Toilet training puppy

As you mite already know i have just got a new puppy.

Incase you havent seen her
Anyway im looking to know the best methods to toilet train her.

Take her into the garden every hour or so & if she goes to the toilet praise her. You might want to use a trigger word like "Weewee" or "Empty".

Also, take her outside as soon as she wakes up & after she eats, drinks & plays.

You'll get accidents, but when you do don't say a word to her, just clean it up & pop her outside. Make sure you clean the area with a non-amonia cleaner - a solution of biological washing powder is excellent for this, and much cheaper than store bought cleaners!

Well I am currently house training my pup and its going really well. The only things I've been doing are...

- as soon as she wakes up or immediately after eating/drinking carry her outside, when she does her business praise her with the same phrase each time... e.g "good girl", "clever girl" etc followed by stroking her/just generally making a huge fuss of her.

- when you catch her peeing/pooing somewhere you don't want her to... Interrupt her while she is still doing it and carry her outside so she can go and finish. Pick a phrase and stick to it for the situations when she goes toilet on the carpet or whatever, I've been using "naughty girl!!" for my pup. But it really does only have an effect when you catch them doing their business half way through.

- take her outside every 15 mins or so when she is awake/playing. This may seem like a lot/time consuming but believe me after only a week of doing this and all of the above things you should notice a real difference!

I haven't had a pup but when I first got Daisy I didn't know how well house trained she was so I would take her outside, wait until she started to do something then say 'do your business' as she was doing it so that she would associate the words with the action, then praise her afterwards. It worked for us, gradually we has less accidents and not had any for ages now.

blueskyy wrote: Pick a phrase and stick to it for the situations when she goes toilet on the carpet or whatever, I've been using "naughty girl!!" for my pup. But it really does only have an effect when you catch them doing their business half way through.

Really, you shouldn't be telling her off at all - she isn't actually doing anything wrong as far as she's concerned. She just hasn't got full control of her bladder/bowels yet, and she hasn't quite grasped that you want her to do it all outside!

Caryll wrote:

blueskyy wrote: Pick a phrase and stick to it for the situations when she goes toilet on the carpet or whatever, I've been using "naughty girl!!" for my pup. But it really does only have an effect when you catch them doing their business half way through.

Really, you shouldn't be telling her off at all - she isn't actually doing anything wrong as far as she's concerned. She just hasn't got full control of her bladder/bowels yet, and she hasn't quite grasped that you want her to do it all outside!

I appreciate your comment but I'm just doing what works for my pup, she is a little stubborn headed and responds best when I say "naughty girl" in a firm voice - I do not shout at her, I am clearly doing something right as after only a week and half she has started whining and standing near the door to let me know when she needs to relieve herself and there have been very few 'accidents' these past few days.

I'm not criticising, and it may well work ok for your pup. But a lot of pups get very confused when they're told off for peeing/pooing indoors, when they're only doing what's natural to them - and sometimes they just can't help themselves!

When darcy was training, we just put her out often, and when she started weeing id say go and do a wee-wee, if she had an accident then we didn't make a fuss, just put her out, cleaned it up and she was trained really quickly good luck hope this helps.

Agree with what's been said, can't add to it really . I did used to tell Loki 'no' when we caught him peeing in the house, but it wasn't to tell him off, it was to interrupt him so he could then go outside, really. Worked for us, but it isn't needed, works perfectly fine if you say nothing and just take her outside.

Yeah, young puppies need to go 10-20 minutes after they've eaten or drunk anything so for such a young puppy once an hour is too long if they're eaten or drunk in that time and they don't have control of their bodily functions so telling them off simply isn't fair, it's like calling a 3 month old baby a bad baby for peeing themselves and she looks just barely 8 weeks, up until about 2 weeks ago her mother would have to stimulate her to go bathroom at all so she literally has no control yet.

If you catch her in the middle of peeing, scoop her up and take her outside, they CAN close off their peeing mid stream sometimes but they CAN NOT physically stop themselves in the middle of pooing, so picking them up and moving them will simply make the mess larger.

Puppy pads work occasionally but didn't for me, Tiger was a really quick learner, I'd take her outside 20 minutes after she'd eaten and just say "go toilet" You want to associate a phrase that you won't use often, if you say "good girl" to try and make her go toilet then when she's older, she may take you saying "good girl" as a cue that she can go toilet wherever she's standing so try to keep the triggers to toilet specific "Go toilet/bathroom" type thing.

Do praise her a lot when she goes in the right place, what I did with Tiger was I'd praise her, then she'd come inside and I'd make her sit then give her a treat, so she was rewarded for going to the bathroom AND I taught her to sit at the same time.

Kitt wrote:Yeah, young puppies need to go 10-20 minutes after they've eaten or drunk anything so for such a young puppy once an hour is too long if they're eaten or drunk in that time and they don't have control of their bodily functions so telling them off simply isn't fair, it's like calling a 3 month old baby a bad baby for peeing themselves and she looks just barely 8 weeks, up until about 2 weeks ago her mother would have to stimulate her to go bathroom at all so she literally has no control yet.

