# Need help with potty training!



## solsken (Nov 21, 2009)

I am failing miserably! My little fellow, Griffin, born 8/20/09 is still waking me up at night, several times to use the potty. He is like clockwork, at midnight or 12:30 and 3 am. I have been doing this since he came in november. He really begins whining, then screaming!:frusty: I am sure I have contributed to it, as I sometimes put him back in bed with me. (This never works, as he wakes up and then goes on the floor). I am pretty sleep deprived. We have done older rescues for years, so I cannot remember when he should be sleeping through the night, but I am thinking he should be able to now, as he is about 7 months.

I am also doing poorly during the day at home. My dh and kids take him out of the crate all the time, don't watch him and he has accidents. He NEVER goes on my carpet in my office at school, but home has become an indoor potty place for him.

Could you experienced potty people straighten me out???????? I know this is my fault. He was doing great, but I think we let him out too soon from the crate.......

Oh, I want to add, that we do let him out just before bed. And he seems to want to visit our outdoor Great Pyr at night (she prefers outdoors) and so he runs to see and snuggle and play with her. This is getting worse! I could not catch him at night (we have a fenced in yard and would just let him out) Now I have to walk him again. (at least it isn't minus 30 degrees now!)

TY in advance!

Jennie


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

I think you know the answer to the daytime problem... You have to just not let family members take him out if they aren't going to be responsible for potty training duty. Simple as that. (and if he's having this much trouble at 7 months, it sounds like your'e going to have to go back to the beginning for a while. If you want to let them play with him, at least gate off the kitchen, or someplace with an easy to clean, hard-surface floor, and insist that they play in there.

As far as night time is concerned, I'll tell you what we did. I have RA, and get very fatigued. I just can't be up until 11 at night and up again at 7. I need more sleep than that. But a little puppy just can't wait longer than that. We had a litter box in his x-pen anyway, and his crate was attached to the x-pen. We just made the decision to leave his crate door open at night. (he was already reliably using the litter box) End of problem! I could go to bed at 9, which is what I really need, and he didn't have to wait 10 hours to pee. If he needed to pee, he got up, peed, and put himself back to bed.

He's 11 months old now, and those are still his sleeping arrangements. It also means that if we want to sleep in on Sat... no problem. He can take care of himself.

As far as late night, out-door pottying is concerned, unless he's 100% reliably house trained (and few puppies are at 7 months) he needs supervision when he's out, to make sure he's really doing his business, and not fooling around. This is not a play time, it's a business time. Period. So he really needs to be on-leash for those last thing at night potty runs. It's a pain in the neck, but part of developing reliable potty habits.

Finally, if he has peed in a lot of places in your home at this point, it may make sense to have your carpets all totally cleaned, and make sure they know it is to remove animal soil. If he can smell it, he's much more likely to do it again. If it's just a spot here and there, hand cleaning, or a small Bissel spot rug cleaner will do the job. But if it's all over the place, and you'r not SURE you know all the places he's gone, (which it sounds like if he's not being properly supervised by hubby and kids) you might want to call in the professionals.



solsken said:


> I am failing miserably! My little fellow, Griffin, born 8/20/09 is still waking me up at night, several times to use the potty. He is like clockwork, at midnight or 12:30 and 3 am. I have been doing this since he came in november. He really begins whining, then screaming!:frusty: I am sure I have contributed to it, as I sometimes put him back in bed with me. (This never works, as he wakes up and then goes on the floor). I am pretty sleep deprived. We have done older rescues for years, so I cannot remember when he should be sleeping through the night, but I am thinking he should be able to now, as he is about 7 months.
> 
> I am also doing poorly during the day at home. My dh and kids take him out of the crate all the time, don't watch him and he has accidents. He NEVER goes on my carpet in my office at school, but home has become an indoor potty place for him.
> 
> ...


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## Leeann (Feb 28, 2007)

Sounds to me like little Griffin may have trained his family to let him out of his crate when he wants out. I would go back to basics and make sure Griffin is not taken out of his crate when he is screaming to be let out. This is going to be really hard at first so wait for even a second of silence and then take him out. These little guys are so smart and he may associate making noise gets me let out to play or better yet get to sleep with mom, he needs to learn that is not what gets him these privileges.


