How old was your puppy when it was house trained?

My dog is 13 weeks now. She has improved but still a struggle. I just want to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Ashima is just over 5 months. She was quite good from 12 weeks on, but still has the occasional accident. I’ve realized it’s because I’m working on my timeline and not hers.

I’ve gone back to watching more carefully and taking her out more often based on water consumption. They are peeing machines but it totally gets better. Hang in. People kept (and continue to) remind me that she is just a baby. And so is yours. ❤️

 

This is a "how long is a piece of string?" question Xena had good bladder control by 13 weeks (only 2 accidents between 13 weeks and 5 months, once at 13 weeks and once at 5 months) but that's only because I was taking her out very regularly and giving her every opportunity to succeed. I would never say that she was "trained" by 13 weeks, but she had pretty good control and knew not to go indoors because I never let her get "full" enough to have to go indoors. You'll probably start noticing a massive improvement in his bladder control now, but don't push it - keep offering him the option of going outside every hour or so.

 

I think you've just got to bear in mind that, as is so often said, all puppies are different and progress at different rates, so going by age alone sin't always helpful. I know it seems like an eternity but provided she is well and doesn't have an infection if you keep on taking her out frequently she will get there.

 

The average for my pups is about five months. By seven months I can trust them completely.

The widdle widdle widdle stage is over by about 16 weeks, you’ll be glad to hear


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My boy came housetrained at 8 weeks. If he needed to go, he went to the door to be let out or woke me in the night (he wasn’t crated, slept next to my side of the bed on his bed). He was raised in a family house and all the puppies would follow their mom into the garden to wee and poo. It was really easy for us. I know this is not helpful for others who are struggling! But I think it does say a lot about how the breeder raises the pups from the beginning.

 

Shadow came to me at 14 weeks, already housetrained (amazing, really, as he hadn't lived in a home environment). Willow took longer, but was certainly trustworthy around 6 months or so.

I seem to have blocked out what happened with Luna. I know it was extortionately long, but I couldn't say how long exactly. She was a nightmare to toilet train as she had no qualms about weeing or pooing and then laying down in it. Despite being in a large puppy pen with plenty of space to get away from it, that was just what she did. Monster puppy

I know that at just gone 6 months, I was still not confident that she wouldn't go inside, but that's when we moved to our summer house and the door is constantly open there, so she could go out whenever she needed (not a good plan with young puppies, but it's fine later on). However, even up to and well past a year of age she would still often need to go out to toilet at around 4am, regardless of the time of last feeding and last walk. Thank heavens she's past that now!

 

Benson was housetrained at 11 weeks, he only had the very rare accident after that. Bramble...blimey! It just went on..and on...probably changed from vet bed to a rug in the front room at about 7 months...

 

I think Stanley was pretty much ok at 14 weeks or so. By 16 weeks he was reliable and I didn’t have to worry - I only remember as this was about he age he went to daycare and they said he was completely fine.

The only time he’s had an “accident” since then was when I bought a new rug and he pee’d on it. I say accident because he definitely did it on purpose to mark it - Little devil.

We’ve been lucky that since he’s been toilet trained we’ve never had an accident in the house at all. He’s never had a bad tummy or anything THANKFULLY! But I’ve probably jinxed it now haven’t I?

 

My late boy Sam was practically reliable within a week , bloomin marvellous , whereas my last girl Lab Tess was about four months old before she was able ( or inclined ! ) to hold on ! xx

 

My puppies both knew when I got them ( 7 and 8 weeks) not to soil their own sleeping, living, eating area. The control to do that was not complete till around 5 months and there was the occasional accident at one year old. The breeder you pick can really influence this.

 

Jen was reliable at 12 weeks and any accident really was my fault -OH was working away alot at the time and frequently phoned just after puppy dinner. Different time and very poor mobile signal had me trapped on a landline Only wee incident was at 8 months a few hours after she had been sedated for x-rays on her elbows. Poor little girl was not at all good with the sedation

 

At 10 weeks he made significant improvements and only had accidents a couple times a week. I would say totally house trained at 12 weeks.

 

Ours was 10 wks old, and again down to how the breeder prepared the pups grom a young age.

My puppy is also not crate trained and for the first few weeks woke us to let him out. He started holding it overnight at about 12 weeks. He's 15 weeks now, we take him out at about 11pm (wake him and make him go out) and he waits until someone gets up in the morning, which is between 6-7am. Most mornings he holds his first pee in until after his breakfast, too.

One thing I found helped was taking him out loads in the day. Not just when he needed to go. And encouraging lots of water and lots of daytime pees. I just figured it is like with human children - the body needs to drink and expell enough during the day that the hormones develop to tell them to hold it at night. But if you only go say 3x in a day then the kidneys have to continue overnight. Nit sure if it is the same for dogs, but that was my premise!

 

I think the time taken is heavily affected by how the early weeks are handled.

We were lucky enough to plan that he wasn't alone for the first 5 weeks.

He arrived here at 7 weeks. Was taken out every 20-40 minutes during the day and every 2-3 hours at night. Yes it was tiring and we didn't sleep much.

He arrived on the evening of 27 April and his last wee inside on the floor was 30 April at 6:30 am. I know this because i just checked the poo diary. We kept it going and are now on envelope 97.

After that we continued taking him out regularly, day and night, for the next 5 weeks.

This is what worked for us.

 

My Diggy is 18 weeks (so 4 1/2 months) and we are nowhere close to trusting him. He still has accidents more days than not. My 5 year old was more reliable by this point, but was still having the occasional accident up until 6-7 months.

Diggy did have a bladder infection, which made things quite a bit harder. We've just begun to see improvement over the last few weeks. Might be work having your pup checked just to rule that out??

 

Yes, you can be super vigilant and keep all wees and poos outdoors. But it’s really all about bladder maturity.

Having a pup every year means I’m not super vigilant, but they are all well house trained and spend on command, in the right place, by the time they are six or seven months old, so I don’t worry about the occasional accident at all.

Puppy pads are great for wiping up puddles.

 

I don’t think it is just down to how the breeder was with them as Harley was not in the house and she was toilet trained within less than 2 weeks. By 12 weeks old she was 100% reliable. Every dog is different.

 

I agree with Mags and Naya. I had two puppies from the same litter who were different. My latest had the same attention from me as the first two and was a lot slower to mature. It’s not a failure of the upbringing or your training if your puppy takes longer, and it’s not anything to crow about if your puppy works it out faster. It’s not you. It’s just how fast or slow your puppy grows. Sometimes you draw the short straw, sometimes you win. Either way, it really doesn’t last all that long in the grand scheme of things.

 

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Exactly.