Puppy potty training

[Scarlett]

How long should it take? She is 12 weeks old. We have had her since 7 weeks. She is a Pointer mix . Super smart. Does very well with her crate. Never gone to the bathroom in her crate. She goes when we take her out. We give her treats outside, praise her. But if we wait the slightest bit too long she goes inside. 
Just curious if this is normal or if we are doing something wrong. 

[Scarlett]

[Rachel]

It sounds normal to me, but I am not an expert by any means. Our current pup is a about 18 months old, we got him at 15 weeks. He did really well using the bathroom when we took him out, but like you if we waited too long, he had accidents inside. By the time we had him a month he was only occasionally having accidents inside, almost always our fault.  It wasn’t that he didn’t understand that he should use the bathroom outside, but us not reading his cues. By 6ish months he was doing fine. 
 

She is beautiful! What did you end up naming her?

[MercyA]

Beautiful, beautiful puppy!!!

That sounds normal to me.

It *really* helped us to train our dog to use a doorbell when she needed to go out. No more missed cues! We use this electric one, because she was afraid of the metal ones that hang on the door. We put it right by the door and had her tap it with her foot right before we opened the door every time, saying "ring the bell." Eventually she learned to tap it herself and then suddenly was ringing it when she needed to go out. Glorious! 

[Scarlett]

37 minutes ago, Rachel said:

It sounds normal to me, but I am not an expert by any means. Our current pup is a about 18 months old, we got him at 15 weeks. He did really well using the bathroom when we took him out, but like you if we waited too long, he had accidents inside. By the time we had him a month he was only occasionally having accidents inside, almost always our fault.  It wasn’t that he didn’t understand that he should use the bathroom outside, but us not reading his cues. By 6ish months he was doing fine. 
 

She is beautiful! What did you end up naming her?

Mazie. She is a love.  💕💕

[Scarlett]

25 minutes ago, MercyA said:

Beautiful, beautiful puppy!!!

That sounds normal to me.

It *really* helped us to train our dog to use a doorbell when she needed to go out. No more missed cues! We use this electric one, because she was afraid of the metal ones that hang on the door. We put it right by the door and had her tap it with her foot right before we opened the door every time, saying "ring the bell." Eventually she learned to tap it herself and then suddenly was ringing it when she needed to go out. Glorious! 

I want to try this!

[livetoread]

We hung a jingle bell on a string by our sliding door to our backyard, and our pup learned to hit it with her nose to go out. It only took a couple of hours to teach her. Worked very well her whole life. She did learn that if she was bored and wanted some attention she could ring it and we’d come running. Once she even saw my daughter eating a sandwich at the table, went and rang the bell, and when my daughter got up to let her out, she ran back and snagged the sandwich. She was a quick study! 

[Storygirl]

We use a bell, too, though we have the teacher's desk style.

It's pretty cute when she rings it. We keep it on the floor right near the door. She is almost two now and has made up her own signals to tell us that she needs to go out, so she does not always use it any more. But she will still ring it when we tell her "ring your bell!" and she knows what it signals.

I can't recall now how old she was when she was completely trained. But for the first few months, we did take her out A LOT, and she had some accidents for awhile in the house.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Storygirl

[Pen]

Normal! 

She is so gorgeous!

I have sometimes used dog diapers to deal with this sort of problem—especially when driving places with puppy whose bladder might not be up to holding it full trip, but sometimes indoors home or other places too. 

 

 

[Pen]

1 hour ago, livetoread said:

We hung a jingle bell on a string by our sliding door to our backyard, and our pup learned to hit it with her nose to go out. It only took a couple of hours to teach her. Worked very well her whole life. She did learn that if she was bored and wanted some attention she could ring it and we’d come running. Once she even saw my daughter eating a sandwich at the table, went and rang the bell, and when my daughter got up to let her out, she ran back and snagged the sandwich. She was a quick study! 

 

This was my sort of experience with bell too—dog used it to take advantage.!

[Pawz4me]

Perfectly normal. She's still very much a baby working to get bladder (and bowel) control. IME most medium/large breed puppies with savvy owners are mostly housebroken by six months, and usually reliably so by about eight months. Most smaller breeds are much closer to a year old before reliably housebroken. Those are generalities of course, and there will be exceptions on both ends of the spectrum. And of course she'll gradually get better and better, with fewer accidents, so it's not like you're going to have to wait two or three months for improvement over where she is now. Often when you hear of a person claiming their very young puppy is reliably house trained I think it's really that the person has trained themselves to read the puppy very well and to meet his schedule. IOW, the person is trained more than the puppy really is.

She's adorable!

[J-rap]

9 hours ago, MercyA said:

Beautiful, beautiful puppy!!!

That sounds normal to me.

It *really* helped us to train our dog to use a doorbell when she needed to go out. No more missed cues! We use this electric one, because she was afraid of the metal ones that hang on the door. We put it right by the door and had her tap it with her foot right before we opened the door every time, saying "ring the bell." Eventually she learned to tap it herself and then suddenly was ringing it when she needed to go out. Glorious! 

My dh and I got our first pup at Christmastime, and we happened to have a string of Christmas bells hanging on the back door knob.  Every time the door opened, the bells jingled a little, and our pup began associating the jingling with going outside.  He figured out himself then that all he needed to do was push the bells with his nose til they jingled, and the door would open!  (By us, of course.  :))  After that we brought the jingle bells everywhere we went when he was with us, and no matter where we were -- staying at someone else's house, in a motel, etc., we'd hang the bells on the door inside, and he'd jingle them with his nose when he had to go outside.  It worked so slickly!

