Potty training

J

Jose

Forums Regular
I've got my 5 months old Sheltie 3 days ago and started potty training him in the following way. Can someone let me know if I'm doing it right?

I kept him in a cage where he sleeps and rests. I take him out every 6 hours or after a meal and bring him straight to the bathroom. Then I tell him "go pee" until he pees on the litter tray and after that I tell him "go potty" until he poops. After he finishes his business, I let him play around the house for about an hour before I put him in the cage...and I'm thinking of increasing this play time by 15 mins everyday if he'll not make any mistakes by pooping or peeing around the house.

P.S. I couldn't take him outside because he still needs to complete his rabies vaccine next week.
 
Jose said:
I've got my 5 months old Sheltie 3 days ago and started potty training him in the following way. Can someone let me know if I'm doing it right?

I kept him in a cage where he sleeps and rests. I take him out every 6 hours or after a meal and bring him straight to the bathroom. Then I tell him "go pee" until he pees on the litter tray and after that I tell him "go potty" until he poops. After he finishes his business, I let him play around the house for about an hour before I put him in the cage...and I'm thinking of increasing this play time by 15 mins everyday if he'll not make any mistakes by pooping or peeing around the house.

P.S. I couldn't take him outside because he still needs to complete his rabies vaccine next week.
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Ugh... he should of gotten his rabies shot a while ago. Anyways... you can still take him outside and I recommend taking him outside as long as no other dogs access that area (like if you live in an apartment and share your backyard with other ppl with dogs..even then, I still pottied mine outside from day 1) Teaching your dog to potty inside or on something is really hard to train out of him.

You are right with crating him to sleep and rest. BUT you don't have to crate him all the time like it seems you are. You should crate him when you can't watch him 100%. If you have the ability to watch him, leave him out. No dog likes being in a crate when their owner is out having fun.

To potty train:
Let him out in the morning-potty
Play with him 15-30 minutes (or I guess an hour bc he's already been doing fine with it) -potty
Feed him- potty
He drinks access water-potty
Wakes up from a nap-potty
You have to basically potty all the time. He may give you subtle hints that he needs to go such as pacing, pawing you or the door/area he's going in, staring at you (yes, just staring at you), put his tail up in the air, wave his tail up and down (like he's trying to poop), pounce on you (this is what my 9 monther does if I ignored his request to go out)

Does he have access to this tray you're making him go on? Or do you have to take him to it?
 
We live in an apartment where almost all the rooms have either a dog or a cat and when we go down, there is only the road where other dogs roam around. Do you still think it is okay to bring him out?

The tray is in our bathroom and when he's not in the cage, I keep the bathroom door open so that he can go in whenever he wants. But haven't seen him going in and doing the business by himself. I didn't carry him though, I just say, "go to the bathroom" and he'd run after me.
 
Jose said:
We live in an apartment where almost all the rooms have either a dog or a cat and when we go down, there is only the road where other dogs roam around. Do you still think it is okay to bring him out?

The tray is in our bathroom and when he's not in the cage, I keep the bathroom door open so that he can go in whenever he wants. But haven't seen him going in and doing the business by himself. I didn't carry him though, I just say, "go to the bathroom" and he'd run after me.
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I'd still take him out on leash to go potty. Are these older dogs? Or some puppies the other attendants own? As long as their older, they would have had their rabies shots and would be fine to be around. It's more puppies you need to worry about. I just wouldn't bring him to public places until after his rabies such as: pet stores, dog parks, parks in general
 
I tried keep him out for a longer time this morning.... and :biggrin2: I had to clean up his pee and poop for about 5 times in one morning... even though I'm watching him almost all the time... Just one turn of head is enough for me to turn back and found out he's doing it on the floor... What should I do if I see him doing on the floor?
 
If you catch him in the act - say NO and take him to his potty spot, praise and treat when he finishes it there. IF you don't see him do it - put him in his crate while you clean up. Do not punish or yell at him - this was your mistake for giving him too much freedom before he's ready for it. Use a cleaner that has some enzymes in it to remove the smell ( ask your pet store). For now you probably should try and take him potty every couple of hours, give him a couple of minutes and if he does nothing, crate (confine) him and try again in another 10 minutes.

