Puppy has been home for 5 days (he's 11 weeks old) and potty training isn't going at all well. He refuses to wee or poop outside (I think he's managed both twice). Admittedly the weather hasn't been great but I've tried a pee post, I've tried different surfaces as a designated area and also just letting him choose, but nothing. He sometimes makes signs that suggest he needs to go (sometimes this can be immediately after waking/eating/drinking/playing and other times no poop until 90 mins after dinner so very inconsistent), other times I take him out because he must need to but we can be out there up to 45mins but nothing until he sets for back inside. Inside the house he shreds puppy pads and gets quite distressed if I contain him in the utility room until he goes. Instead he prefers to go in random locations around the open plan living space. Can anyone help with some advice please, I'm out of ideas to get him into a more regular pattern and outside!
It will be very confusing for him if you are using puppy pads inside the house. Either you want him to toilet inside, or you want him to toilet outside. You really do need to stay outside with him until he goes, even if it takes an hour or more. It's the only way you can be clear about what is required.
Our 12 week yellow lab puppy will "go potty" outside, but he also goes inside every day. What should we do/expect? They say that you should not get upset or make a big deal of the incident, just to clean it up. What do you think?
Yes, ignore and praise when outside, treat as well. They will get there with consistency, your pup is young yet.
He's probably still settling in to a new environment also. I was lucky enough to be home all the time when my girl was little, so I became a bit of a helicopter mum so far as toileting was concerned. If she even looked sideways, we'd go outside. I never used puppy pads so she wasn't encouraged to toilet inside. She obviously didn't go every time we went outside, but every time she did what was expected I said ''Toilet. Good girl!!" a couple of times, made a fuss of her and gave a treat. Got to the stage where she would go on command. From memory she only soiled inside about three times when I got distracted and didn't read the ''signs''. We have a pet door, so she very quickly learnt to take herself outside when she needed to toilet. She was accident proof in around two to three weeks of this training (around 12 or 13 weeks old).
