Potty training

[s.boyes75]

Hi everyone! 

I have a 14 week old kelpie x heeler puppy who is beautiful but is hard to toilet train. We take him out regularly (originally every 30 mins now about every hour) and we used to reward with a treat but he started watching us as he peed doing the tiniest trickle just to get a treat. Cheeky boy! So we started praising with “good boy!” when he peed but now he doesn’t excited anymore about the good boy praise. It is hard to tell the signs with him as he regularly walks around sniffing everywhere possibly looking for any food scraps lol so I can’t tell if a pee sniff or just looking around sniff. He is crate trained at night (4-5 hrs before he starts whining - sadly it’s usually 4am!) and then I take him out and put him back in the crate for another couple of hours. We take him out after he eats and usually he will pee and/or poo but still at some point we will see pee on the floor. It happens so quickly we rarely catch him and if we do we say NO! and take him outside. No other punishment apart from the NO. If we put him outside on his own I am not sure he pees. It seems like he just sits at the door whining and scratching to get back inside. We are now trying the ignoring method till he is quiet before letting him in but then he would pee inside as he didn’t actually go while he was outside. When I take him out he just wants to dig up the garden, chew leaves off the ground or chew his toys even after repeatedly putting him on the gravel where he normally goes or on the grass. Please help ! My daughter got shingles I believe from the stress of potty training. Thank you!

 

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

Congrats on your new puppy! What a smart fellow, sounds like he's purposely stopping the stream of urine to get to the treat faster or he is just distracted by the treats/other stuff going on like the sheer excitement of playing. As bad as this sounds, there's a good thing going on here and it's the fact that he is learning to control his urination, which will come handy as he's starting to mature. The biggest drawback though is that, if he just makes a tiny trickle, he is likely to finish up peeing once he's back inside. 

Now, the low excitement of "good boy," as you can imagine, is due to the fact that these are just words and unless coupled with a treat, they are not perceived as valuable enough. Hence why he doesn't seems enthusiastic when you say that. If treats acted as a distraction, it's often because we are carrying them in a visible way or making some type of sound or gesture as we prepare to deliver it. It's best to carry them concealed in our pocket our treat bag and not get them out until necessary. 

 I would suggest staying at a distance from your pup, not looking at him directly (use your peripheral view and pretend to do other stuff) and then using your 'good boy" to mark the desired behavior-but only once he has finished peeing (careful not to interrupt!). Then, you can hand your reward. In this case your "good boy" acts as a "bridge," helping your dog associate the act of going potty with a treat, although the treat isn't given immediately and you are at a distance.

Also, it may be helpful using lower value treats or kibble to see if this helps in making him less distracted, but capable of providing enough feedback to make a point that going potty outside is reinforcing, while inside not so much. 

In case your puppy still just does a trickle (but you are sure he is due for a larger volume of pee), I would stick outside longer considering that some puppies like to empty their bladders in more sittings. It may help (if you are absolutely sure that he has a full bladder), giving "meh" treats for the short pees and high value treats for the longer ones. 

To prevent pee accidents in the home, it helps to always have clear views of where the puppy is at all times. This means no furniture blocking views and staying only in a small room near the door helps too. When we cannot actively supervise, the puppy should be either crated, outside with somebody or in an indoor enclosed area with a washable floor covered with pee pads (if these are being used). 

Some puppies are particularly sensitive and even a "no" may be enough to startle them and sense our displeasure to the point of associating our presence with punishment. This may cause them to learn to hide to pee and/or pee very quickly so we don't notice. You can read more about this here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/puppy-hiding-poop-pee/

Since your pup seems eager to play in the yard, it may help keeping him on leash outside and only then, once he goes, praise and remove the leash as a reward. Let him play and explore.  While he is on leash, while you're at it, it may help to train him to potty on command by taking him to his pee spot:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/potty-on-command/

I hope this helps! Potty training can be surely stressful and frustrating, but fortunately, as it happens in children, most puppies master it although some take sooner while others take longer. Once, we're over the biggest hurdles though, the ride gets smoother and smoother with time. 

Best,

Adrienne 

[s.boyes75]

Hi Adrienne thank you so much! We will give tge treats a go again and hopefully he will start to prefer going outside so that he gets a reward as opposed to getting nothing inside. 
BTW your plastic bottle with kibble is awesome for keeping him occupied and not chewing our slippers! He hasn’t got it down pat like Einstein yet but I’m sure it won’t take him long lol!

Susie

[Adrienne]

You are very welcome! Glad to hear he is enjoying the bottle game, keep up the great work in keeping his mind busy!

Feel free to post updates!

Best,

Adrienne