# Potty training setbacks



## IslandLady (Nov 7, 2010)

We got Chica 2 weeks ago at 9 weeks. She'd been trained to use the Ugodog but had never done any outdoor pottying.

We have her crate, the Ugodog and food, water, and toys in an X-pen in our bedroom.

From the first night home, she liked her outdoor potty (in our fenced back yard) and used the Ugodog only during the night. 

I'm at home most of the time, so I have been able to take her out on a regular schedule: every hour at first, but now it's about every 90 minutes or so.

After about a week, she was also fairly reliably giving us a little growl or whimper to let us know she needed to go.

We figured we had it made!

Since about Day 4, she hasn't used the Ugodog once, but we're now starting to have accidents as soon as she gets outside the X-pen. For instance, just now I went to collect her for a regular potty trip and before I got the leash on, she'd peed on the carpet. 

:frusty:

And the day before, she peed on the plastic floor of her X-pen, rather than in the Ugodog. I took some of the urine and wiped it on the Ugodog, but apparently that wasn't enough to entice her to use it today.

I'd really like her to get back to using the Ugodog when I'm not here (or not fast enough). We want to be able to travel with her in the not-too-distant future.

I read on another thread that peeing throughout the house might be more common if there is a cat in the home. We've got Boomer the Cat. One day he seems to be accepting her and the next, he'll take an unprovoked swipe at her, so that's got to be stressful for Chica (and us!).

To get her started in pottying outside, we used food treats and lots of praise. We still use the praise but she's not that interested in the food treats, even though she gobbles her dinner.

When she peed on the carpet just now, I scooped her up fast and ran her outside, where she finished the peeing.

Is this just a phase? Or is there some tweaking I can do? Especially to get her back to using the Ugodog as a backup....

Advice from experienced parents is welcome!

Thx,
Sheila


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## motherslittlehelper (Mar 18, 2010)

There are going to be many on here with far more experience than I, but upon reading your post, I had a couple of thoughts. I am wondering if by using both the Ugodog and taking her outside to potty that she hasn't become confused, because she is so young yet? Did your breeder offer any advice with regard to potty training when you picked her up? My recollection is a bit fuzzy  but I seem to remember Augie's breeder telling us that we could take him outside to potty, but until he was about 16 weeks old, we would basically be training ourselves, because the puppies did not have the maturity at a younger age to be reliably potty trained to outside. I recall thinking, oh good - I won't worry about that then - it was in the middle of winter and we have heavy rains all winter. Augie came to us with a good start to potty training, using newspaper. We did not know about the Ugodog until a few months later when I read on the forum about folks using them. Augie did have a few accidents on the carpeting in the first few weeks of bringing him home - I would scoop him up and put him on the paper (which we kept in the kitchen), say go potty, and close him back in the kitchen area (vinyl floor). After he would go potty in there on the paper, we would let him out for a period of play, always with us. It didn't take him long to be playing and race toward the kitchen for his paper when he had to potty. When we learned about the Ugodog, we transitioned him to that and he used that the same way he had the paper. We didn't attempt to train him outside until he was probably 8 months old. When I think back on potty training, what sticks in my mind, is that it went quite easily. 

Your cat may possibly play some part in it - I don't know, not having any cats in the house. My initial thought was is that your baby is very young and possibly confused. And I don't think that they can tell they have to go at that age until they have to go - now!  So you would want to keep the area where he is allowed out and about fairly small too so he has a chance to make it to his potty area.

It seems that once they learn to go outside (in Augie's case anyway) they prefer that. He didn't use his Ugodog much at all after he started going outside. I left it up just in case, but never saw that it was used more than a couple of times, and not at all in the last several months.


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## IslandLady (Nov 7, 2010)

Hi Linda,

Yes, I absolutely think she's confused abt the Ugodog. She gets so much praise and excitement from us when she goes outside, but nothing when she was using the Ugodog. 

We have been taking our lead (if you'll pardon the expression) on house training from the "My Smart Puppy" book. 

As the co-author, Sarah, says in one of the photo captions of her out in the New York snow with new puppy, Pip: "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night shall keep you from your housebreaking rounds."


We're north of you, in southwestern British Columbia. Chica's first week here we had tremendous rain and wind storms. Not much fun for us, but she seemed to enjoy it. (Thank goodness, in this Rain Forest climate!)


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