Pomeranian Puppy Toilet Terror/ Am I Going Mad?

[Cattleya]

Hi all, it's 10 days now since I've had my 2nd canine family addition. The 1st is a Sterilised well behaved, friendly, sociable 2 yr old male Golden Retriever and the latest is a 10 week old female Pomeranian with the sweetest temperament. She was the runt of the litter and last to leave staying back a week after her brother and sister were homed. The seller had her confined to a newspaper/ puppy pad laden spacious baby crib with the occassional romp in the rest of the bedroom.

I've recently hit a brick wall with toilet training, trying very hard to be positive, patient, diligent and consistent but there is a moment even a minute or 2 when she manages to urinate/ defecate on undesirable surfaces i.e. Concrete, gravel, white rocks, dirt and mulch. I constantly watch her like a hawk while she's outside but feel the strain on myself as it's very time consuming and I'll put everything else on hold but eventually succumb to my desires to get on with household chores thinking it's safe because she'd relieved herself 15 minutes ago. Even when she decides to sit down with a little pause before her backside touches the ground I swear every time my heart stops.

She's never had any accidents inside the house partly because I restrict her to her den, a small confined space just big enough for her to sleep in 5 different positions and give her toys a smack down. Since the 1st day I've taken her out on the grass after a nap, play, before bedtime and when wakes up roughly every 3 hrs. She's had over 5 urination fines and 1 defecation ticket to her young life here. It's pretty much 6 accidents I've caught her over a 9 day period. And only 8 hours unsupervised so who knows how many more that have landed and evaporated before the evidence could be seen.

That's the background information and here are some questions that plague my mind.

Is there a glitch in my training?

Are my expectations too high?

Was the first 8 weeks of her life conditioned to relieve herself on newspaper/ puppy pads in such close proximity to her play and sleeping quarters a factor?

After these accidents will she continue throughout her maturity to use these surfaces as a toilet despite 9/10 times it's on the desirable location, grass?

Should I treat the concrete and the rest of the undesirables like our dwelling and restrict, restrict, restrict?

Am I being too hard on myself?

I feel like I'm failing and losing the battle to a little chipmunk!

Thank you everyone for your time and future responses, greatly appreciated.

XOXO

Edited October 18, 2011 by Lady Canda

[SwaY]

If she is 9 weeks old and you have had her for 10 days that means you got her prior to 8 weeks of age and her siblings went even earlier!

She Is a puppy, give her time to adjust and settle in and learn the rules. Toilet training can take months !

[persephone]

She is a tiny tiny baby ..and probably need to be taken outside at least every 1/2 hour

.Is there a glitch in my training?

I think so . NO way can she hold on for 3 hrs during the day ..and possibly not at night she is a baby.Are my expectations too high?

possibly.

Was the first 8 weeks of her life conditioned to relieve herself on newspaper/ puppy pads in such close proximity to her play and sleeping quarters a factor?

yes.Was she purchased from a reputable breeder? I was going to suggest you speak with them.

After these accidents will she continue throughout her maturity to use these surfaces as a toilet despite 9/10 times it's on the desirable location, grass?

Not if she gets lots of praise for using grass..and that she is prevented from using other surfaces. (try using a long lead on her)

Should I treat the concrete and the rest of the undesirables like our dwelling and restrict, restrict, restrict?

Just make sure that her leader/teacher keeps her where she needs to be

Am I being too hard on myself?

Don't know ;)

[Mason_Gibbs]

My lab pup soon caught on that the older dog only goes on the grass and followed suit, it took him roughly 4 weeks but he is now fully house trained

Edited October 18, 2011 by Mason_Gibbs

[Fordogs]

You sound like the toilet police .......... 9/10 times on undesirable surfaces She is a puppy !!!

With a puppy of that age I am happy just that they manage to reach outside .......

Not allowed to go on the mulch, concrete or the white gravel, RELAX Please.

Am I being to hard on myself .... I don't know BUT I do think that you are being Toooooooo Hard on the puppy.

[Sandra777]

The way I read it is she is toileting outside but the place she chooses ism't to your liking.

Give the poor mite a break! If you want her to toilet only on grass this can come later - just be happy she's never made a "mistake" inside.

Relax, enjoy and please don't show me a photo of a space so tiny a Pom puppy can only sleep in 5 positons in it

[Cattleya]

Lol. Relaxing and easing up may be what the doctor ordered.

Edited October 18, 2011 by Lady Canda

[Mason_Gibbs]

You sound like the toilet police .......... 9/10 times on undesirable surfaces She is a puppy !!!

With a puppy of that age I am happy just that they manage to reach outside .......

Not allowed to go on the mulch, concrete or the white gravel, RELAX Please.

Am I being to hard on myself .... I don't know BUT I do think that you are being Toooooooo Hard on the puppy.

Yup i was happy if he made it outside even at 12 weeks!!

[k9angel]

You sound like the toilet police .......... 9/10 times on undesirable surfaces She is a puppy !!!

With a puppy of that age I am happy just that they manage to reach outside .......

Not allowed to go on the mulch, concrete or the white gravel, RELAX Please.

