# Help! Potty training questions.



## 1stclassnana (Dec 31, 2007)

I have had "Keeper" (formerly Casey...yes finally made a decision on his name) for a week tomorrow. Up until yesterday, I thought potty training/housebreaking was going well, but after yesterday, I'm rethinking it.

Keeper came to me peeing on puppy pads often, but not totally reliable. I started taking him out in the garage (MIchigan weather here) where I had also placed a pad. He will go on it or close enough to it that I know it was his intention, just has bad aim. LOL! After the first few nights, he slept from approximately 10:30-11:00 to 6:00-6:30 in the morning. Everything seemed to be progressing...

Yesterday was a disaster. It seemed he was peeing every 1/2 hour and would walk right over the pad indoors and pee two feet away. I would take him out, stand there while he "played and explored" the garage, bring him in, and he would pee five minutes later. Pooping is not a problem as he gives plenty of warning with his scurrying around, but peeing gives no warning...just squats and goes. I would venture a guess we had at least 7-8 accidents on the carpeting yesterday. Then last night, put him in him crate at 10:30. He woke at 12:30, 2:30 and up for the day at 7:00. Each time I took him out, and each time he went immediately. 

I know everyone will say to use the crate more, but if he sees me he just barks and cries. I have been reading all the advice on using an Xpen - just not sure where I could put one as my kitchen is not hugh and most of the rest of the house is carpeted. I do have a laundry room. How much room does the pen need?

So today I am taking him out even more frequently then I was, but now he isn't going as much as yesterday. It seems to be such a guessing game.

I welcome ALL suggestions! TIA.


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## Cheryl (Mar 17, 2007)

You can make the ex-pen as big or small as you need it, but it works best if the dog is in the same area as you. You can put it in the family room and put vinyl underneath it.

For times that he just wants to follow you around, try tethering him to you. put his leash through your belt loop so he stays with you. 

Dogs with too much freedom do not understand that you want them to pee outside. They think any ole place will do. If you can catch him in the act--much easier if he is teathered to you--you can say "NO" in a stern voice and immediately take him to the pee pad.


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

*Leslie-you should share *

This is probably Leslie's expertise  She has the amazing potty trained puppy!!!!

She has a piece of linoleum on her carpet with the xpen around it. So the dog won't go up to the pee pad and pee but it has to go into the xpen and go to the pad (not sure if that makes sense!) but I thought it was a great idea because I remember when my maltese would walk right up to the pad sniff it and pee- doh!:frusty: She was also a michigan winter baby!

I do like Keeper name btw!
Amanda


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## 1stclassnana (Dec 31, 2007)

OK, still a little confused. If you keep the xpen near you, do I move it around? If I'm working in my office a few hours, but then go in the kitchen to make dinner, do I need to move it. 

Also, I think he is not "finishing" each time. I've read that as they are in the middle of peeing, have a word you repeat so they associate it. Then praise, praise, praise and give a reward. I use the word "potty" said softly over again a few times. Now when I start saying it, he gets all excited and runs to me. Just a couple minutes ago, this happened and after coming back in he goes again on carpet five minutes later. I think he gets excited when I say "potty" and doesn't finish.


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## Lynn (Jan 2, 2007)

I am not an expert at potty training:biggrin1:....but when Missy was younger I put the pee pads on a vinyl table cloth ($9.99) inside her ex-pen. She would go to the ex-pen area and pee 50% on pad and 85% on the vinyl cloth. It worked for me...I did have to keep up after her on the vinyl pad...but I could see it to clean up and it wasn't all over the house.

She is now watching Casper at 5 1/2 months and going potty more outside except at night. She is now peeing on a large size dog pee pad and pooping in front of the toilet on a rug (like Gucci did). I am not upset just hope DH doesn't step on it:biggrin1: in the middle of the night sometime.


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## Lynn (Jan 2, 2007)

1stclassnana said:


> OK, still a little confused. If you keep the xpen near you, do I move it around? If I'm working in my office a few hours, but then go in the kitchen to make dinner, do I need to move it.


Leave it in the room you are in most of the time... and I say "Missy go potty on your pee pad" and then praise her alot.


