This sounds like a bit of a daft problem and the vet did say, just be thankful you have her so well trained that she goes in the garden, but it's concerning me as we're going on holiday to Scotland shortly with the dog. We have a 17 week old puppy called Ruby who we've had since she was 8 weeks. We did a cracking job with toilet training and it's rare when we have a puddle in the house now and always our fault for not noticing the signs. We took Ruby to the bottom of the garden regularly, especially after eating, playing and sleeping, got her to associate 'go wee wees' with urinating and defecating and now she does it on command when we take her down there. We put a partition across the bottom end of the garden so that the rest stays clean for our 5 year old. I'm now working on not having to take her all the way down so that eventually we can say it as we let her out. All good. The problem is that she will not go to the toilet anywhere else. She sniffs the grass but doesn't go. The command seems to mean nothing to her out of context so I thought, back to square one - I'll wait until she does one and say jt as she's in the process. Trouble is, she's got such good bladder control now that I could be waiting literally hours. I've tried taking her straight out for a short walk as soon as she comes out of her crate in the morning, assuming she'd be busting for a wee after not having one for seven hours solid: nothing. I've brought her in, fed her and tried again. Again, nothing. Than as soon as she's let into the garden, she goes. We've had a couple of poos on walks out of sheer desperation but very few wees. We have a very long drive up to Scotland in a week's time. She'll be in the crate she uses for travelling in the car and we'll be stopping for her to exercise and hopefully have a wee but I bet she doesn't. She's very good in her crate and doesn't wet but I don't want ber to start now. Also, we're renting a house and I don't want to spend the whole time mopping and have the house stink. Any advice?
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Hi and welcome to the forum Harley used to be the same, but now goes anywhere outside. At some stage she will need to go, just praise her a lot and make a big thing of it so she associates it with going a wee elsewhere. Good luck
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Hi and welcome! At some point she is going to have to do a wee - and it'll just be your job to make sure she has the opportunity to do it outside of the crate! Actually the drive to Scotland will be good, as she will be very unwilling to wee in her crate, and will have the opportunity to do it every time you stop. Also, in the rental house I assume she will be sleeping in her crate - again it is unlikely she will wee in there. You'll just have to keep an eye open and praise her to the skies when she does her business outside! don't worry too much, she'll get it. At present she just doesn't understand that it is ok to wee in other places outside other than her home patch at the bottom of the garden.
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Charlie was the same - I can remember being stood in motorway services stations with my dog refusing to pee! So stopping just made the journey longer! In the end, he had to pee, then we were fine after that. I make sure I reward him for peeing and pooing in the garden now. He'd rather not, but sometimes I really need him too (if I'm going to work, say) so I make sure he still goes on cue in the garden.
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Hi Veela.....welcome to the Forum,I feel your pain only I was the opposite way round,I WANT my dog to toilet in the garden ....I tried for 2 weeks,all we achieved was Dexter showing me that he would hold himself for 10 hours.....he would have gone longer but I always broke first as I was scared it would make him ill holding for that long.in all that time he didn't give me one opportunity to reward him with the juicy roast chicken I was holding .....I failed totally,,he won and now I have to timetable his toilets so he won't burn his paws as I run him across the road to the tree opposite my front door : ( we live on the Middle East and Summer temps get up,to 50 c) I don't think Ruby will soil her crate,I think she will do her toilets on your stops as she might be a little bit excited with all the change and I know my dog goes quicker if he's had something excite him a bit.i think you will,be fine in your holiday home too,I'm speaking as a first time dog owner with no experience of doggie holidays but she sounds so reliable at home ,I think as long as you keep,vigilant she will just transfer her skills. Good luck and let us know how you get on x
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Mine's on around the 3rd week of going out for walks. She's only just getting the idea that she can do a wee or a poo when we're walking! In fact she still waits til she gets home for a wee mostly. It helps to try to work out when they naturally need to do their business (after food etc) and take them out for a walk then when they really need to go - then make a really big fuss when they do. A word of warning - you may feel a bit of a numpty doing this in public!
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden This happened to us when we went on holiday to Yorkshire. Nevis only toileted in our yard, whenever we were out he never peed till we got home. Never thought anything about it until we left for our holiday. He settled great in the car and dozed most of the time, once he woke we pulled in to give him a drink and toilet him. He wouldn't do anything after 20 minutes we started off again. Stopped again and the same he just walked around. I then started to wonder if this was going to be a problem as it had been a while We arrived at the cottage and spent ages trying to encourage him to pee as i thought he must be desperate. He walked in circles, danced about but nothing. Thought what are we going to do?! lol neighbours must have thought we were mad when at 8pm he couldn't hold on and finally peed to our cheers : After he'd done it once he was fine but i did have images of me having to phone a vet for advice ;D
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Thank you everyone! That is really reassuring. It's just like having kids,isn't it? You fret over everything and worry that you're going to ruin them for life. I'll let you know how the holiday goes. I have a feeling she's going to make her presence felt!
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Hi Veela, welcome to the forum. We live in Fife, about 35 min drive from St Andrews. Hope your holiday goes well! jac and Lilly
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden from a teeny tiny black 5 1/2 year old Lab known as The DivaDog and her pet human
Re: Puppy will only toilet in the garden Well we are very pleased with our Labrador Daisy pup at 3 months,she goes to toilet in garden,anywhere. Now what impressed us the other night( we leave back door open for her to do her business)our daughter had closed the conservatory door,bless her she stood at door & barked for it to be opened so she could have a wee. We were at my eldest daughters house the other day, Daisy was playing with grandchildren ,off she went out of the back door to wee & poo in garden. In a friends house she was asleep under the chair,she suddenly awoke,made her way up the hall to kitchen stood at back door barked for it to be opened so she could have a wee. She a wonderful little dog,so good. With help & tips from this site its made toilet training easy....Thankyou
