potty training at another house....

[JiggityJig]

I've put a lot of thought into "how" I want to potty train my puppy when I get it. Of course, I know that ALL this depends on what the DOG decides to do , but ideally I hope to train it to puppy pads or a litter box (given our home and lifestyle limitations).

I also spend a lot of time at my mother's house, where I would not always be able to monitor the dog in the yard, and she will also be the one to care for the dog when we're away, so it would be very helpful to have her inside-potty trained there, as well.

If I'm able to pad/box train it in our home, will it be a simple matter of showing it where the pad/box is in another home? Are they able to make the association easily (say, like a cat might?!) that "oh, here's the thing I potty on"?

Or does it just depend on the dog?

Approx. how often does an adult dog have to pee/poop?

[hunniebunnie]

i think the best answer to all your questions is : "it depends..."
i'm on my first and only puppy so i can't tell if it's the case for other dogs. but bunjee is indoor potty pad trained. at home he knows exactly where the potty pad is and will go there whether it's in his line of sight or not.

at my parents' house we keep him confined to a finite space and make sure the potty pad is in sight. he had a few accidents the first few times we're over there, but what i started doing is to tell him to go on the potty pad when i feel it's time for him to go potty, not wait until he thinks it's time to go potty. nowadays, i still tell him to go on command, but if he needs to go and he sees the potty pad, he'll go on the potty pad.

at other people's homes it's hit or miss... just to be safe, i have a bellyband on him. i keep a very close eye on him after meals to see if he needs to go poo.

puppies pee and poo more often than adult dogs do. my puppy pee'd every 30-60 mins if i leave the water out for him to drink as often as he'd like. now that he's 6 months old, he pees like every 3-4 hours depending on his activity level. he'll poo 2x a day usually 30-60 mins after meals.

[JiggityJig]

Thanks! You kinda addressed something else I was going to ask too, about whether or not you could move the location of the pad around in your own house.

I've read a ton of stuff here and elsewhere about the different approaches to potty training, and at this point it's all just a big ball of mush in my brain! I know people get sick of answering these kinds of questions over and over, but it's so helpful for those of us who are lacking in practical/personal experience! (so...thanks again!)

How do you teach them to go "on command"? By saying "go potty" (or whatever) when you see them DO it, so they associate the words?

[hunniebunnie]

once you've pad trained your puppy, you can move your potty pad around the house and your puppy should know it's the right spot to potty. i have bunjee's potty pad in the kitchen and if he needs to go at night, he'll get up and outta bed, walk to the kitchen, pee, and come back to bed. if i left a potty pad in the hallway (which he'll see before he goes into the kitchen) then he'll go to the first potty pad he sees.

he doesn't like to go outside unless he really really needs to. and he actually won't go on command unless it's on a potty pad or something similiar. so when we're out, i'll carry a small potty pad and tell him to go on the potty pad. if i'm desperate, i'll go to a public restroom, lay down some paper towels and tell him to go and he will if he needs to.

as for going on command. in the beginning i'd bring him to the potty pad every 30 mins or so and tell him to "go potty". when he goes, i continue to tell him "go potty" while he's going and when he's done, i tell him "good potty", lots of praise and a treat. if he goes on the potty pad without my giving him the command, i still reinforce the command and tell him "go potty" while he's going and "good potty" when he's done. i distinguish the command for peeing and pooing. i tell him "go potty" for pee and "go poo-poo" for poo. he's got the "go potty" down pretty well. sometimes he'll pee instead of poo for the "go poo-poo" command, but we're still working on it. it took us a few months to get to where we are today, so it's not going to happen overnight, but it will, just be patient and be consistent!

good luck!

[Erin]

Originally Posted by JiggityJig

Thanks! You kinda addressed something else I was going to ask too, about whether or not you could move the location of the pad around in your own house.

I've read a ton of stuff here and elsewhere about the different approaches to potty training, and at this point it's all just a big ball of mush in my brain! I know people get sick of answering these kinds of questions over and over, but it's so helpful for those of us who are lacking in practical/personal experience! (so...thanks again!)

How do you teach them to go "on command"? By saying "go potty" (or whatever) when you see them DO it, so they associate the words?

