# Cyra Is 6 Months & I Need Some Advice



## tanyaleanne01 (Apr 4, 2015)

Hi Everyone!

So it has been a while since I posted about Cyra's arrival and she is now beautifully settled in and I am definitely her mummy! You have to love the adorable love only a dog can give you.

However I am having some difficulties so wondered if any of you experienced Hav owners out there can give me some advice?

Potty Training! Oh the elusive desire of having a potty trained Hav I know. I live in an apartment and currently work from home all day, but my job is incredibly hectic and I am glued to a laptop and phone most of the time. I have set up an ex-pen for Cyra with a litter box and pee pads, however she will use the litter box until she feels it needs a change, then goes beside the litter box. I change her pee pads about 3-4 times a day but the only way she will always use it is to always have a pristine pee pad and litter box. Now whilst I can continue to do this, I have just lost my job and will be starting a new job which means I wont be home all day to change the pads. I have about 2-3 weeks to get this sorted else I fear I will be making the wees (and poops!) outside the box a habit. Any advice?

Ex-Pen Climbing! I will leave Cyra in the ex-pen most of the day where she can see me working and when I go into the other rooms I leave here in there to keep her comfortable that I am not always around and there, but I come back. She is getting used to that but a few times, I have gone to take a bath and I will be happily soaking away and up pops this cheeky face and paws over the bath to say hello to me! Are Havs natural climbers? I did plan to leave her in the ex-pen during the day when I am in my new job, but I am worried she will climb out and if shes out, the litter tray is inside the ex-pen so again forces her to potty anywhere she fancies (I did give her too much freedom when I got her and she definitely saw everywhere as potty places despite moving food bowls to those spots etc).

I do have a kitchen which I can shut the door on that has build in cupboards so no areas for naughtiness in there. Do you think I should use this space when I go to work instead to stop the ex-pen prison escape? What about the not being able to change the pee pads so often for what I am now calling Princess Cyra!

Cyra is fully crate trained and she sleeps every night in her crate with no accidents. But I don't want to leave her in the crate all day, that's too confined for all day and all night with a few hours in the evening and morning with me. 

Does anyone have any ideas? 

Tanya
x

P.S. I am still totally in love with her and she is by far the biggest character/best temperament pup I have ever come across. She is just sooooo good all the time. Never barks, never whines, never begs, always up for a play and is still bouncing around like a rabbit!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

tanyaleanne01 said:


> Hi Everyone!
> 
> So it has been a while since I posted about Cyra's arrival and she is now beautifully settled in and I am definitely her mummy! You have to love the adorable love only a dog can give you.
> 
> ...


As far as not wanting to potty on dirty pee pads, can you really blame her? Do you like using dirty porta-potties?  I'm not sure why you are using both pee pads AND a litter box. I don't want my puppy going anyplace BUT the litter box. It sounds like you need to go back to the beginning with her and ONLY give her enough space for her bed and her litter box. (fold the ex-pen or take out sections, depending on the type you have) When she is successful with this, start SLOWLY increasing her space. But it IS YOUR responsibility to make sure she has a clean potty.  One thing that can help is if you can transition her to using a litter box with a grate, where she doesn't need to step on the used litter or pee pad underneath. (honestly, _I_ don't want my dog walking through pee or poop then walking elsewhere or getting picked up either!)

As far as the climbing is concerned, some do, many don't. You've got a climber, so she's not likely to stop.  You really only have two options when you can't be there to supervise. That is put her in your kitchen, where she can't climb out, or get an expen with a cover. They are available... the problem is that it makes it more difficult and time consuming to keep that potty clean.

A potty trained Havanese IS, ABSOLUTELY possible. My 5 month old is completely error free in her "designated areas" (which are a room at a time, with a litter box available) Because I intend to keep her error free, she will continue to be semi-confined like this probably well past her first birthday. It's all about developing good habits. I work at home too, and she is loose in my office with me. I pulled the rug up before she came home (we have hardwoods... If I had carpet, I would have found a way to cover it completely. there is a gate across the door to keep her with me, and a litter box (cleaned daily of pee, poops removed immediately) right in the room. She has never had an accident in this room.

My older one has been potty trained for years, of course, but he was in an ex-pen (because he didn't climb! ) when we were out of the house until well past his 2nd birthday. Even now, he is shut in my office with a gate when we aren't home... not because he would do anything wrong, but because he is more comfortable in his "cosy" place. He just sleeps in his crate or on my office couch until I get home. If he's left loose, he just lies against the door waiting for me... pretty pathetic!  For now, Pixel is in an ex-pen in another room when I'm out, because she tortures Kodi, and I'm not sure she wouldn't chew things in the office unsupervised. Hopefully, when her puppy stage is over, and she stops using Kodi as a chew toy, they can hang out in my office together while I'm gone.


