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07-12-2009, 04:45 AM | #1 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bavaria, Germany
Posts: 56
| Potty training expectations? Can anyone give me a rough estimate of what you can expect, potty training-wise, at what age? (ie, what can you reasonably expect of a two month old pup and then when you can start expecting more, etc.?) Brody is two months old and we're pee pad training him. We've got his crate (with his bed, food, and water) inside an x-pen lined with papers and a pee pad. I keep a potty log and know roughly when he's going to have to go. I crate him for a short time (maybe an hour or so) then let him out into the pen to see if he has to go. If he goes, he gets to come out and play for a while. Then we repeat the process. (Since he does not pee as often as every hour, though, sometimes I will just hold him for a bit of loving time so he's out of the crate and just not let his feet touch the floor until he's back in the pen.) At night we leave his crate door open so he can use the pen. Ideally we'd like to have him exclusively using the pee pads. (Or we're considering the Rascal with the indoor grass.) Right now he seems to just go wherever he pleases, so the success has been mostly in keeping him in his pen until he goes and I know he's empty and *then* letting him out to play for a while. But he's also holding it in the late morning until we take him outside to play and going both #1 and #2 in my yard. I would prefer for him to a) not be confused as to where to go (we'd like him trained to the pads) and b) not to ruin my lawn. Also, I've read that small puppies can pee up to 70 times a day (was this an exaggeration??) and after every activity (eating, napping, playing, etc.) but this is not so for Brody. He poops twice per day, almost like clockwork (once before we wake up, in his pen and the second time in the early afternoon/late morning when we go outside to play) and pees maybe five or six times a day. He has access to his food and water all day. Long story short, it seems like right now my goal is just to make sure he is in his pen when he has to go so he has a likely chance of using the pee pad and if not at least he went on the paper. We've been doing this for about three days now and he seems to be doing really well with peeing (getting better about using the pad vs. paper and only one accident on the floor) but it seems like he's holding his second poop of the day for when we go outside to the grass or today he went in the kitchen as we were getting ready to go outside. Should I just wait him out, no matter how long it takes, so he poops *before* we go out? Or should we get the Rascal litter box with the fake grass for him? At two months old is he just too young to start really learning the concepts? I honestly just don't want to expect too much from him and would like to make as few 'mistakes' along the way as possible - meaning I don't want to confuse him. |
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07-12-2009, 08:29 AM | #2 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bavaria, Germany
Posts: 56
| GAH!! He's 12 weeks old...I meant to say three months, not TWO!! Sorry!! |
07-15-2009, 02:17 AM | #3 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bavaria, Germany
Posts: 56
| Wow - lots of views but no one can tell me at what stage their puppies were (in potty training) at what age? Anyway, I've gotten great suggestions on here and in other reading. We've been doing crate training for the past four days, and when I let him out of the crate he's in his pen with potty pads down. I wait until he potties, saying "Go potty" before and during and if he goes he gets lots of praise and a piece of cheese and gets to come out and play with us (in the house or outside, supervised). Then its back in the crate for some down time and I repeat the process. If he does not go potty after a few minutes he goes back in the crate for a bit and then we try again. It took him two days but he gets it now and will almost always immediately potty when he comes out of his crate. He has no choice but to use the pads right now, as they are in the whole pen, and I'll keep that up for a while. I don't think he's quite gotten the difference of pad vs. floor yet. He's gone two days without accidents in the house, but mostly because I make sure he's 'empty' before he plays and I keep a hawk's eye on him. If he sniffs and circles he goes right back in the pen to potty and then back in his crate. However, today I took him upstairs for a minute with us and he ran into the bathroom and started to pee on the tile floor. He had just pee'd on his pad about five minutes before, which was why he was out with us. I caught him and told him no, put him back in his pen and then in his crate. But a few days ago he had a pee accident in the same bathroom and I have not gotten my natures miracle yet. I'll try to clean in there with some vinegar, which I read kills the scent, and I'll keep him downstairs for the time being. At this point I am not expecting him to fully understand the training process. He has definitely picked up pottying right when he leaves the crate, knowing he'll get his cheese and come out to play. But I do not think he has any clue as to where is an acceptable area to potty and where isn't. I will continue to watch him and keep him on a strict schedule to keep aiming for accident free days, and see how things go. We ordered a Rascal indoor potty for him since he also very naturally took to pottying outside on the grass and because it is a more 'defined' potty place for long term than just having a pee pee pad on the floor. Hopefully he will take to it. It shouldn't be here for a few weeks anyway. |
07-17-2009, 07:36 AM | #4 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Jersey City, NJ, USA
Posts: 35
| We have a pad outside of the pen as well so I don't have to worry about putting him back in on a regular schedule. I think you may be putting too much pressure on yourself trying to time everything perfectly. He has an accident every once in a while (he is 12 weeks today) but yesterday it was spiteful b/c I wasn't giving him enough attention after I was gone for a while- so that was totally my fault. But after a little playing he was back to finding his pads. We noticed that he tended to end up pooping outside of the pen in the same spot so we put the pad there and now he never misses. I think it's just about watching them and figuring out their behaviors and going with their flow a little at first and then getting them to conform what we want. Hope this helps a little. |
07-17-2009, 08:35 AM | #5 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: milpitas, ca
Posts: 16
| I got Max when he was 12 weeks old and it took a long time to potty train him. (2 months to really understand the pee pad, 3 months to learn to pee outside) Everytime i catch him peeing in the wrong area i brought him back to the pee pad. During the training phase, I thought he would never learn. The most stress months i been thur. Now he goes on the pad regularly and hadn't had a mishap in a long time. |
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