Potty problems

[jenguyen]

Hi, my partner and I have a 10 week old Cocker spaniel. He is incredibly intelligent, driven by food/treats as I've been able to teach him sit, down, paw, roll over (sort of), up and hi-5 since getting him at approximately 8 weeks old.

 

The issue now is his potty training. He just doesn't seem to understand it at all. We have a designated potty mat with the synthetic grass on our balcony as we live on the 3rd floor apartment.

 

We started off with the crate and play pen surrounding it and not letting him roam the living room/bedrooms and he took to his crate very quickly. He would pee in the play pen area and on the balcony (not the potty mat). Whenever he did pee/poo on the mat (rarely) we do praise/treat him.

 

Then we decided ok we'll let him roam the living area because my friends started commenting on how cruel it is to leave him in the play pen area (even though he has plenty of room - our reasoning was letting him get accustomed to his crate + play pen as his bedroom/eating area so he would learn not to pee/poo in there then transition him to the living area). Now he just pees everywhere and there are no signs (sniffing/circling etc).

 

We take him out to the potty mat frequently (every hour) but he doesn't want to do his business and either hops off and plays elsewhere and then he would pee suddenly somewhere else whether inside or on the balcony if he's still there. It's so fast I can't even catch him in the act. I've even tried the pee/poo drops that are apparently suppose to attract them to that area to pee/poo. Also if I do catch him in the act, I move him to the potty mat but he stops completely and it's unpredictable on when he will finally finish his business.

 

I got desperate and assumed maybe it's a texture issue (even though he has successfully peed/pooped only a few times on the mat) so I would bring him to the Ground floor which has a grassy area where all the other residents take their dogs (he isn't fully vaccinated yet because he's <12 weeks old) and he does successfully pee/poo there but we can't always bring him down everytime and really want him to learn to use the potty mat on the balcony, especially when it rains.

 

Now he's also gotten to the point where he's peeing in his crate (he once pooped in his crate but that was our fault because he wouldn't poo the whole day and I had to leave for work), he knows it's not right because then he starts screaming his head off so I know he understands he doesn't want his waste in the area he is sleeping in. I've stopped placing bedding in there because he just pees on it, until he stops peeing in his crate I'll reintroduce it.

 

It's just so hard to train him when he shows no signs of about to pee/poo. Would it be cruel to go back to just restricting him to his crate/play pen area until he grasps the concept of potty? I know I'm probably expecting too much because I've only had him for 2 weeks but I don't want to prolong this type of behaviour as I know it'll be harder to fix later than now.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2018 by jenguyen

[mackiemad]

My sister had better success teaching her havanese to use the pet loo when she put a pee pad down on the ground and stuck the fake grass onto it. Once he had that then she put it on the plastic thing - I think teaching where to toilet and to step up at the same time is a bit hard. 

 

There is also no shame in using a puppy pen and don't let your friends tell you so - just use the grass on the pee pad in the puppy pen and start to move it to the balcony over time. 

 

You also need to remember to give huge play, vocal and treat reward when he does it where you want. Many people cue this with a vocal cue and you may have success with that given you're not sure when he needs to go. Also, remember to reward when he squats to pee but doesn't actually toilet - faking it is a sign he's getting the concept 

[Dogsfevr]

This dog sounds very confused and not surprised .For starters he doesn’t now ,he isn’t doing anything deliberate or wrong ,pup just has no clue what you want .

If this pup came from a breeder where it learnt to toilet on lawn it’s going against all the pup was taught early on for toileting so you need understand that your now wanting him to toilet in his pen which we teach from 5 weeks not too .

The pitfalls of an apartment dog and an active breed .

 

You need to decide what the long term plan is and for any apartment dog that is making sure quality grass outdoor time is a must so if your plan is for the dog to toilet when outside then that’s what you train now .

The pup can’t live in the pen all the time even at this age .

If your busy / running late that isn’t the pups fault ,toileting is important hanging on is not healthy .When it rains you have to factor getting wet as you will be any way to exercise the dog otherwise he will likely destroy your home aka his yard if you don’t define the too.

At present your home is his toilet as that is what you are teaching him ,he doesn’t get that the toilet set up is where you want him to go so he has no reason to tell you ,hence taking him on the grass and teaching him to go to the door to alert you is toilet training .

Many use real rolled lawn if it’s a must they toilet in the home / balcony to keep it real .

Your will be challenged making it work for apartment living ,is not easy but success is based on your dedication to go above and beyond to meet its daily needs so you need to do a list of your expectations as an adult and start that now .

 

The first item will be outside on the grass first thing every day no matter what the weather is and again at night .

You need to work on an age plan to meet its needs especially as it will be at in influential age for winter ,exploring more ,able to jump ,wanting to hear,touch and react to noises etc etc 

[Katarinasmum]

He's still very very young. I remember feeling the same as you. I thought "is she ever going to learn". But consistency is key. Don't leave the "toilet" area or allow any toys, distractions etc to be near him until his done his business on command (we use the word toilet). I've been outside encouraging her to go to the toilet for 15 minutes at times. Praise heavily (which you say you're already doing so that's great) when he does go in the right place. Take him out every single hour on the hour (2-3 hours at night). We did this and at almost 6 months old, our girl is 90% toilet trained perfectly (they're never going to be 100% at this age). Will ask to go out when she needs etc. 

 

I do remember being frustrated but just with the toilet trips every single hour, she just slowly but surely had less and less accidents inside. Now any accidents she has we can usually pin point what has happened and it's usually our fault. 

[persephone]

On 3/31/2018 at 3:26 PM, jenguyen said:

he knows it's not right because then he starts screaming his head off so I know he understands he doesn't want his waste in the area he is sleeping in. I've stopped placing bedding in there because he just pees on it, until he stops peeing in his crate I'll reintroduce it.

  he does not know 'it's not right ' ..he is a baby who can NOT  be clean  because he has no access to what his body is used to to trigger his bladder and bowel to empty . He then has to toilet ..and try to sleep in the waste .
Would you take bedding away from a toddler who wet/pooed the bed  because of disruption in the home/family? bet they would scream & cry as well , trying to sleep in that mess. 

You really need to go back to SQUARE ONE  and take a week off ..to learn how to train yourself and this pup ..the  thing with training is to set your pupil up TO DO THE RIGHT THING
To do THAT, however, one needs to learn  WHAT the right thing involves ...WHY should the pupil want to  do it , and  HOW  does the pupil best learn ? 

Learning some basic puppy psychology is also really important   They don't reason as we do ..far from it  .... You're doing well trick training ... but toilet training uses more instinct based stuff...

[persephone]

There may be some hints here for you ? 

https://www.rspcaqld.org.au/blog/pet-care/apartment-living-for-dog-lovers

https://www.ideas.org.au/uploads/resources/363/pets_in_the_city.pdf