I've created a monster

[Holly_Wood]

I've been rewarding Holly with little treats to encourage potty training .. its work extremely well to have her go 99.9% of the time on pad in the bathroom ... the problem now is she is continually in the bathroom .. runs in there with her toys .... she goes in waits a few minutes and then stands in the door way peering at us in the living room ... basically expecting a treat (little jacks) ... its getting a little ridiculous .. we never give her a treat for just standing there and have begun incorporating a "sit down" routing before she gets the treat for peeing .....

If I stop giving her treats for going potty will she stop going on pad and do it elsewhere? ... Should I wean her off slowly or just pull the plug?

[ilovejoel]

I don't have much experience with pad training but I would guess she would catch on to only getting a treat and lots of praise when she potties and just ignore when she doesn't. I think she'll do good since they're so smart

[Doodlebug]

My pups only get a treat for a poopie. But if you don't realize that there was a poop and dont reward them Daisy will not let it go. She will hound you til she gets her treat no matter how long it takes. They are so funny. If it is night time they know they don't get a reward because i know they would be getting us up all night just to get treats. If it's dark out they run in the house and jump up on the bed and go to sleep. They know. They are very smart but they will try you to see what they can get by with.

[cummins]

I would only give her a treat when she goes potty. Just call her back out and give her some attention or maybe her favorite toy

[Bellabean]

Smart little girl.

[Holly_Wood]

just to clarify I only give a treat when she potties ... she has worked out that if she does a little pee many times during the day she gets more treats ... I know she can hold it as the morning pee is a lake ....

The problem that's arisen is the standing in the door way constantly through out the night mainly literally 20 times a night and the fact she's taking toys in there too, I think so we will go in there and get the toy .... and because we are in there she'll get a treat (which she doesn't) ..... The other "gotcha" in this is she is still eating her poop every now and then so if she goes in there we need to get to the poop straight away .... so getting up 20 times a night for false alarms is not going to work for me for the next 6 month :-P

Here's what I'm thinking .... ignoring her when she stands at the door (which we do anyway) ... only reward a pee that is of substantial size and in the quarter size pee's she squeezes out ... with the hope that when she does go in there is means she is actually going to pee or poop

Thank you all for the replies ... I'd rather have this problem that a problem of her peeing on the carpet so cant complain too much ...

and yes they are so darn smart :-)

[Quadraphinic]

My old girl, Megan used to do the same thing, except we went outside. It got to the point where she would go out, then turn right around and come back in, with out going to the bathroom, expecting her treat. She did this for almost 15 years, I learned my lesson on that. When Gina goes outside, and goes to the bathroom, she gets treats when we come back inside, but she goes through her training routine to get them. I would start adding down, leave it and take it, sit stay, and any others that she knows, and make her work for them, besides going potty.
Cheers Quad

[DBlain]

most of the time they do this when first going potty, little by little they don't run in every five min. I think the ignoring is best when they just do a dribble. Most of us that have had dogs are wise the "fake peeing" for treat syndrome.

Lola rings some jingle bells to go outside to potty and she used to ring it all the time. I started to tie them up after she would do a good potty, and take them down about an hour or two later, that seemed to break the habit. You could try closing the door once you know she did a big pee but set an alarm for an hour or 90 mins so you remember to open it back up. Keep increasing the time, unless of course she starts having accidents.

Lola still expects a treat, this afternoon when coming back in from potty, I had to go real bad, so she followed me in and sat down looking up and me just waiting for me to finish so I could get her the treat. She also expects a treat after she gets her top knot done or her hair brushed, as soon as I place her on the floor she runs right over to the cupboard where the threats are kept. She often sits in the kitchen looking up at the treat cupboard, but we ignore her when she does that.

[Sunnydayz]

Haha I was wondering if I was the only one being had here lol. Gizmo will go little pees, run to the corner of his xpen, facing the kitchen until I give him a treat, then go right back to the pad to do a bit more, he does this like five times in a row and he knows exactly where his treats are kept.

At night miraculously he sleeps right through and gets up, goes potty and back to bed not expecting anything because he knows we are sleeping :-) they are sooo smart hehehehe.

When he's out during the day from his xpen, he's had only three accidents in a month on my very large rug in my living room. I think hats pretty good for 13 weeks old. I took care of that this morning though as I removed the rug ;-) our downstairs is all hard floors with travertine in the kitchen with wood in the living area and family room. He hates going potty on hard floors so he immediately goes to the pads because they are softer than the floor :-)

I'm waiting to see how he next tries to outsmart me lol.

[Verbena]

I started to give him praise instead of a treat. Try to give a treat only every other time.

[Faboosh]

Both Billi & Martini are little scam artists at the potty for treats thing. They'll go outside and full on squat for several seconds, looking back at me and then run back in. I didn't realize they were playing me until Martini's mom told me about it. I literally had to start checking to see if Billi was wet- half the time she wasn't! So she only gets a treat for #2 now. At least I have evidence then!

She gets treats for everything else, anyway. I'm a sucker

[yavenay]

Yeah I've been scammed too. Brandi did the whole fake peeing for potty thingy on me for at least 9 months before I realized what she was doing. But thankfully she still pottys where she is supposed to even without the treats now. I believe that once they get used to going in a certain spot it's where they will always go with or without a treat. I think you are safe.

My little girl even impressed me. When I went on vacation, my stepmom watched the furbabies for me. I even packed potty pads not really expecting Brandi to use them as this was a new environment. I was pleasantly surprise to hear that Brandi used her potty pads the whole time she was there. In fact my stepmom let her have run of the house (ranch house with no steps) once she saw that Brandi used her potty pads all the time even in a new environment.

[joyce evans]

Originally Posted by Holly_Wood

I've been rewarding Holly with little treats to encourage potty training .. its work extremely well to have her go 99.9% of the time on pad in the bathroom ... the problem now is she is continually in the bathroom .. runs in there with her toys .... she goes in waits a few minutes and then stands in the door way peering at us in the living room ... basically expecting a treat (little jacks) ... its getting a little ridiculous .. we never give her a treat for just standing there and have begun incorporating a "sit down" routing before she gets the treat for peeing .....

If I stop giving her treats for going potty will she stop going on pad and do it elsewhere? ... Should I wean her off slowly or just pull the plug?

I'm laughing and don't know what to tell you at this point. Hannah fakes peeing on her pads for a treat so I had to back off.

[Nancy1999]

Once they learn the behavior, it good to not treat them every time, just give them verbal praise. This actually results in stronger learning than if you gave them a treat each time, but until your sure they understand the behavior continue treating. I think your little girl is telling you she's smart and needs "higher" education! Here's a website that tells you how to teach other behaviors, and you girl sounds like a prime candidate! Dog Tricks! Shake, Crawl, Beg, Wave, Kiss, Roll Over, Take a Bow, and more!