[Adrift02]

Little background: trained/loved two family dogs previously, a rotty and a shepered mutt, both very smart. Potty trained them with a yard. Just got a yorkie/pom mix with my gf at our condo. This is my first small dog experience and we have stairs to go down out of our door to the yard. The pup is 4 months old, we have had her about a month now.

Here is my issue: I don't think the pup is understanding it cannot go inthe house. It is very smart, i have already taught it sit, down, shake, come, roll over, play dead, stay, leave it, heel (ok we are working on that one), and she consistantly goes potty outside when we tell her to at regular intervals. But, if left to her own devices she will still go in the house, most recently she went 3 times in one night when playing with another pup (and hence drinking too much water).

The thing is, while im sure she knows to go outside, i dont think i am successfully teaching her not to go inside. I work from home so she is always under supervision, i just take her out when she sniffs around (and recently added a potty bell). This means she has had litterally 3 mistakes outside of that puppy play night, all caught in the act but thats only 3 mistakes in a month. Im thinking its not enough for her to learn where not to go and am wondering if i should let more mistakes happen. She is afraid of the stairs still so while i walk her out the door i carry her to her spot which is maybe preventing her from connecting the "path to the potty" when she is inside. Also, the little turd just wags her tail when i scold the mistake, which is tough for me because my other two dogs were more submissive and made training much easier as i could add more dominance to back up my praise. I think i would have to hit her to make her feel bad lol, something i would obviously never do.

Sorry for the long post just wanted you all to fully understand my odd question. Thanks for the advice.

[cigwyllt]

In my experience little dogs are much harder to train than bigger ones. Plus she is still very young and it sounds like she is doing really well for her age. Generally a pup isn't ready to grasp the whole concept of toilet training until around 12 weeks anyway so the success so far is down to you as much as to her.

I understand the concept of the bell although I have never used one. I was always used to the dogs going to the back door and barking to be let out and I guess they had me pretty well trained. Then after I got married my husband was horrified that I would be jumping up to put the dogs out whenever they "asked" and insisted on training them to go out on schedule. What a difference. The dogs learned to hold it, I got to sit and eat my dinner without running backwards and forwards to the door to put them out or let them in and life was sooooo much easier.

When we got our youngest dog, now age 3, I decided he would not dictate when he would go outside but I would take him so I took him out every hour, after every meal or sleep and any time he looked a bit distracted. He had maybe 4 or 5 accidents from the time I brought him home until he was 5 months or so and from then on he has been perfect.

Our house has lots of stairs as well - our living area is upstairs, the back door is down, so like you I had to carry him up and down to the garden but he was fine with that.

[Adrift02]

Glad to hear carrying the dog wasnt an issue. Guess ill just have to give her more time and keep preventing mistakes from happening.

[lange]

Originally Posted by Adrift02

This means she has had litterally 3 mistakes outside of that puppy play night, all caught in the act but thats only 3 mistakes in a month. Im thinking its not enough for her to learn where not to go and am wondering if i should let more mistakes happen.

I completely understand what you mean. I recently added a new puppy who took to potty training pretty quickly which had me wondering if I was just reading her signs too well & not giving her enough opportunities for correction. When she did have an accident, I would usually catch her, yell "NO" and clap my hands to startle her, she in turn would look at me, unfazed as if saying, "What?" Ironically one of the last times she had an accident she FINALLY startled & the look on her face literally seemed to have said, "UH OH!"

She was housetrained in under 2 weeks. Accident free for a month then had 2 accidents in 2 days. (Always pee, has never pooped since I had her). I thought hard on why she had the accidents. I came to the conclusion that she just could not hold it, her bladder was too full. She had had a ton of water & food just 20 minutes earlier. Now, it's been over a month with no accidents again. The only sign I can pick up on her in wanting to go to the bathroom is she will keep going to our left, side windows which are along our yard. And even that isn't very often. She just seems to make an effort to hold it until she is out.

I think whether or not they have a lot of accidents in the house, they will just realize not that the house is potty free, but that the yard is the real toilet & they'll prefer to just do it there.

If I were you I would continue what you're doing. In a few more weeks you should be able to gauge if she really is getting the hang of holding it in to do her business outside or if it's because you're making her go out.

..I hope that makes sense!!

As for her accidents, I'd say she is doing very well. And as long as your cleaning her accidents with an enzime cleaner, just wait for time to tell you whether she "gets is" or not.