 Potty training woes
Hi, my Charlie was having issues with potty training regression (but he's only 11 weeks old so I understand that he's still a puppy and will have to keep working on it).
Charlie is spot on with his weeing, but when it comes time to poo, he would miss. Here's what I tried:
- It's hard to catch a poo in the act. So as soon as you see it, correct the behavior. I take him to the bad poo (without saying a word), put his nose close to it (not in it), tap his bottom (tap, not hit), and then pick it up with toilet paper and put it on his potty (all without saying a word). Once he's on the potty with the poo, I praise him, even though he didn't go on it on his own. I also left a little poo remnant (like a smudge or a tiny little drop) so he could find it easily.
- I REALLY cleaned up the areas where I noticed his poo. Don't let the scent linger. Scrub it out!
- I switched him from hard kibble to soft canned puppy food/the real people food diet. He does MUCH sooner after he eats with the soft food and it comes out MUCH easier for him. I noticed, when I'd catch him in the act, that he would start to poo on his potty and then step off before he was done, or some would get stuck in his bottom and he's scoot on the floor to get it off of him. The soft food made it easier for him to go all at once and I could time it better.
Hope this helps!!! Oh, and if you do catch him pooing in the potty, say "potty, go potty, go potty" while he's doing it, and then give him ridiculous praise afterward.
As far weeing goes. I switched Charlie from the wee wee pads to the indoor, reusable, synthetic grass potty. I didn't like the idea of wasting all of that paper, because I plan to keep him trained to potty inside. The grass mat gives him a very distinct texture to potty on. I read that puppies (and maybe adult dogs that never really fully got potty trained) can mistake similar textures/fabrics for their wee wee pads (e.g., carpet, towels, bed spreads, etc.).
Good luck! |