ETA:  Mazie is darling!!

Edited February 24, 2020 by J-rap

[Scarlett]

Thanks all.  I love the bell idea..I want to try it but I am imagining her ripping said bell off the door or carrying it away.  Nothing is safe from her.  
 

I am glad to know we aren’t behind schedule.  She can hold it for a long time time....a few times she has been in the crate during the day longer than we expected....the day I went for my colonoscopy they were running behind by 2 hours....and she did fine.  And also she goes all night in her crate now. Last night she slept from 9 until 5:30.  
 

 

[Pen]

15 hours ago, Scarlett said:

Thanks all.  I love the bell idea..I want to try it but I am imagining her ripping said bell off the door or carrying it away.  Nothing is safe from her.  
 

I am glad to know we aren’t behind schedule.  She can hold it for a long time time....a few times she has been in the crate during the day longer than we expected....the day I went for my colonoscopy they were running behind by 2 hours....and she did fine.  And also she goes all night in her crate now. Last night she slept from 9 until 5:30.  
 

 

 

She’s doing awesome.  

They only have so much bladder capacity and control.  Sounds like she understands the don’t go in crate or house concept, but just can’t always hold it long enough.  I had one pup who used to wiggle dance much like a toddler wiggle dancing  a little when needing to go, but some don’t seem to have as obvious signs.  My current dog  would get kind of a concerned big eyed look, but it was very subtle, much harder to catch than a big wiggle dance . 

[StephanieZ]

Totally normal. She is beautiful. You're doing great!!

If at all possible, keep her "tomato staked" to you when she's loose in the house. A "hands free leash" is the easiest way to do this, as it is essentially a bungee-style leash attached to a simple waist belt. So, you can go about your business in the house, hands free, and keep her at your heel all the time. If you do this for a week, and be accident free, you could try again having her loose in the house for short periods, ideally, say, just the first 30 min after she comes in from doing her business outside . . . Then gradually extend times.

She'll probably be fully trained in another month or so, as it sounds like she's doing well and knows to go outside (and is getting rewarded for that), and that's the toughest part. Especially if you get her a door bell or she learns another way to ask to go out, she'll probably get the rest of the way there quickly. Until she knows how to ask to go out, I'd do all you can to avoid giving her a chance to have an accident in the house. 

[Ellie]

On 2/23/2020 at 6:54 PM, myblessings4 said:

I don't know if this is still what's recommended these days, but when we had our cocker spaniel in puppy school, and she was very difficult to potty train, they told us that anytime we were gone,of course, crate her, and when we were home to put a leash around our waist so we could have her by our side every minute.  If we were in the main family room,we would just tie the leash to the sliding glass door.  Using those two things, she was close enough to us for us to catch the beginning of the squat.  She trained pretty quickly that way. 

So I guess we basically tomato staked out puppy.  Lol!

I tomato-staked an adult miniature dachshund, who was not a puppy and should have known better but didn't . It took about two days for her to figure out that no, she didn't get to go poop on the rug in the office or **on the sofa.*** 😮 

[Scarlett]

I am so excited.  She just woke up from her nap and as we always do, I took her out.  She pee'd, I praised her and she came back in.  I was working on my computer and she was playing around by my feet....Suddenly, I heard her whine and I looked up and she was at the door!  I jumped up and went out with her and she immediately pooped!  I feel like I am a little overly excited by this, but maybe y'all will understand.  LOL

[StephanieZ]

4 hours ago, Scarlett said:

I am so excited.  She just woke up from her nap and as we always do, I took her out.  She pee'd, I praised her and she came back in.  I was working on my computer and she was playing around by my feet....Suddenly, I heard her whine and I looked up and she was at the door!  I jumped up and went out with her and she immediately pooped!  I feel like I am a little overly excited by this, but maybe y'all will understand.  LOL

 

THIS IS FANTASTIC!! Great job, Mommy!

[Scarlett]

I took her for her third set of shots today.  She has gained 5 pounds in 3 weeks.  And she is perfect.  💕💕

[Rachel]

31 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

I took her for her third set of shots today.  She has gained 5 pounds in 3 weeks.  And she is perfect.  💕💕

I showed her picture to my 10 year old. She says she wants our next puppy to look just like her. 

[Scarlett]

[Pawz4me]

I think she's gonna need a new bed very soon. That one looks a little snug. 😉 

[Pen]

20 hours ago, Scarlett said:

I am so excited.  She just woke up from her nap and as we always do, I took her out.  She pee'd, I praised her and she came back in.  I was working on my computer and she was playing around by my feet....Suddenly, I heard her whine and I looked up and she was at the door!  I jumped up and went out with her and she immediately pooped!  I feel like I am a little overly excited by this, but maybe y'all will understand.  LOL

 

Oh yeah!!!!  Totally!!!

I hope you put a lot of that excitement into praising Her!!!!!

(yep , she needs a bigger bed!  Eve if you keep current for a while as a curl up she needs one that allows her to stretch out)

 

[Scarlett]

8 minutes ago, Pen said:

 

Oh yeah!!!!  Totally!!!

I hope you put a lot of that excitement into praising Her!!!!!

(yep , she needs a bigger bed!  Eve if you keep current for a while as a curl up she needs one that allows her to stretch out)

 

Oh that is not her bed, it is the cats bed.  Lol.  She drags it into the living room and plops down in it.  Her crate is large.....I have put off buying her a pillow bed because she destroys everything with her razor teeth.