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## solsken (Nov 21, 2009)

Thank you both! Yes, my family is terrible at this. I just had a big discussion about this after I posted and they all immediately let him out of his crate and he piddled and poodled again! :frusty: I will have to be more insistent.

Luckily we do not have carpets in the house. Very old wooden floors in an old farmhouse. I am sure, even though I have vinegared and pet odored the spots, he can smell it. Ugh. I had such a good handle on this when he first came to us. We put him out every half hour for several months and he was doing super!

I do have an xpen. We have never used it. Maybe I'll go to that at night and cave and get the pee pads. 

I am sleep deprived and pretty dang tired at this point. We love him and certainly want to do right by him. He is a little too attached to me, (and me to him) and we are heading out for vacation, and I am very anxious about leaving him for 10 days!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Leeann said:


> Sounds to me like little Griffin may have trained his family to let him out of his crate when he wants out. I would go back to basics and make sure Griffin is not taken out of his crate when he is screaming to be let out. This is going to be really hard at first so wait for even a second of silence and then take him out. These little guys are so smart and he may associate making noise gets me let out to play or better yet get to sleep with mom, he needs to learn that is not what gets him these privileges.


Riley and Monte's pic reminded me of my post at "A Good Deal please add" . I knew I saw them before ,check it out. LOL


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## DanielBMe (Nov 25, 2007)

Just to add to all the above. I would also take away his water by 8pm. That way by the time you take him out for the last potty for the evening, he's pretty well dried out and less likely to have to potty during the night.

I did that with my guys and I never had a problem with having them go potty in the middle of the night.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

solsken said:


> I do have an xpen. We have never used it. Maybe I'll go to that at night and cave and get the pee pads.
> 
> I am sleep deprived and pretty dang tired at this point. We love him and certainly want to do right by him. He is a little too attached to me, (and me to him) and we are heading out for vacation, and I am very anxious about leaving him for 10 days!


Get a piece of vinyl flooring remnant at Home Depot(it's cheap) to put under it for easy clean-up. Also, I would NOT use pee pads. Many puppies chew them up or think they are play things. I like litter boxes better. They are easy to clean, and the by-product is completely biodegradeable and very absorbant. But many people also like those commercially made dog potties with fake grass on top. They're expensive, and you get stuck cleaning the thing uke: but from what people have posted, they work well.


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## solsken (Nov 21, 2009)

Hi everyone.

Thanks for all the suggestions! 

Griffin and I made progress this week. He was awakening me at 12, 3 and 6 am. Little darling.....

I stopped the 3 am at first. He barked a few nights around that time, but his crate was clean and dry in the am. 

Last night he went in his crate at 10 and slept until 6:30 this morning! Phew! Training the kids and husband is harder than training him!

I appreciate the paper pee pads being used as toys! He loves to steal and chew up paper, so he would definitely do this. I never went with these because I felt like he would learn it was ok to pee in the house! I felt it took longer with our last puppy to train him using a paper method indoors.

I saw that grass and it sounds like a potential option, if I can't get him trained. I am going to hold off for now. My biggest problem is going to be getting any smells out of the cracks in our old wood floors. 

Thanks so much!


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## leena365 (Sep 17, 2009)

I believe that some dogs can be taught to potty both indoors and outdoors like my KASHI. Then there are others like my MIYA who will pee and poop wherever you let her. I do gate her in the kitchen and laundry area where the floor is tiled. She holds her potty for quite some time and will go out in the morning if you leave her out long enough. I did try the litter box but they would eat the granite that you put in a litter box. I tried the pee pads alone and they would chew them up. However, a UGODOG is perfect because it is covered with a grate. As I said I have one dog totally trained to potty both inside and outside and I am still struggling with the other one. My one is recovering from surgery so the other one is not getting as much attention as she should but I am keeping her on a leash its really tough when you have two dogs who both need your attention for two different reasons. I have so many UGODOGS I would hate to invest more money into a commercial fake grass potty system.


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