Quote:
Originally Posted by sportschick  Unfortunately I DO work so I can't do what a lot of people here do which is take the dogs outside to go every few hours. So I HAVE to train her to go on the papers. I tried wee pads, but she ripped them up, so it is going to have to be papers. |
That's exactly why I said to start training on a weekend, or when you have at least two days off back to back.
Training is a one time thing, and the most important. Catch her doing it right one time, then praise and reward with a treat/toy/her most favorite thing. It took me two months to catch my girl going on the pad, but when I finally saw her go, I waited till she was done and immediately said 'Good Girl!' (in a loudish, excited voice), clapped my hands, she ran to me and got petted profusely, and I gave her a tiny treat (a plain Cheerio) She knew this reaction from me was different, and good.
Since then she goes to the pad 99.9% of the time, even when I am not there to reward her. But when I do see her go, she gets the praise and the reward. This is
reinforcement of her initial training.
Then you add a name to it, such as 'go potty', so eventually they learn what it means, and will go on command. Consistency is important,
A 7 month old pup should in theory be able to 'hold it' for 7 hours, in general, one hour for each month of age. To break them of going all the time, one must do it in increments... every two, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 hours and so on. When they get consistent at each increment, increase it by 1/2 hour.
If you can get home at lunch time to let her out or to see that she goes potty, fine. If not, consider having a pet sitter come in to check on her for a week or two, until she gets her training down pat. Do the best you can during the week, have patience, and repeat the above the next weekend.
It doesn't matter whether you choose to use disposable, washable pads, or newspapers, or a doggy litterbox, or the outside, or both.