Good Evening, Everyone. I hope you have all had a great holiday season. Keira is getting more into the routine of things and did very well on the 12 hr drive to the Finger Lakes for the holidays. Lately, she has been showing a behavior that I do not know how to correct and would like to know if anyone else has had any similar situations.

I am training Keira on the potty bells hung on the door. She is doing very well and understands (95% of the time) that if you have to go potty, you have to either go ring the bells or sit upright in front of the door. She is 12 weeks old for you to keep in mind when considering how long she should be able to "hold it". The following situation has occurred a bit much in the past couple days...She'll go to the door / ring the bells and I'll take her outside. I walk her around the spot where I take her to relieve herself and she does go usually a few times in different spots. I'm outside with her for a couple minutes. When she acts like she wants to play (bite her leash, giving me "the look"), I take her inside since it's to go potty, not play. When we get inside, she'll resume her normal self but not even five minutes later and she's back at the door ringing the bells. ***Here is where I don't know what to do. Ignore it or take her out. It's been only a couple minutes. On a couple of occasions, I have ignored it and told her we already went out but then a minute or two later, she has an accident on the by the door or some other place in the house. Why does she do this? Does anyone have any advice?

Best Regards,

Brandon

Where abouts in he finger lakes? We're north of Elmira.

Two things come to mind... either you're not letting her stay out long enough to fully empty her bladder (dogs have the ability to compartmentalize, for want of a better word) or she's not getting enough play time or oops, 3 she has a bladder infection. Or all the above.

I would start by allowing her at least 15 minutes pee time. Hope it's not cold what you are... we are 3 heading to 1 tonight.

Brandon, It really isn't all that odd. My Sofie did it too and just about drove me nuts. When I brought her home at 10 weeks she was great at letting me know. Then somewhere between 11 and 12 weeks, yup trip to the door every 20 minutes. I just about lost my mind. It may be a uti like Amy said, because I thought that too, but somewhere around 16-17 weeks everything clicked. She could hold it through the night, she didn't whine at the door all the time. Her pooping she figured out quickly the peeing not so much. I kept asking my friends, what is wrong with her? At three months old I was convinced she should be able to hold it for 3 hours, just wasn't the case with her. Why? I do not know. sorry to say, but give her another month, and I bet you she will figure it out. Personally I think it was a game, and because they have such small bladders, it's fun to see how crazy they can make you, see how much attention they get, and to see how often they can go outside. Even now, she pretends she has to go so she can go outside, lil brat, haha. I am slowly catching on to her shenanigans. but really, right now she really probably has to go, I would crate her some, if she isn't crated much through the day. I am at home and I think that was my biggest issue I didn't crate her through the day, so I didn't really train her bladder. If that makes any sense, and if you are home with her, that may be your issue too? Have patience, she will get better.

Thank you Amy & Renee. I'll discuss with her vet at her next visit the possibilities of an infection. I hope she doesn't have one. I'm led to believe it's more of a thing where she thinks she can trick me to letting her outside. We're probably going to start Puppy Preschool tonight so that she can socialize more and learn some new things.

Amy, We went to Waterloo to visit family, it's where I'm from. Got on 99 and went the rest of the way up on 414. We're living in NC now. It was nice to have a Christmas that was over 60 degrees in NY haha.

Yup know Waterloo about an hour northeast of us. Hope you had a good visit