# Havanese puppy 8 weeks potty training



## Caroline1804 (Jan 9, 2013)

Hi
I am new to this forum but we became last Thursday the lucky owners of a wonderful Havanese puppy. When i saw that such a specialized forum for Havanese existed, i didn't hesitate for a second to join it. We live in Copenhagen, Denmark. Before our little Havanese Carlos we used to have a wonderful Rottweiler Kenzo who was a great family dog. We had to put kenzo down last october as he got very old, had severe problems getting up and started to drop pee all over the place as his prostate was not working anymore. He was 14 years and getting that old for his race is a miracle. Anyhow after some weeks of a lot of discussion and reading my husband and I decided for a Havanese. Our little bundle Carlos is irresistible. We are crate training him. In the night he falls asleep with no problem in his crate and we shut the door and actually during the day he goes himself into his crate and naps with the door open. He is waking us up at least twice during the night to pee and poo. We carry him out to the garden and he does his needs there. Now the question is during the day, I am taking him out after food, water, play and sleep and every time he goes out he pees and poos. Is it normal for the Havanese puppies to poo 5-6 times a day? He has no diarrhea and his poo looks fine. Also I am feeding him royal canin mini dry food for junior small dogs. He was not eating much of this but now I am mixing the dry food with a table spoon of soft puppy food and he loves it. Can this be causing him to poo so much?
With regards to potty training, the accidents at home are getting fewer and he is getting more and more used to the garden. I would love to teach him when he needs to go outside to stand by the terrace door and bark. Does anyone know how to teach the Havanese this? Also why sometimes when he has just been outside peed and pooed, he can still get indoors and pee a couple of drops? Is he marking his territory or what? If I catch him in the act, I tell him no and take him straight outside. I am a bit worried when I will go to work again that I will have to start from scratch with the potty training, given that now I am taking him out almost every hour...any views on this? Carlos will need to be alone at least 6 hours during the week.
Thanks for any suggestions and tricks you may have.


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## Caroline1804 (Jan 9, 2013)

Thanks Karen. Carlos will be left alone from next week. My husband and I work and our daughter who is 16 doesn't get home before 2pm. I intend to leave him the crate opened and confine the area where he is allowed to be to the entrance hall plus the bathroom. I will leave him some newspapers on the bathroom floor so that he can do his needs there when we are gone. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be ok. Do you know when they start enjoying going for a walk with the leash? I just took out for his first walk and it was agony for him. I am hoping that with a good walk in the morning, he will get tired and sleep a lot while we are gone...


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## Caroline1804 (Jan 9, 2013)

Thanks again Karen. He kept on stopping, trying to bite on the leash. He hated it. I ended up carrying him back home after 10 mins spent to walk 50 meters...


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

Welcome this is a great forum! It sounds like he is doing really good! He probably wont be old enough to tell you he has to go out for a very long time. Maybe up to a year old. If he is going to be left for six hours at a time he needs to have an indoor area for potty. He wont be able to hold it that long. Its hard to teach both areas and have a totally trained out door dog. I have two and are trained outside on my days off but have an indoor for the days I work. I would look in to the ugadoo? Mine are trained on piddle pads and wished I had started on the other because they get confused with all soft objects like my white bath mat. His food sounds like good food and three small meals a day is all he needs. You may be able to continue the out door training by having someone come to your house to let him out but three hours is still a long time for a small breed puppy dog to hold it.


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

wow, 8 weeks old is SO young ... remember, he is like an infant right now. Be patient and consistant!!


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## Caroline1804 (Jan 9, 2013)

Hi Tammy yes he is so young and so small. I will be trying to work from home as much as possible during the coming days and I might be able to take him with me to the office some other days. He is just so adorable and irresistible.


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## sprorchid (Mar 30, 2010)

personally I would bring the puppy to work until my boss said I couldn't anymore.

that's what I did... 

what ever you do, don't take your personal frustration of the slow progress of potty training out on, or show your puppy. most of the time you won't catch the puppy doing the dirty deed in the wrong place, it'll be afterward. don't scold them after the fact, it won't work or help. you just have to let it go.

just be consistent and don't give up.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Hi Caroline, and welcome to the forum! I have several good friends who live in Denmark, two work at the University of Copenhagen, and the other lives further north, in Aarhus. I've had the pleasure of visiting Denmark twice, once in summer once in winter, It is a beautiful country!!!

You have already received some good advice, so I'll leave that where it is. I think you will see a big change in him in terms of being able to "hold it" overnight, and not needing to poop QUITE so often over the next few weeks. At 8 weeks, he's still an infant. By 12 weeks, you'll still definitely be working on potty training, and I doubt he'll be able to last for 6 hours without an indoor potty option, like pee pads or a litter box, but things will be getting MUCH easier. 

I've never had a big dog, but from talking to many people who have, it does seem that potty training takes longer with the small breeds. BUT don't let ANYONE convince you that it isn't possible. It is most definitely possible, and isn't even all that hard as long as you are very persistent about supervising them, and restricting their movement until they are fully potty trained.

One more thing to remember... we have a forum "rule"... You MUST post pictures!!!:biggrin1:


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## sprorchid (Mar 30, 2010)

Karen,
my white anatolian,Oz, 6 months younger than Ollie, I got Oz at nine weeks, and on the first day home he had 1 accident. to date he has only had 1 accident. His litter was rescued and the foster home was a big ranch in WA. 
so um, yeah, the little rascals are a wee harder to train (no pun intended).


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

sprorchid said:


> Karen,
> my white anatolian,Oz, 6 months younger than Ollie, I got Oz at nine weeks, and on the first day home he had 1 accident. to date he has only had 1 accident. His litter was rescued and the foster home was a big ranch in WA.
> so um, yeah, the little rascals are a wee harder to train (no pun intended).


