# 5 month old puppy pooping In house



## ADL (Jun 20, 2020)

Hi all,

my pup is 5 months old, and she’s doing so well — but she is still pooping in the house (not peeing, that she goes in her pad or outside pretty consistently). Even this AM I took her out to poop and she did a small one but then when we came inside and she pooped a bigger one inside — any tips on how to more reliably train poop outside or even is it typical that a 5 month old is still struggling with where to poop?

We do area training so she doesn’t have the full run of the house — the house pooping is more in situations like today when she’s pooped already and we let her have a wee romp.
And of course have to include a pic of her


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

If this is an on-going problem, you need to confine her more closely during the time when you think she might have an accident. Especially if has already happened more than once. Does she use an indoor potty? If so, play with her in a place where she has access to that during that time frame. If not, you may need to confine her for a while, then take her out again for another potty time, THEN have your play time.

Potty training takes as long as it takes. No two puppies are the same. They all get there eventually if you put the work in, but they all follow their own path! My 17 week old is 100% on poop, but I have to really watch him on pee at certain times! Most of the time he does great. But once in a while, I CAN’T get him to fo outside when I think he should need to. (Often if he is distracted by something) at those times, I know I need to keep him close by me, either gated in the kitchen on the office, with his potty tray close at hand so he can get to it quick. If I KNOW he is “empty”, I can give him supervised play time in a larger area of the downstairs!


----------



## MMoore (Aug 20, 2020)

I'd say to watch for every single thing that she could be using as a sign to tell you she needs to poop. When Finley was around 5 months or so, we had a neighborhood girl come in and take care of our dogs when we needed to be gone for the day. We came home and she told us there had been no accidents all day and Finn had let her know every time she needed to go out. We're experienced dogs owners, and we had no idea Finn had gotten to the point of telling us, so we started paying much better attention, and sure enough, it became very clear she was giving us a signal! The 3 or 4 accidents she's had since then have been when we've (unintentionally) ignored the signal, and we realize in hindsight that she was trying to tell us.


----------



## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Does she recognize “go potty?” I would try and have her go twice before she comes in. Sundance couldn’t get it all out at once and usually had to go two times, which meant quickly finding a second spot. It seemed like he was done so we would take him back inside and he often pooped again, or immediately signaled he needed to go out. Once I recognized that he was pausing and would sniff around again if I didn’t rush him too much, we did several things to make sure he was pooping completely and that was our turning point in potty training. I still wanted him to go potty right away so it was helpful that he did understand “go potty.” In the morning it was especially common because he would go quickly before breakfast, usually with one of my kids, so I always took him out one more time after he ate just to be sure. Eventually I could tell by how much poop came out if he was really done. As he got older and began to outgrow it I would tell him to “go potty” a second time, just in case, and sometimes he would try so hard and nothing would come out! I do think it was developmental, because his effort was always real


----------



## MMoore (Aug 20, 2020)

I remembered something else we did when working on potty training with Finley. I'm not proud of it, and in theory, I'm not a fan, but in practice, I have to say, I think it really helped her - treats! She's very food motivated. I would always put a few pieces of kibble or a treat in my pocket when I would take her outside, and it didn't take her any time at all to make the connection. She would get the treat as soon as she was done. She didn't get scolded if she went in the house, but she didn't get a treat either. We did this for probably a month or so, and then stopped when she seemed to have it figured out. Once we stopped giving the treats, she didn't regress.


----------



## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

I used treats, too, but I know everyone isn’t a fan. I think it’s because it seems like a simple concept and it works for many people (like me) but there are several ways it can cause problems. Potty training is like that. I often wonder if that’s why Sundance is so proud of himself when he poops, because we conditioned him with so much praise and treats so he see it as one of his best tricks


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

You can never cause harm by giving food rewards! That’s what is so nice about it!

You can cause youself some trouble by LURING, (which is not what you did) but it’s hard to cause big trouble with rewards. You might need to slowly taper them off, but it sounds like you did that!


----------

