Training a puppy

GT_TDI_150

Guys,

I need some wisdom please.

We got a Bichon Frise pup last Wednesday and are in the process of house training him.

he has taken to the training pads for his wee's really well, only the odd accident and goes sniffing the door to go out for them also, so most of his wee's actually get done outside.

However, we can not get him to do his poo's on the pads or outside. the odd time he did(twice) them on the pad but mostly it's like playing battleships on the tiles, he tries a different location every time.

Any idea's suggestions?

Thanks

andreac

To be honest id get rid of the pads, they only prolong training and confuse the pup.

You either want it to go in the house or outside, its not fair to expect both.

You just need time and patience and repetition and the pup will eventually get the message. It takes weeks, sometimes months to fully house train a pup so you just to have to be patient.

Would you consider crate training?

GT_TDI_150

andreac wrote: »

To be honest id get rid of the pads, they only prolong training and confuse the pup.

You either want it to go in the house or outside, its not fair to expect both.

You just need time and patience and repetition and the pup will eventually get the message. It takes weeks, sometimes months to fully house train a pup so you just to have to be patient.

Would you consider crate training?

.

The pads seem ok, he wee's on them at night and during the day he moans to go out.

Its just his poo's, he doesnt look to go out to do them, doesnt go near the pads for them either.

We have a crate but leave it open he's more settled at night this way. Should we handle it differently?

andreac

If it was me, yes. The whole point of crate training is that it helps with the toilet training process as they dont like to go where they sleep, but you have to be prepared to get up and let the pup out more often as they cant hold their toilet for very long.
But as the pup gets older you can increase the time the pup in in the crate.

By leaving the door open, the pup can get out and go to the toilet whereever he wants, so defeats the purpose of using a crate.

I honestly wouldnt use pads at all as the pup will think its ok to go in the house, so when you eventually want him to go outside, he will be like, " But it was ok before, so how come i cant now? "

Its very hard to get a pup to go on a certain place like a pad, so you really are better to just train him to outside from the word go, then you are only training once, not all over again to go outside when you dont want him using the pads anymore.

toadfly

I agree with andrea. When we got our first pup we put down paper for months, she was constantly going in the house & driving us crazy. I had to go into hospital one day and forgot to put paper down again after cleaning up and since then no accidents. I really do think it just confuses them and drags out the process.

I didnt crate train her but did with third dog, crates are great and dogs love having their own den.

tk123

We crated our guy and he was trained in 3 or 4 weeks. Hard work getting up in the middle of the night for a few weeks but well worth it. We were the only ones in our puppy class who were crating and the only ones with a house trained puppy!

GT_TDI_150

So what is the idea, lock hom in the crate and leave him out every 1-2hrs? What anout the whining when he's in there ?

andreac

You have to ignore the whining.

Try tiring the puppy out before he goes into the crate so he goes asleep. Also make up Kongs or give the pup a chew toy or chew treat to keep him occupied whiles hes in the crate.

The pup can be out of the crate while you are around but just make sure to bring the pup outside as much as you can so you reduce the risk of accidents in the house.

GT_TDI_150

andreac wrote: »

You have to ignore the whining.

Try tiring the puppy out before he goes into the crate so he goes asleep. Also make up Kongs or give the pup a chew toy or chew treat to keep him occupied whiles hes in the crate.

The pup can be out of the crate while you are around but just make sure to bring the pup outside as much as you can so you reduce the risk of accidents in the house.

Ok so tonight is the first night of himself in the crate. Going to leave bout 2:30h between toilet breaks. Is it a case of open cage, out for toilet and back in the cage straight away?

Is it ok for him to be left with an open cage tomorrow?

andreac

Yeah literally just out to the toilet. Try not interact too much with him, just give the toilet command or whatever you say to encourage the pup to go.

If you arent around to let the pup out then you cant leave it locked in all day. How long is the pup on its own for?

GT_TDI_150

andreac wrote: »

Yeah literally just out to the toilet. Try not interact too much with him, just give the toilet command or whatever you say to encourage the pup to go.

