Ok, so I don't know if this should be under behaviour or training but.... You know that moment when you suddenly realise that a behaviour/routine that you have allowed and even encouraged is actually quite inconvenient? Well that's me right now. When we toilet trained Ella we left our laundry door open a little and, after the usual training in the early weeks, she learnt to just take herself outside when she needed to. We even did this overnight (and still do on occasions as it allows for a bit of a sleep in) as she sleeps in the laundry. Perfect right? However, over the last week or so the weather has improved here (Melbourne, Australia). We've noticed that we've needed to close the fly screen as the mozzies have appeared and in the last couple of days we've had to shut the door as we've needed the air-conditioning. On two occasions Ella has had an accident inside as she can't just take herself outside anymore. What do we do now? Is there a way to train her to let us know that she needs to go out? Do we need to go back a step and start taking her out regularly again? What does everyone else do? Thanks ☺
Hi Emily, you can buy toilet training bells although I've never used them, you could give those a try. I was wondering how old Ella is Mabel's 10 months now and we had to change from using the utility door because the step down was too high after her surgery to the conservatory door. All I did was keep an eye on her and if I thought she needed to go outside I went with her. The funny thing is I noticed the other day she gave a massive bark because the dining room door was closed as she needed to go outside. Poor girl she has to go through the dining room then through the conservatory to get outside. She doesn't even attempt to use the utility door anymore. It didn't take long to train just a couple of days. Hope that helps a little. Good luck Claire
Thanks Claire, she's six months now ☺. So it sounds as though we'll just have to be a bit more vigilant this week and hopefully we can get settled into a new routine
Ah, yes, this is a common problem with just letting the puppy get on with it. As you've found, she's not actually toilet trained. You need to go back to the very beginning, taking her out regularly, praising her (a lot - count out treats and give her several, one after the other) for going outside. You need to keep an eye on her, watching her for any sign of her needing to go and letting her out when she does. Just like you would do with a young puppy. Of course, it's more difficult now, because she won't actually need to go as often as when she was very little. It may take a long time to fix this, sadly, but with persistence, vigilance and a lot of treats, you'll get there!
Thanks Fiona, unfortunately that's what I suspected. It is a little strange though as she goes from 9.30pm to about 7am most nights without an issue and actually wakes us in the morning to go out to the toilet. Stupidly I just assumed this meant that she'd let us know when she needed go during the day too. Oh well, we live and we learn
Sorry snowbunny, one more question ☺. Obviously your two pups are toilet trained but I'm assuming that you don't leave a door open during the day. Do your two let you know when they need to go outside or do you just let them out periodically? Sorry, still so new to all of this ☺
I don't know about others but with Juno we just lengthened the time between going out for a wee until we reached the point that it's before breakfast then somewhere between 12:00 and 13:00 when have a walk or training in the garden. Next wee is our afternoon walk, after dinner (19:30ish) and bedtime (23:00). If she needs to go out when we're sitting in the living room she walks out of the room and stands by the front door and then comes and pokes her head around the living room door and waits to get our attention
The door is sometimes open if it's hot out, but only periodically. Willow goes and stands by the door when she needs to go, and if we don't get there soon enough, she will scratch at it. Shadow doesn't do this, but just goes out when Willow does - we didn't get him until he was 14 weeks and, strangely, he came toilet trained. Strange because he lived in a kennel rather than a house, so was never taught. Because mine are so much older now, they don't actually need to go out very often, so generally just wait until it's walk time. You'll get there, don't worry
We do hear of this a lot - with an open door, the puppy can learn "I go this way, then I have a wee" not "I wee outside and not inside". When faced with a closed door, they still have a wee. Charlie will only let me know if he needs to go out if it's an emergency, in which case he'll stand at the back door and if I don't notice, he'll trot between wherever I am and the back door. Otherwise, he just waits for his walks, or I take him out to the garden. I still go out with him even though he's 2.5.... - mainly because he wreaks the water irrigation system if I don't watch him!
When Charlie came to live with us as a 9 month old rescue he couldn't let us know when he needed to go outside, so I put bells on the inside and outside of the door and taught him to ring them, he is 4 1/2 years old now and he still rings his bells!! You could put bells on all your outside doors. xx
Thankfully it doesn't seem as bad as we initially thought! After careful observation today we noticed that Ella does walk to the back door during the day and if we let her out she goes to the toilet. Not every time (sometimes she just seems to want a bit of outside time) but that's a start! I think we've just become really lazy and stopped watching what she was actually doing. Definitely still work in progress but I'm feeling better about it than I did yesterday ☺☺
My little Twiglet has bells by the door and she rang them in the beginning, but recently has stopped and just sits by the door. I get her to ring them before she goes out but she no longer does it herself. She's 19 weeks old now.
What a lovely photo Fred just goes to the back door and waits until we let him out. If he really needs to go and can't wait, he will come up to one of us and touch us with his nose and then goes back to the door.