Loki is outside trained, but I can tell you that the answer to your first question is no. And don't have multiple pads either. If you must use pads, keep them in ONE place or you will just have a dog who assumes it's OK to go in the house. They often mistake the carpet for the pad, or go near the pad, or start going on the pad but walk off, etc.

The second question - Yes that's what you do. Loki can potty on command. I mean sometimes I will tell him to go and he'll sniff around first but he understands it to mean "get serious" I am confident that if I tell him to "Go Potty" and he does not, like if he wants to go back inside or just sits there, that he does not have to go. Also helpful when we're away from home and I can only find a small patch of mulch for him to go in - it helps him to know it's OK to pee there (since he's used to grass).

Loki is outdoor trained. This transfers to other houses as long as he knows where the door is - we haven't had a problem. I will sometimes leave the door open (with a storm door closed) so he can be SURE where it is. I don't worry about him at my mom's house anymore, where he goes all the time. We were at my in-laws last week and he'd only been there once before a long time ago - we just showed him where the door was and he ran to it when he had to go. We kept a closer eye on him and probably took him out more often than we would at home, but that's OK. The only time we have problems is when we're at places like Petsmart where he's on a leash and he can't go to the door. With all those smells he will just go on the floor. We just hold him now :-)

[Tait]

Originally Posted by hunniebunnie

i think the best answer to all your questions is : "it depends..."
i'm on my first and only puppy so i can't tell if it's the case for other dogs. but bunjee is indoor potty pad trained. at home he knows exactly where the potty pad is and will go there whether it's in his line of sight or not.

at my parents' house we keep him confined to a finite space and make sure the potty pad is in sight. he had a few accidents the first few times we're over there, but what i started doing is to tell him to go on the potty pad when i feel it's time for him to go potty, not wait until he thinks it's time to go potty. nowadays, i still tell him to go on command, but if he needs to go and he sees the potty pad, he'll go on the potty pad.

at other people's homes it's hit or miss... just to be safe, i have a bellyband on him. i keep a very close eye on him after meals to see if he needs to go poo.

puppies pee and poo more often than adult dogs do. my puppy pee'd every 30-60 mins if i leave the water out for him to drink as often as he'd like. now that he's 6 months old, he pees like every 3-4 hours depending on his activity level. he'll poo 2x a day usually 30-60 mins after meals.

Hope you can help. My friend is visiting with her 11mo. old yorkie. He is potty trained to go outside iat his home. But he keeps peeing in my house. Even if she takes him outside and he pees, he will come in pee again in my house. This has now become a problem. Also I have a 6yr old toy poodle who is housebroken. My friend's yorkie will have nothing to do with my dog. Is this normal behavior for a yorkie. Is my friends dog using my house as a toilet because of my poodle? Please help with any advise

[bellasmomok]

Originally Posted by hunniebunnie

i think the best answer to all your questions is : "it depends..."
i'm on my first and only puppy so i can't tell if it's the case for other dogs. but bunjee is indoor potty pad trained. at home he knows exactly where the potty pad is and will go there whether it's in his line of sight or not.

at my parents' house we keep him confined to a finite space and make sure the potty pad is in sight. he had a few accidents the first few times we're over there, but what i started doing is to tell him to go on the potty pad when i feel it's time for him to go potty, not wait until he thinks it's time to go potty. nowadays, i still tell him to go on command, but if he needs to go and he sees the potty pad, he'll go on the potty pad.

at other people's homes it's hit or miss... just to be safe, i have a bellyband on him. i keep a very close eye on him after meals to see if he needs to go poo.

puppies pee and poo more often than adult dogs do. my puppy pee'd every 30-60 mins if i leave the water out for him to drink as often as he'd like. now that he's 6 months old, he pees like every 3-4 hours depending on his activity level. he'll poo 2x a day usually 30-60 mins after meals.

Bella WAS potty pad trained, but we switched to outdoor training because....
She was ONLY consistent at home. Anytime we went to anyone else's home, it was definitely hit or miss. We'd go one place and she would do AMAZING, then we'd go another and she didn't use it once (all accidents!!) As you can imagine, I AND the person whose house it was hated that (even though I always travel with pet odor/stain spray)!! Also, Bella marks, which is totally different than peeing, and if you watch closely you can tell which it is. Because of that we decided to retrain her to potty outdoors. Now, she's about 98-99% everywhere we go including home! Yay!!
I believe that a lot of her potty pad issues had to do with simply getting confused. The places she had accidents were places other dogs were, so it's my feeling that those places had scents (other accidents, marks, ???) that confused her.