If you arent around to let the pup out then you cant leave it locked in all day. How long is the pup on its own for?

Wife at home all day ... So he isnt alone at all

GT_TDI_150

Update: Had some barking but then bout 1:30h of silence till i went down to take him out.

Bed and crate were clean - thumbs up!!
Went out and wee'd straight away - thumbs up!!
Since he came in and i came to bed nothing but barking - hope he dont wake our little fella - thumbs down!!

Correction, as im typing this up the barking has seized! Just some feint moaning! - possibly a thumbs up!!

Cherry Blossom

I have the opposite problem, number two's outside everytime without fail but he seems to have a bladder the size of a pea. The problem is I'm at work all day and the pup is home with my mum and she's just not fast enough to get him outside in time. So I come home every day and wash the kitchen floor with non-bio washing powder to get rid of any trace of urine scent that might be left behind and watch him like a hawk every-time he takes a drink. Some things that have helped are to stick to set feeding times religiously and after a few days you will have a pretty good idea of when toilet times are. Use a different command for wees and poos and say the command everytime he goes, it doesn't matter if its inside, he will associate going to the toilet with the command, hurry up and quickly are the phrases automaticly come to mind although maybe not such a great idea if these words are frequently used with kids in the house. This will come in handy later on when he has more control and you may be able to get him to go on command eventually. My pup gets four meals a day, I take his water up at 9pm, if he wants a drink after that he gets it, but he doesn't have unlimited access to the water bowl. He gets wet dog food as his last meal of the day at 10:30, he doesn't need water with wet food and I find it encourages bowel movement better so he'll go half an hour after his food. He goes out at 2am for a wee and that's him for the night. He pees in his bed without fail first thing every morning no matter I if I get up at 6 or 8. As soon I make a move to get out out of bed he wakes up and pees before my feet even hit the floor. There's a huge difference between this fella and my last pup who only had two accidents in total, I'm not sure if it's because he drinks and pees more because he's male or if it's because I'm not there 24/7 like I was first time round so I can't get the same consistancy, possibly a combination of both.

Don't stress over it, just keep cleaning up the messes and using the command words and it will all come together eventually.

I tried the litter tray with a little square of grass from the lawn in it in the dog run when he goes out there to try to get him used to going on grass and it was a huge disaster. My mum put him out in the run the first day after it had just rained and I came home from work to an empty litter tray, a mud bath and most of the contents of the litter tray inside his kennel in his bed because he had dragged it all in there to bury his kong in his bed . Thankfully its a water proof bed!

GT_TDI_150

Just been down again...

Poos all over the cage floor but he held his wee's till i got there

But very little barking this time round.


Do people leave water with the in the cage at night?

GT_TDI_150

Just took him out ... Cage was dry and clean
And no barking at all when i left him


Here's hoping tonight continues the improvement ... If only we could get him to poo outside

andreac

What time do you feed him at? Try feeding him a bit earlier then make sure he does a poo before his last toilet break before you go to bed.

Their bladder can take a while to strengthen up to hold it in longer.

dmg10

Hi OP,

I've a young pup as well that I'm housetraining so will impart any tips I'm learning with this one.

I didn't crate train my older dog when she was a pup, used newspaper and worked fine but knowing now how good crate training is? I wish I'd done it last year with the other dog as newspaper etc is a bit messier!

I've had my pup for 4 weeks, in the house she stays in her crate most of the time (closed) but is allowed out around the kitchen at times and into the sitting room in the evenings but only after she's done both her businesses outside. And I stand out there waiting to see her do them so I know for sure and can also give the command at the same time, and make sure she goes to the designated area of the garden. (Yes I go out and stand there at night as well even if its raining!!). Basically I'm watching her all the time, letting her out at intervals so that she learns it's done outside.

With the crate at night...I withhold all water from about 2hrs before bedtime and let her outside last thing before going to bed. The crate is closed so she's contained, I've had to put up with some whinging and crying for a while for a few nights but believe me, it's been worth it for the future. I have vetbed on half the floor of the crate and put newspaper in the other half just in case.

