Dog Community

Potty Training... am I doing everything I should be doing?

Posted : 12/12/2006 7:29:07 PM

Okay we have had Lola for a week now (she's 8 weeks old now) and we've been really working on getting her used to going potty outside. Now that her upset tummy is cleared up (yay!!!) things are much better and a lot less messy!

Anyway, I take her out first thing in the morning, then I feed her and then she goes back outside with me after breakfast. Then my husband and I alternate so that one of us is playing with her while the other gets ready for work, and then we take her out again. Then she goes into her room. My husband takes her out when he gets home from lunch, feeds her a bit and takes her out again. Then when I get home I take her out... then every few hours until bed time we take her out, especially after a nap or eating.

Here's my thing... she came from an animal shelter where she was used to peeing where she sleeps. Do I need to do anything else to make sure she knows that we go OUTSIDE to go potty? Everytime we're outside and she's doing her business we say "go potty" and we praise her and reward her every time she goes...

I dunno, I know she's still young so she hasn't whined at the door to be let out... but I don't know, does that just start happening eventually? Are we doing everything so that she'll eventually start telling us when she needs to go?

jones

Posted : 12/12/2006 8:07:56 PM

How often is she having accidents in the house? Your potty training regimen sounds good except I wonder at her being able to make it a few hours between potty breaks in the evening - if she's doing well with that, keep it up, I just know that at 8 weeks my puppy had to go out every 30-40 min when he wasn't crated. ...Other than that what you're doing sounds good, and to answer your final question, yes eventually they do figure out a way to "ask" to go out - though whether you like being asked or would rather stick to a schedule is up to you.

Ari Emery

Posted : 12/13/2006 7:09:20 AM

Well, whenever she has an accident I know it's our fault... like yesterday, she was acting all hyper and we couldn't figure out why and then when she calmed down we realized she had peed. I should've realized that we had been playing a lot with her and she'd need to go outside.

Other than that, it's hard to say since she's had an upset tummy and that only stopped Monday so before Monday she was having all kinds of accidents. But Monday she did really well... and at night when she's in her room she pees on her puppy pad a few times.

And okay, just wanted to make sure! There's so much to learn!

Pam

Posted : 12/13/2006 9:00:43 AM

My dog never learned how to tell us she had to go outside. She would just quietly stand and look at the kitchen / garage/ bedroom door . Even so, she never had accidents her whole 10 years after she was finally housebroke at 1 1/2 years.

With our new puppy, alos named Lola, I have hung a bell from a long string on the bedroom door. She doesn't use her paw to hit it rather she uses her head to knock it. She was about 7 months when she understood the bell. It was easier and safer to confine her to our bedroom while playing on the bed with her.

Ari Emery

Posted : 12/13/2006 6:27:53 PM

Gah it takes forever to train them! And yeah, I was thinking about doing the bell idea, but we have two cats so I don't know if they'd mess with the bell (probably).