Another potty training question...

[ldw]

Hi Guys,

Ok, I've searched around on the forum and got loads of great advice. Lilly has now been with me for a month and I have to say she's pretty good with the whole potty training thing. I have a play pen for her when I can't watch her but most of the time I just watch her closely. I know when she needs to go and I take her outside so thats going great. I just have two little problems...

For some reason, when I leave her with my boyfriend, she seems to see this as a free for all to piss wherever she wants... When I'm around, there is no p in the house she goes to the door and out we go... maybe my boyfriend just doesn't read the signs but he says he keeps taking her outside etc. Usually she is only with him for two hours and in those two hours she can p about 3 times and poop. Any ideas? I thought it might be stress or anxiety but my boyfriend and I live together and both work mostly from home so she sees him all the time and has a good relationship with him too. So I'm not sure what else it could be...

Second little problem, is that she seems to pee alot during the night. This is new. The first week she managed to hold for a good 6 hours through the night. Now she doesn't but its summer and hotter weather so she drinks a lot more. As I let her sleep in her pen at night I thought I'd try to get her to use her pads. I figure that if we travel anywhere it might be useful to have her used to using pee pads too or is this going to confuse her too much?

Last night she did p on her pad which is great! But ofcourse, I didn't see her do it so I couldn't praise her... I never scold her for peeing in her pen at night, after all she's a baby! I also don't scold her for peeing in the house, if I catch her a firm no and swift carry outside seems to have worked just fine. Ofcourse as soon as she pees outside, lots of praise and a treat (just like you guys all say on the other threads!)

I would appreciate your thoughts on the pad training after she seems to have got the idea to p outside and of course any tips about why she has this strange peeing behaviour when I leave her with my boyfriend would also be much appreciated!!!

[pamelakay]

Hello! I saw no one replied here, and it's been awhile since you posted this, so I figured I'd try to help you out.

When she pees when your boyfriend is around, does he also do the "NO" and take her outside or to her pee area if he catches her type of thing? If he is not able to keep a close eye on her, she should be in her pen/crate with the peepads nearby so that no accidents can happen around the house, and she'll learn to hold it or go on the pads. She may have gone in the house when he wasn't looking, and so she's starting to think it's okay. So again, if he cant watch her consistently for signs of going pee in the house, then she should probably be in her crate or pen.

As for peeing a lot at night, do you let her drink a lot of water prior to bedtime? And by "a lot," how many times do you mean? Depending on how old she is (I take it she's still young), then they do pee a lot more at night than most older dogs cause they cant hold their bladders as well. But if you want to add the peepad training, what I do is I keep my Luigi in his crate at night, and when I first got him..every 1-2 hours or so, I would let him out of the crate and take him to his pads. Gradually increase the time, so your puppy learns to hold it longer. Now Luigi can hold it up to 4 hours or more, which means I get up less at night He's 3 months.
If I'm gone at work (i work nightshifts at the hospital sometimes), then I don't leave Luigi in his crate, but I just keep him in his pen. He knows to go on the peepad, and at least he's kept in a smaller area so he doesn't go peeing all over the house.

I hope this helps you a little! Good luck!

[ldw]

Hi Pamela,

Thanks so much for your response! Lilly is now 4 months old and is actually quite good at holding. I take her to work and its really no problem at all. My boyfriend says that he watches her and takes her outside at the first sign but.... I'm not there so I don't know.

At night I but her in a pen. I started placing a pee pad in instead of covering the whole area with paper and she took to it instinctively! Now in the morning I see she's done a pee on there and nowhere else which is great, but I don't know if she would do it with run of the whole room. Normally we go outside but I just thought it might be good for travelling for example that she can also go on a pee pad. The problem is that now she pees on the pad while I sleep so I can't really reward her to reinforce the good behaviour. Might it be worth while to take the pee pad to work and see if she'll go there during the day and praise her?

[pamelakay]

I think if you are taking her to work, then you can take the peepads along with you. Since Luigi is used to the pads, if I take him to someone else's house, I whip out the pads or newspaper and he goes right on them! My puppy doesnt have all his shots yet, so I don't really put him on the sidewalk or ground outside..so I have no clue if he's comfortable peeing outside yet, but I'm sure he will be (he better be! )

So all in all, I think that it'd be fine for you to take the peepads to work for practice for your puppy..and praise him all you want there =) That way she'll know it's always a good idea to go on the pad. I know there's no way we can always reinforce their behavior when we're home (cause we're sleeping or doing other things), but anytime you do catch them going on the pad, definitely reward them. And I agree, it can be good for traveling too.

Glad to hear she's doing better. As for the boyfriend, if you're ever around with the 2 of them, just reward any good behavior your puppy is doing (like playing nice or...not peeing..haha) and have your boyfriend do some rewarding too. It'll take time, but since she's doing better with her potty training, I'm sure she'll start doing better when she's around the boyfriend.

best of luck

[Bizzymammabee]

I noticed that Lulu would have more accidents when left with hubby. The thing in our house was that he was not paying as much attention as I normally do. So I am not sure if that is the problem there. My hubby being the man he is doesn't have a long attention span for doggie training.

[ldw]

mmmhhh sounds familiar! I guess thats what makes us Mummys and men Daddys

I've started using clicker training now and its AMAZING! so much easier to let her now straight away what a good girl she is for peeing outside than before when I would praise her...I just walk outside with the clicker in hand and she goes straight away watching the clicker intently! So cute!

Thanks for your advice... the pee pad was working very well till last night where she peed everywhere but on the pad!