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## DanielBMe (Nov 25, 2007)

I've been using the pee pads and Brando who is now 7 months old was doing pretty good. Hitting it about 85% of the time. Then in the last 2 weeks he just would not use them anymore and pee and poop everywhere. I tried everything but nothing worked. Then last week my friend came over with her Maltese who's trained to only go on the pad as she can't take him out in the cold weather. Well he peed on the pad. 2 min later Brando went over smelled it and peed on it. I saw him do it and gave him a treat. A light bulb went off...I grabbed a clean pee pad and pushed it against where the maltese peed. Then folded it away unti the pad was used up. Then when it was time for the next one, I took out the one which I had dipped on the maltese' pee and put it out. Brando smelled it and promptly peed on it. Every time he peed on it I gave him a treat and praised him like there was no tomorrow. Now every time I throw out a pee pad I first press it against a fresh one to really get that smell there. So far it's working like a charm.


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## Rita (Jan 1, 2007)

Wow Daniel that was smart.

They also make spray or liquid you can put on the pee pad to give them the scent. I know it was on a thread some where. I think Tom King posted it. I think there is also a thread on what was recommended for someone else who was having this problem. I will post if I find it.

I left Houston in his expen and only left him out for short times. If he peed on the pad he was rewarded with time out of the expen. Yes he cried and carried on too in the expen. That is when he had to learn the quit command by a squirt in the face with a water bottle. That ended that after just a few short times. Even though I am a mean Mommy LOL for teaching him that with water it worked out well. Even now neighbors are amazed when he barks at them and I say quiet that is the end of it.

OK. In this thread Tom King explained the difference between housetraining and potty training. Potty training has to come first before houstraining.
http://havaneseforum.com/showthread.php?t=108&highlight=potty+training

Here was the link with the spray.
http://havaneseforum.com/showthread.php?t=235&highlight=spray

OK. If he is going every half an hour, can it be that he has a UTI? I will see if we have a thread on that.:frusty:Couldn't find a thread that addresses UTI but if you pup continues to pee every half hour I would call the vet. They will have to give him an antibiotic.

My last suggestion which I forgot to mention is the book "houstraining for Dummies" it helped me and I passed it on to friends. :biggrin1: Hang in there. If you do a search of potty training you will see that a lot of us had the same problem.


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## DanielBMe (Nov 25, 2007)

Oh man never ever use those urine sprays. I tried one once when Bogart was a puppy. The stink from such a small spray was overwhelming. My whole home just stunk to hi heaven. I never used it again after that. That's how bad it was.


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## Rita (Jan 1, 2007)

DanielBMe said:


> Oh man never ever use those urine sprays. I tried one once when Bogart was a puppy. The stink from such a small spray was overwhelming. My whole home just stunk to hi heaven. I never used it again after that. That's how bad it was.


I never used the spray. I know they make pee pads too that are scented for easy training. Does your pee pads note that?

Gosh. There are a ton of threads on potty training. You can do a search with "potty training" Maybe someday when I am bored I will put them in one place. LOL Right!!!!!!!!!!!


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## JanB (Oct 26, 2007)

I had Tessa house trained very quickly but I did not use pee pads. We tried in the beginning but it was confusing to her (and us!) and there's just something about a pee pad in the house we found distasteful. I know it works for many, it just wasn't for us and using the garage wasn't a viable option for us. Tessa also cried if crated during the day if I was home. We tried an ex-pen on vinyl with a pee pad inside, but she saw the entire pen as a giant pee pad, so we took it up and trained exclusively outside. 

She's a velcro dog anyway so in the beginning I tethered her to me with a leash and took her out very frequently (every 1 1/2 hrs). She is crated at night and if I have to leave for short periods during the day. She had "free time" only if I knew she had just gone potty and so was safe for a while. Now she is off tether but we do close off certain areas of the house so her space is somewhat limited.

I say "potty" while she's going and immediately when she's finished I say "good potty" in a very excited voice so now she knows "good potty" is a signal for her to run to me for her treat. If it's super cold or bad weather she knows as soon as she's outside and I say "go potty" she'd better do it soon or she goes back in the house under very close supervision! She also learned to ring bells to go out to potty and is very consistent. She's just 6 mo old so has a very occasional accident but only if she's in a "new" area of the house away from her bells. We still keep her in sight of us at all times which is pretty easy since that is exactly where she likes to be.

