We bought our gorgeous 10 week old puppy home on Sunday! In some ways she has amazed us - on day 2 had just 2 'accidents' in the house, and after about 5-10 minutes of crying she is happy in her crate between 10.45pm and 5.30am every night (without accidents). Today (day 3 - so very early days!) has been more of a struggle! Despite me taking her out into the garden after every sleep, and every meal she has had about 6 pee accidents inside the house. I am using the enzyme cleaner so she is not sticking to one spot! She doesn't have the run of the house, and is only allowed in 2 downstairs rooms (with easy to clean laminate floors!). I just wonder if I am missing anything? I am praising the pees in the garden like mad, and saying a firm no and cleaning up inside accidents immediately. I am pretty much by her side the entire day, and have caught her mid pee a few times today, and transferred her to the garden, but not sure she 'gets it". She is supposed to be going to work with my husband in 3 weeks time (when she'll be 13 weeks old), on the 3 days a week that I work, so I am feeling the pressure to get on top of this! Maybe this is completely normal, in which case I will happily carry on doing what I'm doing until she grasps it. She will be 11 weeks on Wednesday. Thank you in advance!
Re: House Training! Very very normal indeed .In fact to say that you only brought her home on Sunday , I think she is doing amazingly well You are doing all the right things , but one thing I would change is that I would not tell her NO, if she wees indoors , she is only a baby and will have little control of her bladder as yet , just clean it up and keep doing all the other things you`re doing . They all differ so much , some grasp house training very quickly, others like my last Lab take an age , she is doing well
Re: House Training! Yes - it's very normal, they have very small bladders at that age and need to empty them often. They also mature at different rates. Gypsy (6 months) is still needing to wee every couple of hours.
Re: House Training! Thank you both! I have potty trained 3 boys and it feels like a similar process! I will carry on, and I have taken your comments, for which I am very grateful, on board. I will be back often with updates!
Re: House Training! I agree not to tell her off at all - she will just do it out of your sight if you do Gypsy was about 20 weeks before she was reliable, Tatze was much quicker.
Re: House Training! Definitely normal puppy behaviour . Between 8-12 weeks we had to take Inca out every 30 minutes otherwise there were accidents. Even then sometimes it wasn't enough. Some days were worse than others and I got paranoid that she had a UTI but it was just a case of having a tiny bladder. It does get better even if it feels like one step forward, one step back at times. Just keep clearing it up calmly and quietly and focussing on praise for going outside.
Re: House Training! Completely normal, and I agree with the others who have said not to tell her NO or punish her in any way. You don't want any kind of bad association with going potty. My Bella is 14 weeks, and is pretty reliable in the house now...and any mistakes she makes are clearly MY fault, as I just have not paid close enough attention to her signals. It took a bit of time to figure out how she was alerting...and at first it was realizing AFTER she had the accident that she had in fact been telling me it was time...I just didn't understand it at the time. We've learned better now. We have a bell on the door at home, and she spends time in a kennel at work with my hubby...different cues in different situations...but bottom line is to pay attention to HER and she'll tell us when she has to go. : enjoy this time with her...they grow SOOOO fast!
Re: House Training! Sounds like she is doing really well all round Keep up with taking her out at regular intervals and she will learn quickly
Re: House Training! We would take Rue out every 15-20 minutes at that age, which kept accidents to a minimum. It was absolutely exhausting but helped her to get the hang of it pretty quickly.
Re: House Training! Wow she is doing really well. When I would take Rolo out every 2 minutes it seemed (slight exageration I know) and I was expecting him to go wee i would say that too him "Go wee wee Rolo, Good boy Rolo you did Wee Wee". Now if we are going in the car or I'm going out and need him to wee beforehand I can take him outside and say go wee wee and he will 9 times out of 10. Also if you catch her mid accident or just after still tske her outside, she's unlikely to do anything cos she's empty but it is letting her know what is expected. Carry on with the huge praise each time. Sounds like you are doing great so carry on as you are. It does all slot into place eventually. Kris
Re: House Training! UPDATE Thank you for all of your very helpful replies, I am thrilled to say that our adorable puppy is housetrained! Her last 'accident' was at 13 weeks. To those with new puppies who are amazed at their puppy's ability to pee every 2 minutes, despite regular trips outdoors, it will just 'click', so don't despair! The help on this site was invaluable, without it we would still have an un-housetrained puppy I'm convinced. Now to tackle chewing everything, pulling on the lead and eating poo! We'll get there....
Re: House Training! Glad it's all going well! It's amazing how quickly they learn. Hopefully lots more useful info on the forum to help you in all the other areas
Re: House Training! Great news! Sometimes in the early days you think they will never get the hang of things, but you are right - you will get there
