# Toilet training - are we on track??



## Ncram74 (Mar 10, 2014)

our little phoebe is 10 weeks old and she has now been with us a week. We adore her, she has such a beautiful nature and our girls love her to bits, hubby has also been convinced! 
We have been crateing her at night, approx 10pm and she cried for 5-10 mins and is then quiet till morning. Her crate is quite big so we put a puppy pad in and its wet most mornings - is this wrong...should I try and make the crate smaller? Could put board at back and bring her bed forward??
In the morning we take her straight out and she goes on the grass and does her business, we give her lots of praise and over the bank holiday weekend she was doing most outside with the occasional accident inside.
This morning however...well I don't know what happened! I took her out at 7pm, she went on grass and did a pee, I fed her took her out again and she poo'd (sorry guys! tmi!) then went to get ready and my hubby and girls (age 10 and 8) watched her and took her out...but she wee'd 5 times on the kitchen floor! They kept taking her out but she ran back in crying at kitchen door for me! I'm worried as it seems a lot of wee's!

A worried poo mum xx


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

It sounds like puppyhood as I remember it. I think you are on track but your "watchers" may need some motivation to watch a little closer. It is really a full time job having a puppy, I'd have them keep her confined to a very small area and stay right on the floor with her. If they watch like my brothers kids watch, it means they are also probably distracted by multiple other things....and no worries for the toilet talk, we get very explicit on here, we're used to it.


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## Ncram74 (Mar 10, 2014)

yeah I think my 'watchers' need a kick up the bum as she does it for me!!


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## dio.ren (Jan 18, 2013)

I would make her crate smaller so that she can lie down, stand, turn around comfortably the more space the more she will be prone to use half of it as her bathroom. Sounds like she is doing great otherwise


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

Cricket is just 12 weeks old, we are not giving her a pad in her crate at night, but she does wake up once to go outside to toilet in the middle of the night, before this week we were using pee pads outside of her crate.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

My dad watched 2 days a week. Turned out he didn't so I would have to start again every week. Once I figured it out, it got much better. Lots of enzymatic stuff (my floors got a good soak weekly in addition to the spot cleaning after accidents and lots of attending - think of it as good investment of your time. Better a few weeks/months now than cleaning up years. 


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## RuthMill (Jun 30, 2012)

I didn't use a pad I'm the crate (we got up with Lola and Nina was dry from the start) but I'm not sure I would change what you are doing. It might confuse her and she may pee anyway (regardless of making the crate smaller) as that what she is used to doing. She's still very young and will probably need a pee through the night for another week or two yet. Just keep an eye for when there isn't a pee on the mat then take it away.

If you really want to take the pad away, you would need to do this along with setting your alarm to get up half way through the night to let her out for a pee. She will be used to having a pee in the middle of the night and it might take a few days to break this. 

Having said all of that, I think they pee just before the household gets up, so maybe an hour before you come down stairs. You could maybe try going down to her an hour earlier to see if the crate is dry, take her out for a pee and put her back to bed. 

Sorry lots of options there but I don't think I would go cold turkey with the removal of the pee pad without having something else in place.

Good luck!


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

She will get dry at night eventually. I took the pee pad away when Max started to rip it to shreds ( we don't crate this was just on the utility floor). Personally I think you are doing great.....the watchers not so great


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## DB1 (Jan 20, 2012)

sounds pretty on track to me, we were able to make a little extra room outside of the crate just big enough for a puppy pad and left the crate door open, but that was because we have room under the stairs and it was easy to block the extra area in, it worked well as he went outside of the crate and after a few nights was dry so we closed the door, but if you can't do that I would say stick to what you are doing, she knows what the pad is for and when she can stay dry all night you can just remove it.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Sweet puppy 

I made a rule - if the pup had an accident on their watch they had to clear it up. They watched much more then. Multiple puppy wees may have been down to being a bit anxious, but keep an eye on how frequently she is going and talk to your vet if concerned.
I think in family situations it is easy to get into that situation where the pup does for you (because you are calm, patient, praise appropriately and you watch her like a hawk, but doesn't for other family members because they are excitable, impatient and distracted... Then they just decide to leave the puppy thing to you. 
If you don't want this to be the case you have to encourage and praise them just as much (if not more) than you do the pup...
Good luck, it can all feel a bit much sometimes, but it is worth it. Keep breathing, keep smiling this toilet training stage does not last so very long in hindsight.


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