I’ve got a 15 week old puppy and was told he was paper trained / housebroken but this is not quite the case. He’s had a couple of accidents during the night but doesn’t go on the paper, luckily I’ve got stone floors so no damage done but can anyone advise on how to get him to go on the paper if he has to rather than peeing on the floor?

Thanks
J

Use the Telegraph but put it down so that each page slightly overlaps the next until you have used the entire paper.

If he goes off paper, just ignore it, clean up but no other reaction tempting though it may be. When he goes on paper, lots of positive fuss. Gradually reduce the amount of paper on floor, until you end up with a patch in ech room he’s allowed access to plus a bit by the door you intend him to have to go out of in future for his business. Patience is the key, don’t expect perfection.

After he’s woken up, or just eaten/drank, pick him up and put him on the paper, use a keyword to indicate you want him to go (e.g. “Toilet <puppy name>” don’t let him leave until he’s gone, and remember to praise him when he’s done.

It should only take a couple of days to get him sorted.

I hear that posting pictures of aforementioned pup helps a lot.

From what I’ve read, the best thing to do is not to scold the dog after the event has occured,as they won’t understand why you’re shouting at them. Clean the mess up completely, as any remaining scent will make the pup start to associate the area as a toileting area. Take the dog outside as soon as he wakes up, and after each meal. Praise him to the high heavens when he goes outside.

^^ as above, calmness, cleanliness, and routine.

Although don’t confuse him, if you choose to use the newspaper as his pee areas – then make sure he pees there. Make the area large, and slowly make the area smaller – tending towards the back door, then when its down to a single sheet take it outside the door.

Personally, I’d go cold turkey with the newspaper.

No newspaper, watch him like a hawk. When he’s about to pee – you’ll see him sniffing in a particular way (you’ll get it) take him outside. If he’s already peeing or pooping, pick him up, calmly, no words at all, and pop him outside – when he continues to pee or poo, say your keyword.

Eventually he’ll start looking at the door when he needs a pee, or just standing by it – always let him out when you see him doing that.

As mentioned above, get him into a routine, morning, after meals, after play – outside for a pee or poo. Pee’ing will happen about 5 minutes after eating or drinking, pooping about 20-30.

It takes time, patience, and calmness. Remember, he’s just a puppy, and it’s your job to allow him to know what he should and shouldn’t do.

hear that posting pictures of aforementioned pup helps a lot.

+1 😀

There he is! You can’t get cross with that face! All great advice thanks and we are doing pretty much what has been suggested only thing is he hasn’t hit the paper yet as he goes outside mostly. It’s just hanging on all night he has trouble with.

is it just when going to bed?

When our was young I would get up once or twice on a night for a while. Gradually reduce the amount of times you do this. he was fully house trained by 4-5 months old never had an accident since and he is almost 4 now.

Rickon & higvol + 1

In Dec we got a 20 week old pup (5 month). She had never been inside before, so had no house training at all.

I went the cold turkey route, didn’t want to get into newspaper, just kept an eye on her. Not easy as I work full time, but adjusted feed times to allow her time to go before shutting her in for the morning and managed to get home mid day for a 20 min break .

Going through the night was the hardest, I started by getting up at 3am to give her a loo break, then moved it out by 15mins every couple of days. Exhausting, but worth it. Just 4 weeks later and all is good (& clean & dry!!)

Easiest way to get the night bladder holding is to buy a crate, something like this:

Pop them in it overnight, he will pee in it, maybe poo. The chances are that will be the first and last time he’ll do it at night. Dogs are innately clean and hate being in their own mess.

Accept it will happen on the first night, and make sure to leave him. If you keep waking him up and going to see him in the night he will develop separation anxiety – and you don’t want that. Your pup should make it the whole night without seeing you.

The crate is also a great training aid for discipline, you can make it a safe place he likes to go in (feed him treats and such and lots of praise when he’s in it); and you can use it as a timeout zone – so when he’s naughty, or a bit mental and you want him to calm down – as long as he’s comfortable in there already, pick him up and pop him in calmly, and without words.

You can leave him there for a minute, and go get him again – it’s just to calm him, and isolate him so he realises his limits.

Simples 🙂 I like dogs me.

PS. He looks like a teddy bear.

He is a Labradoodle so a mongrel really but even my cynical old heart has melted! He’s very good natured.