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## tanyaleanne01 (Apr 4, 2015)

Hi Krandall

I see how that sounded confusing. I was using pee pads on the floor but she kept missing them so her breeder suggested putting the pee pads inside the litter tray to create a boundary of sorts so she knew the specified area to go in. I do pick up her poop immediately but the pee pads I try to let her have at least 2 wees on them before I change it. Is this not right? The pads are very large as is the litter tray so plenty of clean areas to go on.

Should I progress from wee pads and get a proper litter type thing then with actual litter?

I do indeed have a climber! Glad this isn't weird, just something to work around. What I am worried about is if I leave her in the kitchen area and leave her with a clean wee pad, over the day she will need to go multiple times so do I leave lots of pads down for her so she always has a 'clean' option?

I left her once in the kitchen for just a few hours recently to test it and the mess I came back to still makes my stomach churn. Wee and poop everywhere and of course I had to clean that up and bath her immediately but its like she was almost playing in amongst it?

She had toys (lots in fact) so not sure if this adds more info for you to go on or not?

Thanks for your advice, I know I may have made mistakes but nothing is undoable I am sure and she is still so young I am sure I can get this right.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

tanyaleanne01 said:


> Hi Krandall
> 
> I see how that sounded confusing. I was using pee pads on the floor but she kept missing them so her breeder suggested putting the pee pads inside the litter tray to create a boundary of sorts so she knew the specified area to go in. I do pick up her poop immediately but the pee pads I try to let her have at least 2 wees on them before I change it. Is this not right? The pads are very large as is the litter tray so plenty of clean areas to go on.
> 
> ...


OK. I do understand better now, I think. It sounds like she's DEFINITELY not ready for a space as big as your kitchen yet, if she peed and pooped everywhere. You may need to confine her to the ex-pen with a cover, where she can be more successful.

As far as the pee pads are concerned, I would really try to get her used to peeing through a grate (like the UgoDog or Rascal Dog) so she doesn't have to worry about stepping on a dirty pad. There's also a thing called a Potty Patch (I think that's right...) that some of our members really like as an indoor potty option.

My biggest worry, in your case, is that it sounds like she is going to need well more than 3 weeks before she is trained enough that she can be left alone for long periods. I think I would be trying to find day care where they can continue with her training for you, ar else someone who can at least come in for a while in the middle of the day to play with her and make sure she is cleaned up and reinforced for good pottying.


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## FancyNancy (Oct 7, 2009)

About leaving her all day and her being confined for so long - Could you find a pet sitter who could come over 1-2 times a day and take her for a walk and let her work off some puppy energy? Worth it even if it's a bit expensive to give you some piece of mind while you are on the new job. Thats what I do when Im going to be away from home for too long.


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## tanyaleanne01 (Apr 4, 2015)

Krandall - the doggy day care is an option by all means, however I don't know if this will help with her toilet training as she isn't/won't be learning to potty in the right place at home then?

FancyNancy & Krandall - I can definitely get someone in daily to take her out mid my work day, every day to take her for a walk and play with her and give her potty relief etc. Do you think this is better than day care whilst I potty train her at home? Then once she has this sussed, I can do the day care thing later?

It is expensive, but so is urine off when I go through the liters I go through ;-) Puppies are never cheap are they and I would rather find the right solution to get her on the right track and 'find' the money, rather than do the wrong thing........


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

tanyaleanne01 said:


> Krandall - the doggy day care is an option by all means, however I don't know if this will help with her toilet training as she isn't/won't be learning to potty in the right place at home then?
> 
> FancyNancy & Krandall - I can definitely get someone in daily to take her out mid my work day, every day to take her for a walk and play with her and give her potty relief etc. Do you think this is better than day care whilst I potty train her at home? Then once she has this sussed, I can do the day care thing later?
> 
> It is expensive, but so is urine off when I go through the liters I go through ;-) Puppies are never cheap are they and I would rather find the right solution to get her on the right track and 'find' the money, rather than do the wrong thing........


The problem is, confining them in an area with a potty, whether it's a pee pad or a litter box, and hoping dor the best isn't going to get her trained. If someone isn't there to watch her, get her to the potty reliably, and make sure she stays there until she does her business, and reward her for going in the right place, it's not going to work. I guess it could work with someone coming to your house if you crated her while the person wasn't there, but that's an AWFUL lot of close confinement for a puppy.

