Our new 9 week old chocolate lab is doing great in our home. We’ve had her for two weeks and felt like potty training was progressing quickly, but for the last week she seems to have changed and I’m wondering if it’s normal. We will take her outside and she’ll squat to pee at least once, sometimes twice. Then we go inside and within a few minutes she’ll pee on the pee pad in her play pen. So we take her back out and she’ll squat, only to come back inside and use the pad again. We happened to also have her first vet appointment right after this had started. He said it sounded like it was most likely just a potty training thing as she isn’t straining when she squats and we’re not seeing any blood in the pee pad urine. She does well at night and I only have to take her out a couple times and she doesn’t use the pad at night at all. She has never pooped inside which I think is great!! So is this a normal potty training woe and if so what should I do differently?
Hi @LKRG if you are not doing so, positively reward her when she urinates in the garden. Mark the behaviour with Yes and treat with a high-value reward. At this stage mark and treat each and everytime she urinates in the garden. In time, put the behaviour on a cue. I use wee wee with my dogs, but any word will do as long as you're consistent.
I wouldn't have a pee pad in her pen when you are home and available to take her outside (or even better, don't use pee pads at all). It will give her mixed messages about where the right place to pee is. Dogs are creatures of habit and where they toilet, is where they are then more likely to toilet in future. To her, the pee pad is equally as desirable and practiced a place as outdoors - why should she not use it if she wants to have a pee? So - remove the pee pad, supervise closely, take her out frequently and make sure you are giving her a treat when she goes outside (immediately afterwards) and not when it happens indoors, so she learns to save up her pees and get them outside where they earn treats - rather than indoors...
Yes, she definitely gets rewarded for going in the grass. With no pee pad she just pees in the same spot on the floor (hardwood) and then walks through it and tracks it around which I did clean with an enzymatic cleaner, but that’s why the pee pads are being used. When she squats multiple times outside, the first one is a decent pee. The rest are just a few drips. When the vet asked if she was straining when she goes and I said no, but I guess I don’t know what straining to pee would look like for a puppy. Is the squatting and only having drips come out straining? I imagined it was more of a painful looking thing with maybe a whimper or something. Thanks for the replies!
Hi @LKRG , well done on the toilet training. Might I suggest you start adding a cue when she is urinating so that you can have another cued behaviour. I had to send my Lab when she was a puppy to a vet who did not have any area where she could go off lead. Unfortunately the puppy would not urinate when on lead. When I got her back I made sure i could get urination as a cued behaviour in case the situation arose at another place. I honestly don't know what straining looks like in a dog. I don't think you'd hear a whimper. Evolution selects against animals that whimper even when in pain. Perhaps ask the vet next time and let us know.
Ah yes, this is what happens if you use pee pads. We don't always teach dogs what we want to teach them. We think we are teaching 'pee on the pad' but they learn 'pee in this location' (even when no pad is there). Pee pads are bad evil things and should be chucked out wherever possible - which means whenever there is a person available to frequently take a puppy outdoors. They should only be used when someone has to work or must leave the puppy longer than they can be expected to hold on, crated. Personally, I don't use them at all - they create far more problems than they solve... Is it possible either to move the pen to a new location so you can get away from the pup having learned to toilet in this spot? OR to place something on that spot in the pen - maybe the crate itself, or the water and food dish? (Pups usually don't want to toilet near their food and water.) Once you've prevented this behaviour, then also up the trips outside and try not to use the pee pads unless absolutely necessary. No, it need not be painful at all. The most typical sign of a UTI in a puppy, is just going very frequently but only doing a tiny amount each time. Sometimes just a spot of wee, then walking a few paces and another spot of wee, and another few paces and the same... There is not always blood in it. If you are getting less frequent bigger pees, then I don't think you have a UTI.
Yes, and while I have been leaving one down all the time she only uses them when I’m not there to take her out or when she does this peeing outside and then coming in and peeing thing. For example, when she gets up in the morning we go out for potty and when we come back in she gets a drink of water which starts the 15 minute timer for taking her outside to go potty again. She drinks each time we come in so I’m living in 15 minute increments when she’s awake. Mama needs a shower!! Haha. So I get myself ready in the morning as fast as I can, but by the time I get back she has peed on the pad. That’s definitely possible. I can re-arrange her pen area to make the current pee pad spot covered. Good idea. I know what you’re saying is right, I’m just really struggling with going without the pee pad. I must be strong and take the leap of faith and try it!!! Well, like I said, she will squat more than once and the first is a normal size pee and then any additional are just a few drips. She’ll walk a little way and drip, drip, drip. But just a couple times. And actually, only during the day when we stay out a little longer. At night she knows we go out, she pees, we go back in to bed. No playing. I’ll keep an eye on it. Thanks so much!
Drinking quite a bit every 15minutes does sound potentially excessive, so you might want to keep an eye on that and if you do see a vet about this, mention that to her/him. If you know there is a time that you are missing the toilet trip - ie - when you get ready in the morning and return to find pee - then that's a good sign that the pup can't be left free-range unsupervised at that time, or it will keep happening. So you might want to crate again whilst you get ready and until you can supervise - and of course take pup out to toilet when you release from the crate. Right, exactly. The risk if you move the pen or cover the pee spot in that pen, and continue with the pads, is you will just develop the exact same problem again in a new location. The 'best practice' way to raise a pup is not to use any pee pads at all, to take the pup out very frequently to the same spot without waiting for them to ask, to wait out there with patience until they go, reinforce that, and then allow them some free range indoors until the next trip outside... The only time I think pads are perhaps justified is when people are leaving the pup home for hours because they work for eg, and they don't want to leave the pup crated all that time/the pup couldn't hold on all that time - so leaving the pup in the pen with pads available, then becomes the next best thing. BUT when these people are home, they should remove the pads and apply 'best practice' and do just what the people who are home all day with the pup, would do. So - at night and when you are home, remove the pads and know that the toilet place is outdoors, not inside. If you go out for a few hours, you might want to put pads down - but try first to tire the pup and to ensure the pup is empty, to reduce the risk they will need to use them. Good luck! I know toilet training seems like this never-ending thing but when your dog is a few months older it will all seem like a distant memory and you will forget entirely the nightmare of it, by the time your dog is grown!
