Rules of Housetraining

[OllieButton]

What are we to make of Ollie's poo on our bed this morning even though he is 7 months old and potty trained? We have been trying to keep him off the bed and furniture- I know lots of ppl don't agree with this but this is how we have decided it will work best for us- he continually defies us in this regard and today ripped up some books and pooped in the bed.
Any advice?

[Scooter's mama]

I have read almost every post about potty training, but haven't seen a real solution. I'm doing everything right according to the suggestions here. I love my little doggie and need some help. Is it possible for a puppy to "alert" us when he needs to go out? He does his business when he is outside, and I've trained him to jingle bells every time we go outside, but he hasn't made the connection that this is what he is supposed to do when he needs to go. Currently, if he needs to go, he will just go. He'll be staring righ at us and either pee or poop. He is about 16 weeks old so I beleive his muscles should be strong enough to hold it, so I don't think that is the issue. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do to get him to alert us? I would GREATLY appreciate it. --Scooter's Mama

[Joe786]

To Scooter -

I'm not sure if this will work, but we only got our Puppy 3 days ago, and he already goes to the loo where we want (he's 8 weeks).

All we done was notice his 'signals' which is usually him turning around and sniffing around the place. He also frequently used to go under the table. We placed bits of newspaper and a puppy training pad (which is basically a nappy sheet) on the floor and everytime his signal was noticed we'd try and guide him to the newspaper to go. After the first day he knew to go to the toilet on the newspapers everytime, and yesterday we moved the newspaper to a grass patch at the back of the garden. He goes there now everytime without our guidance!

When he got it right we'd praise him well and give him a hug and cuddle. It really did work. Calmy saying 'no' when he got it wrong and pointing towards (and sometimes placing him on) the newspaper settled in fast.

Good luck with it all!

Sorry if you already knew all this, but Henry usually wants to go when he wakes up or about 20 minutes after he's eaten.

[Snifter]

I think Scooter's mama is hoping he will tell her when he needs to go by jingling the bells. Some pugs never, ever do this, nor do they bark or go to the back door or anything else we might want. In fact the staring that Scooter is doing before he pees or poops in front of them may actually be his signal that he needs to go.

My older pug Snifter sometimes signals that he needs to go, but it is simply a certain stare that I have learned to recognise.

In other words don't expect your pug to manage the kind of signal that you will hear from another room and think "Oh gosh, puggy needs to go outside."

Instead work towards getting into a routine of feeding playing sleeping walking at the same times each day and then you will have a good idea of when puggy needs to go out and can let him out at those times.

Joe, sounds like you are doing all the right things. Keep it up, and don't be surprised if you get a bit of regression from time to time. Hope you don't, but it is quite common.

[puglover22]

I thought this was a sticky....what happened???

[Adam_PollyPug]

We have been having exactly the same problem with our Polly. She is 7 months old and is very well toilet/crate trained. My wife works from home all day so it's not as if she is left on her own for long periods of time.

Things had gotten so bad that we called in a dog behaviourist who immediately spotted that she suffers from separation anxiety. We have started a behaviour program that will teach us & Polly how to handle this issue. The anxiety has gotten a lot worse which is usual in the short term because you are addressing the problem but will ease in the long term.

The classic signs of separation anxiety are; Chasing the tail, excessive panting & drinking, always under your feet when you are walking around, always has to be near you or in contact with you, goes ballistic when you arrive home, excessive scratching plus many other signs.

The reason the dog will soil your bed is because their anxiety leads them to destructive behaviour so if they can't get to magazines/books etc to shred they will find alternative ways to demonstrate.

I hope this helps