If the garage is his potty spot I'm not sure I would let him play and explore out there. Maybe put a leash on him and only allow him to stay on the pee pad while you say "go potty". If he doesn't go fairly quickly, take him back in the house, either tethered or crated, and repeat this frequently until he goes on the pad, then have a "party".

Good luck!

P.S. oh, I wanted to add that in the very beginning Tessa did not mind being crated if she was up off the floor right next to me; for instance in her crate on the sofa if I was on the sofa. So maybe while you're in your office you could put the crate on a chair right next to you. Just an idea until he's a little more reliable.


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## Thumper (Feb 18, 2007)

Like Lynn,

I used a xpen with a vinyl remnant bought at the fabric store under it, it came in SOO handy, especially when she would miss the pad or pee on the outskirts of the pad. lol, they seem think it counts if they get a dribble on the pad, and the rest rolls off! haha. Anyhow, I found it in the remnant section of Hancock Fabrics for about $5, it was probably 4ft X 6ft ..

Just keep a super close eye on Keeper, and go put him on the pad and say "go potty", I used to say that while she was peeing on the pad, so she learned quickly what "go potty" meant. I still use that command every day.

They just all seem to have 'off' days, so hang in there. Once he has a few days under his belt of no accidents and really understands the routine, he'll become much more reliable...but when Gucci was a puppy, I noticed if there was anything distracting going on, OR company over..she would always *forget* to use the pad, I guess she didn't want to take her eyes off of whatever was going on, or whomever was visiting. I noted it did happen more when people were over visiting, or my stepkids were here for the weekend...

Kara


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## Jane (Jun 2, 2007)

1stclassnana said:


> OK, still a little confused. If you keep the xpen near you, do I move it around? If I'm working in my office a few hours, but then go in the kitchen to make dinner, do I need to move it. I would put it in a central location
> 
> Also, I think he is not "finishing" each time. I've read that as they are in the middle of peeing, have a word you repeat so they associate it. Then praise, praise, praise and give a reward. I use the word "potty" said softly over again a few times. Now when I start saying it, he gets all excited and runs to me. Just a couple minutes ago, this happened and after coming back in he goes again on carpet five minutes later. I think he gets excited when I say "potty" and doesn't finish.


You can do either - keep the xpen in one area or move it to where you are. 
Perhaps you can xpen of your whole kitchen, since it isn't too large?

Scout also would bet distracted when I praised him with "Good potty" while he was still peeing. I had to wait just a little bit longer until he was just finished to praise him. Lincoln's trainer told me that the actual moment at which you praise them can be important - too early and too late and you don't reinforce the right behavior (or in this case you get an interruption in desired behavior) :biggrin1:


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

While they are in the act, no talking, no eye contact, no nothing. Much praise IMMEDIATELY after finishing. The world stops turning until finished.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Laura~ Sorry I'm so late in coming to this thread. I haven't been online much at all for the past few days. We're in the midst of re-landscaping our front yard~~ourselves! (Aren't you guys w/snow jealous??? Ha! Wish we had snow to cover up the mess we had LOL!)

Anyway, here's a pic of Tori's set up. One in the family room, the other is her sleeping area. It's similar to Lynn's. I went to Joann's Fabrics and bought a piece of marine grade vinyl for about $6 for the family room. The bedroom set up has a $1 remanent, hence the beautiful shade of pink :biggrin1: Even though she's 99% housebroken, we still put her in the ex-pen whenever we're going to be gone for any length of time. 

As for moving the pen around, I guess you could, but it would be a lot of work. What I did, was put a pad in the room where I was then used a baby gate across the door.


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## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

Shelby will run to her pee pad and when she is finished, will run back to tell us how good she was. We have to go check it and then tell her how good she is. Sometimes she will have an accident and I can't figure out why. I think she might wait too long and can't make it that far. So far, the past 2 weeks have been accident free.

Kodi will use a pee pad sometimes. Most of the time he goes outside. I use the pads because they have full run of the house. So when I am not home, they have a place to go.


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