She pees 3-5 times a day and poops 1-2 times a day (usually at the same time she's peeing, but not always--sometimes it's a separate trip, which is probably my fault because I didn't wait long enough before going back in).

Also, I should probably say that I have a yard but it isn't fenced. Therefore, all our potty trips are leashed walks around the yard. She has gotten VERY good about quickly doing her business and going back in. Probably because we didn't give her long from the beginning. If she didn't go right away, we went back in. Buuut, after she goes, we try not to take her right back in, unless she's headed there on her own. That's probably another reason she doesn't take forever....she doesn't associate "going" with having to go back inside.

Originally Posted by Tait

Hope you can help. My friend is visiting with her 11mo. old yorkie. He is potty trained to go outside iat his home. But he keeps peeing in my house. Even if she takes him outside and he pees, he will come in pee again in my house. This has now become a problem. Also I have a 6yr old toy poodle who is housebroken. My friend's yorkie will have nothing to do with my dog. Is this normal behavior for a yorkie. Is my friends dog using my house as a toilet because of my poodle? Please help with any advise

Good luck! I have found that Bella pees in other people's homes it seems like because she smells other accidents, marks, excited pees, something?? If your friend's dog is peeing outside and then coming right back in and peeing in your house, that sounds a lot like marking to me. Marking is instinctual and is VERY hard if not impossible to stop. Bella doesn't mark as much because she got in trouble EVERY time she peed OR marked. Maybe she's just gotten out of the habit of it??? As far as your friend's Yorkie not wanting to have anything to do with your toy poodle.....Bella is that way sometimes with puppies, even older puppies. I don't know what it is about them, but their just to spazzy for her or something. I don't know how old your dog is, but maybe that's it??

[Tait]

Originally Posted by Tait

Hope you can help. My friend is visiting with her 11mo. old yorkie. He is potty trained to go outside iat his home. But he keeps peeing in my house. Even if she takes him outside and he pees, he will come in pee again in my house. This has now become a problem. Also I have a 6yr old toy poodle who is housebroken. My friend's yorkie will have nothing to do with my dog. Is this normal behavior for a yorkie. Is my friends dog using my house as a toilet because of my poodle? Please help with any advise

Thanks you for responses. I am new at blogs, so I hope this works. I have a few questions. To pee in the house is the full stream and to mark is a small amount, am I correct? My friends yorkie is doing both.Marking is more difficult to break them from doing, am I right? My friend feels awful about what is happening. I feel awful too because besides pee on the carpet he has peed on the drapes. It is impossible to block all areas. I do not know what to do. I can't put a puppy pad in the house for my friends 11mo old male/fixed yorkie because I am afraid it will confuse my 6 year old male/fixed toy poodle. My dog does not have accidents in the house and a pad might be a problem. I see the only choice is to keep her yorkie in a crate, and boy do I feel uncomforable with that!! But my carpet, furniture and drapes cannot continue to be a toilet for the next 2 weeks. I am so upset about this whole thing. We thought our dogs would play and have fun and never dreamed this would happen. By the way, my dog gave the signs of "let's run and play" as soon as they arrived. Her dog backed off and wants nothing to do with my dog (both weigh 5 lbs.)They pretty much ignor each other. Are yorkies social dogs??

[bellasmomok]

Originally Posted by Tait

Thanks you for responses. I am new at blogs, so I hope this works. I have a few questions. To pee in the house is the full stream and to mark is a small amount, am I correct? My friends yorkie is doing both.Marking is more difficult to break them from doing, am I right? My friend feels awful about what is happening. I feel awful too because besides pee on the carpet he has peed on the drapes. It is impossible to block all areas. I do not know what to do. I can't put a puppy pad in the house for my friends 11mo old male/fixed yorkie because I am afraid it will confuse my 6 year old male/fixed toy poodle. My dog does not have accidents in the house and a pad might be a problem. I see the only choice is to keep her yorkie in a crate, and boy do I feel uncomforable with that!! But my carpet, furniture and drapes cannot continue to be a toilet for the next 2 weeks. I am so upset about this whole thing. We thought our dogs would play and have fun and never dreamed this would happen. By the way, my dog gave the signs of "let's run and play" as soon as they arrived. Her dog backed off and wants nothing to do with my dog (both weigh 5 lbs.)They pretty much ignor each other. Are yorkies social dogs??

