Starting from square one with Zoe..
 

Hello all. Hope everyone is having a great day. I've decided to start back at square one with training Zoe. For starters, I don't feel that I was crate training her the proper way and I was working before and was only able to come home at lunch to let her out, now, I am home all day and have more time to dedicate to training her.

What is the proper way to crate train? She is in her crate at night. I take her out as soon as I wake up which i around 6:30-6:45. She pees, sometimes poops. I put her food and water down and she eats. Here is where I'm having a bit of a problem. When I put her food down, I feel like she gets distracted running after my son, playing, etc and doesn't take the time to eat. I am thinking about blocking off my laundry room and leaving her there till she eats. Good Idea? Ok, so after she eats, do I let her run around, do I crate her for about 10 minutes then take her out? What is the next step? I try to give her free time around the house but end up stepping in a puddle of pee. :(

I want to make sure that I start off on the right foot this time. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated..

Thank you all. :)

First of all, how old is she? Sometimes when they are puppies, they have a hard time holding their bladder. I would take her out immediately after she eats and drinks... keep her out there for a 5-10. If she doesn't potty, take her in and put her in her crate. Give her about 10-15 minutes and take her back out again. If she doesn't go again, back in the crate she goes. Repeat this until she goes potty.... then she gets play time. Anytime you cannot watch her 100%, she has to go in her crate... otherwise, she'll pee and and you won't be able to correct her mistake. If she does have an accident and you catch her doing it, say "no" firmly and take her outside, put her down and say "This is where you POTTY". I always emphasized "potty" because I wanted them to learn the word as a command. Also, I would make sure you are taking her out of the same door at all times, so she doesn't get confused. You could even hang a bell, low enough to where she could reach it and ring it everytime you take her outside to potty. As you ring the bell say "Let's go POTTY" or something like that so she associates the word "potty" with the bell.

She is 6 months. Thank you for the great advice. Ok so she eats breakfast and I take her out immediately when I see she is done. If I can't watch her 100% put her in the crate. I'm making a trip to walmart in a few and i'll get a bell, and a baby gate. I always take her out the same door. Atleast I try to. She knows that she has to go outside because the other day, I had the door to the screened in porch open (this is where I take her to pee and poop because the grass here is always wet due to the sprinklers and when she was sick, i wanted to keep her away from the cold grass and just kind of became a habit of taking her there.) anyway, I had the door open and she went out there to pee. I praised her and gave her a treat. I think the bell method may work. That way she has a way of letting me know when she has to do.

you are one of the lucky ones that get to be home with them all day. i am very convinced that because you are so fortunate you can have her trained in less than a month.
first things first she needs to be sleeping in the kennel
6:30 AM wake up and go potty
6:35 time to eat and drink
7:00 in the kennel
9:00 out for potty break
9:05 in the kennel
11:00 out for potty break
11:05 eat and play
11:30 in the kennel
1:30 out for potty
1:35 in the kennel
3:30 out for potty
3:35 in the kennel
5:30 out for potty eat and play
6:00 in the kennel
8:00 out for potty and play
9:00-10:00 last chance potty and back in kennel for bed.

lots of people will say take them out right after they eat or drink (which isnt a bad idea) i have never had either of my pups go immediatly after they eat or drink its usually a few hours later. but would for sure be worth trying because each puppy is different. you need to just make a schedule and stick to it.

each time you take her out to go potty you need to use the same door and use the command "go potty" say it over and over again until she goes and as soon as she goes give her the praise she needs. she will soon understand that "go potty" is what it is and a 10- 15 minute potty break outside will quickly turn into 5-10 then 1-5. the most important thing is to have a schedule and to stick to it. consistency is key. also a rule of thumb is that a puppy can only "hold it" for as many hours for as many months old they are.

once you get her using the schedule you should be able to skip some of the kennel times and let her have the house for the two hours before she is ready to go potty again and then once you work it to where you have eliminated all the kennel time except when she is sleeping you can work it from taking her out every two hours to every 2.5 hours and then to every 3 and so on until you take her out about every 4- 5 hours and you dont have any accidents again.

that is the same schedule we used for both of our pups and now neither of them are in a kennel during the day and we dont have any accidents 1 of mine is 1 yr and the other is 8 months. once we started using this schedule they were both trained in about 1 months time.

Oh yea, and over exagerate praise. Throw a miny party and give her treats, loving, and talk all excited like. You may look crazy to your neighbors, but hey it works.

Thank you all for your responses. I think i'm going to give that schedule a shot. I'm printing it out now and posting on my fridge. :) I started feeding her only 2 times a day a few weeks ago. Do you suggest I feed her 3 times? I Had her on science diet and she ate 3 times a day and pooped about 5 times. Her poop seemed really soft and just not ok. So i switched her to Wellness and her poops are much better. She poops 2 or 3 times a day and they arent soft. They are solid and dark. (Gross. I know. SOrry) When I switched her food I switched from 3 times to 2 times.