 Barked: Thu May 17, '12 10:27pm PST |
 | |  | | Potty training won't happen over night so be prepared for accidents.
Follow your pup like a hawk if she isn't confined and don't let more than an hour go by without taking her outside to go pee. If she doesn't pee in the first few minutes of being outside, then wait. And wait and wait and wait. Don't come inside until she's done her business and when she goes, praise like crazy.
I was taking Moose outside every half hour to hour when I was home with him. The time that he would have an accident the most was right after eating, when I thought that I could wash that one last dish before he needed to go out.
When I finally wised up to the fact that he would squat to go pee within 5 minutes after eating, the meal time accidents ceased.
To this day, at 7 months, I'm still vigilent about getting him out shortly after he's eaten. I don't want any accidents. Although he understands what he's supposed to do to get my attention when he has to go, I'm still on top of it.
I still get up from whatever I'm doing if I hear him wander into a room that he really has no reason to be in, just to make sure he isn't peeing or pooping inside.
It's a pain to interupt yourself all the time to check on the pup or get the pup outside, but it's so worth it.
About a month and a half ago I bumped into a guy walking his 1 1/2 yr old dog and he asked me if Moose was potty trained. He was shocked to hear that my 5 1/2 month old puppy was and wanted to know how I did it because he couldn't get his potty trained.
When I told him that he had to watch his dog all the time and take her out all the time, I could tell that he didn't do either of those things.
I got the feeling he wasn't up to the task of being consistent. Too bad.
Make sure she isn't in her crate very long without potty breaks. During the work week I was able to sneak home twice a day to get Moose out for a break. Puppies can't be left in a crate for more than a few hours without potty breaks. I still go home at lunch to get Moose out for a midafternoon break.
If you can't get home (if that's an issue) to get her out, think about hiring a dog walker or neighbor to let her out.
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and we crate her at night and when we aren't home or can't watch her, like at dinner for example.
I am a first time puppy owner too. We got our puppy in December. We did teach her to go outside to potty by hanging a little bell on our patio door. Each time we took her out (every half hour at first) we took her paw and hit the bell to ring it. Didn't take long and she was hitting the bell on her own to let us know when she had to go. The only other advice I can give you is to hang in there. It was sure hard those first few weeks but it DOES get easier. Hope this helps a bit.
