Help With Toilet Training Indoor Puppy

[Joe27]

Hi,

We have just bought ourselves a new puppy (8 weeks old) and we love him to bits! I needed some advice on toilet training. I want to get the toilet training right. He is an indoor dog as both me and my wife work and live in a unit. I am going home at lunch time to see him and make sure he's okay every day. Today is the first day he has been on his own. We are trying to toilet train him with the pee pee pads so he doesnt go on the carpet. We have sectioned him off to be in the kitchen for now. He got away for a bit yesterday and pee'd on the carpet. He doesnt seem to be using the pee pee pads either when he does go in the sectioned area. He is actually being good in the sense that he is not wetting his bed.

I needed help on the following points:

1. Should we be taking him outside to pee and poo? There is a massive park outside our door and we took him out yesterday and this morning. After doing some more reading, i am concerned that he is too young to be around the park. We have a covered courtyard area.

2. Also - he has been poo-ing on average 3-4 times a day. Is this normal? Breeder told us he would only go twice a day after meals. I took him out today to the park for 45 minutes after his meal but he didnt go. Am about to go home now to check on him now.

3. I feel we are confusing him by taking him outside and also having the pee pee pads there. Any advice?

So far he does not sem to be interested in the pee pee pads. Are we doing something wrong?

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are trying to do positive encouragement and not being negative when we clean up in case of accidents. We know it is not his fault - rather our lack of knowledge.

[Guest Pandii]

taking him to the park before his vaccinations are up to date is not something I am going into eveyone does it differently

I am not sure what breed you have but there is a puppy advice section that has all this advice in it

My recommendations is to get rid of the pads

Take pup outside to pee, after every meal, every play time, every time it wakes up, during wake periods about every 20 mins

No playing just stand there until pup goes then praise alot, you can also add a command as they are going, so you can teach toilet on command

I have to rush off but others should be here to help soon, good luck

[Dogsfevr]

will the pup have access to the courtyard in future??

I wouldnt be going to the park but if there is an area that is grassed & you can carry to toilet & return i would be using this method.

Pee pads mean nothing to a dog & really if its going to be trained to toilet inside i would buy the false grass system

[luvsdogs]

I have never used the puppy pads & from what I've read on other forums not many ppl do. As above a pup should be taken out to toilet after waking up, after eating/drinking, after playing & every hour at other times. Don't let him have access to more than 1 room at this stage. Once he knows what to do & gets more reliable he can access one room at a time. Don't let him out of your site, if you can't watch him, get a crate for short term confinement or a small room like laundry or bathroom where messes can be cleaned up properly.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/housesoiling

[Red Fox]

If you must use the puppy pads get some attractant or buy the ones that already have it in them. The other thing you can do is put a bit of his own urine on them so that he can find the scent. He'll soon get the idea. You will also have to place him on the pad and give him a commant ie go wee, after his meals and after waking. Also ever 30 mins or so when he's awake. When he goes you can praise him and give a treat.

If you can get him to go outside in the courtyard that would be better but if he wont have access to it when you're not home training him to go on the pads might be more suitable and you can slowly move them outside over time.

We used the pads for our long term confinement area but also trained our dog to go outside on command. We slowly phased them out by the time he was 4 months old.

If I was doing it again I would probably not use them unless I had to as it can get a bit confusing and you may have the problem of the puppy only using the pads and refusing to pee outside.

It's best to start as you plan to go on.

[mademoisellemika]

My pup (9 weeks today) has grown accustomed to the Simple Solutions training pads - we tend to leave one pad inside her play pen and she never fails to use them. At the beginning, we had to let her sniff the pads for a while and on the first day, she did make a few mistakes by going on the carpet but now we only let her out of her pen after she has peed on the pad.

We used to take her out to our BBQ courtyard (we live in an apartment) to let her poo outside and she's very comfortable in going there too... but alas, I think a few people complaint to the body corporate so we stopped doing that. Now, our pup poos on the pad as well (we were surprised!!).

At night, she sleeps in her pen and never once woke us up in the middle of the night when she pees because she always does it on the pad!

When she's old enough and have had her vaccinations, we will be taking her out for her businesses more often. But yeah, would highly rate the Simple Solutions training pads. $55 for 56 pads through ozpetshop.com.au and we only need to use 1 a day (she's a small breed).

Hope this helps!