• How long does it ussually take to house train? I am crate training and Chaos goes out several times a day to romp in the yard and to potty. She also goes on walks. But she is still coming inside and going in the house. She does go while outside, but its like when she gets in she makes a b-line for the kitchen and goes again.Any sugestions would be great as I have house trained older dogs but never a puppy. My other thought is that maybe she is just too young to be completely house trained yet. Any thought or advice would be great.


  • well, how old is she? All dogs are different for one, but dogs have almost no say about their bladders under 4 months of age.


  • Around 14 weeks or so.


  • I am so relieved to see this posting today I can't tell you! I have a 16 week old puppy and she does the exact same thing as annyaa;s puppy and I was starting to wonder what I am doing wrong! I have a 4 year old that I potty trained back in the day but can't remember him ever doing this. Any suggestions are much appreciated but I tell you it is a bit comforting to hear somebody else is going through the same thing.


  • There really are no magic tricks, just the golden rule of consistency.
    Puppies need to go out after playtime (movement = urine), they need to go out 5 min after they eat or drink, they need to go out pretty much every time you think they have gone out enough. 😉 Remember they don't go in the house to spite you.

    What are you cleaning your floors with ?? If your puppies are always going back to the same place, perhaps they can still smell their last accident, and therefore want to go in the same spot. Remember most commercial cleaners don't remove the smell.. A mix of white vinegar and water is cheap and efficient at removing all traces of puppy elimination.

    At night you can roughly translate how many months they are to how many hours they can hold it. 3 months = roughly 3 hours.

    A book that's helpful for the puppy jitters is "How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With"
    by Clarice Rutherford, David H. Neil


  • 14 Weeks is not very old to be potty trained yet… and like already said you have to be ever watchful to make sure you try and catch them before they go inside... and are you totally sure she is going while outdoors? Are you out there with her... and when she does go, praise and treat her? Like already said, is she going around the same spots in the kitchen?

    And sometimes when they start teething, they will totally forget about housetraining


  • Thanks for this thread…I had been wondering if I could handle getting a puppy next year! I think I'll stick to my old rule...no dog under 2 for me!


  • Another thing about when they pee when they are outdoors. Sometimes they don't let it all go at once. So that is why they need to go so soon after they just went - they still have some left. If you watch the pup outside, sometimes you can tell that they haven't fully emptied out. When you see that, you know that you'll need to make another trip outside in about 5 - 10 minutes. I found that if I was super vigilant, consistent and praise, praise, praise when outside - that really was the only way to stop Liyah (16 wks old) from going indoors.

    It has been 2 weeks since Liyah has pee'd inside (she only ever pooped twice in the house and never did it again…not sure how I lucked out with that :D:D)...so hopefully it sticks :D. I think in my case it also helps that I have 2 adults that never go in the house, so Liyah has also learned from them.


  • @MacPack:

    Thanks for this thread…I had been wondering if I could handle getting a puppy next year! I think I'll stick to my old rule...no dog under 2 for me!

    Ha, ha, ha…the first week Liyah was here, I was wondering the same thing myself :D:D:D!!!


  • I do go out with her and yes she goes. She seems to poo two to three times and pee about the same. Once again this advice is great. Thanks to everyone who gave advice and to anyone who has anymore.


  • She should be peeing way more then two or three times…. sounds to me like she needs to go out more often.... baby puppies at her age will pee at least every 2 hours ... but mostly after sleeping, eating, playing.... and if playing... in the middle of playing if you take her out, bet she will pee....


  • Hate to be the bearer of bad news :p.

    Ochre is now 10 months old. I had a hellish time toilet training her, I can tell you… We have housetrained plenty of dogs over the years, but Ochre has been the HARDEST one by a country mile 😕.

    I just couldnt get it to click with her at all. I dont know what was going on in her mind, the little rat bag :p . I would say she finally "got it", about 3/4 weeks ago. This was happening while living in the house with Saba, (he was a breeze, only one accident with him, and even that was the humans fault :D), who "asks" to go out, by running to the door, turning to look at you, and if you dont see him, he repeats this till you do. Bless him !!! Ochre finally caught on, and she now does the same thing 🙂

    Schouiffy, you said, in a previous post, "Remember they dont go in the house to spite you", are you sure of this :p:D;) ???


  • +1 on the factor that she should be peeing way way way more than a few times a day. It's annoying, but fortunately they grow out of it in a few months. Again, anytime you feel she has gone out enough, that's normally the moment when she needs to go out again. It was a great rule of thumb for me and my dogs.

    Saba, yeah, despite what we think… they really arnt spiteful..;)


  • She pees more than two or three times a day she pees two or three times everytime she goes outside wich is quite often. And She doesn't seem to have a problem with peeing in the house it is just the poo.


  • Gossy is 16 mos and she can only make it through 6-7 hours while I'm gone before she has to let go on the floor; of course she started out as a kennel dog (with outside access). I think potty training is a matter of consistency, consistency, consistency and patience, patience, patience.

    And by the way, don't use a cleaner that has ammonia in it - that's an ingredient of urine and so will be an attraction for continued use of the area.


  • @annyaa:

    She pees more than two or three times a day she pees two or three times everytime she goes outside wich is quite often. And She doesn't seem to have a problem with peeing in the house it is just the poo.

    Sorry, I think that we all thought you were talking about pee, not poop… have you been able to catch her in the act?


  • Yes I have caughter her and I pick her up and say "potty" and take her back outside. I have even picked her poo up and taken it outside with us and let her watch me put it in the yard. Yet she still poos outside then runs for the kitchen and tries to go again.


  • Well, if you are cleaning the floors with a good cleaner, it sounds like its just a baby thing. Give her a few weeks to grow out of it, often puppy quarks are like that. Kudos for taking the poo outside and showing it to her, that worked well with my dogs.


  • Chaos has now gone two days without pooing in the kitchen. I doubt by any means this means she is broke of it, but I'll take any progress I can get.


  • Yeah! That is so exciting! My little girl is starting to get it too, slowly but she is getting it!

Suggested Topics

  • 8
  • 4
  • 9
  • 17
  • 14
  • 21