First of all, Yes, socialized Yorkies typically are social dogs, but each dog is different. Since her dog isn't quite a year old, it may not be socialized well, and it may take some time. Or it could be the dog is just shy/reserved already. I would say give it some time, and both you and she should be involved in the interaction. You can keep your dog a little more calm (I know it's hard because they are so excited to have a friend, but calm will help her dog understand there's nothing to be afraid of), and she can show her dog that everything is okay and there's nothing to worry about. Bella is 18 mo. old, and I still have to do that with her with new things (like a new big plant or new furniture), and Bella is FAR from shy! She is a social butterfly!!

Yes, peeing is usually more than marking. And, without a long learning process, there may not be much you can do at your house. I would suggest 1) baby gates to keep the dogs in a tiled area, or 2) an X-Pen...that will give her dog more room than a crate (plus, after you get the 2 social with one another, if it was big enough, they could both be in there and have enough room to play a little bit), or 3) keep the dog crated or X-Pen'ed when your indoors, but try to find some time to play outdoors (then you could do the same encouraging and socializing out there too, which might be better because it's neutral territory). I will say this....Yorkies are notoriously hard to potty train. (I'm told some of them NEVER get it!) And, even though her dog might do well (have NO accidents) at home, he has to learn what he is supposed to do when he's other places too, which means more training.
Are either of your dogs neutered? Generally, un-neutered males will mark a lot more, and they seem to be a bit harder to potty train, I believe. Neutering a male will sometimes help with that...

[Tait]

Originally Posted by bellasmomok

Bella WAS potty pad trained, but we switched to outdoor training because....
She was ONLY consistent at home. Anytime we went to anyone else's home, it was definitely hit or miss. We'd go one place and she would do AMAZING, then we'd go another and she didn't use it once (all accidents!!) As you can imagine, I AND the person whose house it was hated that (even though I always travel with pet odor/stain spray)!! Also, Bella marks, which is totally different than peeing, and if you watch closely you can tell which it is. Because of that we decided to retrain her to potty outdoors. Now, she's about 98-99% everywhere we go including home! Yay!!
I believe that a lot of her potty pad issues had to do with simply getting confused. The places she had accidents were places other dogs were, so it's my feeling that those places had scents (other accidents, marks, ???) that confused her.

She pees 3-5 times a day and poops 1-2 times a day (usually at the same time she's peeing, but not always--sometimes it's a separate trip, which is probably my fault because I didn't wait long enough before going back in).

Also, I should probably say that I have a yard but it isn't fenced. Therefore, all our potty trips are leashed walks around the yard. She has gotten VERY good about quickly doing her business and going back in. Probably because we didn't give her long from the beginning. If she didn't go right away, we went back in. Buuut, after she goes, we try not to take her right back in, unless she's headed there on her own. That's probably another reason she doesn't take forever....she doesn't associate "going" with having to go back inside.



Good luck! I have found that Bella pees in other people's homes it seems like because she smells other accidents, marks, excited pees, something?? If your friend's dog is peeing outside and then coming right back in and peeing in your house, that sounds a lot like marking to me. Marking is instinctual and is VERY hard if not impossible to stop. Bella doesn't mark as much because she got in trouble EVERY time she peed OR marked. Maybe she's just gotten out of the habit of it??? As far as your friend's Yorkie not wanting to have anything to do with your toy poodle.....Bella is that way sometimes with puppies, even older puppies. I don't know what it is about them, but their just to spazzy for her or something. I don't know how old your dog is, but maybe that's it??

Thank you so much for writing to me. I think her yorkie is doing both pee and marking. My toy poodle is housebroken and over the years there has only been a couple of pee accidents. My daughter has brought her dog over and she has peed in the house a few times, I think it was marking. Of course, any of these spotts were cleaned up with a stain remover for carpet, but I am sure another dog can still smell these areas. I would say that my friends yorkie has been excessive, 7 times in 2 days. He is taken outside and sometimes he will go, and sometimes nothing. I can't say that he comes back in and pees right away, but if we take our eyes off him and he goes in the house. Well, he did do it in front of us a couple of times. He was scolded and taken outside, but that did not stop the problem. At this time I see no choice but to crate him as he has not only gone on the carpet, but the drapes and furniture. I don't know what else to do besides crating and this will be hard for me to ask my friend to do this. We are dog lovers and this makes me feel really bad.

