Quote:
Originally Posted by beck3465  I really like using a leash with puppies. It makes it easier to bring them to a certain spot in the yard to potty and when they are done we go back in the house right away. Makes it go faster and they associate leash and that spot with potty. When allowed to run free they lose focus and run and play and explore. Sometimes they pee so fast you don't realize it. Also if you travel it is so much easier if they have learned to go on a leash. Little puppies can be prey for birds like hawks and owls, so a leash is for safety also. Frequency varies by dog and age but at least every two hours at first. I do NOT wake up sleeping puppies to potty, but as soon as they wake up out we go. It's like having a newborn baby.....sleep deprivation for a while. My female Husky didn't sleep through the night for a YEAR!!! At least I am retired so could nap in the day some. Best of luck. |
could not agree more, Lola is my fifth yorkie and the only one 100% house broken and the first one I started taking out to poppy via the leash. LOL in the bad weather I hide inside and she goes out on the retractable leash. But I know not everyones home is set up to make that possible. Not only do we use a leash to potty, but I also have a ribbon on my front door with a bunch of jingle bells attached to it, she rings this when she has to go potty. I started ringing it at first before we went out and would say Lola go potty, Lola go potty. then would touch her paw to it each time and then after about two weeks she finally did it herself. And boy can she ring it with vengeance if I take to long to get there. My house is three levels so now that she has free run I don't always see her at the door, so having a bell rung is better than trying to catch her prancing around the door, and I do not want to encourage barking, so for me this works best. Also on the plus side when I travel to visit family I bring a set of bells and after she sees where they are the first time she always returns to that door to go potty.
She also knows the difference between go pee and go poop, in the morning she will often just pee then several hours want to go poop, but since we are out there I want her to go pee again so I don't have to take her out a short while later, so I keep walking her around and say go peep, go peep and finally she will. I tell my husband to do this, which of course he will not, he will take her out to poop in a min they are back in, I say what about pee, he said she did not need to she wanted to come back in, so 5 min. later she rings the bell to go out again, I say see you did not tell her to go
Dog are funny they will go out side when they need to potty and often not do it, so telling them to firmly sometimes does help. Also when she was a puppy I would often have her tethered to me when in the house, so I could keep and eye on her. I just kept putting her out about every hour and then just kept increasing the time in between.
Many of my friends just use the pee pads and I can understand when left alone all day that is a good idea but I think it is still a better choice to at least have a dog understand that when the owner is home they go out to potty, I say this because bringing a dog to someone elses home that is not trained to go outside is challenging, so often my yorkie friends that visit have to have their dogs in diapers and bring pee pads, I find while at home the dog will use their pad, but often in a new place will not.
There is light at the end of this tunnel, yesterday Lola went out around 8 am and did not need to go out again till a little past 3 pm when I made her go, she probably could have lasted longer. Anyway sorry for such a long winded response it's but I am so happy with how well she is housebroken I like to share my ideas with those currently facing the challenge.