Apartment house training

M

MissHazel

Forums Regular
I got a new 8 1/2 week old sheltie pup. She is very smart, and very sweet. I'm still trying to house breaker her, the breeder started her on paper training, so when she needs to go she looks for her papers but I don't want a full grown sheltie going on papers. The problem with the apartment is that it takes 4-5 minutes to get her out side, plus the dressing of her (jacket and boots), and me. That coupled with the fact that my apartment building has very strict rules about animals in common areas, no animals on common floors, shes not even allowed to touch the floor we have carry her, and when she gets older put her in a wagon.

The Apartment rules say nothing about letting an animal out on the back deck, other then to say they can not be stored there. So I am thinking that I will put papers down on the back get and when she starts looking for her papers I will start the reaction. Then take away the papers in a week or two


1. "You need out?"
2. Take her paw and bat the leash
3. take her out
4. if she does go lots and lots praise

Does this sound like a good way to house/apartment train her?
 
Miss Hazel this is going to sound mean and it is not meant to...but this is something you should have been thinking about long before you got a puppy. Housebreaking a puppy takes time, and as you se now...a lot of work if you do not have better access to an area where she can get outside. In the summertime of spring might have been a better time to have gotten a dog

sorry I am no help here. I run a rescue in a nice warm area, and potty training is even difficult when you have a yard and easy access to it
 
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Hmm...

I would kinda have to agree with SheltieMom...

Winter time is a very hard time to potty train. I'm sure it can be done, but because you have so much to go through to get outside, it'll make it even harder. And I think that giving Hazel two weeks to learn to go and then taking paper away is way too soon. It took Caliber at least two weeks to even realize that he had to go on his pee pad. That's quite the expectation for such a young pup!

Also - Shelties don't get very big! It's easy to scoop them up even when they are fully grown...so, if you teach her the signals you would like for her to use when she needs to go potty, scoop her up, and take her outside, maybe by the time the weather gets nice enough she'll know to wait until she gets outside to go.

And believe me - that jacket you've got for her isn't going to last long...you'll find from now on she grows very quickly. So, for now, I would just stick to paper training her...by the time she picks it up the weather will be nice enough to take away the papers and bring her outside! the key ios patients!
 
Thank you both for your comments. Maybe two weeks is to soon, I have trained dogs and pups before but I have never got one so young, or done house training so its a new experience. I have lots of patients and love for her.

The jacket is temporary, once her adult fur comes in I'm hopping she won't need it. If she does I can get her a bigger one. Today I have been working with her on the house training, and kennel training. Both have be going well. I have placed papers down near the door to the deck, now she is much happier that she can find papers, she is still missing from time to time, but its much easier and quicker to get the association of you go here. At 8 1/2 weeks, and shes getting to her spot 60% of the time. I am very impressed. We have had her four days and she knows her name (or at least the tone we call her in) and where her bed is and to sleep in it.

The outside issue would be the same regardless of season, (the apartment rules and all) but I have setup the deck to use it once she gets accustom to using the papers again. I can setup some papers there once we are ready to transition to outside.

I'm still having her paw at the lead before I put her down on the papers.

Kennel training is harder on me, she cries a lot for the first 5 minutes shes in there, but calms down and sleeps afterwords.
 
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Hi

I strongly encourage you to keep on the crate training and eliminate the paper training as soon as you can.

In my limited experience, it just seems to confuse them. The ultimate goals is get them doing their business outside, every time. So as long as the paper is outside, then you are half way there.


But crate training is key to the process. You need to be able to tuck pup into his crate when you go to school/work and know that he will think of this as her den.

There are lots of websites out there that talk about how to crate train....I won't go into the details here. But I would reinforce just how much your pups and your life will be easier if you do it.

It's not just about housetraining. Pretty soon, Hazel will move to the dreaded "chewing" phase. At this point, nothing is safe, unless you are there 100% of the time. Some pups chew cushions, some chew wood and wicker! Nothing is safe!

Both my pups go in the crate at bedtime, all night, and during the day when no one is there to supervise. I toss in a cookie, and they scramble in.

Good luck and welcome again!
 
I'm still on the fence about crate training at bed time, we have put the kennel in the bed room, and if she can still see us, she wont stop crying. But as long as we our out of sight she calms down. I'm thinking of moving it into the living room, placing her in it for the couple hours we will be out and allowing her to sleep in her bed next to ours. Or I can use the pennies in a can, to stop her from crying. (I very hesitate to do this as I don't want anything negative to be attached to her den and her space)

She doesn't seem to get the idea of treats yet, she licks them once and loses interest and would rather play. Pups are such a blank pallet, I even had to teach her how to play with her toys.
 
Both my pups sleep in my bedroom in their crates.

I guess I was lucky because Bacca, at 8 weeks, came home the first night and and slept in his crate all night. The breeder had already gotten him used to it - sleeping by himself - before I even brought him home.

Go back to crate-training 101. You will be glad that you do! Once you've trained pup in his crate in your bedroom, then later, you can have him sleep in your room, on a bed or your bed if you choose, with no fuss, no muss!
 
I brought Spencer home as an eight week old pup and trained him to a crate. I worked full-time and had a pet sitter come in mid-day, but I set the crate up in such a way that he had his bed and toys at one end and a puppy pad at the other end. I knew that even with a mid-day break, he was going to need to potty. It worked out for us. I never did use paper because I found the puppy pads were very absorbent and were also just the right size. Because we could just step out the door and we'd be in our fenced-in back yard, the actual house-breaking wasn't difficult but it took time and patience. As he grew a bit older, I left the crate door open with an X-pen around it so he'd have more room, but he'd still be confined in a safe area. Now that he's a "big boy", we no longer use the crate, but I don't know what I would have done without it when he was a pup!
 
I crate trained our Shelly when we first got her a 8 weeks old. (put lots of toys in the crate) Every 2 to 3 hours we would take her out to pee. A dog shouldn't pee or anything in their crate if it's the right size for them. Shelly would sleep through the night ( 5 hours)but first thing in the morning we would put her out. I didn't use the pee pads in the house (Shelly did have a few accidents at first in the house maybe like four times) But after comming from outside she would play maybe about an hour in the house. Then back in the crate. As soon as she came out of the crate outside she would go. I alway left the crate door open when she was playing so she could get food and water anytime she wanted (Shelly had food and water anytime she wanted but only in her crate) It's going to take awhile of going in and out every 3 hours with her remember she only a baby her bladder is small so she going to pee offen. She will be able to hold it longer as time goes by. You kinda got to keep your eyes on her and if she does goes to pee just pick her up and put her outside to finish. Hope this helps a little. I know it cold outside but I think I hated the rain more when we were potty training.:biggrin2:
 
Romeo is newspaper trained. He eliminates on newspaper in a large tray which is indoors. While I have a garden now, I may move to an apartment (land is scare in my tiny dot of a country and at least 3/4s of the nation live in high rise flats), we get thunderstorms here for days in a row and since I am not home most of the time, I think Romeo will turn blue from holding his pee in the whole day! Newspaper seemed easiest. I can now move the newspaper & tray anywhere and he'll pee on it.

During the day, he's in his playpen which has his pee tray on one side, and a bed on the other. At night he's in a crate in my room. He'll bark softly if he drank too much water before bed time to be let out to pee in the pee tray in my room, usually about an hour or 2 before I'm about to wake up. Then he'll go right back to sleep in his crate and I don't even need to close the door.
 
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