[bellasmomok]

Originally Posted by Tait

Thank you so much for writing to me. I think her yorkie is doing both pee and marking. My toy poodle is housebroken and over the years there has only been a couple of pee accidents. My daughter has brought her dog over and she has peed in the house a few times, I think it was marking. Of course, any of these spotts were cleaned up with a stain remover for carpet, but I am sure another dog can still smell these areas. I would say that my friends yorkie has been excessive, 7 times in 2 days. He is taken outside and sometimes he will go, and sometimes nothing. I can't say that he comes back in and pees right away, but if we take our eyes off him and he goes in the house. Well, he did do it in front of us a couple of times. He was scolded and taken outside, but that did not stop the problem. At this time I see no choice but to crate him as he has not only gone on the carpet, but the drapes and furniture. I don't know what else to do besides crating and this will be hard for me to ask my friend to do this. We are dog lovers and this makes me feel really bad.

I completely understand....when Bella first started marking, she marked ON A CHAIR at a friend's house that only has CATS!! (The chair is a favorite spot for one of them to lay.) I know she didn't smell pee there, but I still think she smelled her scent, like an "this is mine!" scent, and she marked it! I was HORRIFIED!!!!
Don't feel terrible. Your friend probably already feels bad about it and doesn't like it either (or she should anyway, you never know I guess), just like me, so you can work out some sort of solution together. That might be the best approach.....just tell her you don't like that he is marking/peeing on your carpet/drapes/furniture, and tell her you're trying to figure out a good solution. (Another option is to keep him leashed and with her the whole time they are there.....don't know if that would work, but it might be worth a try before you decided to crate...if crating him is her only option right away, she may either stop coming or she may just not bring him anymore???)
Good luck! I hope you come up with something you can both live with, and I hope your house stays urine free!!!

[YorkieMother]

Originally Posted by JiggityJig

I've put a lot of thought into "how" I want to potty train my puppy when I get it. Of course, I know that ALL this depends on what the DOG decides to do , but ideally I hope to train it to puppy pads or a litter box (given our home and lifestyle limitations).

I also spend a lot of time at my mother's house, where I would not always be able to monitor the dog in the yard, and she will also be the one to care for the dog when we're away, so it would be very helpful to have her inside-potty trained there, as well.

If I'm able to pad/box train it in our home, will it be a simple matter of showing it where the pad/box is in another home? Are they able to make the association easily (say, like a cat might?!) that "oh, here's the thing I potty on"?

Or does it just depend on the dog?

Approx. how often does an adult dog have to pee/poop?

Dogs all dogs tendnot to genralize so not peeing in your house or peeing on a pad at your house may not mean in someone else. So make sure you are ready and able to train it all again and where you are going understands that dogs do not learn the same as humans and the little one will maybe make mistakes.


JL

[Tait]

Originally Posted by bellasmomok

I completely understand....when Bella first started marking, she marked ON A CHAIR at a friend's house that only has CATS!! (The chair is a favorite spot for one of them to lay.) I know she didn't smell pee there, but I still think she smelled her scent, like an "this is mine!" scent, and she marked it! I was HORRIFIED!!!!
Don't feel terrible. Your friend probably already feels bad about it and doesn't like it either (or she should anyway, you never know I guess), just like me, so you can work out some sort of solution together. That might be the best approach.....just tell her you don't like that he is marking/peeing on your carpet/drapes/furniture, and tell her you're trying to figure out a good solution. (Another option is to keep him leashed and with her the whole time they are there.....don't know if that would work, but it might be worth a try before you decided to crate...if crating him is her only option right away, she may either stop coming or she may just not bring him anymore???)
Good luck! I hope you come up with something you can both live with, and I hope your house stays urine free!!!

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. The leash is a good idea, and I will suggest that. If that is a problem, I have a large crate available. My friend is visiting someone else for a few days and will be back Sunday. I dread telling her what needs to be done. I don't think it will surprize her.She feels sooo bad already. We are close friends, she will understand, I am sure of that.