hi we have a gorgeous 10 week Labrador but made the mistake not to restrict him in terms of space in the house. As a consequence his potty training is not going so well. We make him go outside after food, play, eat and sleep but he seems to have preferred a place in the house. Is it too late to start the crate training again
No. Most folks do crate training a lot longer than 10 weeks. That said he should not be in a crate all the time. When our pups were young, we only let them out of the pen when they were supervised. IIRC we started letting them have mostly free run at 16 or 20 weeks, and potty training was very good by then, and they had a dog door to the back yard. The big problem was in-appropriate chewing. You also need to clean the "Preferred Spot" with an enzyme cleaner. Don't use ammonia based products, since they smell like urine to a dog.
My word, my puppy was a fricking nightmare to toilet train. If I had ruined it by 10 weeks, that would have been it. A lifetime of weeing inside. Don't panic, take a deep breath. Toilet training is boring - really, really boring - but your puppy will work it out in the end. You just may need to take out shares in your local brand of kitchen roll and enzymatic cleaner. And some yogic breathing helps no end. Whenever I think "is it too late to...", I alway think of people who adopt rescue dogs who may (like my parents' dog) have been chained up outside their whole lives, never having been in a house, on a walk, or anything "normal" dogs do. It's not too late for them to learn to be clean in the house, to meet other dogs, to go on a walk either on or off lead. So, no, it's not too late for you and your little puppy Good luck!
One thing that I *think* helped us: To begin with, Nelson was peeing allover inside. However over a period of a few days we moved his sleeping nest between different locations in the house. He slept about 8 times a day, so there was plenty of opportunity. I can't be 100% sure, but I think that helped him realise that the whole house is his sleeping area, and he didn't want to mess anywhere inside. He's only been with us 10 days now and he seems to have got the hang of peeing outside now.
