First of all I want to say that I understand my pup's only 77 days old. And secondly, I take all blame for any accidents we have.

So when we purchased our pup, Jethro, we decided to crate train him. We have been gradually trying to get him to like his crate by putting treats in there. I have been having him go in, and sit, prior to giving his food. I have to kind of tease him with the food first to get him in there, and then he turns around and sits. Is this a good approach?

Secondly, I have been having to entice him in with treats and toys. And then try to keep him in there for an hour max, before letting him go to the bathroom. He will whine for anywhere from 1 to 15 minutes before he lays down or chews on a toy. At night he is perfect and just goes to sleep. I take him out once in the middle of the night, but there is no whining.

It seems the worst whining occurs when he is alone and we are in the other room. We are doing this for training purposes to increase his comfort with the kennel.

Lastly, sometimes we take him out every hour and he goes pee and/or poop. We then bring him up, and he will still have accidents. Is this just a 11 week old having bladder control issues? Should I wait longer outside? I always catch him in the act and just say "No" firmly in a low voice. Any other tricks to show him this isn't the place to go?

Thank you for your time. I love him to death, I just want to give him the best training possible.

my puppy is 8 weeks, and the way we try to make sure she doesnt have accidents is the second we take her out of the crate we go straight out side, at first i gave her a treat anytime she went out side and lots of praise, then i removed the treats and did praise only, now i dont have to praise. but if i dont take her straight out, she'll most likely try to go in the house. also when i do take her out after she pees we play for 10-15 minutes but not till after she goes to the bathroom, so now she thinks okay if i hurry up and go we get to play outside... its been working well for me so far....

I do take him straight out as well. We have him sit at the door and hit a bell with his nose and then take him to his potty area. We will play with him for about 15 minutes after he pee's and that's when he sometimes pee's inside. We catch him in the act and take him back out, but he usually doesn't finish. Do you put him back in the crate then? Is it ok to entice them in the crate and shut the door. He usually whines for a a few minutes then chews on toys and sleeps if we do that. Thanks for the replay man.

Do you feed him in the crate? That's what really helped with Karli, I started putting all her meals in the crate and she was fine with it once I started doing that.

It sounds like he doesn't have very good bladder control when not in the crate yet, I'd boost taking him out to every half hour. If he still has accidents, every 15 minutes until the accidents lessen. Tether him to you with the leash so you can always keep an eye on him. Do you treat him every time he goes potty outside? I did with Karli and she picked up on that really fast. I still treat her when she poops outside.

Love the name Jethro btw!!!

jethrodonald wrote:

I do take him straight out as well. We have him sit at the door and hit a bell with his nose and then take him to his potty area. We will play with him for about 15 minutes after he pee's and that's when he sometimes pee's inside. We catch him in the act and take him back out, but he usually doesn't finish. Do you put him back in the crate then? Is it ok to entice them in the crate and shut the door. He usually whines for a a few minutes then chews on toys and sleeps if we do that. Thanks for the replay man.

i would stick with positive reinforcement every time he pees outside you want to make sure you catch him in the act when you praise him so he understands that the peeing outside makes you happy and he gets a treat or what ever for it, if you catch doing it in the house just bring him back out to the potty area, if he finishes praise him. just make sure that he gets time to play outside after peeing other wise he might thinkthat he may start holding it while he is outside to play, or start peeing inside so that youll take him out to play.

as for the crate you can most definetly use treats and toys to get him to go in, it will show him that its a fun/safe place to be. maybe start by getting him to go in, then treat.. do it a couple times then get him to go in and shut the door, when he is quiet and calm treat and maybe let him out for a little bit. then practice it throughout the day. if he is whinning give hime zero attention until he is quiet , he'll start to catch on that whinning will get him no where. my for the first few days would whine for the first ten mins or so now she only does if she needs to go potty.

He has improved so much in the week we have had him. He wont go pee unless its been at least an hour right now. I've tried taking him out at 30 minutes and he just lays down or walks a muck. It seems like he pee's inside, after going outside, if we are playing with him. I want to play with him inside and outside so he doesn't link peeing with playtime outside. Furthermore, it seems like he only pee's on the carpet, not hardwood floors at my parents house when we go there to visit. He will even go to their door and be asked to go outside. We do live in a second story apartment and he can't see out the door. Right now he's in his kennel, sleeping away.

When you clean the carpet after he pees on it, do you use an enzyme cleaner? He could be smelling his pee on the carpet and thinking its OK to go there. The recommendation I was given when I first got my pup was to take her out after everything. As soon as you let her out of the kennel, as soon as you finish playing with her, as soon she wakes up from a nap. This way she never has a chance to stop and pee in the house. And constantly treat her.

when rikku wont go potty out side i run around and get her to chase me, not sure if it will work for you but it burns some energy, and for some odd reason always seem to make her have to poop and pee lol...

also if she smells his own pee and that is making her have to go, ive heard of people using hydrogen peroxide, it takes the smell out with out hurting the carpet

To me it sounds like you're doing everything right. I live on a 3rd floor apartment and I understand how difficult it can be to potty train. Dizzy has been totally potty trained for about 3-4 weeks now. He knew to ask to go outside by 11 weeks (brought him home at 9), but just couldn't hold his bladder. He would go to the door, and then pee while I was getting my shoes on. I didn't really worry about those accidents because I knew that he knew to ask to go out. It was more of a matter of physically not being able to hold it. About 2 weeks ago, I was finally able to let him walk down the stairs himself. Before that he would have an accident before we got outside, because again, he wasn't able to hold it. In the last two weeks his bladder control has really kicked in. Its nice, especially since he's about 30 lbs now. Lol. Just stick with it and Jethro will get the drill.

Since he is so young its normal for him to pee after play.. When koda was a pup id take him out every hour. Also no matter what time it is, after a play session, sometimes between, after eating or drinking, after nap. Those are all common times for a pup to have to go. So try that and it might help with accidents but it sounds like you are doing great with training and he is learning fast.. Accidents happen. Koda was 90% potty trained at 3 1/2 months. He currently still has accidents at 8 months but very rarely. Mostly when he hasnt peed and he is excited and someone pets him. But thats my fault for not taking him out before he plays with them.

Glad to hear the positive feedback. Its hard because you try to do the right thing, but you never know if you are. I don't expect him to be potty trained anytime soon, I just want to give him the best opportunity to learn how to do it right the first time. He really doesn't give us any warning right now when he goes in regards with peeing. We are having him hit a bell at the door every time we take him out to pee, but he still doesn't understand it yet.

sooo, ive been reading lots and lots on this site  and i am learning a lot. Crate training is going well and kida will not go potty in her crate. every time we go outside ( once an hour) she goes potty, but then she goes potty again inside. i just dont understand. she doesn't go potty the second we come in, but she does potty in the house no matter how long i keep her out side. and she does not like being out of sight of me or my boyfriend. I think she has seperation anxiety. even when she goes to bed at night in the crate, she will howl and go crazy if i leave the bedroom to go potty myself lol. any advice?? now kida is doing great being as she is only 11 weeks old. but I'm worried she will get into the habit of going potty inside.