How long does it take?
 

My Cooper is 3 months now. I am crate training him to go outside. If I remember to take him out every30 - 45 minutes...no problem...otherwise he finds the nearest corner! How long on average does it take for them to get trained!

The time it takes to house train a dog is different with every dog. I know some that have been trained only in a couple of weeks. For most it seems to take months and for some it can even take up to a year or longer. The main thing is to just be consistent and patient. Some dogs just take longer than others to train.:)

Loki was a year old before he was "completely" trained. After he was 9-10 months he'd go 1-2 weeks between accidents and they were usually our fault. Eventually we put up bells and that's solved the problem. We did outside only and did not use pads. We crate trained. Loki also has a behavioral water thing (he drinks too much but we never found a medical reason, we're working on that) and he also had some incontinence issues which he is now on drugs for. We also went through several UTIs and bouts of diarrhea every few weeks (yea Canidae! for fixing that). Even with all that he's totally trained. I'm really proud of him (and us, for keeping with it!)

Just keep taking him out every 30 minutes to 45 minutes he will get it. Mine were trained at 1 yr old.

How are you taking him outside. If you are consistant and take him through the same door, let him walk through it, and give the potty command when you are outside. Then give lots of praise when they go. It took Chance about two weeks to get it. Not 100%, but on average I would say he has an accident about twice a week. but not all dogs are the same. Just remember to be consistant and do the same thing everytime and Cooper will get it. It might have helped that Chance had a big brother to show him the ropes.

The more time and effort you put in up front\, the greater the reward.:) Each dog is different and even though they say certain breeds are more difficult to train, it all boils dowm to consistency and patience. Before you know it, you will have forgotten the time and effort you spent in housebreaking your baby. I have had Bichons (supposedly hard to train, and one was, the other was not), Maltese, and now Yorkie. All have trained differently but all are trained TO GO ON COMMAND, meaning, every time you take them out or to the piddle pad, a verbal command like "go potty" should be used. And PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE!!!!!!. Then they will know to go (if they have any in them) to go on command no matter where you are. It is well worht the effort, believe me. When I go somewhere with the babies, and I need to them to relieve before we go inside, I just gve them the "go potty" command, and they do. I am still working with AprilLove, she is about 95% piddle pad trained ( 17 weeks old)
and will go on command outside. She is my first dog that I have trained to go on piddle pads, the others are outside trained. They took longer, one of the Bichons was about 12 months before i was secure in his abilty and the Maltese took about 6 months before no accidents. My Yorkie is so proud when she does a poopie (because I have been rewarding with treat and potty dance :) , that she prances out to me with a little strut to say "I wnet poopie mommy, i went poopie!!!! and of course the treat. It is a proud moment just like when you potty trained your child!!!

MaryKay

AprilLoves' Mommy