Hit a Snag in Potty Training

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Willie Boy will be 14 weeks old on 4/19 so I do realize that is very young. But right from getting him at 8 weeks, we have had no problems. He would eat and poop so I also realize it was easy to just be catching him when he needed to go. And he is still doing great on the peeing. He will pee immediately no matter how often I take him out so again, easy to catch him.

The problem comes with the pooping. He has pooped in his xpen for the past 3 days. The problem has become that he no longer poops as often as he is eating. Plus he has become VERY distracted after he pees, smelling the grass, trying to eat things that would be very bad for him i.e. mulch pieces, small gravel!!! From the driveway. Cant put him in the backyard because Jaxon is also a very big distractiin. I stay a long time out with him when I take him but since his pooping time has become random, I finally give up and bring him in. I also spend a lot if time watching him but have yet to catch him going in his xpen. But eventually I have something I have to do and that's when he poopies. I am just so afraid this is becoming a new habit. I guess what I am hoping for is that as long as I am continuing to work on this, he will begin to get it with age??

He does spend free time with me sitting on the floor watching/playing with him each time he pees/poopies outside so Dont worry that he spends excessive time in his xpen. Well, unless he continues to poopy in his cage. I also give him a treat for pottying outside.

Anybody got any advice or is this very normal behavior for this age? Sassy Mae is the only dog I have ever housetrained and even before I considered her housebroke, she always poopied after her breakfast so that's my only experience.

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Just thought of something else too that may be I was doing well with getting him to poopy when I took him out after a meal. I used no leash. We live on 10 acres so he wasnt going to get in tge street if I didnt put him in the fenced backyard. I started using a leash about a week ago when he started running toward the gravelled driveway and putting the smaal gravel before I could get to him. Or eating grass, leaves or mulch pieces. The first few times on the leash he did what he was supposed to. He still pees fine on it but then will take off running and flip himself. Oh he has a harness, I knew a collar wouldnt work with his personality. But this has become another distraction.

[ShihTzusAreCute 3,662]

Hmm, maybe you could take him out on a leash, keep him leashed until he pees/poops and only let him out of the leash for playtime after? Just until he understands it's poop first play later.

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

That is what I would like but he pees right away on leash and then starts running off real hard and then flopping when he hits the end of the leash. Way too much of a distraction to settle down to think about pooping. I have tried today so far without a leash and he insists on getting in the flower beds with the mulch. I am going to try to find a really long leash to see if more room to run around to find that special spot for pooping will help.

[Sophie's Haven 17,464]

My guys have playtime outside and potty time outside.........what I would do is set a routine of taking Willie Boy out with his leash when it is potty time then sometime during the day allow him time outside without a leash to snoop and wonder. You could say in an excited voice.....OKAY WILLIE BOY LET'S GET OUR LEASH ON AND GO OUT AND GO POTTY......over time he will know the difference of playtime and potty time. I would get a retractable leash (if you don't use one) after awhile they learn how far they can go on them. I took Bailey out on a leash the other day, he has not had to wear on in awhile but we had stray dogs in the woods next to us and had to remind him to behave on the leash. A couple of times of realizing he was only going to go so far he stopped pulling..............

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Thank you Jeannine. As usual, your suggestions are great and I went right up to Walmart to get a retractable leash that is longer. I had to laugh at him last night. We had a quick rain pop up but I thought he really needed to poopy since he had not since early morning and he had just eaten for the second time since. I put my raincoat on, took him out, set him down in the rain and he looked at me like 'What'. I said 'I know, so hurry up and big duty'. And he walked a few feet out and did. I'm gonna remind him of that the next time he is flopping around on the end of the leash, trying to bite it, that at least its not pouring rain!

And we then laughed at Sassy Mae. She told us she had to go too. I opened the door, she FLEW out, squatted on first patch of grass she came to, peed, and FLEW back in.

