THINK I HAVE CREATED A MONSTER!

[LORRIE PAULUS]

My Rosie is 12 weeks old and I believe that she knows she is supposed to go outside to potty. She has not had a pee accident in the house for 2 weeks and she has had one poop accident, our fault, husband wasn't watching her.  She is a very smart puppy and very good, except for this one issue!  We take her out our garage door, and she knows if she goes to that door she goes out.  Problem is, I will bring her in after she has gone poop and pee and 2 minutes later she is back at the door.  If she can go 6 hours crated she doesn't need to go potty every 2 minutes during the day.  I am not sure how to break her of this.  We have bells on the door and she does ring them when she wants to go out and at all other times too.  It's annoying because we know she doesn't have to go again that fast.  I have never had a Doodle and my Springer Spaniel didn't do this and we taught her to go to our door to go out as well.....She would go out and come back in.  Any thoughts on this?  Do I ignore her if I know she has just been out?  Will this get better as she ages?  I don't want to continuously take her out, because when I need to leave, etc., I can't get her to go.  Your experiences/thoughts are appreciated. 

[Julie & Kirby]

Kirby did this at a young age (and still does). I gave up and put in an invisible fence so I can just let him out if he wants to play. He is such an outdoor dog! He will just sit in the front yard and watch the world go by.

Obviously not a solution for all, but I couldn't break him of it. So he won!

[Leigh & Allie]

Allie did the ame thing. My DH didn't want to let her out each time, but I thought that would be confusing. I did let her out each and every time she rang the bell. Allie got over it. I think it was just a phase. Now she just rings the bell when she really wants to go out.

[LORRIE PAULUS]

I have heard so many ppl say their puppies did this too and that they finally got over it.  She's been doing it about a week now.  I decided today that I am driving myself mad with it, kinda obsessing to be sure she went potty.  As long as I know that she went, I am just going to leave her out.  I did it earlier and when I came back 20 minutes later she was waiting by the door to come in.  She hasn't gone out again.  The biggest issue is not when I am home but when I need to leave in the morning for work or to go out and need to ensure she potties before I crate her--she's 100% in the crate, no accidents in 6 weeks..I don't want this to cause an accident in there and ruin what we've done so far.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I'm a little confused. Do you go out with Rosie for potty breaks or do you just have her go out by herself? If you go out with her you will know if she's gone or not. That's not always a guarantee though, that she doesn't have to go again right away (Oscar, 18 wks, sometimes needs to go again immediately after returning - I do go out with him so I know he's already gone. Usually, he has a 2nd poo. Sometimes, however, he just turns and walks back in... frustrating!). I'm not real sure what your concern is. Your comment, "As long as I know that she went, I am just going to leave her out." ... do you mean leave her outside, in case she needs to go again? Puppies can hold it a lot longer when they're sleeping, so going off of their ability to hold it then doesn't mean they can hold it that long when they're out of their crates and active.

[LORRIE PAULUS]

We have a tie out right next to the garage door.  We tried a leash when we first got her and she would not go, so we went to the tie out. I put her on the tie out and stand in the garage to watch her, she's not out there by herself.  We bell trained her, but the problem is now she rings them all the time, she will go out and I watch her potty and 5 minutes later she rings them again to go out.  I have let her out 6 times in the last 1/2 hour and she goes out and chases leaves and plays with the rocks -- she ate a whole bowl of food 2 hours ago and drank water.  I think she knows that she potties outside, she hasn't had an accident in the house for several days, but I created a monster with the bells because now all she does is ring them.  I feel like I am doing something wrong but not sure what.  I could put her out before and she would immediately go potty, until she figured out "if I ring these bells I am going out" even though I said Potty everytime I hit them with her paw when I was training her.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

You may want to try taking the bells down for a few days. Take her out when you know she needs to go (her regular times, or when she gives you indications she needs to go). We took the bells down with Lucy when she rang them to go out to play. It worked, as I recall. You can go back to the bells once the cycle is broken. She may or may not start the incessant ringing again, but its something to try. Good luck!

[LORRIE PAULUS]

yes that's what I was doing before the bells, I would just time it about 2 hours and take her out.  She goes 6-7 hours at night and probably 4-5 hours during the day, so she absolutely does not have to go out every 5 minutes.  My husband stays up with her at night and he does end up taking them down.  He said he can tell when she has to go because sometimes she rings them and lays by the door and other times she rings them and either whines or comes out into the family room to see if he heard... It's really annoying...especially with -5 degree windchills...doesn't seem to bother HER