# Housebreaking strategy



## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

Ok sharing what I’m doing feel free to give advice if you find it necessary. Stella is not housebroken yet. SOMETIMES she waits at the door but a lot of times she does not and I think it’s because when I’m not home she isn’t monitored super closely by my family and has many accidents inside & is enticed by those spots.

I have just decided that I am going to control when she gets water just like I do with food to try to get her on a more regular potty schedule because clearly the leave the water bowl down all day & take her out every 10 minutes is not effective and is exhausting. I read that puppies need 1/2 cup of water every 2 hrs so that’s what I’ll be doing. She gets fed 3x a day. No water 3 hours before bed. (She woke up at 3 am last night & I took her out to pee, she cried for a while after I put her back)

When I catch her going inside I clap my hands very loudly to startle her to stop. (This works very well generally) I do not act angry or yell and instead just say “outside!” Very cheerfully and lead her to the door. When we get outside I give her a small treat. Then we go to the yard and if she continues to go out there, and most of the time she does, I give her another treat and praise her. 

I can tell she knows she is not supposed to go inside, because when she starts sniffing and sees me she stops and acts antsy. But I also know she knows it’s ok to go outside because she watches me as she goes outside and then runs to me excited when she’s done. However she still continues to go inside most of the time which is frustrating to me. I think she just can’t fight that instinct when she smells a pee spot and we clean it with cleaner but it’s just not very effective. 

She hasn’t had that many accidents in her crate, we’ve had her 2 weeks and she’s had I think only 3 accidents in there, after which we immediately changed her towel and bathed her. When I take her out at night I am completely quiet other than telling her to potty when we get outside and I do not use treats then. 

Is there anything I’m doing wrong?? Or am I just being impatient and it takes more than a couple weeks? I really have no clue. My mom says our first puppy was housebroken in 2 days (I wasn’t there for that) our second puppy was never really properly housebroken and continued to have accidents in the house throughout her whole life so I feel I don’t have solid knowledge of this and can’t find an answer online so far. 

Thanks for any help!!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

water should be available at all times.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

davetgabby said:


> water should be available at all times.


 I've read conflicting things about that. The majority of the things I find say that once a dog is mature it should be available at all times but some exceptions may be necessary when housebreaking.

I was thinking every 2 hours leaving her water bowl down for 30 mins. That should give her plenty of time to get hydrated throughout the day and hopefully create a more predictable and regular potty schedule, just until she is housebroken.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

no, it should always be available.

https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_dg_the_importance_of_water

https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2014/05/07/dog-water-consumption.aspx

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/canine-nutrition/water-most-neglected-canine-nutrient/

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=water


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

VERY bad idea to withhold water from any animal except under a vets instruction because illness, surgery, etc. (in which case, they will be on an IV drip)

It is TOTALLY premature to even DREAM that your puppy will be potty trained by this age, even with the BEST training schedule, which it sounds like this isn't. And forcing her to limit her urine output by restricting her water intake is, frankly, cruelty. 

Think MONTHS, not weeks, to have a reliably potty trained small breed puppy, and that is WITH close to errorless training. (meaning that YOU (or a family member) get her outside often enough that she is not making ANY mistakes. (or as close to tha as can be managed) Every mistake she is allowed to make needs at least 10-20 times without a mistake to overcome the mistake. A puppy who is making a lot of mistakes is not being supervised and confined carefully enough. She could be well over a year before she starts TELLING you she needs to potty in any way that you recognize as a signal. That is NORMAL. Until then, it is ALL about helping her form good potty HABITS.

If you are not available to take her out every two hours ON THE CLOCK, and closely confine her in between if you don't supervise, her EYES ON, and if your family is not reliable in helping with this, then she MUST be confined in an ex-pen, with a potty option (Ugo Dog type pad holder or litter box, she'll just tear up a loose pee pad) when you can't work with her. That is the ONLY way you are going to get her trained. If she is allowed to have accidents in various parts of the house, she has much too much freedom. You are right, if she pees someplace, it is an attractive spot to pee in the future, and that is on the humans, not on the puppy.

