Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Potty Training a 7 1/2 week puppy

Can someone please help me, I have recently brought a new puppy home. He is about 71/2 weeks old, he is part Toy Fox Terrier and Australian Shepard. I have been trying to take him outside to use the bathroom, he has gone a few times but for the most part all he wants to do is chew on the grass. As soon as we bring him back inside he pee's. He has peed and pooped on our bed. All over our house, i don't know how to get him to use the bathroom outside. We have even bought the potty pads to put on the floor, he pee's on them when he feels like it! We also have another dog, he is almost 2 and he uses the bathroom outside about regularly..except when were at work all day, he does have accidents.  I don't know what to do and i hate coming home with pee and poop on the floor. I don't wanna get rid of him but, i can't take it. Please someone help me..
9 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
203342 tn?1328737207
The Kong toy is a wonderful idea. I believe you can buy them at Walmart. I know you can at PetSmart.
Ghilly has a good point. He will probably whine, howl and put up a big fuss when you first start training him. And she's right, when he does that ignore it! I know it's hard but only pay attention when he's being good or if he's whining to go out to go potty. You will learn the difference. It really does work! But you may not get any sleep for awhile while you both adjust to this new routine! I know with me it took about a month to teach the puppies that I'm not going to pay attention when they kick up a fuss. I got no sleep that first month! Now they just know it's bedtime when we pick them up, have the go potty and put them in their area with their bed and a couple of chew toys and they lay right down. It really did take awhile to get them to that point, though. I was so tempted to cave in and take them to bed with me during this month because I was soooo tired! But I didn't and I'm glad now I didn't. They are doing real well.
Your puppy will adjust to the new changes too. It will just take some time and lots of patience!
Best wishes. I hope he learns quickly so you don't lose too much sleep! Take care. :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I will absolutely purchase one of the Kong toys. Can you get them at Walmart? I think that he will like that, and keep him busy. He loves to chew on things being a puppy!!

We have been giving him dog treats when we take him potty, an last night after i took him out he went potty I gave him a treat..then a little while later he had Direaha. Should i stop giving him the treats? What i did today to try to trick him was i just gave him one piece of dog food..he seemed to like it! This is his first time having direaha since we got him..so im think it's the treats...we just started the treats like 3 days ago or so.
Helpful - 0
441382 tn?1452810569
April is correct.  It's not too late to change his routine, but because he has had a taste of sleeping with you, he will probably protest for a while since it's not what he is used to.  

As far as where to put the crate, wait and see what happens.  You can start off with it in your bedroom, but because he will be able to see you, he may not lay down and go to sleep without a LOT of protesting, his theory being "if I fuss enough at her, she'll HAVE to come rescue me!"  If you can tolerate his whining, barking and yelping right there in the room with you, then leave him there and eventually he will stop and lay down and go to sleep.  The thing is, though, the whining, barking and yelping is all to get your attention, and if you so much as tell him "HUSH!", he has won because even negative attention is still attention.  You will have to be VERY strong and just TOTALLY ignore him, because every time you tell him "hush" or "stop" or whatever, his ploy is working and you are giving him attention.  

If you are unable to ignore his protestations, it's best to put the crate in another room where you won't be tempted to talk to him or try to reason with him to stop making noise.  Eventually, as long as you totally ignore him, he WILL give up and settle down and go to sleep.   But any time he is in the crate, until he is used to being crated, do not respond to any attempts of his to get your attention.  Once he is crate trained, however, if he makes noise and tries to get your attention, THEN go to him since he probably will not attempt to get you to notice him unless there's really something that you should be aware of going on with him.  

You can put a toy in the crate with him to keep him busy.  I love the Kong toys for this purpose, because you can stuff them with yummy things like peanut butter or cream cheese and he will keep busy for HOURS trying to get the good stuff out of the Kong, and he'll be less likely to try to get you to notice him if he's busy trying to get every bit of peanut butter or cream cheese out of the Kong.  The peanut butter or cream cheese that will fill a Kong doesn't amount to enough to make them have to go outside to potty after eating it.  If you put a meal in with him, even a small meal just to keep him busy, it will defeat your purpose because then you'll have to take him out of the crate to go outside to potty after he eats it.  The idea is to keep him busy, give him a yummy treat to take him mind off the fact that he's alone in a crate, and keep him occupied enough that he will feel like taking a nap after he gets his treat.

Ghilly
Helpful - 0
203342 tn?1328737207
It's not too late but he won't like it! He'll probably cry for awhile. It could last a few days or longer so just be patient.
I don't know what the others would say but I think you should keep him in the room with you at night. That way you can hear him and take him out easier to go potty.
I talked with a trainer who said expect to have to get up with him every 2 hours to go potty, maybe less. You can gradually increase the time as he gets older. Some train faster than others. The trainer told me smaller toy breeds seem to take longer to train than larger breeds. Maybe because their bladders are smaller?

I have 2 puppies who are almost 5 months old and are now almost fully potty trained. They rarely have accidents now. Still, I'm afraid to let them out just yet. I didn't crate train but did something pretty similar. I blocked off the kitchen with a baby gate and a blanket, water, toys, etc. Then I did the same thing in the master bedroom bathroom for sleeping at night. I've been told it takes longer to potty train this way, though, so take the others' advice.
The trainer I talked to said to not let them out until you are confident they won't have any accidents or chew things up. He said they really can't be fully trusted till they're probably at least a year old.
Just be patient. It may take time but he'll get there. And congrats on your new puppy. I hope you have many enjoyable years with him. :)
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Okay, i have one last question..We got the puppy almost two weeks ago and he has already been sleeping in the bed with us. Is it too late to start crate training him since he is already used to sleeping in the bed. An if so should we keep the crate in our bedroom or in another part of the apartment?
Helpful - 0
685623 tn?1283481607
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Wow...Ghilly has given you some absolutely EXCELLENT advice.   Just to add my two cents, I will never ever try to train a puppy without a crate again.   My newest acquisition, my Mastiff puppy Loki, was crate trained and I really feel like we avoided a lot of the "puppy pitfalls" so many people go through.

