Toilet Training A Pup To Go Outside To Pee

[deltron]

I am getting my puppy on Saturday (yay!) and although he is going to be mostly an inside dog, I'd also like him to have free roam of the backyard, and I want to train him to go to the toilet outside.

He'll have a person home with him for 5 days, but after that he will be on his own for a while each day when myself and my OT are at work.

I've set up the laundry to be his playroom, and there is a door to the backyard there, which I will be installing a dog door into.

However, I'm a little uneasy letting a tiny young puppy (8 1/2 weeks) having free roam of a backyard unsupervised. Am I being overprotective? I've made the backyard secure... but you never know what could happen while i'm not there.

I'm worried that if he can't go outside to pee during week days that i'll be undoing all the toilet training he'll be receiving when we are home.

[Love my Sonny and Neko]

I can't really offer any advice as we were home for the first 3 weeks of our pups lives... just wanted to say how GORGEOUS Charlie is... I want him for myself :p

[Rhi*Jak*Ed]

You should find alot of advice on here regarding housebraking, just do a couple of searches and you should hit the jackpot :-)

Charlie is gorgeous :-)

My JRT is 4 months of age and I still don't leave her in the backyard by herself. Mainly due to the cane toads because there would be an hour of darkness before I get home from work and that's when they come out to play! But, if I didn't have the toad issue, she is now big enough to be outside all day. When she had her last vaccination the vet said that she was too young and small at that point to be out in the yard all day by herself. Birds divebombing etc haha.

As a result, I have to clean up every day because she doesn't have access to the outside world. Those dogs that do are very lucky indeed, as are their owners!

I'm sure that if you keep showing him the correct places to go toilet (and recognising when he's about to go and taking him to the correct place before he does anything), it shouldn't take him long to pick it up. And if he has access to outside, that would make it easier still.

All the best with it, I'm sure the rest of the week will be dragging on for you!

Rhi & Jak

[deltron]

Thanks for the replies :p

Yes, this week has going SO slowly. Preparing for his arrival is making the wait4 just bearable

I think what I might do is train him to go in a litter tray and then see what the Vet suggests once he nees to go in for his next vaccination.

Once he is ready to go outside, perhaps I can move the litter tray into the backyard and hopefully it won't be too much of a mental leap for him to learn to do his business outside.

I'm just not comfortable letting him stay in the backyard all day by himself yet. He's just so small. The neighbour's cat could run off with him!!

[Rhi*Jak*Ed]

Yeah that's the thing... Each to their own though, I know I didn't like the idea, but I also have stairs which made my decision to keep her inside even easier.

They do say that if you utilise something, like paper or a litter box, to move it just a little bit at a time until it's where you want them to go. If you move it too far he'll get confused, so baby steps :-)

Only a couple more days. Do you have other dogs? How long since you've had a pup?

[deltron]

Only a couple more days. Do you have other dogs? How long since you've had a pup?

Nope, no other dogs. I have 2 geckos... but they aren't the most interactive of pets.

It's been 5 years since I had a dog. The last dog's name was Nipper and he was a mini foxie that my dad bought on a whim. He was the best little guy, everyone's favourite member of the family. He had to be PTS at age 15 because he had inoperable cancer and was in so much pain. He lived through cruciate surgery, luxating patella surgery, meningitis and cancer but the cancer came back and finally got him...

He was SO smart, and his favourite thing ever was to jump and try and bite the tattslotto balls on the tv!

I've been renting for the last 5 years and finally saved up enough deposit to buy my first home this year.

My boyfriend calls our house the dog house because the main reason I bought a house was so I could have a dog! :p

[ShellyBeggs]

If you are worried about giving Charlie free run of the backyard all day......

why not fence off a smallish area just outside the door for Charlie to play in the sunshine *cough cough*.....crisp morning air.....and do his business??

You still allow access into and out of his snuggly warm playroom and gives him a little bit of space outside that is safe.

P.S Charlie is gorgeous....good luck!

[deltron]

If you are worried about giving Charlie free run of the backyard all day......

why not fence off a smallish area just outside the door for Charlie to play in the sunshine *cough cough*.....crisp morning air.....and do his business??

You still allow access into and out of his snuggly warm playroom and gives him a little bit of space outside that is safe.

P.S Charlie is gorgeous....good luck!