I'm sorry if I sound harsh. There is a TON of bad "information" out there on the internet, but this is one of the worst I've heard. Right up there with "rolling" and "dominating" puppies. I think you need to have a serious sit down with your family members. If you aren't around enough to train this puppy fairly and kindly, and THEY are not willing to step up to help you get the job done, it would be better for you and kinder to her to contact the breeder, admit that this was more work than you expected and return her. Havanese are no harder than other breeds to train. And from what you've written, I don't see that she is harder than Most Havanese. She is a puppy. A very YOUNG puppy. And puppies are work. There is no shame in a family not having the bandwidth to take on raising a puppy. It could be that you would all be better off with an adult, potty trained rescue dog.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

Ok, I set her water back down again. Thanks guys. That’s why I post on this forum too because you never know what you can trust.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

krandall said:


> VERY bad idea to withhold water from any animal except under a vets instruction because illness, surgery, etc. (in which case, they will be on an IV drip)
> 
> It is TOTALLY premature to even DREAM that your puppy will be potty trained by this age, even with the BEST training schedule, which it sounds like this isn't. And forcing her to limit her urine output by restricting her water intake is, frankly, cruelty.
> 
> ...


We're not going to give her back to the breeder just because house breaking is a challenge. I just had genuinely no idea how long it took and wanted to know so thanks for giving me an idea. It is very frustrating to me that my family members are not putting in the same effort I am. She did not have a single accident in the entire span of time I watched her today which was around 8 hours. I left for 2 hours to get some errands done and left my brother in charge and I come back to poop and pee on the floor. Immensely frustrating because I know that's all my hard work and hours of hovering wasted.

I'll tell my mom to get a pen. She's blocked off from most of the house with gates but she's so tiny that the area she's allowed in, though small for us, is huge for her. Only issue is she doesn't like feeling trapped and will probably cry in the pen. And doesn't having her go inside, even if it's in a pen, defeat the purpose of having her go outside? I don't understand how that promotes having her go outside.

Also, aside from the water limiting thing which seems to be the only part of the post people took note of (which I barely even started and only did one time before seeing the responses and stopping) did it sound ok? Instead of criticizing could some other feedback be offered rather than give her up or keep her in a pen all day?

She is already pretty solid in giving signs that she needs to go. In fact she pretty much telegraphs it to the world. Me and my mom can both tell when she needs to go. Also she needs to pee like every 10 minutes. Literally I have no idea why. Like we can take her out, she will pee outside, she will come inside and 5 minutes later is circling to pee again. Very confusing. Vet says she is healthy. Pooping she is much more normal with. Is the pee amount normal?

Want to be clear I am not complaining here. I am asking. I've done a ton of research but it's always conflicting. Example I just read one article that conflicted itself! First it said that going inside too much was the owner's fault for taking them out too much, then it said puppies can't control their bladders anyways and it was normal for them to have to go constantly at the end!


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

I actually found this post https://puppyintraining.com/my-puppy-pees-a-lot-is-it-normal-a-puppy-potty-schedule/ to be extremely helpful. I feel a lot better about her pottying now and knowing it will not be this frequent for that much longer.


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## Scarlett's mom (Feb 14, 2017)

I have 2 havs. The younger one is 9 months. Older is 17 months. I followed a similar training schedule with both (sleep time being crate time). First one was much easier to housebreak teaching herself to ring bells to go out. Second one STILL doesn't give any inidication she needs to go. I just take her out more frequently. Also she will often pee three times so you need to get to know YOUR puppy. Scarlett is allowed to be free in the house but Willow is not so they are both confined to the kitchen and family room if I am not watching them. I have 4 gates set up...a pain sometimes but necessary for now. 

I've had dogs all of my 57 years...they are all different. I, too, learned a lot from this forum and still do! Good luck!:smile2:


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

here is a good site , search any topic https://www.dogstardaily.com/


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

We have met new challenge today in first day since getting Stella-rain! It is very abnormal for it to rain long periods of time where I live and when I lived here before for nearly 5 years it never rained continuously all day a single time. Global warming I guess I dunno. Makes the mosquito population explode though so it’s pretty awful when it does happen. Anyhow it’s one of those rain all day days and Stella is NOT happy about it! She won’t go at all! Our last dog also hated going in adverse weather and it’s when we’d have the most accidents with her. 

I personally don’t blame her-I wouldn’t want to go in that weather either! I’m wondering what a solution is. My mom is trying just keeping her out there on the leash until she goes (no we aren’t tying her out there my mom is with her holding the leash). I was pondering having something like a puppy pad we could put on the patio which is covered that she could use. 🤔 Not sure. 

