I'm messing up his potty training :(

[Chinchi]

As a little experiment I gave Hugo back some vet bed to sleep on. It had been washed in natures miracle and I had even rubbed it all over his body to transfer his scent onto it. However, he had still at some point out of my presence peed on it when he could have peed elsewhere on the floor.

He is doing very well now with peeing outside so I think this peeing on bedding is just a bad habit he has now. Or could it be marking? He is only 12 weeks, I'm not sure when scent marking starts to happen in pups.

As I don't want him to further indulge in the habit, all bedding is removed from now on. Do you think he will eventually grow out of peeing on soft things, or is this going to be something we'll have to really work on? He never does it in my presence, so I have never been able to tell him no and re-direct him outside.

I'm hoping that by carrying on with his toilet training and him growing up more things will right themselves. Oh, and no access to carpets at all!

 

[VallejoSheltie]

+1 on this and the lots of crate time suggestion.

I built a 5'x5' x 2' tall pen for Boots out of some plywood and a couple of 2x4.
Placed scrap linoleum underneath and his crate inside.

4-5x a day he'd have a potty break, then play time with us outside the pen. Then some play time on his own in the pen with toys, and then in the crate for a while.

Really within 2-3 weeks he was holding it for 7-8 hours if I recall correctly.

Once that happened, we reduced crate time, and after a couple of months, the pen and crate time altogether. That does seems kind of long now that I think of it, but at the time we were basically first time primary dog owners, and stuck with what we'd read.

Oh and the floor thing?

Forget it. My guy is almost 2, and while he'll jump up into the bed with us, its 5 minutes between us, 5 minutes having moved to the bottom of the bed, and then he jumps down and finds a cooler spot.
We have laminate flooring on a concrete slab downstars, and he definately prefers the cooler tile over that.
These guys were bred in Scotland, land of cold, mist and drafts. I expect any house situation is sort of like living Florida for us.

A puppy that young needs a schedule.