When I first got my pup, I put the alarm on every 4hours to let her out. She was very helpful anyway in that she'd cry to be let out. Every few nights I increased the time by half an hour and we're now up to 6/7hrs (tiredness from plenty exercise helps here!). But if she has a bad night, she'll cry to be let out. And I always get up to let her out. I bring her out, don't interact apart from the command and praise for a job well done, back in, straight into the crate, back to my own bed. No play etc.

Basically, I'm trying to teach her that all toilet is done outside. We've had a few accidents but it's more a control thing and the fact that she hasn't learned yet how to ask to go outside when in the house. That'll be the next lesson. At the moment, I let her out at intervals and watch her like a hawk for any signs! You'll get to know his routine after a while.

But crate training is definitely the way to go. So much easier and cleaner. My pup is now 12 weeks and when I let the two of them out, they both go to the corner of the garden, I give the command and two bums hit the deck, love it :-) She's learning from the other one too which is a bonus. If he poops in the garden somewhere where you don't want him to poop, move it to the area where you do want him to poop and leave it there for a bit before clearing it up.

Definitely close the crate and be prepared for the crying, it's no harm to crate him during the day as well when you're around the house so he gets used to sitting quietly in his crate. Even when you go to watch tv in the evening, leave him out there in the crate, yes, he'll probably cry but he'll stop after a while and then that's it. They get used to whatever you train them to but you just need to be consistent with whatever you do.

Best of luck!!

GT_TDI_150

andreac wrote: »

What time do you feed him at? Try feeding him a bit earlier then make sure he does a poo before his last toilet break before you go to bed.

Their bladder can take a while to strengthen up to hold it in longer.

His last food is 17:30 but we were leaving him with water all night. Will be changing that tonight

tk123

I didn't take my guy out at regular intervals - I took him out last thing before I went to bed, put him in the crate and then during the night when he cried I took him out, let him go and put him back in. TBH it sounds like your pup may have wanted to go out again for a poo when it was barking since you came down to a poo party. A few times my guy was like that when I put him in at night and when I relented and took him out it he poo'd. It can be hard to judge what's genuine "let me out to the loo pls" complaining and what's "get me out of this crate!!" complaining Stick with it thou - it'll be worth it in a few weeks!!
My guy started waking around 3-4 and it got later each week. At least you have the bright mornings to find the poos lol!!

GT_TDI_150

Only 2 accidents today

He's off for another night in the crate, water was taken away at 09:45.

All business completed outside before he went in!!

Lets hope it goes ok (",)

GT_TDI_150

All was well last night until just now.

No barking, howling at all, he did wee everytime i took him out. Gave both commands for wee and poo but only got wee.

He did however poo in the crate sometime between 4:30 and 7:00 but atleast this time he just went back in his bed and didnt dance through it.

toadfly

Thats brilliant you are seeing an improvement so quick. Give it a few weeks and he will be flying.

GT_TDI_150

Amazing!!!!

No accident at all last night and he did both out side this morning.
Had been a little worried when i went down at 06:00 as he didnt do a no. 2 when i took him out at 20h, 21h, 22h, 23:30 or 2:30.

He did have 2 miss haps during the day yesterday but it's unreally how he knows what to do, i just call him, walk to the back door and open it and he follows me over and heads out to 'his spot'.

He even gives me the evils some time if i take too long throwing on a pair of shoes befoe opening the door, as if he's saying 'come on! Open the door already, i'm bursting here!'

JyesusChrist

Take him outside after you feed him as feeding normaly makes puppies want to poo shortly after. When he does poo outside praise the ****e out of him rinse and repeat until he knows this is what you want.

tk123

JyesusChrist wrote: »

Take him outside after you feed him as feeding normaly makes puppies want to poo shortly after. When he does poo outside praise the ****e out of him rinse and repeat until he knows this is what you want.

pun intended? :pac::pac: