Toilet training a new puppy.

El Guapo!

Hi all,
I just got a little Bichon Frise a few days ago and was looking for advice on toilet training. He's only 8 weeks old and I know I'm gonna need a lot of patience with him.
I got him a crate to sleep in at night and I bought these special puppy pad sheet things that were reccommended to me.
I live in a top floor apartment so training him to go outside is not realistic and I'd like to get him to go on these sheets in one area. I'm having some small success with getting him to go on the sheets but nothing consistent.

One of the main problems is this: we have wooden floors throughout the apartment but in the middle of the sitting room there's a big rug. He likes to chill out in the crate and naps a fair bit, but then when he needs to poop he goes straight to this rug and does his business on it. I'm working on getting him to stop this but it seems like he thinks this is his toilet!

Should I take the rug out of the sitting room altogether while he's toilet training? He tends to like to play on the rug too though because he's not very co-ordinated on the wooden floors and he slips and slides everywhere on it. He bounces around like a little lamb and he may aswell be on ice! So he may need the rug for this reason.

I realise its gonna take a lot of time and effort to train him properly but I'm just looking for any tips that may make it a bit smoother!

Any advice is very welcome!

orchidsrpretty

I would remove the rug, unless you don't mind throwing it out. You could put down a blanket for play time. It seems you are doing everything right, now it just patience!

El Guapo!

I don't mind removing the rug while he's training. I suppose I could put it back when he's trained properly.
Yeah I could put down a blanket for him to grip on when he's playing. I just hope he doesn't think that's his new toilet!

mymo

Just a question, do you take him out of the crate during the night to toilet?
Keep putting him in the right place each time and it will eventually sink in.

As soon as he's fully Vacc'd I would start bringing him outside, I know its top floor but even every 2 hours will make a massive difference, very last thing at night too. If you keep the time exactly the same, within a couple of weeks he will learn, after a few months he will be able to hold it longer so trips can be less frequent.

I would advise using a litter box type set up, in a bathroom or somewhere easy clean, otherwise your wood floors will be wreaked in no time.
Also keeping a separate area like you would if you were using a garden, will make it easier for him to get the difference between where he can and can't go.

Every time he eats, drinks, wakes from a snooze, even sniffs around suspiciously, pick him up and bring him there.

Cherry Blossom

Once you start training the pup that's ok to toilet in the appartment it will be extremely difficult to train it to go outside later on when its old enough to be able to hold it till it gets outside - especially with a bichon. It will be extra work for for the first month or two but I would recommend training it to go outside from the off. If you carry the pup outside it won't get a chance to go en-route.

However if you are adamant you want to go down this road I'd try something like this rather than puppy pads or you'll be out a fortune in no time!

El Guapo!

mymo wrote: »

Just a question, do you take him out of the crate during the night to toilet?
Keep putting him in the right place each time and it will eventually sink in.

As soon as he's fully Vacc'd I would start bringing him outside, I know its top floor but even every 2 hours will make a massive difference, very last thing at night too. If you keep the time exactly the same, within a couple of weeks he will learn, after a few months he will be able to hold it longer so trips can be less frequent.

I would advise using a litter box type set up, in a bathroom or somewhere easy clean, otherwise your wood floors will be wreaked in no time.
Also keeping a separate area like you would if you were using a garden, will make it easier for him to get the difference between where he can and can't go.

Every time he eats, drinks, wakes from a snooze, even sniffs around suspiciously, pick him up and bring him there.

Thanks for the reply.
No I don't get up and take him out during the night. He usually goes into the crate at about midnight or when I go to bed and stays there till about 7am when he starts to whimper a bit and then I get up and take him out and feed him. Should I let him out during the night aswell?

Yeah he's due his final vaccination on Wednesday so I'll bring him out after he's had that.
Just another question about his food. I usually feed him at regular times but I leave his food in his crate at all times and he nibbles at it throughout the day. Should I take it away after a while and create kind of meal times or is it ok to leave him nibble at it whenever he's hungry?

El Guapo!

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Once you start training the pup that's ok to toilet in the appartment it will be extremely difficult to train it to go outside later on when its old enough to be able to hold it till it gets outside - especially with a bichon. It will be extra work for for the first month or two but I would recommend training it to go outside from the off. If you carry the pup outside it won't get a chance to go en-route.