Am I being to hard on myself .... I don't know BUT I do think that you are being Toooooooo Hard on the puppy.

x 2.

I agree you need to relax a little more.

She's only a baby and is still learning.

[Red Fox]

The dog has no idea what is a suitable surface and what is not.

If you want to her to go only on grass you need to confine her to grass when she's alone and supervise 100% in between. She won't just figure it out on her own..

[Dame Aussie]

Wow. She's a baby. I'd be happy she's going outside at all rather than worrying about what surface is acceptable.

A baby puppy does not understand that mulch is not acceptable and grass is.....

Give her a break.

[twodoggies2001]

It all takes time. Ask you mum how long it takes for a human baby to be toilet trained.

[Cattleya]

Thank you everyone, your feedback and opinion was much appreciated. I have an altered outlook on the whole situation and have made changes all thanks to your knowledge! XOXO

[suziwong66]

We brought Wilbur home at 8 weeks. he'd had predominantly an indoor beginning in life as he was born in a cold, wet climate during the worst of winter and thus preferred to eliminate on hard surfaces. We wanted him to eliminate on grass and had to train him to do that. We took him out for elimination breaks frequently; always on a lead. We took him straight to the grass and when he began to eliminate we repeated 'do wees'. once he'd finished we praised him with food or pats. We say 'do wees' for both wee & poops. At night, Wilbur now 17 weeks, still goes out for toilet breaks on a lead because otherwise he thinks he's on a play break. We will begin to shape his behaviour so that we can let him out to eliminate independently and then he'll come straight back in (at night). He now eliminates on command; it was just a matter of repeating the command every time he was eliminating and making sure we controlled where he eliminated; consistency and repetition was the key to success.

If your pup is outside alone and you want it to eliminate only on the grass then I would think you would need to confine it to the grassed area so that it doesn't get to choose where to eliminate.

Your furbaby is so very young; i think maybe your expectations are a little high for its age will allow it to successfully achieve.

We went into toilet training with the though that it will take as much time as it does...in other words, no timeframe. Our job was to focus on consistency and repetition and setting Wilbur up to succeed at first with support and later with independence.

good luck.

[Mason_Gibbs]

Gibbs goes out to the grass on his own now to toilet

[kitkatswing]

We have a concrete backyard, so we bought some fake grass. My boy now only wees and poops on that now. He was trained to go there from about 3 months old

[Atanquin]

She is only 10 weeks old!! Of course it might take a while took zorro till he was 14 weeks and he knew sit shake drop speak. He knew to go outside but would not tell me and would just sit next to the door and so he would have a little accident. I don't think your are to hard on yourself but your are expecting to much from your pup. Just relax and we need pictures

[DobieMum]

Maybe a puppy pen for toileting, then you can confine her to the area you need her to go. The biggest thing to remember is to PRAISE her when she does go where you want her to, make a huge song and dance over it.

[Guest donatella]

Poor little Pom

Lots and LOTS AND LOTS of praise when she goes in the right place. They are such smart little cookies and really click on fast. But when you look at how small they are and think of their bladder size you'll understand why they need to be toileted a LOT.

I don't like how she's confined to a tiny space either poor darlin.

My 6 month old toilet trained Pomeranian still has an inside accident here and there but its not a big deal, she's still a baby.

Edited October 22, 2011 by donatella

[toy*dog]

The seller had her confined to a newspaper/ puppy pad laden spacious baby crib with the occassional romp in the rest of the bedroom.

a young puppy going from toileting on newspaper to toileting on grass is going to take a while.

all our little dogs are brought up to go on newspaper but get let out during the day onto grassed areas so have the best of both worlds.

some of our buyers have reported that the pup has done it everywhere in the house, the last lady who said that, i told her to paper the whole laundry area and keep the pup in one area as when they are that young they don't know what is expected of them and are used to doing it on paper. i told the lady to watch body language of the pup and you will know when the pup wants to toilet, i also before the puppy went to her new home trained the pups to recognise the word "out" so when i said this they go out and urinate straight away. took a while to achieve this though say 3-7 months old.

i'd say from your post the pup is used to toileting on newspaper and you've taken that away so now puppy is a bit confused about where to do it now. if it was me i'd bring back the newspaper and perhaps paper a whole area so she is doing it on nothing but the newspaper then bit by bit over a period of time say 3 weeks - a month gradually reduce the papered area, you will find they will do it on the area you paper, if they don't you repaper the area again and then gradually reduce the area again until they get it then when they can hold on a bit better usually 4-6 months old then you train to go "out" and toilet outside but in the meantime you do that now but with also the paper.

this is how we've trained our babies with a lot of success. alot of breeders do put babies and mother in a pen in the house otherwise you would have dogs running everywhere but they don't confine them there all the time just when the mothers are nursing and when there are very young pups that you don't want to get battered by the mature adults.

i don't know how many times people have said it is cruel to put pups and mother in a pen or a sick dog. if we didn't you'd have the others picking on the sick one or you can't have mother and babies in with the other dogs it disrupts milk supply etc etc. it is cruel to keep them there day in day out (like some have done in the past, the dogs have never been out of the pen! )

Edited October 23, 2011 by toy*dog