If I ever have a small dog of my own I’m just going to litter box train them lol. Parents aren’t into indoor house training methods because they don’t like having to clean anything up and I’m like well enjoy cleaning stuff up off the floor then!

Update: brought up pen idea to Mom, her response was “she’ll just have to learn to go in the rain”, sigh


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## cishepard (Apr 8, 2018)

I follow my dogs around with an umbrella ... lol.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

cishepard said:


> I follow my dogs around with an umbrella ... lol.


We tried but unfortunately she was not moved (to potty) by our kind gesture &#128514;


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## cishepard (Apr 8, 2018)

I live in the Pacific NW and it rains all winter here ... my shorthaired MinPin hates getting wet. She knows that she will not be taken back in unless she does her business first. She was born in Sept. (8 years ago) so I was housebreaking her in prime rainy season ... I made a big deal when she peed and we would race back to the door with excited exclamations and treats IN the house. The reward for performing became the excited return to the house!
You have to be consistent. You must wait her out with patience until she goes, then throw a party (or run back inside if it’s raining and then throw a party). Use a command as soon as she squats, like “Go Pee” or “Pee Time!”, do this everytime and she will eventually go on command.

If I have waited a fair amount of time, and they still don’t go, they get tethered to me with a leash. If I catch them squatting, sniffing or circling, I can whisk them outside before they go on the floor. I feel that this is key - just placing them in an ex-pen without watching them can easily result in accidents. Fortunately for me, my puppy, Bingo, doesn’t seem to mind the rain, but the same rules apply to him, nonetheless.

I don’t do indoor potties and I’m not sure how to help you with getting your family on board. The only ideas I have are to come up with some clear strategies/rules for different situations (like rainy days) and write them down for people. It’s easier to be consistent if it is clear what needs to be done. Also, do they know you are getting advice from this board? Can you invite them to read the threads or even join up and ask their own questions? It might help if they read advice from other Havanese owners rather then hearing it from you (sad, but often the case with family members ... like husbands


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## Mikki (May 6, 2018)

PinkMellow said:


> We have met new challenge today in first day since getting Stella-rain! It is very abnormal for it to rain long periods of time where I live and when I lived here before for nearly 5 years it never rained continuously all day a single time. Global warming I guess I dunno. Makes the mosquito population explode though so it's pretty awful when it does happen. Anyhow it's one of those rain all day days and Stella is NOT happy about it! She won't go at all! Our last dog also hated going in adverse weather and it's when we'd have the most accidents with her.
> 
> I personally don't blame her-I wouldn't want to go in that weather either! I'm wondering what a solution is. My mom is trying just keeping her out there on the leash until she goes (no we aren't tying her out there my mom is with her holding the leash). I was pondering having something like a puppy pad we could put on the patio which is covered that she could use. &#129300; Not sure.
> 
> ...


Good Grief! Go back and read about your situation. I predict your puppy will never be potty trained because of the dysfunction among family members. Everyone must be on the same page. Return the puppy to the breeder while she's still young enough to be placed within a family that's willing to work together and have reasonable expectations.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

Mikki said:


> PinkMellow said:
> 
> 
> > We have met new challenge today in first day since getting Stella-rain! It is very abnormal for it to rain long periods of time where I live and when I lived here before for nearly 5 years it never rained continuously all day a single time. Global warming I guess I dunno. Makes the mosquito population explode though so it's pretty awful when it does happen. Anyhow it's one of those rain all day days and Stella is NOT happy about it! She won't go at all! Our last dog also hated going in adverse weather and it's when we'd have the most accidents with her.
> ...


Sorry our family isn't perfect and you think that if a dog can't be perfectly housebroken it should be given up. That's the sort of ideology that winds dogs up in shelters and without homes. I don't need that sort of judgemental behavior, clearly you don't have constructive advice to offer. I'm home most of the day, by the way, so I am able to implement different things and spend HOURS a day (almost all day day every day) working with her. Just because someone isn't able to raise dogs like you doesn't mean they shouldn't have a dog. Jeez.