I've heard that time after time from big dog owners. Kodi seemed "normal" to me, because that's all I've ever known. It's not really that hard, but it does take LONGER, and you have to pay attention!

That said, one of my trainers has a lovely young lab puppy. She's an excellent trainer who has put UDX's on dogs. She also teaches many of the puppy classes at our training center. But I've seen that puppy have accidents at the center twice... once just a week ago, and the pup is probably 4 months at this point. So even with big dogs, I think there is some variation in terms of how fast they are completely reliable. (and, of course, the training center isn't exactly like being in your own house...)


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## sprorchid (Mar 30, 2010)

I agree Karen. I think for me, the hard part was the 'potty training' per say, but that the little pup's bladder is so small, they can make it thru the night. it's like having a newborn, not that I would know first hand. 
I also think the hav's are smart, so you know, they think 'bout things, and outside the box. it wouldn't even occur to my anatolians to pee inside the house, or not go outside if it's raining, it's just not on the agenda.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

sprorchid said:


> I agree Karen. I think for me, the hard part was the 'potty training' per say, but that the little pup's bladder is so small, they can make it thru the night. it's like having a newborn, not that I would know first hand.
> I also think the hav's are smart, so you know, they think 'bout things, and outside the box. it wouldn't even occur to my anatolians to pee inside the house, or not go outside if it's raining, it's just not on the agenda.


I bet the Anatolians have a more weatherproof coat too. It has to be aversive to know you're going to get soaked to the skin every time you go out in the rain!


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## Tuss (Apr 22, 2012)

sounds like you are doing everything right. Small dogs do take long to housebreak than larger dogs so be patient. 6 or 7 poos/day is normal at that age and will decrease with time. My girl just turned 1 and she goes 2 or 3 times. It has gradually decreased over the past year.

The dogs will develop their own signal to tell you they need to go out. This was the hardest thing for my girl and she finally just figured it out in the past month or so. I used to have to predict when she might need to go and get her outside before she had an accident. Accidents were few, but i didn't trust her to tell me when she needed to go (although the crate helps a lot because they won't go in their crate). My girl has learned to "knock" on the door when she wants to go out. Luckily it makes enough of a noise that i usually can hear it. If i'm not in the room she will run and find me in the house and then run frantically back to the door and knock. I will try to catch it on video because it is quite cute!

Can't wait to see some photos of your pup!


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## Caroline1804 (Jan 9, 2013)

Tuss!This is one amazing video! I really really hope that I get that far with Carlos! It is freezing cold in Denmark now and poor little fellow needs to be taken out every 2 hours...


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## ldyj (Jan 5, 2013)

This has been an informative thread - Jude will be 3 months old the 17th. Sometime I think we're making great progress on the house breaking, then I feel like I'm failing him when he has an accident! Since he hasn't found his "voice" to let me know when he needs to go out (oh, he'll go to the door and bark, but it's because he wants to go out and play!) it's up to me to be aware of where is is at all times. Tonight, for example, we played and then I loved on him a bit - I know I should take him outside after playtime, but I didn't. So there was no point in blaming anyone but me when I failed to do that and he "gifted" the tile at the front door. Sigh - it's hard to be a new mother after so many years !


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## sprorchid (Mar 30, 2010)

I think every dog owner should read the book 'calming signals', by turid rugaas.

SO insightful and helpful.


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## Tia (Nov 28, 2012)

We brought Doug home at 10 weeks and probably at 12 weeks was when he was excited to walk. Before hand I experienced the same thing where he would chew on the leash and not really progress anywhere in a hurry! Now at 4 months Doug gets so excited when he sees his leash he cannot contain it! I am even able to walk him off leash and he stays by my side other than having a bit of a sniff. 

With Doug's toilet training I was in a similar situation where we were working whilst training him. I got a puppy training toilet similar to the ugo (if thats what its called). which he sort of got the hang of however since we put in a doggy door he has been fantastic - only one accident the day after it was put in and none since. We are lucky in that we have a fenced yard and out from the doggy door we have an area with an xpen so he had limited freedom. Inside the doggy door leads the laundry where he is contained with his crate inside also. This works for us while we are at work. When I leave in the mornings I take him for a good walk, play fetch until he lets me know he has had enough and leave him a chew bone which keeps him entertained throughout the day between naps.


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## Tia (Nov 28, 2012)

*Thanks*



sprorchid said:


> I think every dog owner should read the book 'calming signals', by turid rugaas.
> 
> SO insightful and helpful.


Thanks for the tip! I just purchased it off Amazon onto my kindle.

PS for anyone that was following the ebook thread from before christmas I am loving my paperwhite!


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## marlowe'sgirl (Jun 17, 2010)

General rule for a small dog is that they can be expected to hold their bladder for # months plus 1 hr, so at 8 weeks that's about 3 hrs - indoor potty area is going to be key for you when you get back to work. Also, with small dogs, they don't necessarily 'get' they need to go outside until 8-12 months old-ish. Until then, it's habit that you help form by knowing their schedule and keeping an eagle eye out for almost mistakes indoors. It sounds like you are doing everything right, just don't expect too much too soon with these little ones!


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

I think that 3 HOURS is very unreasonable for an 8 week old puppy!!! just my opinion...
I rarely let my 2 1/2 yr old go that long without a potty break!!


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

Tia said:


> Thanks for the tip! I just purchased it off Amazon onto my kindle.
> 
> PS for anyone that was following the ebook thread from before christmas I am loving my paperwhite!


awesome!! I got a paperwhite for Christmas too!! My goal is to use it only for FREE books! lol so far, so good!! I am checking as many as I can out from my local library and they have a ton of free ones on Amazon!


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