when should you expect them to talk to you?

londontami · 01-31-2012

hello everyone, new to the forum!

i have an 11 week old puppy who is doing quite well with potty training - he goes outside whenever i take him and he uses his pads inside (well, usually, but i think he's doing great).

i vocalize the word 'peepee' whenever i take him outside and i use positive reinforcement training - we never reprimand when he goes inside, and he gets a treat when he goes outside.

i think he knows what peepee means now, but i am just wondering when they work out that they can come up to you and let you know they have to go? is there a 'normal' time for this or does it just happen on its own?

i havent had a puppy in over 11 years and i have pretty much forgotten all of that anyways since i wasnt home much - always at work, so i missed out on a lot of the fun.

any feedback would be appreciated - i am certainly not trying to rush anything, i was just wondering if there was a time frame for when you should expect it.

many thanks!

cigwyllt · 01-31-2012

It sounds like you are doing really well -physically the average pup is not able to hold it until they are 12 weeks so the success so far is entirely down to you and your ability to read his body language.

As for letting you know when the dog wants to go out - it can be a bit of a double edged sword. In the past I tended to let my dogs let me know when they wanted to go out. The dog would go to the backdoor and bark so I would get up, let him out and wait for the call when he was ready to come back in - fair enough except that he wanted to go out any time he heard a cat in the garden or any other sound he wanted to investigate.

So when Manny came along I did things differently. I decided when it was time to go out, every hour when he was very young, then every couple of hours and finally 4 or 5 toilet trips each day.

For me it was much more relaxing to know that he is trained to go when I said so, instead of him training me to let him out when he chose! Now we have a flap in the back door and the dogs take themselves out when they choose. Manny goes out as soon as I get up in the morning, the middle of the day and after his supper and again before I go to bed. The other dogs have similar routines.

londontami · 01-31-2012

oh, i actually had not thought of that. that is actually a good idea.

thanks for the tip!

Lunareclipse · 01-31-2012

All of my dogs are trained to go on command. And I let them all out at specific times so I don't have to get up every 15 minutes to let a dog out. Only Porter comes and lets me know that he needs to go out. The saint bernards must have the biggest bladder on the planet because they can hold it for a long time and one of my saints will only go out twice a day. She refuses to go out more than that.

piratekitty · 01-31-2012

Sounds like you got things moving in the right direction. Mine were trained to use the dogie door too. Once I felt they understood going outside, I started next with showing them the door. I would walk to the doggie door saying potty open up the flap and put them through. I would then walk out the door and walk with them into the yard and say potty again. Once they were done I walked them back and put them once more thru the flap saying good boy. I did this each time till I put them thur one day and they continued to walk into the yard without me. Next time they were going on their own. Now they fly out the door. Lots of praise, and repeating the process will do it.

Lunareclipse · 01-31-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by piratekitty

Sounds like you got things moving in the right direction. Mine were trained to use the dogie door too. Once I felt they understood going outside, I started next with showing them the door. I would walk to the doggie door saying potty open up the flap and put them through. I would then walk out the door and walk with them into the yard and say potty again. Once they were done I walked them back and put them once more thru the flap saying good boy. I did this each time till I put them thur one day and they continued to walk into the yard without me. Next time they were going on their own. Now they fly out the door. Lots of praise, and repeating the process will do it.

I don't have a doggie door. My dogs are too big and the doggie door would take up the whole bottom half of the door.

CorkyMax · 01-31-2012

I have a doggie door and I couldn't stand not having it. I need to get a new vinyl flap for mine though. It is warped and lets in all the cold air. Luckily it is located in a back room that is used mainly for storage and a path for the dogs to the doggie door. I keep the door that leads to that room shut but it is not closed shut tight-(not latched)-and when my dogs want to go out--they know enough to push on the door with their paw to open it and go out. BUT Sami likes to go out continually. When it is really cold and wind coming in the doggie door--I will latch so she can't keep going in and out--She loves being outside even in the cold. The only time she doesn't want to go out is when it is raining hard. Now Max just likes to lie around the house most of the time so he is easy to do. Lol, he wants to go out most of the time after 9pm and make up for being inside for most of the day. The little sh*t likes to go out late and bark!!