And never did I mention having unrealistic expectations, I only asked to get an idea of how long different things would take so that I knew. Way to assume yet again. Sorry for wanting to be well informed &#128580;


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

cishepard said:


> I live in the Pacific NW and it rains all winter here ... my shorthaired MinPin hates getting wet. She knows that she will not be taken back in unless she does her business first. She was born in Sept. (8 years ago) so I was housebreaking her in prime rainy season ... I made a big deal when she peed and we would race back to the door with excited exclamations and treats IN the house. The reward for performing became the excited return to the house!
> You have to be consistent. You must wait her out with patience until she goes, then throw a party (or run back inside if it's raining and then throw a party). Use a command as soon as she squats, like "Go Pee" or "Pee Time!", do this everytime and she will eventually go on command.
> 
> If I have waited a fair amount of time, and they still don't go, they get tethered to me with a leash. If I catch them squatting, sniffing or circling, I can whisk them outside before they go on the floor. I feel that this is key - just placing them in an ex-pen without watching them can easily result in accidents. Fortunately for me, my puppy, Bingo, doesn't seem to mind the rain, but the same rules apply to him, nonetheless.
> ...


Thank you for your actually kind and empathetic response. That's very helpful! That's what we have been trying and guess what, she did actually go potty outside in the rain finally! Just took patience like you said &#128578; It helps we have trees in our yard for her to take shelter from the rain under. My parents don't go online aside from Facebook they are sort of old fashioned haha. I relay things I learn on here to them though. My mom is definitely the most willing to put in the extra effort, it's just sometimes it can be hard for her since she is a homemaker too which is why I handle the majority of the training. My other family members (siblings) again like you said sort of roll their eyes at me and think I'm being too crazy....maybe I can get them to browse here. Thanks!!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

PinkMellow said:


> We're not going to give her back to the breeder just because house breaking is a challenge. I just had genuinely no idea how long it took and wanted to know so thanks for giving me an idea. It is very frustrating to me that my family members are not putting in the same effort I am. She did not have a single accident in the entire span of time I watched her today which was around 8 hours. I left for 2 hours to get some errands done and left my brother in charge and I come back to poop and pee on the floor. Immensely frustrating because I know that's all my hard work and hours of hovering wasted.


That's something you HAVE to get a handle on, or you will end up with a dog who is never completely potty trained. Didn't you say that was a problem with your previous dog?



PinkMellow said:


> I'll tell my mom to get a pen. She's blocked off from most of the house with gates but she's so tiny that the area she's allowed in, though small for us, is huge for her. Only issue is she doesn't like feeling trapped and will probably cry in the pen.


She needs to learn to accept it, or someone needs to watch her every moment. The more times she has accidents, the longer oit will be that she needs to be confined. The better, more thorough job your family does supervise and confining her so she DOESN'T have accidents, the faster she can have more freedom. But that should not be for several months.



PinkMellow said:


> And doesn't having her go inside, even if it's in a pen, defeat the purpose of having her go outside? I don't understand how that promotes having her go outside.


Not as long as she has a potty in there, and knows how to use it. The space has to be small enough that she is successful. It's not a matter of "indoors" or "outdoors" Its a matter of "go here, not there". Many people have indoor potties for their small dogs for their entire lives and the dogs still mostly go outside. More importantly, they DON'T potty in other places in the house. Human children learn that they can pee in the toilet, but not on the living room rug. This is exactly the same.



PinkMellow said:


> Also, aside from the water limiting thing which seems to be the only part of the post people took note of (which I barely even started and only did one time before seeing the responses and stopping) did it sound ok? Instead of criticizing could some other feedback be offered rather than give her up or keep her in a pen all day?


Sorry, swift criticism is necessary when someone suggests that they are going to do something cruel and possibly damaging to a puppy. Would you have stopped as quickly if we'd said, "well, we don't think it's a great idea, but you could give it a try and see how it goes?"

I (and other people) have told you exactly what you need to know to potty train a puppy.

*The puppy must be CLOSELY supervised, EYES ON supervision every second it is not confined.

*The puppy must be confined to a small space where it won't have an accident if it does not have the above supervision.

*It makes it EASIER for you and your family if the puppy has access to a litter box or other indoor potty system when confined because it prevents accidents.

I've said all the above before. It is posted again and again and again on the forum. I'm not sure what is unclear.

You can skip the confinement and potty option IF you (and your family) are well enough disciplined to supervise the puppy EYES ON, 100% of the time, and take the puppy out a LEAST every 2 hours and wait for the puppy to potty, AND you can be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that NO ONE will not allow the puppy to have an accident in the house. Not 10 minutes after coming in, not because something was burning on the stove, not because someone got involved with a TV show. Training a puppy this way is absolutely possible. It typically means having the puppy sitting on your lap or tethered to you every moment of the day. It sure doesn't sound like that is likely in your household. But it is A way that you can train a puppy without using an ex-pen.

