Need some Direction (and perhaps reassurance!)

How old is Dalila? As HopeShelties noted, if she's very young there's been no serious potty training. A very young pup just doesn't have the capacity or control on their sphincter muscles for training. The breeder is focusing on socializing and weaning the pups from mom's milk to solid foods. Now that she's yours, the advice given below is very sound: take her out minimum every 2 hours AND when she wakes, eats, or plays. Praise her when she goes outside, ignore it when she makes a mistake inside. Be sure to clean up the area inside with a good cleaner that will remove the smell or she'll be attracted to going there again. Use Nature's Miracle, 10% white vinegar, or Odorban.
Now...where are the pictures of Dalila? :biggrin2:
 
I taught Romeo to do his thing on a pee tray with newspapers (and then added pee pads). Might be an option for you if you don't want to be running downstairs alot.

I did it by confining him to an area using a playpen and laying newspapers over the entire floor of the playpen. Over the next few days, I would gradually reduce the covered area, leaving a slightly soiled sheet in the corner I want him to be going to do his biz. If he ever does it outside of the newspaper covered area, I would cover that spot back up and reduce the area again over time until only one opened up sheet is left, and he's doing his thing on it consistently, then I slide a tray underneath. When he was real good I put pee pads on half of the tray, then eventually over the whole tray. Done! Whereever we are, I need only newspaper and he'll know where to go. I knew he was toilet trained when I left the current day's papers on the floor and he stopped to do pee on it.

I think this process teaches the dog to remember the feel of the floor over which he does his thing (ie. the feel of the newspaper/pee pad instead of carpet or tile or whatever).

I'll add that Romeo also has the option of eliminating when we go on walks. He'll do the big one once a day outdoors most of the time now.

Oh I wanted to add that I chose this method coz I was not able to supervise him much (darn work!) while he was being toilet trained. But whenever I was home he'd get his praise and reward whenever he did it on the papers, which helped speed things up abit.
 
Stacey,
Where would you have 8-12 week old puppies sleep at night if not in crates? Just visualize what a huge mess you would have in the morning if they were in a pen. At 7 weeks, 2 pups to each #100 crate (transitioning toward independence), put next to each other, so they can see their buds in the next crates. At 8 weeks old, they move to one pup per crate, and at 9 weeks they go home, already sleeping through the night by themselves in their own crates. I don't recommend putting the pup in the same room as the owners because the owners will disrupt the pups sleep, and confuse it, thinking it is time to go out. So, then you get a puppy that whines in the night. And keep running it outside.
 
I am using the pee pads now, we picked them up yesterday. Dalila seems to be pretty accurate with them now, she's actually seeking them out and going on them without me needing to encourage her. She had an accident in her crate last night but I washed her blankets and the tray so it's all fresh now. So we're all starting to get a hang of the potty training thing.

The only thing I'm still having issues with is taking her outside. I don't want her to totally rely on the pee pads. We go out front of my building because it's well lit and everyone takes their dogs that way, so I know the smell should stimulate her and she's already gone in that area a few times. In the morning she's pretty good at going but the thing is there's no traffic. I tried taking her out last night around 10 and even when she started sniffing around as if to go passing cars would stop her. She ended up peeing inside. How do I help her get over this? The breeder's house is on a quiet road, so she's not used to all this traffic. It doesn't scare her but it really distracts her from going and she doesn't end up going at all.

On the plus side she's walking on the leash pretty good :yes:
 
Maybe just bring her out and give her a treat when a car goes by to give the noise a more positive association. Not sure I live on a quiet circle with a yard so Sca is spoiled
 
missjenneygirl said:
Stacey,
Where would you have 8-12 week old puppies sleep at night if not in crates? Just visualize what a huge mess you would have in the morning if they were in a pen. At 7 weeks, 2 pups to each #100 crate (transitioning toward independence), put next to each other, so they can see their buds in the next crates. At 8 weeks old, they move to one pup per crate, and at 9 weeks they go home, already sleeping through the night by themselves in their own crates. I don't recommend putting the pup in the same room as the owners because the owners will disrupt the pups sleep, and confuse it, thinking it is time to go out. So, then you get a puppy that whines in the night. And keep running it outside.
Click to expand...

That is pretty much like my breeder does. All of my pups came crate trained and started on housetraining. Prue bliss.:smile2: I got Justice at 11 wks and he was almost totally housetrained.
 
Dalila update!

She's taken to the crate REALLY well. So much that she willingly goes in all the time. Right now I've got her to stay in there a couple hours at a time and she's doing just fabulous. I make sure she potties before she goes in and after she gets out. The number of accidents are lessening, she's getting better at going outside in the morning and she's using pee pads indoors. Plenty of playtime inbetween.
 
Dalila's pottying update

Congratulations. Glad she is making such great progress. Hang in there, sounds like everything is moving in the right direction. Sounds like she is getting the idea.
 
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