I’ll put him in the conservatory with a gate up and his bedding in there which will limit his places to go, not quite a cage but wil only leave a few sqaure feet of floor space, paper down all oover and hopefully these tips will work. He did look very ashamed of himself this morning and has had 6 dry nights out of 8 so really not that bad.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Remember – he’s just a puppy, he’ll do lots of things wrong, and make lots of mistakes. You’re job is to reward him for doing the right thing, give him all the opportunities to get it right the first time, show him discipline, not punishment.

Above all, take lots of photos of him now, and enjoy the time as a puppy – it doesn’t last long!

Easiest way to get the night bladder holding is to buy a crate, something like this:

For a 15 week puppy that’s quite cruel. There’s no way at that age a dog would be expected to be able to hold it in all night. You’re forcing it into weeing/shitting where it’s sleeping after holding it in for as long as possible, which in it’s self can lead to bladder problems.

Once it’s a bit older and can hold in all night but doesn’t, then fine, use the cage.

All of the above comments regarding having a piece of paper at the back door are spot on, we trained out cocker that way.

One thing we did was to go outside with her after she had a drink, food or before bed etc and just stay with her and not go in until she had been as soon as she started to go we would start saying our keyword, for us it is “busy”, and then give her lots of praise when she had gone outside. It soon clicked and we could take her outside and say “busy” and she would go almost instantly. She is now 10 months and we havent had any toilet problems with her for 7 of those. Well aside from that night when she had a wee upset stomach….

Persevere and whatever you do dont get angry if she makes a mess on your best shagpile, it will only make things worse. Praise praise praise when he gets it rigth.

P.S. toilet training is the tip of the iceberg…hehe

We were lucky with Benny – we had no idea if he was housetrained or not (rescue dog, about 18 months old. Generally he’s as good as gold, but his first evening didn’t go well – I think the stress of being taking to a new home got to him. I’ll just say, “explosive diarrhoea” and leave it at that…

Incidentally, I made a high pitched squealing noise at that photo.

Yes indeed. At least once you’ll realise your puppy’s stomach isn’t that strong, and you experience the above.

I remember giving Rickon (my border collie, and my moniker) a pilchard when he was young. He pooped everywhere, cupboards, bed, floors, all over him.

Amazing, he’d forgotten all this when I went to get him at 5.30 in the morning, and lept up at me covered in poo.

I could smell fishy poo for weeks afterwards.

You can never stop training, we’ve done a lot, started early and worked very hard, we’ve got awards and certificates and he knows a lot of tricks; but we’ve recently gone back to training classes to spend time together and push both me and him… I think dog training is the hardest part of my week, you really have to think the best way to communicate to your dog what it is you want to achieve – and they think so subtly and simply compared to us.

Here’s the clever boy:

Hope your ready for him to get big!

This is the same mix at about two years old.

Our Labradoodle pup house trained in 6 weeks

1. Crate (not used for punishment but as a safe place for the dog)
2. Routinely take the dog out for a pee/poo every 3-4 hours (day & night). Praise the dog every time it goes to the loo.
3. Accidents indoors – don’t make a big deal of it, Don’t punish the dog. Calmly take the dog outside. If it wees outside then praise it.
4. Stick with the crate until 18 months. At nightime the dog will let you know it’s needs to go the loo.
5. Buy Gwen Bailey “The perfect puppy”

5. Buy Gwen Bailey “The perfect puppy”

+1

We picked our 9 week old pup up on friday and was told the same thing about being paper trained.
We gave it a whirl with the newspaper but she wasn’t too good on it so we stopped that method.
We now after meals, play and sleep pick her up and put her outside in the toilet place and say “be quick” and wait for her to go.
At first she would be a while but now she almost goes instantly (thats why we pick her up and place her outside as when she follows us she was going before we could get the door open.)
We use a crate at night and I read that for every month of age the pup is that is roughly the amount of hours they can hold it for.
So we set the alarm for 3am and take her out, so far we have had no accidents 😀

Tweleski I have liked my wife to this thread and I promised her he wouldn’t get big! You’ve scuppered me!

[/url][/img]ahhh….we got the miniature version!!

Well he had a dry night with no accidents so thanks for all the tips, hopefully he will keep it up!

hey jb, are you locking your pup in the crate so it’s either do it on the bedding or hold it!
Ours is in an open crate in a closed pen. She is having a little pee overnight but at 11 weeks I doubt she would be able to hold it from 11pm to 6:30am?

Remember – they’re still puppies, accidents are totally normal at that age, only when they’re 12 months old should you really not expect any accidents to happen.