House training and sneaky pooping

[Jessica & Benny]

We've had Benny for 1 week now. He's 9 weeks old. I was just hoping for some reassurance or correction about our house training experience.  I've read the crate training schedule that's been posted, and we try to go by it as much as possible, but he's having a hard time getting a hang of the going outside thing. He's the fussiest boy when it comes time to choosing his place to poop. He prefers my herb garden (figures) and will not go where we want him to, even though we put down some used litter from his breeder and try to keep him there with a leash (which makes him go wild twisting all over). 

Then, one of two things often happens.  First, either he won't go for the longest time, so we take him into the house, then after a while he sneaks into the dining room and poops/pees on the rug, or second, he pees and poops, often more than once, then comes in the house and goes again but not immediately. Yesterday I caught him in mid squat and whisked him outside, but then he didn't poop at all! We've only ever been happy positive with him, praising and giving treats when he goes outside--no punishments or yelling, so I don't know why he's sneaking around.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a pattern that we can see with how long after he eats or drinks that he has to go.

How can we convince him to go more promptly, and not go in the dining room? It's so exhausting to have to maintain constant vigilance, and I'm hoping he gets it in time, but if I'm doing something wrong please tell me!

[Susan & Randy's Kate]

Being a male they have to pee on everything.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Susan, peeing drops on things is marking and not something puppies do. BTW, many females mark.  My mom's Westie did, and my daughter's Yorkie/Maltese/something dog does too.

[Laura and Angus]

Keep it up! Sounds like you're doing just the right stuff...just needs consistency. I went through the same "am I doing this right" phase when my pup was a tiny baby, but like someone else said - they're smart dogs, so just stay consistent and use positive reinforcement and you'll get there. The scheduling with food/water is also super important, so I'm glad someone mentioned that. We were really aware of when our pup was drinking throughout the day. Baby puppies will have to potty shortly after drinking, napping, and playing. They pee constantly haha. We basically took our pup out every 45 min regardless of what he was doing for the first few weeks - when we were at work, we had a dog walker come play and take him out 2x a day.

[Susan & Randy's Kate]

I have a great chicken waterer that I plant herbs at the base. My sister-in-law came to visit with her male cockapoo. She said, "you may want to wash your herbs really well before using them". They do like marking their territory.

[Emery & Watson]

Can you keep him out of the dining room altogether?  A schedule definitely helps and taking him out to pee (even outside the schedule) if he has just, been released out of a crate (if you are crate training), after play, etc is helpful too.  

I have a food motivated dog so we would always bring some treats out with us when it was pee/poo time and praise and give it to him if he went outside but he never got anything if he had an accident inside (or he got abruptly whisked away outside with the sounds of NOOOOOOOOO!!!!)

We tried a bell by the door but he quickly learned that the bell = outdoors (and outdoors = fun) instead of bell = poop/pee; we suffered from bell abuse for weeks because our trainer told us it was too early try to teach him exceptions to the rule

[Jessica & Benny]

Well, for a week I wrote down every time Benny ate, peed or pooped, and was able to observe that he pretty much will poop anytime between 5 and 90 minutes after eating. No pattern :(  But we have gated off the dining room, which seems to be helping although still no signs of letting me know when he needs to go out. Just focusing on taking him out every hour and at least that way he'll pee.  Constant vigilance will have to continue to be my motto!

[Missy]

you can do this!!  Keep at it and a pattern will come to light!

think of the activities the pup does too.  if ours was running or playing....poo would happen more frequent. 

Benny is learning his own body as well as you learning Benny's body!!  Hang Tight!! 

[Jessica & Benny]

Update:  Well, Benny actually seems to be getting the hang of the whole thing. At almost 14 weeks he's *finally* figuring out that pooping should happen outside, and we're working on the peeing. Three whole days without an accident! Woo hoo! If he needs to go out and goes to the door, someone better be there to let him out, because he's not waiting, but I figure it's on the way to good. Thanks to everyone who told me it would happen eventually!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thanks for the update. Now that he has the idea I'll bet he improves his 'holding power' soon.

[Missy]

yeah!!! great job!!  Sounds like Benny knows the rules!!