new puppy... when to start using dog door?

[Puppy Madness]

Hi all,

I'm new here... we are getting our first family dog in 2 weeks... a medium Australian labradoodle puppy... and we are so excited. 

I have a question about training her to use a dog door.  The way our house is set up there is a dog door, but it's on a door that's a bit out of the way... down 3 steps on a landing (and then if you turn the corner and keep going there are a few more steps down to a small  cellar).  If we weren't using the dog door we would go outside using a different door altogether to the backyard.  

So... I'm wondering how to go about potty training.  Start with carrying her out the regular back door, and then switch to the dog door once she's a bit bigger?  At what age can dogs start using a dog door by themselves?  And any tips on how to get her to use the dog door once she's old enough?

Thanks!

[Sandra Griffith]

I would treat this as a two-step process and worry about the dog door at a later date. An 8 week old puppy can only "hold it" for a very, very short time. If you are not present to reward your puppy it will not necessarily know what you want it to do. The puppy will also most likely not be able to last through the night at such a young age. In addition, most puppies need to learn how to use the stairs which is another step in training.

At first, do not leave your puppy unsupervised at all. It should either be in it's crate or tethered to you at all times. This is to avoid accidents happening when you are not watching. Take the puppy out every 1/2 hour for three minutes. Stand still, ignoring the puppy (you don't want to distract it from the task at hand). If it goes, praise the puppy the second it is finished (if you praise while it is in the process it can distract the puppy from the task at hand). Praise may also include a treat. The puppy will then have 1/2 hour of supervised free play time. If the puppy does not go, place it in its crate or tether it to you for 1/2 an hour and then repeat the process. It helps a great deal if you keep a chart. I like to record times fed, eliminations (and what they were), where the eliminations took place and what the pup was doing just before it went. I also like to take up the water about 3 hours before going to bed.

I know that this sounds like a lot of work, but being diligent at first will allow house-breaking to progress at a much faster rate. Once the puppy understands the whole house-breaking process and is more reliable, you can start letting it out via the dog door. Meanwhile you may also start working on stairs.

Also, I often find that it is a good idea to carry the puppy outside at first, especially when it is first waking up from a nap to avoid accidents happening on the way to outside. Hope this helps, and congratulations on your upcoming new arrival.

[Jamie Petro]

We have a doggie door as well, and we didn't introduce it until Wrigley was pretty much potty trained. Ours is centrally located, but we didn't want her to go outside on her on and think it was play time. Like Sandra said, we would take her outside immediately when we would let her out of her crate and then bring her back inside, and we'd take her out about every 30 minutes. We were lucky, she only had about 3 accidents inside with only 1 of those being a poop accident. When we did introduce the door, we lured her through it with treats one time, and that's all it took. At first, she would only go through the door when we would go out to the back yard, but after about a week or two we were sitting on the couch and she got up from playing, went out the door, used the bathroom, and then came back inside. We absolutely love our doggie door! Good luck!

[C. Ann B.]

I pretty much did as Sandra recommended. The first thing I did with our puppy when we got home was take her to her 'spot' in the yard. She went right away, then I set a timer and took her there every 30 minutes for the first couple days and then every hour. Our pup is now 6 months and I take her every 3 hours, although she can hold it for at least 6 hours in the daytime.

The first few nights, I carried her out 1-2 times in the night, then she just refused to come out of her crate entirely. I would then wait until 5 or 6 am, carry her out, she'd pee and then the timer would be set for the rest of the day. I did move her crate into my bedroom in the evenings so that I could easily take her out/hear her, etc.

I did use a kitchen timer that I clipped to me (or my 8 yr old son) throughout the day.

I also gave our puppy a treat and lots of praise each time she went on demand and told her to "get busy" every time we took her out. I don't have to wait any longer--she goes on demand! This was great when we were on a car trip last month--we would stop for a potty break, she'd 'get busy' and we'd then be free to take a walk and stretch.

We did crate train and after about 1 month we started keeping the puppy gated in the kitchen with her crate when we left the house.

We've had less than 5 pee accidents in the house and ZERO poop accidents! Be diligent about taking your puppy out and she will learn quickly.

Now that we've got it pretty much down, we are considering a doggie door!

Good luck!