Helping My Pup Join The Dots

[poodle proud]

So, we have trained our pup (now 6 months) to go in one spot in the house successfully. She uses this area when we are at work but is taken outside when we are home and goes to the toilet outside, no problems.

She is now big enough to use the dog door but it doesnt seem to be clicking that going downstairs + going through dog door = access to toilet.

If I take away her place to pee inside she will go somewehere else in the house.

At the moment I'm taking her downstairs when I see her sniff, put her near the dog door, run outside and call her through and then wait for her to go. But now that the dog door is propped I have to run upstairs to the other door and run downstairs and then call her out :panting: .

And to be honest sometimes there just isnt that much time between the warning signs and the event.

Any ideas?

its not really an option to gradually move the newspaper downstairs and out the door as I cant imagine her trying to pee on the staircase during the transition

Thanks in advance. You're all stars!

[Teebs]

not sure of your set up, i would be banning all access to upstairs, and put the paper down near the door downstairs, once she is used to that, i would prop the dog door open and teach her in and out, once she is used to it, you can lower it and teach her to actually use her head to push it open

[puggy_puggy]

You have totoally confused her by telling her she can pee in the house sometimes and not pee in it other times.

Can she not have access to outside whilst you are at work?

If so then I would stop letting her pee in the house in a designated spot and start toilet training again. Taking her outside to toilet constantly untill she gets the hang of it.

[poodle proud]

Thanks Teebs and puggy_puggy.

Unfortunately there hasnt been an alternative as she has been too little to get through the dog door until now.

I realise this is confusing but we are not home 24/7 and rather than letting her pee everywhere we trained her to go in one spot. When we are home she gets taken out all the time, even at 3am.

I am happy to start over and do what I need to do so she now learns that the dog door takes her to the toilet. That is what I am hoping to get some ideas about.

Teebs, Ive put the newspaper near the back door so do I encourage her to toilet there all the time at the moment or do I still take her outside when I am home?

[Teebs]

I would be taking her out when you are home - 6 months is a long time to not be toilet trained... most of my pets were done by the time they were 14 weeks at most. It did take the kitten a fair while to get the hang of the cat flap, i had to tie it open for ages and ages or he would poo in the loungeroom (tiles thank god!)

And all mine were done with me working 9 - 10 hours days 5 days a week.

Why cant she stay outside during the day?

Edited May 26, 2009 by Teebs

[poodle proud]

I would be taking her out when you are home - 6 months is a long time to not be toilet trained... most of my pets were done by the time they were 14 weeks at most. It did take the kitten a fair while to get the hang of the cat flap, i had to tie it open for ages and ages or he would poo in the loungeroom (tiles thank god!)

And all mine were done with me working 9 - 10 hours days 5 days a week.

Why cant she stay outside during the day?

That's awesome that your lot were trained so early. 6 months is a long time but we have had a pretty rough year so far with me in hospital unexpectedly and recovery took a long time. So toilet training vigilance did not get first priority

So we are on the back foot but I know we will get there.

I suppose she could stay outside but she has been an escape artist when it comes to the backyard. We have tried a thousand ways to keep her from squeezing through the fence but if interested enough she got through every one. Fortunately we have always been supevising when she did this.

We have just tried something that so far she hasnt been able to escape from but I am a tad apprehensive about leaving her outside all day with me not home and nothing else to occupy her time except devising ways to escape .

I guess I can block off the lounge room so she can come inside but then if there are accidents its only tiles...

The older poodle may just have to have his nose out of joint by not being able to access the comfortable lounge room until we get the little one toileting in the right spot.