Hey... really good idea! I hadn't even thought of doing that! It's totally doable too

[Poodle wrangler]

The main thing I'd be worried about outside would be possibility of escape.

I have an adult mini poodle who slides his body flat to get thru a 12cm high space under the gate. Your pup will be much smaller. 12cm- I just measured it .

The more accidents that happen inside, the slower the toilet training will be.

Have you thought about making a fleecy jumper for pup? It'll get quite cold in the laundry (I'm guessing).

[deltron]

The main thing I'd be worried about outside would be possibility of escape.

I have an adult mini poodle who slides his body flat to get thru a 12cm high space under the gate. Your pup will be much smaller. 12cm- I just measured it .

The more accidents that happen inside, the slower the toilet training will be.

Have you thought about making a fleecy jumper for pup? It'll get quite cold in the laundry (I'm guessing).

I have bought him a heated pet bed in case he gets chilly The breeder had one and we figured if he's used to that level of luxury, we don't want to deprive him!

I'm worried about him escaping too. Admittedly, I spent all last weekend patching up every singe hole in my backyard. But you just never know.

Tenties are smart little critters so I'm not 100% confident that the backyard is escape proof.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Here are my housetraining tips - you just need love and kindness, that's all it takes - puppies will take a little longer than an older dog probably:

HOUSETRAINING TIPS

Ok - first thing to do is decide on the command (I call it “do wees”) you will repeat over and over. You have to really focus on the dog for about 2-3 days to be successful. You have a pocketful of special treats on hand all the time for the first 2-3 days.

Walk the dog several times a day and every time the dog wees, you get very excited and keep saying “Good boy/girl, do wees, do wees” – give the dog treats every time.

First thing in the morning, last thing at night and every time you see the dog eat or drink (both precursors to weeing) whisk the dog into the garden and repeat the command “do wees”. Get very excited and present treats every time dog goes.

The dog’s aim in life is to please you. If the dog should have an accident inside the house – say NOTHING at all. The dog soon gets the idea that when he/she goes outside you are really, really pleased and he/she gets rewarded.

[Joan of Arc]

Great advice DOgmad.

The one bit of information I pass on to people adopting our babies is this - they sleep then wake up and after about 1 -2 minutes they piddle and poop, then they play for about 15 minutes adn the piddle and poop, then they eat and 5 minutes later they piddle and poop. Then they lay down and go to sleep and guess what? Its starts all over agian.

[sas]

And don't have high expectations of a puppy an toilet training. You could be sorted within the first couple of weeks or you may have to wait until 5-6 months of age until the puppy is reliable, they're all different.

Edited June 21, 2007 by sas

[deltron]

Because the dog door isn't in yet, i'm using puppy training pads right near the back door in my laundry, over a plastic mat.

My puppy did 6 out of 7 wees on his pads today. And 1 out of 2 poos, and it's only his second day here

He is loving the idea of trading wee for delicious morsels of dried beef liver and lashings of "GOOD BOY!!!". I keep the liver on a shelf right above the pads, and I think that's helping him associate wees with treats.

I find the best way is to close all the doors and I sit there and don't make a sound until he gets on his pad, where I say "do a wee". He usually tries to jump on my lap but I ignore him and give him no attention until he performs. So far, so good!!

Last night I woke him up and got him out of his crate 3 times to do wees, at 12, 2 and 4:30. He only weed at 4:30, so i'm going to just set my alarm for that time tomorrow morning.

[TessaBella]

Something I did with Bella was take up her food and water about half an hour before bedtime. Mind you that wasn't until she was about 4 months old, maybe 5. It always goes down as soon as she wakes up and goes to the toilet.

[deltron]

Updating to say that toilet training is going along very nicely at the moment.

The last couple of days, charlie has taken himself outside through the dog door numerous times to toilet. We are still having a few accidents, but the majority of the time he is going outside himself or I am taking him outside.

I think there are many factors helping this:

• warmer weather - he wants to be outside
  
• he is older and has more bladder control
  
• he knows that I will take him outside at certain times and will hold on until then
  
• he can go on walks and can wee on trees
  
• I can read his body language much better now
  
• consistently giving him treats & praise for peeing outdoors
  

I've also found that if I take him outside and he is running around, I point at the ground where he last went to pee, and he sniffs it and then will go pee shortly after. I think it communicates the idea of what I want him to do. I still say 'go wees' every time, but I don't think that he knows what i'm saying.