A couple of additions to the fantastic job Ghilly did:

1) Consider a good enzymatic pet stain and odor remover to clean the spots where he as peed in the house.   I really like Nature's Miracle and the Equalizer is good too.   You might even have to block him off from that area of the house while you try and clean the area.   Without removing the source of the smell, he will be drawn back to that area again and again.

2) Schedule his meals and his potty breaks:  Dogs love routines.   After taking him outside first thing in the morning, allow him about 20 minutes to eat his food.  If he doesn't eat within that 20 minutes, pick up the food and save it for his mid day or evening meal.  If he does eat, he goes back in the crate and then take him out about 20-30 minutes later.    He will likely have to go then.

There is a great book by Dr. Suzanne Hetts (one of our experts in the Ask A Vet Behavior forum) called "Raising a Beahviorally Healthy Puppy".   I would highly recommend it.

Good luck!!
Helpful - 0
441382 tn?1452810569
You can use a crate for him as well.  They're never too old to learn.  It has been proven that the old adage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is not true.  As long as they are living and breathing, they can learn.

Something else you might try before investing in another crate is a flexi-lead.  They are retractable leads that come in several different lengths and allow the dog to run off away from you, unlike having to stay right by your side like they do with a regular leash.  Maybe if he is able to run off 10 or 15 feet away from you he will feel like he's running loose and he'll be more apt to want to poop.  They come in various lengths from about 12 feet for the very small ones to 26 feet for the training flexis.

Ghilly
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Thank you, I'm going to absolutely try the crate. Another question..our older dog, he's almost 2. He poops in the house..I have only got him to poop outside one time when we were on vacation. When i take him out on his least he wont go, he will pee 10 times but wont poop. When we take him places where he can run free he will poop. How do i get him to start pooping on the leash outside? Should i use the crate thing for him also?
Helpful - 0
441382 tn?1452810569
I have always found that the easiest way to reliably housetrain a dog is to crate train them.  That does away with all the problems you have stated in your post - the peeing and pooping on the bed, the coming home to a house that's a mess because he peed and pooped everywhere while you were out, etc.

When you crate train them, your time with them can be spent doing fun things because you're not spending the majority of your time cleaning up after them and it saves a LOT of wear and tear on your possessions because they can't ransack your house and tear things up while you are asleep or not at home.

The concept behind crate training is that a dog will not pee and poop where it eats and sleeps.  You will need a crate that is large enough for him to stand up, turn around, and stretch out comfortably, but you don't want one that is so large that he can pee and poop down one end and still have enough room to go lay down the other end of the crate to get away from it.  

Whenever you are sleeping or not at home, the puppy should be in the crate.  The minute you wake up or return home, go right to the crate, remove him, and IMMEDIATELY take him outside so that he can relieve himself.  At his current age, he can't go more than four or so hours without having to relieve himself, so you will need to come home on your lunch break if you work, or else have a neighbor drop in at noon time to take him out.  Stay outside with him until he does what he has to do.  If he doesn't do it right away, stay out there with him until he does.  He doesn't get to go into the house until he has taken care of everything he has to.  When you wake up in the morning, take him outside before you have your coffee or anything, you can wait, he can't.  

When you take him outside and set him down on the ground, say "do pee pee!".  As he's peeing, tell him "do pee pee!", and when he's done, praise him like he just found the cure for cancer.  The same thing with poop.  When you see him start to go into the poop stance, tell him "do poop!", and continue to say it while he's going.  Again, praise him when he's finished.  By doing this, you are training him to eliminate on command, which comes in handy when the weather is miserable and you don't want to spend a lot of time in the yard waiting for him to take care of business.

Once you bring him back into the house, as long as you are interacting with him, he can be out of the crate.  Feed him in the crate and close him in there when he naps.  This way he understands what the crate is for, and he will start to see it as his "room".  

Crates are invaluable as training tools when they are used correctly, but when used incorrectly, they can be very cruel.  They are not a substitute for housetraining, they are a valuable tool to help you accomplish the training.  

Something else you can try is tethering the puppy to yourself, this way he is always right there with you and he can't sneak off somewhere to defile your carpet when you're not looking or chew up your couch when your back is turned.  

One thing you do want to keep in mind is if you DO happen to catch the puppy going to the bathroom in the house, just calmly pick him up, say "Outside!", and take him outside to do what has to be done.  Don't yell and scream at him, because to a dog's way of thinking, he won't connect your action with him going to the bathroom in the house, he will simply think that he's not supposed to go in front of you, and he will become ever more creative about finding places to sneak off to in the house to go where you can't see him.  Whenever he does something outside, praise him wildly and endlessly tell him how good he is.  Praise works wonders!

Ghilly
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Dogs Community

Top Dogs Answerers
675347 tn?1365460645
United Kingdom
974371 tn?1424653129
Central Valley, CA
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Members of our Pet Communities share their Halloween pet photos.
Like to travel but hate to leave your pooch at home? Dr. Carol Osborne talks tips on how (and where!) to take a trip with your pampered pet
Ooh and aah your way through these too-cute photos of MedHelp members' best friends
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.