My experience with both my two was that once they understood their indoor potty, and were using it reliably, it didn't matter where we were, if the litter box was there, they'd use it.

For instance, Pixel (5 months) is currently camping with us because we are at a Rally Trial with Kodi. We put her UgoDog in the corner of the kitchen of the RV, and I showed her where it was. She has been using it completely independently and reliably... No accidents... Since we got here. The same was true when we took her on another long weekend in the Rv about 6 weeks ago. I also spent a few days with a friend on the Cape. She has an open floor plan, and a younger Havanese puppy, so we gated the two puppies in a smaller area with a UgoDog, and again, they did perfectly. When we could give the, our full attention, we let them into the larger area. They both did very well with a few reminders. But those reminders are critically important for them to learn the"right" spots and the "not right" spots for pottying.


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## tanyaleanne01 (Apr 4, 2015)

Ah so Cyra is quite old for still making these mistakes isn't she. I didn't get her until she was 4.5 months old so it hasn't been long with me and in my apartment.

Today I have reduced the size of her ex-pen so she only has a bed and potty space so I am hoping your advice on this will work with her. I will order a grate potty as well so the wees fall through meaning she won't be as 'fussy' if there is already 1 wee on the pee pads.

Thanks for all your help and shared stories, it does give me an idea on what to do and what I am doing wrong. She is a very bright little puppy so I think consistent positive reinforcement will work (as it has in the past so far) so I just need to be very watchful and look at it as starting over again.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

tanyaleanne01 said:


> Ah so Cyra is quite old for still making these mistakes isn't she. I didn't get her until she was 4.5 months old so it hasn't been long with me and in my apartment.
> 
> Today I have reduced the size of her ex-pen so she only has a bed and potty space so I am hoping your advice on this will work with her. I will order a grate potty as well so the wees fall through meaning she won't be as 'fussy' if there is already 1 wee on the pee pads.
> 
> Thanks for all your help and shared stories, it does give me an idea on what to do and what I am doing wrong. She is a very bright little puppy so I think consistent positive reinforcement will work (as it has in the past so far) so I just need to be very watchful and look at it as starting over again.


Don't compare your puppy to where others are... Every dog develops at their own rate. It also depends on how well the puppies were started by their breeder, and your experienc elevel. Although Kodi and Pixel come from the same breeder and have the same father, _I_ am a more experienced owner this time around. While Kodi was certainly not hard to potty train, Pixel has been an absolute breeze.

Even if your puppy is older than Pixel, you've had her a much shorter time. I've had Pixel since she was 9 weeks old. My point was that confining them to a smaller space, if that's what they need to be 100% successful in the beginning is a real kindness in the long run. The faster that good potty behaviors become habit, the easier it will be for both of you. ...And Tom King, who has potty trained hundreds of puppies will tell you that "Potty training" for young dogs is all about management and habit forming in the beginning. For quite a long time. You either let them develop bad habits or set it up so that the easiest thing is to develop good habits!


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## tanyaleanne01 (Apr 4, 2015)

Well she has had a reduced ex-pen space for a few days now and no accidents at all! I haven't received the grate potty yet as it takes weeks for anything to arrive here (I live in Dubai) however with changing the puppy pads as I was (3-4 times a day) she is currently accident free!

How long do you think I need to keep this reduced ex-pen space for before I open it up to a larger space so she has a bed space, potty space and play space? Two weeks? A month? Longer?

Very excited and happy to see how she has adapted so easily and no accidents so don't want to move to the next stage and have more accidents before she is ready, ultimately ruining the progress made so far!

This forum I have to say is just amazing. You are all so helpful and so willing to give your time to help me, I feel very comfortable asking you guys anything and not being made to feel an absolute food!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

tanyaleanne01 said:


> Well she has had a reduced ex-pen space for a few days now and no accidents at all! I haven't received the grate potty yet as it takes weeks for anything to arrive here (I live in Dubai) however with changing the puppy pads as I was (3-4 times a day) she is currently accident free!
> 
> How long do you think I need to keep this reduced ex-pen space for before I open it up to a larger space so she has a bed space, potty space and play space? Two weeks? A month? Longer?
> 
> ...


Awesome!!! Where she had a period of accidents before reducing her space, I'd be careful about expanding it too quickly. I'd wait AT LEAST a month, then TRY it a bit bigger. If she has even ONE accident, close it back down again for longer. It's all about making it impossible for her to make a mistake, and praise, praise praise (and a cookie party!) when you catch her getting it right!!!


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