With Spike, he is both pee pad trained and trained to go outside. It took a while and a lot of patience, but here's the way I did it:
I would put him in the area where his pee pad was and close him in. If this is a small room, you can simply close the door, but if it's a bigger room, you might want to use a baby gate or x-pen to keep him in a certain area. It's a good idea to use the same area she'll be kept in when you are not home. For the first few days, cover the entire area with pee pads. When you are home, take her to her potty area every hour for about ten minutes (this can be a shorter time if she pees right away). I used to set the timer on my oven to remind me. If she uses the pee pads, praise her a lot. If she has an accident while she's not in her potty area, say "no!", and immediately take her to her potty area (remember to clean up the accident right away, and very thoroughly to remove the smell). Unfortunately, this only works if you 'catch her in the act', so to speak. There is really no point in praising or scolding a dog after the fact. Generally, they have no clue why you are doing this unless you catch them at it!
After a while, you will notice that she uses certain pee pads in her potty area, but not others. You can start removing the ones that she doesn't use, leaving behind the ones that she has.
After a while, you'll hopefully notice that she uses one pad, or one particular area. This is the best place to keep her pee pad.
If you want her to learn to go outside as well, try alternating taking her to her confined area and taking her outside. When you take her outside, bring her inside as soon as she has peed. Spike had a tough time learning that 'outside' didn't automatically mean 'walk'. Once he figured it out, he finished his business a lot faster!
I was told that the interval between when they need to go to the bathroom is about 1 hour for every month of age. If your pup is 11 weeks old, then you're looking at every two - three hours. Once she gets this idea of where she needs to pee, you can start lengthening the time between her "potty breaks". Remember though, that if she starts to make mistakes again, you might have to take a step back and go back to what you were doing. It does take patience, because thay can be very stubborn!
Good luck! |