New puppy and toilet training

Sammy85_2

Hi all

We've just got a new puppy (14 weeks old ridgeback x lurcher) and I'm struggling with toilet training. I know its going to take time, its only been 4 days and I don't expect miracles, I know its going to take patience and perseverance but I'm just worried I'm doing something wrong?

We've had Ruby for 4 nights now. She has a crate in the Utility room which is child gated to make a safe area for her and to keep our toddler away from any potential messes.

On her first night with us she howled all night which I fully expected being her first night from her mum and littermates.

In the utility room i have a newspapered area as her breeder said she was used to going on newspaper in the puppy pen. She has used this area maybe once or twice for a wee. She's had a few accidents elsewhere around the house too.

I've been taking her outside every 2 hours or more often when i see her looking like she's thinking about going to the toilet. So far she's wee'd outside on a couple of occasions and i've given her lots of praise for it. So i think she's starting to get the idea there.

The main problem i'm having is with poops. She will only do them in the house and usually at night!

We spent an hour outside yesterday evening as I was sure she needed to go. Nothing was happening so I brought her back inside.

I had read that she wouldn't soil her crate and so i placed her in it with the intention of trying again in half an hour because if she really needed to go she would when i took her outside again.

It took all of 5 minutes in her crate before she pooped and trod it everywhere. I cleaned her and the crate and didn't make a big deal about it.

In the late evening we went out again to try and "do her business" before i put her to bed. We again spent nearly an hour outside, she did a wee but nothing else.

I put her in the utility room and left her crate door open so she could come and go as obviously pooping in her bed didn't bother her so didnt want a repeat of that and i thought it best she had access to her newspaper area. She has a night light and radio for company as it seems to help her settle quicker.

After an hour i sneaked in to see how she was doing and there was more poop in the utility (not on the newspaper).

I let her out again during the night for a wee and she settled fairly easily afterwards.

So how do i get her to poop outside? She seems to be holding it in until bed time. I've put last nights poop out in her toilet area in the hope she'll find it when we're out and then get the idea.

I should say ive moved her last meal time forward to 5pm to try and ensure she needs to go before bed time. She still is holding it in until bed time though.

Thankyou all for taking the time to read and offer advice.

krlyr

Exercise often stimulates a dog to poo so you might want to do a couple of well-timed short walks before bed (give time for her dinner to digest, so maybe 6pm and then one just before you head to bed) may help get her bowels moving. One of mine (7 year old, not a pup) will quite often poo on a walk, even if he's just been at home before we left (poo bags often just remain a permanent feature in my pockets!)

You might also want to take a look at her diet and see if it could be contributing to an excessive amount of pooing. A diet high in fillers can be poorly digested - this is stuff like maize/corn, wheat, alfalfa, etc. which is used to bulk out food. Dogs don't always digest it that well and if it's not utilised by the body, it comes out the other end. Cheaper dog foods often cause larger and a greater quantity of poos, so you may find that a brand change could help a lot on your quest to stop the overnight poos.

Also, while I think the frequent toilet breaks are fantastic (though may perhaps do them a bit more often than every 2 hours initially as you're having issues - you could try every hour, or maybe even more frequently for a few days), I have to say I'm not keen on the newspaper method of toilet training. It's a bit like puppy pads, you're basically teaching a dog that it's OK to toilet inside (albeit on these specific surfaces) which I think gives mixed messages. I prefer to only encourage toileting outside, and ensure pup has every chance to do this by offering frequent breaks around the clock (that's initially every 2 hours overnight too - you mention letting her out for "a" wee in the night, are you offering multiple breaks overnight or just one/two?). I wouldn't make her toilet breaks too long, if she's not gone within 5-10 minutes I'd take her indoors but then offer another break 5 or 10 minutes later. Puppies have very short attention spans so if she's forgotten she has to 'go' she's probably too immersed in her environment, so you may as well head back indoors and try again soon after (but don't go too long - distractions may stop her for a while but once she's back in that non-distracting environment indoors she'll soon remember what she needed to do!). It may be worth making night time toilet breaks an on-lead thing if she's used to a collar and lead by now, to prevent pup getting too distracted.

It may also help to start using a cue word when she toilets. With our last pup, we picked "well done" (as it's something we didn't mind the neighbour overhearing!) and repeated it every time she "went" (wee or poo) and after a while we could ask her to "do a well done" and she'd do her business if needed.

Ultimately, 4 days is nothing at all so I wouldn't be too concerned, it'll be a case of you both needing to learn what works for her. Good luck

Pthree

Taking her out every 2 hrs isnt enough, and this is where it starts to get diffucult!

Every 30 minutes during the day and every 2-ish hrs through the night, and I am of the opinion that you should put the lead on her when in the garden for 'toilet time' it cuts out the distractions / running around and also when she does go you will know and can reward her "woooooohooooo who's a clever girls for mummy" lots of cuddles etc.. (or what ever floats your boat) also it lets you add the command "go do biz, pee pee" or what ever phrase you dont mind total strangers overhearing you say in the park when she is older.

I think. if you do this you can do away with the newspaper, it just confuses them anyway. Yes you will have accidents but then you knew that was gonna happen anyway.

What times are you feeding her, it may help the pooing at night if you give her the last meal earlier.

Good luck, and I also need a photo :rotfl:

P3

Jaynne

Perseverance is what I can recommend. Take her out more regularly. If you think she needs to go take her out and if she doesn't perform put her in her crate and keep taking her out every 5 minutes or so until she does.

Remember to praise her to high heavens as soon as she's done - give her a treat, a cuddle a play - whatever she likes the most.

It did take maybe two weeks for our pup (and she's still not perfect) but one day she finally did seem to get it and after that it was plain sailing.

One thing we did find re soiling the crate as that eventually removing the newspaper helped - although dogs aren't meant to want to soil in their bed area in our case I think she was getting mixed messages and kept going on the paper. Might be worth removing it during the day and see if that helps.