The only way to house break any dog is to catch them in the act. When you see her sniffing around watch her closely. As soon as she squats down clap your hand and say no firmly. Then pick her up and place her on the pad or outside wherever you want her to go and as soon as she does say good girl, pet her and give her a treat.
The key is consistency, and praise (I belive the treats are the most important) Some other things to know is usually 5 -15 minutes after eating or drinking your puppy is ready to go. Some puppy's hold onto the #2 longer so watch all the time for this. After they have played for awhile they also need to go. Also dont give them access to food and water all the time. Since she is 16 weeks she is about ready to go on the 3 times a day schedule.
We have had Aiden for just over 2 weeks and he is already trained to go outside. He will whine when he needs to go out. We keep him in a pen with no food and water just toys and a bed. When we/he wants to play we let him out for about an hour. We throw his toys and he runs and slides for them. Then we take him out to potty. There are a couple times a day he just cocks his legg for a treat and I give him one anyways. The goal is to get in there heads the right thing to do and they will get rewarded. I am not saying that I belive he is 100% house broken but it wont take much longer. My wife has really spear headed this puppys training. I work most of the time day and night. So I just told her what to do and she has done it very well.
At 16 weeks it is still a little early, I have never owned a dog that could be trained until 5-6 months. I did have a english springer spaniel that never messed in the house from day one. So there was really no training him. But yours is at the age where I would start training but not expect too much.
I hope this helps. Hang in there. |