got older.

Whenever we were in the house, we were vigilant about keeping an eye on her and taking her out FREQUENTLY. One of the best things we did was to praise her and give her a yummy treat whenever she peed outside in the spot we'd designated. We also used a "go pee" command, which after a while really makes them have to go!

I use the puppy pads now, with Annie 5 years old. I don't see why she should have to "hold it" for 8 hours when I have trouble myself! Sometimes she'll pee in the spot where the pad WOULD be, if I'd put it down :confused: but accidents are infrequent. I really think the rules are different for little dogs--they have VERY little bladders!

[Molly's Mom]

Lisa- It's funny that you mentioned your dog goes to the same spot even if you forget to put the pads down. That happened to us today. My mom picked up the old pads, forgetting to replace them with new ones. Later in the day, I was playing with Molly, when all the sudden she jumped off the couch and went to where the pads should be. She kept walking around and looking at me confused like "I know I shouldn't go but I gotta", and you could see she was doing her best to hold it. It took me a few minutes to realize that she was acting so weird because the pads were not down.

[Belle71901]

My puppy Belle is a 1 year old MINI Dachsie (she's 6 inches tall) And WILL NOT go on puppy pads or Newspaper sometimes she goes RIGHT beside them but never ON them. I disagree about the puppy pads. The scented ones don't work either that or she doesn't notice the smell. I have kept an eye on her but she somehow finds a way to get away from my sight for just Seconds. she sleeps with me at night so she isn't crate trained and I don't know how to because I have a sympathetic 2 yr old brother that lets her out of it. Any suggestions?
-Belle's mommy

[Bernadette]

I have been having great success with the puppy pads. Sophie now will use them in the house when no one sees her sitting by the door to go out. She also will use them in her puppy playpen. This is something that I purchased from Dr.s Smith and Foster catalog. It is a large plastic pen that can be used inside and out. It is much bigger and does not have a top like a crate. Sophie likes it and we can put a big soft bed in it. She sleeps in a crate at night. It is important to keep them confined and safe when left alone. These dogs will chew anything in site including electric cords. We had another dachshund. Sadie who slept in bed with my son. When she got afraid or needed to potty she would jump off his bed. This led to increased disc disease that ultimately led to a serious injury which caused her death at 8 yrs old. I would suggest keeping the dogs safe in a crate at night for their own health and safety. ::circle: