Toilet training

[Chase 17]

Hi everyone, any advise on toilet training, what age do u start, how long does it take, do u give treats, how long to keep outside, how often to bring? I read a lot about it but I would like to know from your own experiences, thank u.

[Crinkly 15,586]

Chase is 11 weeks, yes?

then I would say start immediately, but don't expect him to be trained for a while!

i would say the most important thing to bear in mind is to make it fun and rewarding for him, never tell him off when he gets it wrong.

little puppies have tiny bladders, so don't expect him to hold for more than a couple of hours, preferably less.

we used to set an alarm on my phone every hour.  Then leap to our feet making excited 'outside' noises.  We would race him to the door, making joyous noises of fun.  Then we would stand in the garden til he either puddled or we gave up. 

Have you noticed the little tail bobbing that tells you he is widdling?

if he peed we congratulated him IMMEDIATELY.

they also need a trip outside within 2 mins of waking up, and soon after food.

and they simply cannot, at that age, hold themselves all night, so it will be puppy pads or getting up in the middle of the night, for a while. We used pads.

[Missysmom 24,975]

I always, to this day, give Missy treats for going potty and Lots of praise!

I do think it depends on the pup as to how long it takes. I'm sure others can give you some better idea for a pup, most of mine have been older rescues so it's been more a retraining for a new environment.

But I can say it never seems to end, we've had Missy going on 2 years (hard to believe!) and just this morning we had a miss of the pad- no treats anymore for misses! She often gets sooo distracted when she goes out, she was much more interested in getting back to squirrel chasing than focusing on her business...!  

[Crinkly 15,586]

Cato was 98% trained by 16 weeks (he was rather precocious)

Tara took much longer (less brain power, less focus and more bouncy silliness).  She was 80% OK by 5-6 months, but still had the odd accident until she was at least 12 months.