Edited April 18, 2015 by ParadiseTzu

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Jeannine - I used all your suggestions and we are doing really well at this point.  He goes out to potty on the retractable leash and understands that we are not out to play when he has his leash on. He does have some supervised off leash time daily to play.  I wanted to thank you again for your suggestions.  He has had no accidents during the time I allow him free play on the floor, he still pees sometimes once a day in his playpen even tho I take him out at least every hour if not half hour.  But, at 15 weeks, he is still very young but again, believe he is doing really well.

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Updating again, to keep my own diary and in case anyone else is having potty training puppy issues. Willie Boy is four months old today.

The pottying while on a leash vs free has been accomplished. And he is so quick with either peeing and/or pooping each time he is taken out. The problem now is that if I try to give him free time on the floor, he pees again on the floor within 10-15 minutes of peeing outside. He just does not seem to try to hold it at all. Every where I read says they should be able to hold urine at 16 weeks for at least an hour. Willie didnt read that book!

He is taken out at least every 30 minutes and he is offered water at his feeding times three times a day. All the water he can drink at those times. I am following that schedule from a book 'Housebreak your Puppy in Seven Days'. He has no medical problems that would warrant peeing again on the floor following his peeing outside too.

Anyone else experienced this long a time to housebreak one. And can suggest that since he is so good about pottying outside, he will eventually get the whole thing figured out? I think my biggest concern is that habits develop so easily, such as I pee/poop outside but also just wherever I am.

 

Edited May 11, 2015 by ParadiseTzu

[Pawz4me 6,802]

At 16 weeks old most puppies are just beginning to get some bladder control.

I don't know where the "should be able to hold it an hour at four months old" comes from.  I've never heard it, but I suspect if it's true it's an average that's skewed more toward medium/larger dogs.

The only general rule I've heard for puppies for being able to hold it is one hour for each month plus one more when crated.  So in theory on average most four month old puppies should be able to hold it for five hours when crated (mostly this applies to length of time they should be able to go at night).  Again, that would be an average that won't be exactly true for all puppies.

I would try allowing him free access to water.  I've never believed in restricting water intake at all, ever.  I think it's just overall very unhealthy and that all it teaches them is to gorge on water when given the opportunity.  It may very well be counter productive in the long run.

I think as long as you're cleaning his accident spots very well with Nature's Miracle or some other enzymatic cleaner that he sure will catch on in time.

Now that I've said all that -- I'll admit that the apparent inability to hold it for more than 15 minutes while not in the crate is what made me get wee wee pads for Yogi.  That worked very, very well.  He caught on to using the pads in just a day or so, and from there as he aged and was able to hold it much longer it was an easy transition to getting him to go outside more and more often.  Within a few months he was using a pad if it was available but otherwise was holding it to go outside.

Good luck!

[ParadiseTzu 11,275]

Thank you so much for responding Paws, I always value your answers as I see them.

he does not hold any better in his play pen. And as I was thinking after updating, I also thought maybe gorging on water was creating some of the issue. With that said, I cant put a bowl of water in his pen, he spills it all over but I will stop taking up water as he plays down on the floor.

i keep resisting pee pads as I cant see thru transitioning to totally outside but perhaps, as maybe in Yogi's case, it buys some time as their little bodies mature. I may need to reconsider using them and then watch to make sure Sassy Mae doesnt decide to also start as she has always been sooood good about holding it for outside.

[babnaw 1,391]

Rebel was using pee pads regularly for approx. 3 months because I got her in the winter and so I didn't take her out to pee as often as I did Mr. T who came to me in the summer.  She kind of phased out of using the pee pads all on her own once the warmer weather came and we were outside more often though.  I was really worried that she'd always want to use the pee pads, but once the warmer weather came and we were outside very frequently and for lengthy periods of time, she just stopped using her pads altogether all on her own.  I stopped even putting the pads down in April and she has maybe one accident a month at this point, but she usually goes to the door and whines or rings the bell or barks to go outside.  I always said I wouldn't use pee pads with a dog, but they were a lifesaver in the winter with a new pup and she phased out of using them very easily.