New owner needs housetraining advice

[hetbat]

Hello all,

We have recently brought home a labradoodle puppy called Benji!

We've had him home for a week and we began house training by taking him straight outside after sleep time, food time or play time (and any other time he seems to be sniffing around). We've been told by family and friends who are dog owners not to bother with training pads and get him into the habit of house = no and outside = yes.

We've had a few accidents on the carpet (promptly cleaned up with odor remover) we leave him in his crate downstairs at night time, after I've knackered him out and he's been for a toilet trip and I keep an ear out for when his initial whinging has stopped if he needs to go to the toilet but he seems to hold his bladder very well until the morning when he is let outside for toilet time.

We're using the phrase 'Toilet time' when he goes and he seems to get the jist, however i'm not convinced as he doesn't seem to go towards the door when he needs to go or it takes him a long while to go. Sometimes we see him sniffing around, take him outside and he just runs about or sits and stares at us. Other times he has been sniffing around, we take him out say the word a few times to no avail, bring him in and accident occurs. We don't scold him we just quietly and promptly take hit out and say the word. Are we doing the right thing or am I just expecting too much too soon?

Just need some advice from actual owners experience, as I've read about 20 different contradicting things on the internet.

 

[gypsysmum]

You are doing all the right things. He just needs a reward for toileting outside. What you are looking for is a dog that thinks "I need a pee/poo" and then immediately thinks "I will get a treat if I do it outside"!

The treat must be associated with the toileting. This means you have to be there and give him the treat immediately. If he walks towards you he may think he got it for coming to you rather than for the toilet. Give him praise as he toilets and immediately follow up with a high value treat.

All puppies do the "oh I forgot what I came out her for" thing. You will know you have cracked it when he produces a few drips in order to get a treat!

As you take him out, pause at the door and say something like "Wee wee?" in an encouraging voice. As he looks at you tell him "good boy!" and open the door. You are trying to teach him to make eye contact in order to get you to open the door. He should, hopefully, come and find you to make eye contact to get you to open the door.

Be patient, be consistent and you will soon have him trained ?)

 

[Raven oaktree]

We have a pup and have just gone through this. This is how we did it, as soon as she woke, we took her outside, we didnt interact with her at all, just watched her and as soon as she had a piddle or pooped we made a HUGEEEE fuss of her. People told us to take her out as soon as she had eaten but we found we were out there for ages and she wouldnt do anything, then as soon as we brought her in she would do it in the house so we started leaving her 15/20 mins after a meal, we found this worked much better for Willow and she would only be outside for a min or two before going to the loo, which we then praised her for.During the day, as a very young pup we tried to take her to the garden every hour or so, by the time she was 10 weeks we were taking her out every 2 hours or so, i was always with her, but never played or interacted with her other than to say go wee wee, then made a huge fuss and played with her as soon as she had done something...one thing i will say is she tended to have a wee mid morning after her nap and we would bring her in..a few mins later she would poop in the house so we very quickly learnt to give her a few mins after a piddle to make sure she was actually finished. Good luck, it can be frustrating, but you will both get there, dont worry x

 

[hetbat]

Thank you both for the encouraging advice

 

[eingana]

Hi hetbat

You haven't mentioned how old Benji is, but if you've had him a week and he wasn't held back for any reason that still makes him really very young when it comes to toilet training.

If he's still under 12 weeks then it's very unlikely that he will have proper voluntary control of his bladder and bowels to be able to go whenever he's taken out and will just be going because he needs to go at the moment you take him out.

Toilet training is really a staged training. You want your pup to be able to ask you to go out to the loo, but in order for that to happen he has to be both continent (i.e. to be able to hold his bladder and bowels when full and choose when and how to empty them) and to understand how to ask you and where to go for his toilet break.

At the moment you can teach him that house is bad and garden is good, but since he isn't continent because he doesn't have proper voluntary control over holding his bladder and bowels yet, and he's also young enough that he's not great on learning complex commands yet, those things will have to come in time.

By taking him out and feeding regularly you will gradually get his body into a rhythm with bladder and bowels filling (and his need to go signals happening) at a regular time, which will reduce the number of times that you need to take him out. Once you've got the routine thing for that sorted then this will fit in with him both recognising that he needs to go and being able to hold it enough to have time to ask and to get outdoors, but this is something he'll grow into at his own rate, and neurologically this can't be rushed I'm afraid.

Human babies are unlikely to start potty training until they are 18 months or older and this is partly neurological and partly their understanding growing enough to know what they're doing. Toilet training a puppy is similarly affected by dependent on both the body and the understanding catching up with what is being asked of them, and it's important to realise that while some human toddlers are reliably potty trained at 20 months, there are others who still have accidents or wear a nappy at night when they're due to start school, so there's no set timetable to how the development happens.

I hope that Benji is continent and showing you how clever he is in just a few weeks

You do realise you're breaking one of our unwritten rules though, don't you? Cough up with the pictures!!