However if you are adamant you want to go down this road I'd try something like this rather than puppy pads or you'll be out a fortune in no time!

Cheers for that. I think I might invest in one of those. Your right, those puppy pads will have me broke!
To be honest I don't mind him going toilet in the apartment as long as I can get him to go in one area all the time. One of those litter boxes seem ideal.

mymo

Does the pup toilet in the crate?
If so then yes you need to get up in the night. The crate should be kept clean, thats the point of the crate training, you take them out and put them in the toilet area (carry him there so no accidents on the way) and praise for a result. this aids the training and really speeds things up.
Bichons are notoriously hard to train so I would go with the outside asap, use a command as you see him go and eventually he will associate this word/command with toileting. My two go on the "do your business command" (actaully when the cat hears that phrase morning and night he goes out too now:D)
It makes life very easy believe me. Praise is crucial to training, as is time and patience.

Best of luck

jo06555

Very interesting comments and il be keeping a eye on this thread as i have a akita inu pup arriving in 2 weeks and i plan on crate training too iv read up lots and im ready for the hard work but i have one problem every 2nd week the pup will be home alone for 6-8 hours is that too long for a crate especially if only bein left out in the morning before i go to work. best of luck DEAN09 i hope you get it all sorted and you can help me in a few weeks

El Guapo!

jo06555 wrote: »

best of luck DEAN09 i hope you get it all sorted and you can help me in a few weeks

Thanks! I'll keep this thread updated as to how I'm getting on. No doubt I'll need more help anyway! Good luck with your pup.

andreac

jo06555 wrote: »

Very interesting comments and il be keeping a eye on this thread as i have a akita inu pup arriving in 2 weeks and i plan on crate training too iv read up lots and im ready for the hard work but i have one problem every 2nd week the pup will be home alone for 6-8 hours is that too long for a crate especially if only bein left out in the morning before i go to work. best of luck DEAN09 i hope you get it all sorted and you can help me in a few weeks

Yes absolutely too long to be left in a crate at that age. I would be pushed leaving an adult dog for 8 hours in a crate, let alone a young puppy so you cant leave a pup in the crate when you leave unfortunately.

Is there anyone that can call in during the day to let it out? If bot you are going to have to leave it out of the crate im afraid.

jo06555

andreac wrote:

Yes absolutely too long to be left in a crate at that age. I would be pushed leaving an adult dog for 8 hours in a crate, let alone a young puppy so you cant leave a pup in the crate when you leave unfortunately.

Is there anyone that can call in during the day to let it out? If bot you are going to have to leave it out of the crate im afraid.

I have a back porchway room by back door I could leave her their with her bed maybe and some papers?

DBB

jo06555 wrote: »

I have a back porchway room by back door I could leave her their with her bed maybe and some papers?

The ideal is to be there to bring your pup out every time he/she needs to go.
However, this is not an ideal world! For both Jo06555 who's getting a new pup, and OP who already has a pup but lives in an apartment, a really good alternative which is probably the best compromise when you can't be there all the time, or get the pup outside each time, is the puppy playpen set-up as advocated by Ian Dunbar, described here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/errorless-housetraining

Because pup is given the appropriate "outdoor" substrate to toilet on (i.e. not newspaper or pee-pads!), the process of moving the training to the outside world is much easier, because toilet-training works better if we give the pup the same substrate and smells of places he'll be expected to go for the rest of his life.

Both posters, but especially Jo06555 would also really benefit from reading the other information on this same site about preparing for pup, what you need to know, what you need to buy, and things you need to do to set yourself and your pup up for success in many aspects of dog development.
I can't think of another so easily accessible and free source of information for puppy owners than this website: almost everything you need to know is there!

ziggy23

Hi could anybody give me a link to a good crate training website with step by step instructions? The ones I was looking at aren't very informative! Cheers didn't want to set up a new thread just for this.

Cherry Blossom

There's a thread here, it's an old one though so don't bump it up please, any further questions you can ask on this thread.

Here's another link:
http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/errorless-housetraining