Actually that's not entirely true, puppies start to relieve themselves without their mothers help at 3 weeks old. Is there anybody who has replied to this topic that you haven't discreetly criticised in your post? For example since the topic starter mentioned nothing about telling off a pup for peeing where it shouldn't I can only assume you were referring to what I said in my reply so I will say it again, I do not shout at my pup, I have interrupted her several times mid stream by saying "no, naughty girl!" because that is the only thing that made her stop in her tracks. I've noticed if she thinks there are no consequences to anything then she will carry on doing bad things. Let people raise their pups how they want to instead of acting like there is a specific way of doing it, all pups are different and respond to different things and you need to do what works best for your pup.

As for telling the OP not to say "good girl" as a praise incase it associates that phrase later in life to just pee on the command is just daft, I said to say it AFTER the pup has completed her business outside, not during or before so I am failing to see how it would create a problem.

The OP asked for people's opinions on the best way to toilet train and myself and everybody else have shared how we are doing it/did it because it obviously worked for us or else we wouldn't be sharing it so why tell the OP that some of what she has been told is wrong. Opinions and proven methods cannot be wrong.

Bluesky- you are being very argumentative!

The whole point of saying a phrase after they go to the bathroom or while they are going to the bathroom is so they start to associate that phrase with the actual act of going to the bathroom, so that later on you can say this phrase and they know it means its time for them to do their business. What kitt was saying is right!!! If you make this phrase a very common saying thats said at other times they may become confused and think its okay to go to the bathroom regardless of where they may be at the time because they associate this phrase with going the the bathroom!!! You have become very defensive and argumentative with two different people (Caryll and Kitt) when they were not criticizing you! They were only giving their advice to the question asked above. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and just because they dont agree with you exactly doesnt mean they are criticizing!

The best thing I've found for toilet training is to also try crate training. This was a miracle tool for us with Gwen. An 8 week old pup needs to go to the bathroom very frequently! The best thing is to take her out every 20-30 minutes, this is time consuming but it works and it will be worth it! Also take her outside every time she eats, drinks, sleeps, plays. Make sure you physically take her out on a lead dont just open the door and let her out! Stand there until she goes and when she goes say whatever cue word works for you! Praise her like crazy when she goes outside and give her a treat. When you know her bowels and bladder are empty allow her out in the house (while watching her obviously) If she doesnt go within 5-10 minutes go back inside and put her in the crate and try again in 10-20 minutes! If she does have an accident inside its best not to tell her off! The pup wont understand that you arent mad that she went to the bathroom, you are just upset that she went to the bathroom inside your house. She may just think you are mad she went to the bathroom in general..this can sometimes result in a very confused pup that will then run away and pee/poop when you arent looking because they think you will tell them off. House training is hard work, some pups catch on very quickly and others do not! As long as you are consistent and take her out frequently she will begin to have less and less accidents and then eventually none!

By the way she is such a little cutie:) I miss the days when Gwen would take naps every hour!

Thanks for all the tips, i had been praising her and saying good girl but will change that because i say it for other tings aswell. As for the disagreements i asked for peoples advice which is going to be diferent for everyone and everydog so in future if i ask for advice ill take all the advice you can give just without the bitching.

blueskyy wrote:
I have interrupted her several times mid stream by saying "no, naughty girl!" because that is the only thing that made her stop in her tracks.

You run the risk of her thinking that her going to the bathroom at all is a bad thing if you call her a bad girl or bad dog, this is why dog trainers advise AGAINST saying such things, many dogs become afraid of going to the bathroom around their owners if they're told they're bad when they can barely help themselves, especially since if you're not taking the puppy out often enough to avoid this then part of the blame can most definitely be placed on you.

blueskyy wrote:
As for telling the OP not to say "good girl" as a praise incase it associates that phrase later in life to just pee on the command is just daft,

I said not to say good girl to try and make her go to the bathroom to begin with, a lot of people say "Good girl" while they're in the middle of doing their business or even before they've gone which leaves open the possibility of a dog associating "good girl" with "go toilet now" I never said not to praise her afterwards.

blueskyy wrote:The OP asked for people's opinions on the best way to toilet train and myself and everybody else have shared how we are doing it/did it because it obviously worked for us or else we wouldn't be sharing it so why tell the OP that some of what she has been told is wrong. Opinions and proven methods cannot be wrong.

Correct, the OP did ask for opinions, those of us you're arguing with are simply stating there are tried and tested methods to get it done faster and methods that have also been proven to hinder progress in quite a few pups even though they're "proven" to have worked for you, that's why there are specific methods that trainers suggest to minimize the risk of problems later in life that would be harder to train a dog out of. I never said your opinions were wrong, simply that some of the ideas suggested have been proven to cause issues in some dogs and since OP doesn't know if their dog is one of the ones problems would occur in, it's simply better to stay away from the suggestions that could cause them problems, not many owners want to keep a dog that poos everywhere when they call it a good girl.

blueskyy wrote: Opinions and proven methods cannot be wrong.

Opinions can't be wrong because they are purely somebody's own thoughts. However, 'proven methods' can be wrong, such as hitting a dog for doing something wrong, or rubbing a dog's nose in it's business to house train, or kneeing a dog in the chest when it jumps up. These were all 'proven' methods years ago, but they are wrong!

Telling a puppy off because it has done something totally natural is also wrong.