Lots of good advice here:
http://www.dogstardaily.com/taxonomy/term/76
 
Eva below here is pretty correct for the potty training. When my boy was a little guy, I kept him crated while I worked from home. The crate was HUGE like for a German Shepherd. He had a nice bed and never had an accident in the crate. I would take him out and run to our backyard calling him the whole way. That is good because it teaches the dog to run after you when you call. Then I would say "Go potty" over and over and over until he did it. Then I would be SO happy he would get so excited. When he was a little guy at 3-4 months I was taking him every 20 to 30 minutes. Then I went to a hour. If he looked even a little bit restless I took him out. If he sniffed the ground, walked around, anything suspicious I took him out. He slept in a crate next to the bed and if I heard him moving in the night we went out. He had TWO accidents on the floor both during us eating dinner and I freaked out with "Oh nooooo, noooo, nooooo" and took him out right then and made happy when he did it right. Keep at it. No punishing, just being very unhappy sounding. You will have a dog that will pee and poo on command instead of walking around doing nothing. I even taught mine "go poo so we can go in the car" and he will poo before we leave. Be patient and catch him when he is wrong. When I cleaned up the messes I quietly said "no" and "wrong". Not yelling, but shaking my head like I was unhappy and sad to clean up a mess. They get it. It took me about a month before I started really trusted him out of crate without me staring at him. I also babygated him and me in the kitchen a lot and worked on computer and played and stuff where he couldn't hurt the floor.
 
Cara - that's pretty close to what we've done with Hanna. I can't do the run thing - our yard is not fenced, and we have created a potty spot at the bottom of the deck with some 3 foot fencing. It's down about 5 steps and I have to carry her - she still won't go downstairs. I say "hurry up" and she gets a treat soon as she's done.

I used a crate ( still do) right from day one. We have 2, one is in the kitchen close to my desk and the other is in the bedroom for bedtime. Hanna has been sleeping through the night since she was about 9 weeks old. She goes to bed about 11 ( I take her out for one last pee) and she is good until about 8 am. She goes out first thing in the morning and does both right away, we feed her and she goes out again in about 30 minutes and has a pee. After that it's outside if she asks or if she starts to circle, after every play session, after every nap, and at least every 2 hours. She has never had an accident in her crates.

if we can't pay attention she is either crated or leashed to my chair. I'll give her more freedom when we've had a solid month of no accidents. I have hardwood or tile in the kitchen living room. My bedroom is the only place with carpet and she is only allowed in there at bedtime - the door stays closed.

We've had a number of accidents along the way - mostly due to too much freedom too soon ( we figured that out and went back to more crate time unless she had our full attention). She'll be 5 months on Monday and this week has been accident free ( yeah - Hanna). It took us longer this time because my mother in law is in the hospital with a stroke and hubby & I have been spending alternate days with her. He's not as watchful when I'm away, so we've had some setbacks. Every accident in the house delays your training.

We're on the edge of being done.
 
More good details for the OP from Eva! That totally is accurate. Shay being GSD x McNab has border collie smarts and his learning curve is 1-3 repetitions of absolutely anything. It took a good couple weeks to dial in the sheltie, but she had to learn English. She is impeccibly potty trained but I am working towards on demand. It's a great thing when it is snowing to go out and command and get results and get back inside. Also great before going into a pet store or dog training or before a long car ride or on a break in a long car ride.

I figured the dog had to make a couple mistakes when pottytraining so that he knew it was really wrong. If you can't catch them wrong a couple times they won't truly understand to hold it. It's not about getting yourself trained to get them out before they need it but for them to understand that pottying inside the home or any building is wrong. They have to see how unhappy you are about it to truly know. Again, I do not mean punish the dog, just make unhappy and upset sounds, to smell unhappy, to have unhappy tones to the voice. A dog knows how unhappy and disappointed you are with very very little change in your actions.

Keep up the good work, Eva, and keep at it Jose & family. Watch, watch, and more watch. Confine when you can't watch. Truly rejoice every single time there is success.
 
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