potty training??

[Stephanie]

I plan on when I bring my puppy home to potty train by bringing outside right away. I will bring her to a spot that is right by my house that no other dogs have been until she gets all of her shots. I would rather not put paper or wee wee pads down in the house. Has anyone done this? Good idea or bad to not train in and outdoors? I know there will be some accidents inside but figured it may be less confusing to train to go on wee wee pad and to bring outdoors at the same time. Thoughts??

[Whitney Addington]

at first we did about 20 minutes or so at a time about 4 times during the day and usually where she could see us, and all night. She would always wake us up to pee several times a night at first but her bladder became much more tolerant.(we leave her water and food down for her to drink and eat as she pleases because she picks a little at her food here and there. If you take water and food away 2 hrs. before bed they will not need to go out near as much through the night.) We always made sure she went outside to pee before crating and before bedtime and as soon as we got her out of the crate, we took her straight out. She never used the bathroom in her crate! Now, at 5 months, we can leave and feel comfortable about leaving her out to roam the house, however we close bedroom and bathroom doors (she loves toilet paper). We also let her sleep in the bedroom floor at night and she hasn't had an accident. There are things you can do to train them about going outside by using a bell hanging from the door and scratch the door, but we trained her just to sit by the back door and bark. This way if we go somewhere and don't have a bell, she can bark and have no problems.

One tip: when crate training, and your dog barks to go out, dont let them see you until they stop barking for about 5-10 seconds. This way they will not think they can bark to get out of the crate and also, they won't bark 1000 times and wake the entire house up. We did that with our girl and she would bark once, wait a few minutes and if we didn't hear her she would do it again. That was much better, especially if you have sleeping children or guests. Also, don't play with the puppy when you do let it out in the middle of the night. Take it out to do business, bring it straight back in and put it in it's crate. 

It's very aggravating at first because they will need to go out so much through the night, but it gets better pretty fast. Our girl goes to bed about 10 and doesn't wake up until 8:30am and doesn't go out any through the night! She's perfect if I must say so :)

[Stephanie]

Thanks everyone I felt the same as all of you, just wanted to make sure I was correct in my thinking!

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

I agree with all said.... I will add--- We used the potty bells, still do and I kept them contained in a small area of the house until they were older and potty trained. The couple of times I gave them free rein of the house confused my guys and they did have accidents. We contained them in the kitchen and used a baby gate with a door (for humans:)).

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

I agree with Lindsey and Bonnie.  

We went straight outside with Hurley.  We kept his leash on even in and out of the house.  We use a bell hanging on the door which Hurley rings when he wants to go out to go potty.  He quickly learned to ring the bell when he wanted out and he still does.  Even with the bell when he was very little we watched for the signs he needed to go out (such as sniffing around, and coming to us and pawing us with a pleading look in his eyes (seriously).  

We took him outside every couple of hours initially. When doing that we always said 'potty, potty' over and over in an excited voice so he would be excited about going outside and was being praised for doing so.  We always praise him when he rings the bell saying 'potty, potty' as we take him outside.  Soon we quit taking him outside every few hours and waited until he rings the bell.  That was so he would learn to hold his bladder and only go out when he needed to do so.  

Over the months there were a few accidents and we never scolded him when he messed in the house but if we caught him in the act we showed him what he did.  Said 'no, no' and then 'potty' over and over as we took him right out side to the potty area.  After he would go we always praised him saying 'good potty' a few times to let him know how proud we were of him.

[Lauren, Scooby and Bella]

Outside definitely.  I put my puppy on a leash every time I take her out - and we have a fenced in yard.   I take her to the same spots and tell her to Tinkle or get busy, whatever phrase you want to use.  Praise her when she goes!  Keep an eye on her and make sure you take her out when she wakes up, before she goes to bed, after any activity.  Be aware of her actions.  I'm becoming more and more aware of when she needs to go out.  Sometimes she runs to the door and then runs back to find me.  Dogs are smarter than we sometimes give them credit for.  Eventually your puppy will go out and go directly to that spot to do her business before she starts to play or do any outdoor activity. 

[Candice & Bailey]

I think it's a great idea. It's how I trained my last dog and it worked out really well.