Ah! Help! Potty Training!!!?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Here’s a little background info on the issue…
My boyfriend and I have a Westie, Oscar. He is basically potty trained just has a few forgivable accidents every now and then but that’s fine because he’s not even two yet. We decided to get another puppy while he is still a puppy himself. Her name is Scarlet.
Scarlet is a Yorkie/Maltese/Pekingese. She is about 11 weeks old. We got her and the breeder said that she was about 80% potty pad trained, we brought her home and it was more like 50% tops.
So our problem is… we want her to go potty outside. We are trying the crate training. Her crate is actually our 1/2 bathroom with a gate up, she has her food and water in there because they are less likely to go potty where they eat. She has never had an accident in the crate. We take her to go potty and say go potty go potty go potty if she goes potty then she gets to be out of the crate and play for awhile if she does not go potty then she goes back in the crate and we try again about 20 mins later. She will not go potty all of the sudden!! I put her outside and she just sits & shakes (it’s freezing out by the way, we’re in MN). Then I feel bad because it’s so cold and put her back in the crate and try again and repeat and repeat. She still will not go and I’m afraid of like a urinary tract infection or holding in her poo too long.
Am I doing everything right? Any suggestions?! Any help at all would be sooo great! My boyfriend loves her but is extremely impatient with the potty training so I do it all (which is fine! I agreed to it so that we could get her =]) and I want to train her as quick as possible.
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it sounds like you’re doing everything your supposed to do:)
Also consider taking your puppy out for a walk. Get her moving, usually that helps getting things going.
She’s still pretty young so plan on it taking a little longer, but don’t despair your heading in the right direction!
she is a small breed puppy which means she probably won’t be 100% house broken for several more months. Walk her on a leash instead of simply putting her outside so she knows what you want her to do- be patient.
Sorry but you are doing a few things wrong.
You can only use the crate for potty training if you don’t crate her during the day. Also 20 mins is WAY to long.
Here is some advice,
Use “get busy” as your keyword instaed of go potty, because that tends to come out too whiny. When you take her outside, when she does pee, as soon as she does, give her a treat. This way she associates that she gets a treat for going busy!
If she doesn’t go to the bathroom, no treat, take her back upstairs, put her in the same room as the crate, WITHOUT the crate in it, for no more than 5 minutes. Take her back outside and use the keyword ‘get busy’ again. If she doesn’t do it, repeat the process..
Small dogs do get cold but its no excuse for potty training. Make sure you don’t use the pad when you’re home, pick it up right away, only put the pee pad down when you’re not home because if they have a choice, they’re lazy too, they’ll stay inside.
Also try taking both dogs out at once, reward oscar for peeing, if she sees he gets rewarded she might follow example. Key with the treats is to make sure you bring them with you outside, if you wait to give her a treat when she’s inside, you’re reinforcing her coming in as the praise, not peeing outside.
It’ll take time but be consistant, Hope this helps!