Not a great week!

Sandy in CT

Sandy in CT

Premium Member
12 weeks today - a whopping 6 lbs 6 or so up almost a pound. Not too much upward growth, maybe 1/4 inch, but does seem a bit bigger - stockier. Still sleeping through the night 8 or 9 pm to 7 am - no complaints there!!! He had his 2nd set of shots Monday and no issues there.

Potty training - OMG - I am about to cry! Daytime these last 2 days has been a disaster! He did AWESOME on Tuesday, and yesterday morning - great! Afternoon - nope - a peeing machine. Take him out every 45 minutes, every 30, every 20 - doesn't matter. Before drinking, after drinking, eating, playtime, whatever - he is a peeing machine! He held it for 1 1/2 hours while I exercised and showered, but even though I took him outside and he pee'd outside, we've had 4 accidents before noon! How can he pee so much! I have the bell, I have the time, I have him confined but he gets freedom - he pees! I broke down and got some wraps because otherwise I can't give him access to Kooper and playtime. I just sat and cried after the last accident.

It's crazy because he CAN hold it! For his puppy class Tuesday night, he pee'd outside before and after and no accidents at all, but home he can go every 15 minutes! I don't believe in puppy pads in the house because I feel it's confusing to say here, it's ok to potty indoors - nope - don't potty indoors.

On a positive note - puppy class was a hoot! He was not too keen on his play group this week, his size this week included a VERY shy aussie female who kept sniffing his male parts. But he eventually did get into it, just tried to avoid her, including running to hide under the 92 lb great dane puppy he has taken a liking to. Class does not resume until March, we will start obedience then and consider the puppy class that follows it once we see how he does. With his shots, though, we are cleared by the vet to take him to Petco so we will do a few free puppy play-dates with them while waiting.

Other training is going well, he comes most of the time, does know his name. Knows sit, down, sit pretty, shake, is learning roll over both ways and today we started touch (holding my right hand out to the side and asking him to touch his nose to my palm, then repeating for the left). He seemed to catch on to that pretty quickly. He has no issues whatsoever with the tunnel so hubby is going to do a very low teeter board this weekend and give me a few clean boards to use for a very low walk-board.
 
Awww I'm sorry your having difficulty with the house breaking Sandy. You most definitely are not alone, we've all been there! Speaking from experience as one who's just gone through this with Finnie, house breaking can be the most frustrating experience of having a puppy...even when you think they've 'got it' they have an accident again lol!
I did find that at 12 weeks Finnie was too young, too busy and had zero attention span so he would ALWAYS forget. Especially if he was playing with Piper...he'd just squat and pee...I had to be extra vigilant in watching him and even then accidents would happen.
I think with Finnie by the time he was 14-16 weeks he started to understand ringing the bell to go potty outside (always alone, if Piper came out too it was just a distraction). By 6 months he was almost accident free... I say almost because even when you think they know what to do they pee inside! But as with all aspects of training, if they haven't forgotten it at least once they don't know it yet. And believe you me, Finnie must've forgotten it at least 5 times (from the point he was accident free for some time)!
Just last week Finnie pee'd in the house twice...at 1 year old! But this time was our fault, not his. I was confining him when I'd go to work and my 90 year old mother would feel sorry for him so she'd let him out of his crate at 9 pm. So now he's excited, happy to see other dogs (but she won't let him outside after dark) so he pees. I know when I'm home that he'll let me know when he has to go out, but he's probably not getting the message across to my mom. So now our compromise is he's crated until 5 pm, she lets him outside and he's good now until I get home at 10.
Just keep doing what your doing, sometimes you have to back up a step or two...or three lol but they will get it. And sometimes if one method doesn't work just try something else...sometimes it's our fault and not theirs ( as my example illustrates lol).
I know how frustrating it is and how it does seem at times that they'll NEVER get it!
Hugs to you:hugs
 
Thank you Piper's Mom!!!

I know the struggle of potty training, but have been out of it for a LONG time! I potty trained our red piebald doxie with 2 in diapers and while pregnant with our 3rd (we had 3 in 4 years). He was NEVER reliable in the house - he'd run away to poop then eat the evidence - YUCK!!! His backslid while my youngest was being potty trained - they'd mark on each other's spots. Kooper, our doxie who soon turns 11, took honestly about 5 years to potty train and was not reliable in the house until he was about 7 or 8. He will now hold urine for as long as insanely possible.

The positives 1) I am getting my steps in every single day and 2) Nature's Miracle floor cleaner was buy 2 get 1 free when we just went on our field-trip to Petco. I did my whole kitchen and dinette area and we will see if this holds up to the 'no-residue' claim since the regular Nature's Miracle is horrible with residue and then tracking residue and the floors looking all gummy.

Major positive - he is so darn cute! I did have 14 - 16 weeks in the back of my head as a possible 'lightbulb' stage - glad it worked with Finnie, I think Willow was reliable at 14 weeks too so will pray it works with Brodie! My youngest is 18 and in the college applications stage so I have lots of time to devote to this with not so many distractions.
 
Oh boy, as Piper's mom said, we feel your pain!! They are all different and all train at different ages. I've been home and available all day with most of my puppies but still (and I hope this isn't too discouraging) it can take forever! I thought Flurry, now 18 months, would NEVER get it. She had accidents until she was 14 months old. It wasn't that she didn't know better...she just never figured out how to tell me.

Some of mine have trained in less than a year, but most are close to that. Some like to fool you. You think at 4 months they're perfect and hooray, they've got it! Then they hit 5 or 6 months and all backslide, making you crazy. No puppy has physical muscle control to hold it until 6 months of age -- if they're good, it's more luck and timing than training -- and for some reason they all have a regression period around 6 months, so expect that.

All you can do is keep at it, keep rewarding and praising for success and know that like our children, no one goes to high school not potty trained. This too shall pass!!

One other thing. I gave up Natures Miracle years ago when they changed the formula. I found a product I swear by called Fizzion...totally natural, no chemicals, no residue, and it totally cleans everything including vomit and diarrhea from rugs or furniture. It is the best stuff ever. I buy it here on Amazon, and you can get refills there too.
 
Willow doesn't last nearly as long overnight as your guy but she seems, fingers crossed, to be housebroken now. We haven't had an accident in the house for two weeks now I think. Gee, I hate even writing that down anywhere and I'm not superstitious. :) That would be at fourteen weeks. We were really lucky with Willow, I think she averaged a piddle in the house a week from when we got home to fourteen weeks old. I'm sure your little chap will catch on soon.
 
I think their minds have to mature to a certain extent to get the idea about not peeing in the house. Devon would pee in the house when he got excited or if I didn't take him out every couple of hours during the day, after eating, and at least once in the middle of the night. All of a sudden though, sometime around last Thanksgiving when he was between 5 and 6 months old, he suddenly "got it" as if by magic and he hasn't peed or pooped in the house ever since, even when he has to go pretty bad (i.e. times when the instant he gets outside he goes).

He seemed to mature a whole lot during just a few short weeks around that time, as if a part of his mind that had never been there before suddenly turned on. Now, that's not to say that he still didn't chew up stuff and still act like a puppy, but he gained an attention span and a better understanding of cause and effect during those weeks that he never had before, which made it a whole lot easier to teach him stuff.

So the bottom line is that your puppy's mind just might not be quite developed enough yet to make the connection about the need to "hold it" while indoors and to let you know he needs to go out. That kind of behavior requires understanding the concept of delayed gratification (i.e. accept a little discomfort now from having to go in return for praise and maybe a treat for going outside instead).
 
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