Ok well Zoe is 2 1/2 months now and I was wonder when should I start training her? You know like crate training and house training? Also how would I go about all that?

I would start crate training ASAP, the earlier the better in my opinion. With house training, does she eat at specific times during the day? A routine is always best to start with, it helps with learning the times that she will need to be taken out to potty. We usually fed ours, waited 5 minutes, then we went outside until they did their business, gave lots of praise and attention during and right after, then came right back inside. We would wait about an hour after that then go out again to make sure we didnt have any accidents. She will pick up right away that potty outside = attention and praise.

I'd start right away with both crate training and potty training. I got Cally at 6 1/2 weeks old and I begun the training immediately. I know your situation is a little different, but the earlier you start the easier it will be for you! Make sure you let her out after she eats, drinks, pees, runs around, plays and besides that every 1-2 hours. Be consistent with your training and I'm sure she will catch on quickly! Lots and lots of praise when she goes to the bathroom outside and remember never yell or hit her if she goes in the house, this may cause her to think that going to the bathroom in general is wrong. Just give a firm no and pick her up and take her straight outside to finish her business. Once again, lots of praise! Also with crate training, make sure you are always making it a positive experience for her and give her lots of praise when she does as you want!

Anytime is the right time. They are little sponges the second they are born (which you know first-hand ) I taught Kale to sit by 7 weeks using chicken lunch meat. Lol

Like everyone said, right away! Whenever you're ready haha. Like Brooke's Kale, Kota learned sit and down by 7 weeks they're so smart!

Crate training will help with potty training. Like previously said, a schedule does wonders. Teaching her to eat in her crate helps her associate it with positive feelings so it helps make sleeping through the night in the crate much easier. And keep in mind that it's better to prevent accidents than try to correct it. Puppies bladders are small so I'd start by taking them out to potty every hour and increase the time as she ages. The general rule of thumb is that a puppy can hold it for the amount of months they are in hours (i.e. 2 months = 2 hours, 3 months = 3 hours, etc). But this is only a rule of thumb, not a fact of life. What helped us at first was leashing Kota to pee, and when he pees we'd give him grrrreat big praise and then immediately take the leash off and he could play in the backyard for a bit before going back inside to play. That would be his "reward" for pottying outside. If he didn't potty, we'd take him back to his crate for ~15min and try again til he potties. The reason we put him back in his crate is that they tend not to defecate near their bedding/food so it would prevent him from doing so in the house. If you're too busy to supervise her, it's best to leash her to you (if possible, this would be best) or crate her, but avoid crating her for unnecessarily long periods of time for no apparent reason. The more exposure she gets to the house, the faster she will be house broken so long as you immediately correct her when doing something wrong (chewing on furniture, taking shoes, etc) which is why leashing her to you can be so essential if you can't devote all of your attention to her. Best of luck!

Someone already mentioned most of the times when you should take her out to potty but also after a nap! For Callie, after a nap she ALWAYS had to go, but not always after playing. Start training right away! It'll only make your life easier. The woman who had Callie before me started teaching her sit and when I got her at 8 weeks, we mastered it in just a couple days. She also responds better to hand signals than verbal commands because she suffers from a serious case of Selective Hearing. Tragic, really. Sit's pretty easy to teach. Put a treat in the palm of your hand and hold your hand out flat above her head. She should sit automatically so her eyes can follow the treat. Once you have a sit, you can start on down. When Zoe is sitting, bring the treat straight down in front of her face and slide it away from her. She'll "down" to get it.

Crate training can be easy or it can be hell, depending on the dog. Start by leaving it open and occasionally dropping a few treats in. Then you can start prompting her to go in and closing the door for a few seconds before opening it again. Gradually increase how long the door's closed as well as putting distance between yourself and the crate until you can completely leave the room for 5, 10 minutes and she's fine. And always give tons of praise!

Like Shae said after nap time ALWAYS take her to potty after nap. Anna had accidents if i didnt take her fast enough. Anna didn't really have to potty after playing either. we started training her right away but we didn't train her crate wise until later on. It was a huge mistake. It was a lot harder to train them later on when it comes to the crate, at least it was with Anna. I thought she would never like her crate even though we did everything everyone suggested. We just had to put her in the crate and she just had to deal. We tried preparing her for when school started but it didn't exactly help any.

Also be CONSISTANT!! This is the key to overcoming the crate. My boyfriend and I both wanted to give in because after 1 to 2 hours of straight crying we were ready to go crazy but she won't learn if you give in. Also before we let Anna out of her crate we make her sit down and calm down a little and made her wait after I opened the door till I was ready for her to come out. It helps so I don't get attacked with kisses right away. I have time to prepare and get her ready to go outside to potty.

anastasiya'smom wrote:

Also be CONSISTANT!! This is the key to overcoming the crate. My boyfriend and I both wanted to give in because after 1 to 2 hours of straight crying we were ready to go crazy but she won't learn if you give in. Also before we let Anna out of her crate we make her sit down and calm down a little and made her wait after I opened the door till I was ready for her to come out. It helps so I don't get attacked with kisses right away. I have time to prepare and get her ready to go outside to potty.

definitely do not cave...with Ziva, first night of the crate=hell. got better after that, only took a couple nights. ended up using a suggestion from someone on here and put a towel over it (at least a corner of it) and it seemed to work well.

You guys are great I need all of this info

Hahaha. Well for me none of that worked. She still cried for a while at night time even after a couple of weeks. But we kept her in there until we moved and a few weeks after we moved. But she no longer sleeps in the crate at night.
I tried putting a towel over Anna's crate and she just ripped it up and I got sick of cleaning up the mess. Plus she ended up pulling her metal crate apart so now she has one of those plastic crates and she seems to like it more. And I don't have to cover it!