# Potty Training



## CharNC (Aug 19, 2015)

So we have had our puppy for about two weeks and I know it is still early but I was a little worried and thought I would post on here and see what you guys thought.

My puppy has been doing great with no accidents in the house..Doesn't tell us he needs to go out but we take him every 30 mins. - 1 hour all day and 3 times at night (10pm, 1am, 5am). He knows to go when you get into the garden as he does his business and is ready to come back in. (we are praising ,etc.)

But starting Tuesday this week he has been peeing in the house alot. In between the 30 minute outings where he is going as well. We thought maybe that we were not waiting long enough and spent more time with him in the garden to make sure he is "emptying" his bladder. But after about 5 minutes back inside he goes again. Its not big, just small little puddles. 

We did have a slight schedule change as I am not at home during the day now and he stays with my husband and children (they were there originally it is basically minus me.). He is schooling the children during the day and allows the puppy to come in to class with him while he teaches but he keeps having accidents. We do not want to crate him for long periods during the day, especially since we are there but we have been unable to determine what is causing the accidents. Maybe just a puppy?

We went out Tuesday night and bought a bunch of new toys and treats as we thought maybe he was getting bored being in the classroom and he loves them. But it did not seem to change the problem. He shows no real signs that he is going to go until he does.

Is this something to worry about or is it just normal? We are in no way frustrated but wanted to see if maybe its something we are doing that we could change to make it easier on him or if its just the fact that I am not around and school is back in that he is not adjusting to well and with time will get use to it.

I do work from home one day a week and planned on allowing him more freedom in the house (basically hanging out with me some, then in the classroom, etc.) But I do not want to attempt that tomorrow if it might be a schedule issue as I would prefer he get use to the schooling time and I'll keep my fun time till after my normal times.

Thanks.


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## Alittlepoo (Apr 29, 2015)

Hi, I may be a bit confused but are you crate training? You had mentioned you did not want to keep Pinto (adorable name for an adorable puppy) in the crate for long periods so that is what confused me. My pup is 5 months now and far from my first dog. Crate training is the best way to go in my opinion and it requires a lot of crate time especially at this young age. They do not want to "go" where they sleep so a small crate is best and they need to be kept in their crate quite a lot. 

If they are crated at night, they need to go out to wee, poo first thing in the morning with a little walk and then feed them, play for 30 min to an hour, back outside to wee again then back into the crate. They need a lot of sleep at this young age, 18 hours. After a good nap of a couple of hours or more my Sophie would be rested and ready to go outside again. She was not out of her crate for more than an hour to an hour and a half between. She has been very good with her crate, never had to take her out at night even at 8 weeks. I can understand not wanting to crate a puppy, much better to hold them and have them asleep on your feet or in your lap but much harder to house train them.


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## CharNC (Aug 19, 2015)

Alittlepoo said:


> Hi, I may be a bit confused but are you crate training? You had mentioned you did not want to keep Pinto (adorable name for an adorable puppy) in the crate for long periods so that is what confused me. My pup is 5 months now and far from my first dog. Crate training is the best way to go in my opinion and it requires a lot of crate time especially at this young age. They do not want to "go" where they sleep so a small crate is best and they need to be kept in their crate quite a lot.
> 
> If they are crated at night, they need to go out to wee, poo first thing in the morning with a little walk and then feed them, play for 30 min to an hour, back outside to wee again then back into the crate. They need a lot of sleep at this young age, 18 hours. After a good nap of a couple of hours or more my Sophie would be rested and ready to go outside again. She was not out of her crate for more than an hour to an hour and a half between. She has been very good with her crate, never had to take her out at night even at 8 weeks. I can understand not wanting to crate a puppy, much better to hold them and have them asleep on your feet or in your lap but much harder to house train them.


Ok that makes sense. I totally misunderstood what the trainer told me about crate training. I will change up to a more structured crate time as you listed above and let you know how it goes. He likes his crate alot and does great when we put him in it. We do it off and on but most of the time we try to let him out. I did not realize that the majority of the time he should be in there. That is probably where we are messing up.

Thanks again I will let you know how the change works!


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## Alittlepoo (Apr 29, 2015)

I had found a thread on here by searching under crate training routine, there are so many helpful people on this forum anything you need to know is always available. It had been years since I had crate trained a puppy and I found good information here. I love this forum! It's a good thing your pup likes his crate, it would be difficult otherwise. Good luck, keep us posted. Pinto is adorable!


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## CharNC (Aug 19, 2015)

I just wanted to give a quick update. He is doing much better. He will go in his crate about half the time on request so he is getting comfortable with being in there. He has had no accidents in his crate still and we are following basically the routine below.

http://www.fidosavvy.com/puppy-crate-training-schedule.html

For those that did this type of crate training. How did you start to migrate your puppy into being more independent in terms of being out and notifying you he has to go potty? Did you slowly start with a longer period of time to see if he would tell you? 

Basically right now he has no option to tell us because is being taken out so often and if he is not training, sitting with us, going for a walk, or playing directly with us he is in his crate. We are using bells and he rings them with his nose every time we go to the door to take him outside. I am guessing we will continue this for at least another 2 months to establish a routine but we were curious how the transition works. 

Thanks again for the advice and I will update again in a few weeks with how he is progressing.


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