Loki was fully trained by 1 year old. But he's brilliant. He has/had some medical issues that caused him to have to pee constantly which both caused some accidents past after he knew he needed to pee outside (he just couldn't hold it) but also gave us the opportunity to reward him every 45 minutes for going outside
His last poop accident was when he had diarrhea when he was probably 8 months old and he has never ever pooped in the house since. He will cry/bark/lay by the door rather than poop inside. Loki is 4 and I do consider him completely housetrained. Any accidents (rare) are 100% due to his bladder condition and his not being able to hold it and are always on the floor in front of the door. His medicine compensates for a lot of his issues and he literally only has an accident like every 2-3 months.
SAMMY on the other hand was 10 months old when we got her. She was very reliable about 6 months after that, but if it's rainy we *really* have to stand on the porch and WATCH her pee or she thinks nothing of coming back in and going on a rug. If she's empty she is totally fine. She asks to go out, but she will cheat and just run to the end of the porch and run back in if the weather is not to her liking. If we know she has to go (don't worry, you'll learn their schedules and you'll know!) then we just won't let her back in until we see her go. Or we will let her in but keep an eagle eye on her. Recently she has started pooping on the bedroom closet floor in the middle of the night (ugh) because we used to walk every evening and she would poop then, but we stopped when the weather got cold. I've both adjusted their dinner schedule (3 meals rather than 2) and I try my best to make sure she poops before bed. I also close the closet door which is her spot and I steam cleaned it really well. If she wakes me up at 5am for any reason (this is usually when she does it) I take her outside. We seem to have solved the problem and the weather is getting warmer (44 degrees today!) so walks will resume shortly and the problem will solve itself. At one point I resorted to walks in the snow, which amazingly they loved but I hated
Don't be afraid to get creative! I know it's sounds time consuming, but I really don't worry about her most of the day - only that last trip out at night I have to make sure she goes. Otherwise she asks to go out (sometimes demands
) and she just needs a bit of extra encouragement if the grass is wet. It helps that she knows Loki goes out about every 1-2 hours so she gets lots of opportunities to go even if she only needs to go every 3-4 hours. My BEST advice to anyone training is to go outside OFTEN so you don't let them get in a position to have an accident!
P.S. I crate them when we leave the house (which is not often, we only have 1 car so someone is always home) but more so that they don't cause trouble
They have been left home and out of the crate up to 4-5 hours with no accidents because they sleep the entire time. I don't expect more than 3-4 hours out of Loki so they have never done 8 hours alone. If we are gone 4+ hours they come with. Our family knows we can't leave Loki so they know if we visit they come or someone watches them.
Oh, and don't feel sorry for Sam. She will stick her face in the wet grass and roll in the snow, but it's just too wet/cold to PEE.