I CAN guarantee you that you can't train a puppy by continuing to let it have accidents in the house. And you can't do it when only one person, who is with the puppy only part of the time, is being consistent, and the puppy is pottying where she will the rest of the time. Incidentally, more small breed dogs end up in shelters for not being potty trained than for ANY other reason. (and if she comes from a reputable breeder, they would be willing to take her back and place her with someone who can potty train her properly. So there is no fear she would end up in a shelter because of the advice here)



PinkMellow said:


> She is already pretty solid in giving signs that she needs to go. In fact she pretty much telegraphs it to the world. Me and my mom can both tell when she needs to go.


Then she shouldn't ever be making mistakes in the house when you or your mom are watching her. That means she only needs closer confinement when neither of you can watch her. Super. That helps. So take the other family members out of the loop. She needs to stay in the pen, with a potty, unless you or your mom can supervise her. (or if the others want to play with her, they can carry her outdoors and play with her on-leash, where she can't make a mistake)



PinkMellow said:


> Also she needs to pee like every 10 minutes. Literally I have no idea why. Like we can take her out, she will pee outside, she will come inside and 5 minutes later is circling to pee again. Very confusing. Vet says she is healthy. Pooping she is much more normal with. Is the pee amount normal?


She is very young. Her bladder may be immature. If you don't agree with the vet, and you still think something might be wrong, take her to another vet for a second opinion.



PinkMellow said:


> Want to be clear I am not complaining here. I am asking. I've done a ton of research but it's always conflicting. Example I just read one article that conflicted itself! First it said that going inside too much was the owner's fault for taking them out too much, then it said puppies can't control their bladders anyways and it was normal for them to have to go constantly at the end!


You need to decide who you want to listen to, and what to believe when you are reading. To me, it doesn't make much sense to pay attention to an article that contradicts itself. The above article, if it says what you say it does, makes no sense at all. Dave has given you good, peer reviewed articles you can read. Stick to those. Anyone can write anything they want on the internet.

There is more than one way to potty train a puppy. Some are easier, some are harder. I've tried (several times) to give you a method that will work, with the least amount of angst on all parts, considering the chaotic nature of the family involvement with this puppy. Can you blame her for being confused? "If this person or this person is with me, I must only potty outside. But if this one or that one is in charge, it doesn't matter where I go." (and I've only known ANY of them for 2-3 week out of the 11 short weeks of my existence)

I know you are young. I don't think the responsibility for training a puppy should be put on the shoulders of a single young person in a family. But that's the situation that has been forced on you and this puppy. If you are committed to making this work, and I believe you when you say that you are, and assuming that the situation with other family members is not going to make an about face right now, I do not see ANY method that will get this puppy potty trained that does not include close confinement in an ex-pen with a potty option. There is simply not enough consistency without it.

You say that you are reading conflicting information, and I understand that. But I can't say it any more ways or any more tactfully than I have. _YOU_ are the only one who can make a decision on what you want to do here. I can't keep saying the same thing over again. If you choose another way, that's up to you, and I really do wish the best for you and your puppy.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

krandall said:


> PinkMellow said:
> 
> 
> > We're not going to give her back to the breeder just because house breaking is a challenge. I just had genuinely no idea how long it took and wanted to know so thanks for giving me an idea. It is very frustrating to me that my family members are not putting in the same effort I am. She did not have a single accident in the entire span of time I watched her today which was around 8 hours. I left for 2 hours to get some errands done and left my brother in charge and I come back to poop and pee on the floor. Immensely frustrating because I know that's all my hard work and hours of hovering wasted.
> ...


Thank you for the info, I will do my best in convincing my parents of this and to get the pen though I was shot down once. I think my mom is getting more exasperated now that it has started raining and will maybe be more agreeable. I agree it must be very confusing for puppy to have structure with me and not with my family members so I'm going to keep trying to get it consistent. I've been working on a rules sheet for family to follow. I have 8 people in my family, and some of them are kids, and they have friends over sometimes too so constantly keeping behavior the same among that many people is such a challenge but I am doing my best.

