Our little guy is 3 1/2 months, and he goes outside when he needs to pee but he also has a tendency to pee inside, however when he goes inside he uses his pee pad.

Our goal is to get rid of the pee pad and to get him to pee and poo only outdoors. We just recently bought bells to put on the door to use as a signal for him to tell us when he needs to go out, were hoping this will work.

So my big question is when should they be fully potty trained? and do any of you have any other suggestions that will help us out in this department?

Thanks

Holly, Shawn and Dallas

It depends on the dog. We have some people on here whose dog still have issue at 7 to 11 months. Loki was full-trained by 4 months (he is 11 months now). We give him a treat every time he goes outside and give him a lot of praise. So far the only accident he had was in the shower stall one night but that was easy to clean up. Now my foster Glory is 3 years old and she has accidents at least once a week.

Ditto to above. It really depends on the dog. Bode came to us from the breeder at 11 weeks and was well along on potty training already. He was fully trained by 4 months and could hold it well. Others can go over a year and still have accidents.

Ok thanks!! he seems to be getting better. I do hope the bells work as we don't really see any other signs that he wants to go :p

I could be wrong. So if ibam hopefully someone will chime in but i think i would take the potty pad away right now so he doesnt have that option, if your goal is to only have him go outside. You might have a more accidents when he is getting used to not having that, but it might make the training process quicker. Again i could be wrong.

Dizzy is potty trained (he will be 17 weeks this Friday), except if I wait too long, and too long is about 45 sec. If I have to put my shoes on and get everything together before I take him down 3 flights of stairs (we live in an apartment), he might not make it all the way down. So, I have a 'go bag.' It's a tote bag with anything I might need for a potty trip outside. poop bags, an extra leash, treats, water, portable bowl, and even an extra set of keys in case I can't find mine. It has made potty training doable, and i don't have poop bags in every jacket and pair of pants any more.

edit - another note, is that I take him out a lot more frequently now that its hot. 90+ today. He drinks a lot more water, even though we keep the ac on inside the apt, and needs to pee a lot more often.

Sheba wasn't potty trained RELIABLE until about 7 months. Her problem was that she didn't realize she could actually HOLD IT when she had to go. One day it just clicked with her.

Some dogs it takes awhile with, other dogs just catch on .

I didn't notice that you said you're using a potty pad. Definitely stop that. It just is confusing to the pup.

Oh really? We use the pee pad because we know he is still a pup so we wanted him to learn how to use the pee pad so that when we are away he will pee there rather than on the floor...when is it a good age to get rid of the pee pad, because right now he's not even 4 months so he can hold it for about 4 hours not even...we worry he will pee on the floor

The pee pads only teach him that it's ok to go inside the house, and they just prolong the potty training. As someone said earlier, I'd take away the pee pads right away. Our girl will still potty in the house if we let her sneak off, but when we're proactive she does just fine at 16.5 weeks. She's pretty much to the point she can hold it all night as well. As far as going in the house, if you catch him in the act give a stern "outside!", pick him up, and carry him outside. Have a good sized bottle of Nature's Miracle or other enzyme cleaner on standby, but again, be proactive. Just because he can hold it for ~4 hours doesn't mean you should go 4 hours between every potty break. Good luck, and you're in good company with potty training puppies

You should start potty training as soon as you get him.

We started with puppy pads with our two as it was the only option - they were left inside while we were at work for the first month or two so had no choice but to go inside - not ideal but the only solution until we had built an outdoor run for them.

They're now about 11months and are potty trained, I didn't find the puppy pads prolonged their training for us, but every situation is different as you know. If you can take them out during the day/night I don't see a reason to use them personally - start transitioning them out of the habbit now. At that age I would be taking the pup out more frequently so it really sticks in their mind.

Dakota was fully trained at approx 3 months, shes a quick learner!!! We are lucky enough to be able to leave the screen door open when we are home and she just goes outside when she needs to go.

I was scared this would hinder her at other ppls houses, but she proved us wrong, we were visiting my mom for 2 weeks, and she learned from my moms dogs to go to the door and sit to let us know she needed to go outside (shes 6 months now).

shes kennel trained and after she was potty trained she has never had an accident in her kennel.

We never used the pads b/c we didnt want her to associate going inside as "good", and those pads have that scent thing in them to attract them to use it. I really dont like them ... i have a friend that still uses them for her adult dog(not husky) b/c he got used to using them and he still cant hold it long enough.

Harry was fully trained at about 7.5 months. Sporadic work schedules and lack of a routine didnt help at all. It really clicked with him when we stopped putting blankets or towels in his crate to help soak up any of the potential mess.

Karli was potty-trained by four months, any accidents after that were our fault for not paying attention.

Ditch the pad now. Its not doing anything but telling him its OK to go in the house. I had a friend with a doberman who took over a year to potty train because of the puppy pads. And my friend's chi is over four years old and has only now within the last couple months stopped going inside (they finally got rid of the pads.)

Mishka is 5 months old and is potty trained. Like every one said, they all learn at different rates. He regressed a bit when we moved into our new house but that only lasted a little while until he got used to it.

We haven't had any accidents in the house in months, other than his little excited pee. Which is totally annoying. -_-