[pollyreeve]

Hello All! this is my first post in the forum, I would really appreciate your advise! We have a lovely 13 week old Lhasa Poo who is incredibly intelligent and loving. To give you a bit of background, at night she is confined to the kitchen (where her crate is, but we don’t lock it at night so she has access to her pee pad, which she always uses at night time). In the morning we take her out and she will go potty outside, and then she goes to doggy day care. She is dropped off at home when we get back from work around 6. In the evenings we will bring her into the living room with us, where she will happily chew on her toys on the floor while we watch tv etc, but she will then suddenly pee with absolutely no warning. We don’t close the living room door, (so she is never in a situation where she is trapped and forced to go on the living room carpet) and it’s a small apartment so she knows exactly where the back door is and that she is meant to be going potty outside, as we take her out regularly and always praise her when she goes outside. When in the living room we watch her closely and if we ever catch her in the act we say ‘No’ loudly and pick her up and take her outside. I don’t understand why, despite knowing exactly where the garden is, and where her dog door is (which she knows how to use!) she would rather pee on the floor in the living room where we are, than go outside to do it alone! How do we get the message across to her that when she feels the need to go she needs to walk to the back door and go out, and that she needs to learn to do this alone instead of expecting us to take her? Would taking her out from the living room on a leash to the back door help, so that she understands the route and why she is walking there? She knows to go potty outside, but she doesn’t seem to understand that she can take herself out there as well as us always carrying her out! Will this come with time?

[cigwyllt]

She is very young. The youngest age a dog is mature enough to understand toilet training and physically capable to holding on until he/she is at an appropriate place is 12 weeks. Your dog is only one week older. She doesn't have a consistent routine at home with you - she has to use the pads overnight, for the most part of the day she is in day care and only home with you for what - 5 or 6 hours out of her day? If you were home all day every day she would learn sooner. She will get there but it is going to take much longer than it would if you were both home all day.

Have a very strict routine in the evenings - take her outside at least every hour. She is much too young for you to expect her to indicate if she needs to go out.