Our old dog did have housebreaking troubles because once again I was the one in charge of her training and I was only 11 then and didn't have knowledge of what I was doing and no access to Internet forums to help but we NEVER gave her up and had her her whole life. She had a large number of behavioral problems actually, again probably because I had no idea as a kid what I was doing with her training, but we never gave her up because we dedicate ourselves to our animals. Stella is well loved, gets tons of attention, exercise and affection a day and has a good home, worst comes to worse she'll just be feisty and about 60% housebroken like our old dog. There's only so much I can do. Bah.


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## PinkMellow (Aug 23, 2018)

Success!! My mom was so frustrated with today with the rain I talked her into getting the pen you were talking about 🙂 I will look it up.

Ok so I thought the pen had a built in UGO thing but I misunderstood that. I’m wondering if we can just get a UGO and put it under the covered part of the patio outside?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

PinkMellow said:


> Success!! My mom was so frustrated with today with the rain I talked her into getting the pen you were talking about &#128578; I will look it up.
> 
> Ok so I thought the pen had a built in UGO thing but I misunderstood that. I'm wondering if we can just get a UGO and put it under the covered part of the patio outside?


NO. She HAS to be confined when she can't have EYES ON supervision. I wish I could get you to understand that confinement is the key to this whole thing. Who is going to supervise her when she is not out on the patio? How is a potty tray on the patio going to prevent her from pottying in the house? And the point of the potty tray in the ex-pen is so that she has an APPROPRIATE place to potty when people aren't making sure she's not pottying in the house.

You can get an ex-pen for $33 on Amazon. There are much better ones, but if the resistance is price, this will do the job very cheaply.

https://smile.amazon.com/AmazonBasi...&sr=8-9-spons&keywords=ex-pens+for+dogs&psc=1

Here is only one of MANY pee pad tray options on Amazon, this one under $30. I have UgoDogs, but this is much cheaper, and I know several people on the forum have used it and like it. I would strongly suggest one that has a grid over the pad like this:

https://smile.amazon.com/Richell-Tr...F8&qid=1536016617&sr=1-3&keywords=UgoDog&th=1


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## Jeanniek (Mar 20, 2018)

PinkMellow said:


> Thank you for the info, I will do my best in convincing my parents of this and to get the pen though I was shot down once. I think my mom is getting more exasperated now that it has started raining and will maybe be more agreeable. I agree it must be very confusing for puppy to have structure with me and not with my family members so I'm going to keep trying to get it consistent. I've been working on a rules sheet for family to follow. I have 8 people in my family, and some of them are kids, and they have friends over sometimes too so constantly keeping behavior the same among that many people is such a challenge but I am doing my best.
> 
> Our old dog did have housebreaking troubles because once again I was the one in charge of her training and I was only 11 then and didn't have knowledge of what I was doing and no access to Internet forums to help but we NEVER gave her up and had her her whole life. She had a large number of behavioral problems actually, again probably because I had no idea as a kid what I was doing with her training, but we never gave her up because we dedicate ourselves to our animals. Stella is well loved, gets tons of attention, exercise and affection a day and has a good home, worst comes to worse she'll just be feisty and about 60% housebroken like our old dog. There's only so much I can do. Bah.


Not sure if you read any of the articles Dave gave you to read. They are excellent.

I have read A TON in getting myself prepared for getting my puppy. Two articles that really helped me were: 
https://www.dogstardaily.com/files/downloads/AFTER_You_Get_Your_Puppy.pdf (Free)

And the book: 
**"The Focused Puppy" by Deborah Jones PhD. and Judy Keller, available from www.cleanrun.com. A great how to book for raising awell mannered puppy using positive reinforcement training methods. It covers day one through the first year.

That book is REALLY good. You don't have to follow everything it says, but it really teaches you how to think through problems and how to do positive reinforcement. And it does it as a step-by-step process. The training builds on each other so even if you have had your puppy a while, start with when you get the puppy home, just making sure that your puppy doesn't need that training, before you go on to the next one.

I always want to say, your puppy is not mature. It is a puppy, and won't be mature till it reaches at least one year of ages. Completely disregard anything you read that has to do with a mature dog.

I do commend your family that you never ever gave up on your past dog. That says a lot about you. But I believe that your dog would have been a happier dog if he had been trained correctly. Many behavioral/emotional issues animals get is because they were never trained correctly in the first place, so the dog and the family never develop the relationship they could have had.

I wish you the very best with your Havanese.


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