fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2147 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2147 ⌋

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specific question.

trying to housebreak a puppy. we are still young enough (and tiny enough) that we need to go outside about every hour. we are still having accidents in the house but we are trying very hard to stay on top of when things get 'quiet' and go searching in the hopes we are not squatting in the floor.

the puppy has started to let us know she needs to go to the bathroom but even so, sometimes we people drop the ball and don't get her outside in time.

my question, since this behavior of letting us know is still rather new, are we really screwing her up by not reacting in time and still having accidents in the floor?

when we go out, we always try to reward with praise and treats and that's been consistent. now we're at the next phase of training and that's getting us to acknowledge in time she needs to go and getting her outside so she can.

need head pats, or reassurance or any advice you have to give about this.

thanks, fs!

You need to try and be consistent and on top of things. Definitely keep an eye on body language and her signals. If she looks like she's close to going pick her up and bring her outside. And whenever she does go to the bathroom outside not only praise her but use a specific word (I used "go pee" or "pee" with my dogs). They'll associate the word so that later down the road in training you can say stuff like "do you need to go out and go pee?" or take them out and tell them "go pee" instead of waiting around for them to signal. This is big if you don't have a yard. When I had my dog and didn't have a yard we'd take a walk before bed and I'd tell her to "go pee", instead of me waiting for her to signal or maybe being woken up in the middle of the night or something.

If your dog messes in the house do not scold her harshly. Praise praise praise for good is way more important than scolding for bad. To specifically answer your question, no I don't think you're screwing her up by not reacting in time. But even if you're late still take her outside so that she associates pee time + outdoors.

You didn't specify how old but for the first few months it's mostly going to be you noticing that the dog has to go out and creating the routine for them. There's not much to do about it. Very small dogs have a smaller bladder and less recognition about when they need to go. Time and patience.

Have fun! What kind of pup is it?

yorkiepoo

and she's about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I squee every time I look at her.

so full of personality.

thanks for the advice for the verbal cue as well. this is my first puppy and first housebreaking attempt so...it's been as much training for me as for her.

This has nothing to do with housebreaking, but an additional note of advice: please, please make sure to socialize your puppy with other dogs. We never did that with our puppy, and as a result he's absolutely terrible when another dog so much as walks along the edge of our property.

well, I'm out in the country so it'll take about half an hour into town one way to do that but I'll look into humane society stuff and see if there's anything local or maybe just neighbors who have dogs that we can go visit regularly.

but I agree, socialization is pretty important. I have an (now elderly) adult dog that never got much socialization (since I got her as an adult) and she is pretty cantankerous in her old age and doesn't play/tolerate others well.

It might be easier for now to just take the puppy out every hour or so, until there are no more accidents inside. And yes - 'go pee' is an awesome thing to say, because our dog will 'go pee' when we tell her to, even when she's in the throes of hysterical 'omg you're hoooome!!' greetings.

We also say to 'go do your work' to get her to *focus* and poop. She's very invested in sniffing out every mole track in the yard.

All the treats and praise are perfect, and you probably know this but don't ever yell or get mad at her for having an accident. Probably also take her outside even if she *did* have an accident, just to reinforce the 'go outside' thing.

Good luck!

thanks for the advice. we have hit on the fact that it's an 'outside every hour' kind of thing for her wee!tiny bladder. it's just been recently that she's gotten to the point that she lets us know she needs to go and we just hit on that's what she's doing.

I wasn't sure about the take outside after accident and if she would put it together in her brain but it's worth a shot.

why oh why couldn't we get a puppy in the summer instead of the fall/winter? brrrrrrrrr

same op anon

as a follow up question, if people are still reading.

the puppy is 5 months old. is there a general 'time' it's considered that a puppy should be mostly housebroken? 9 months? 12 months? just so I have some gauge of how we're both doing.

thanks.

This is going to differ from dog to dog and depend on how much time and energy you put into training them. In my experience, bigger dogs generally learn faster and small dogs can be a pain to housebreak at all. All our medium sized dogs understand they need to go outside to pee, even the one with a nervous bladder, but not one of our pugs have figured it out at all, some of which are over 10.

I'd say around 8 months for a big dog, a year for medium sized, and maybe a little longer than that for a small/tiny dog. Like you said, it could be because their bladders are a lot smaller too. They need to go out more and will bee more likely to have accidents.

But it really depends on the dog and the training. You sound like you're working really hard though, so don't worry so much about time.

I'd say by 6 or 7 months for medium and large dogs, minus the occasional long overnight accidents. But some small dogs never learn and it generally takes them a lot longer. I got my dog when she was around 4 months old and by 5 months she was totally housebroken. Of course when I got her she had never been in a house before and already has the natural inclination to want to go outside, so I may have gotten lucky there.

Loads of dark chocolate. Maybe a side helping of paracetamol.

Dude, ain't chocolate poisonous for dogs?

It is. And paracetamol too. I... fear this IS the point. Urgh.

Not cool dude, not cool. :-/

seriously not cool.

not terribly funny if it's a joke, either.

[ SECRET POST #2147 ]

can I get puppy housebreaking help?

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