Skip to content
Basenji Forums
  1. Home
  2. Basenji Training
  3. Having issues potty training

Having issues potty training

Basenji Training
  • C

    Hey guys,

    I was on these forums and received some great help & advice in late 2008 when I was looking into a basenji but things fell through and it didn't happen. I'm happy to say I've recently adopted a baby girl (8weeks old) but I'm having issues potty training her and was looking for some firsthand advice.

    I've done quite a bit of reading, and have been crate training her as well. It's been less than a week and she is doing extremely well in the crate at night - she has stopped crying after the first night or two and only whimpers when she needs to pee, in which case I let her out and we go to her puppy pad… she does her business and then we go back to sleep for a few more hours and do it again. The issue is with #2 though, she won't do it for me at least not where I want.

    For the first few days I was feeding her in the hallway (tiny 1 BR condo) and had a puppy pad in the kitchen as well as a spot she'd picked in the living room. Then I read that I should feed her inside her crate so that she associates the food with the crate and will a) see the crate as a more positive experience, b) not eliminate in the crate as she sleeps there.

    I picked up a baby gate yesterday but none of them were large enough to block the hallway so I've got it setup in the kitchen, and left the one pad there.

    I've been following the same feeding schedule since day one (approx 730am, 1230 and 6pmn) but today I started feeding her inside her crate and then left her in there for 15-20mins to digest and just get a little more comfortable with the crate (she loved it as long as she knows I am nearby for the first couple days, now she is fine in there regardless unless she needs to pee). Then I take her to the kitchen and the puppy pad. I call her to the pad and she sniffs it and I walk away, and if she pee's I give her praise and whatnot and shes gotten much better at this but she will never #2. I usually leave her in there for 5-10mins and if she doesn't do anything I bring her back to the crate and try again in 30mins or so. This went on for essentially all of today, and she ended up sleeping in the crate most of the day with me nearby. I just put her in the kitchen one last time before bed with no luck, so I figured we'd go to bed. I had her in the crate in the bedroom - went to the bathroom and when I came back she had eliminated a bit so I cleaned it up, used stain remover and scrubbed out the crate and put her in the kitchen in the meantime. Afterwards I put her back in the crate and was cleaning up the kitchen and when I went to the bedroom she had eliminated all over the crate and made a huge mess that I've just finished cleaning up again at 1am :/

    I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong and how I can get her to #2 in the kitchen or anywhere for that matter. For the first few days I just kept an eye on her but she would always just go before I could stop it and it didn't feel very productive to follow her around and then just constantly pick up after her without her learning anything.

    Any advice about how I can ensure she doesn't eliminate in the crate and what to do about when she whines from the kitchen would be really appreciated. Up until today she hadn't even pee'd in the crate but now we've had two episodes in the past hour so I don't want this trend to continue.

    0
  • nomrbddgsN

    I train my puppies from very young. They have always had a 'potty box' in their area. They get blocked off in the kitchen with an x-pen and have a potty box and bed in there. The potty box is basically a cardboard box with a hole cut in the front for easy access. In the box I put a puppy pad in the bottom and shred newspaper in the bottom. When they start going in praise, praise, praise. It will take a bit, but she will get it in a bit of time. Make sure you put her in the 'area' you want to go in after she eats, when she wakes up and throughout the day. 8 weeks is pretty young to expect her to move to a new home and potty train. So relax, you are doing nothing wrong except IMO giving her too much room to move around. Good luck.

    Arlene, the Basenji Brats with the Boxenji![](images/smilies/biggrin.png "Big Grin")

    0
  • thunderbird8588T

    Congratulations on your new Puppy, how about some pics:D

    Shelley

    Basenji Malaika

    Basenji Malaika
    Basenji Kwame

    0

Suggested Topics

  • M

    4 months old and difficult potty training

    Basenji Training
    28
    1 Votes
    28 Posts
    4k Views
    elbrantE
    @jkent said in 4 months old and difficult potty training: sometimes just looks at me when I give her the command to eat it, not understanding. She might be confused about the signals. Try eating a cracker while she's watching and then, setting her bowl down and telling her it's "okay" to eat. In the dog world, the boss (Alpha dog, or leader) eats first. Then the other dog(s) get to eat.
  • M

    Potty Accidents

    Basenji Training
    9
    0 Votes
    9 Posts
    6k Views
    D
    Be careful on over using treats... mix it up with joyous praise and a rub under the chin and pat the back. If you do treats only they can think if they stop getting treats they might think it's bad behavior and change the potty behavior, but by mixing it up they still get the praise and reward with a good job, also always use their name with praise, and never with discipline. I'm reading this book about raising and training basenji's and it's also what my folks said they did that worked with their basenji
  • M

    1.5 yr old basenji potty issues

    Basenji Training
    4
    0 Votes
    4 Posts
    2k Views
    DebraDownSouthD
    Patty nailed it… when you have an issue, you have to go back as if a puppy and start anew, which means you leash her to you at all times, say NO if she starts to go, take her out, praise and treat. The good news is unlike a puppy, it will go faster. But making really sure the room has been cleaned of odors using some enzymatic sprays/cleaners is a must. http://www.cuhumane.org/topics/hseold.html
  • E

    New Basenji and Potty Training

    Basenji Training
    16
    0 Votes
    16 Posts
    6k Views
    S
    Yes, my girl was well socialized. It's not that my voice is so startling to her. It's more that she doesn't like to be scolded and will find a way in the not too distant future to repay me with her opinion. Since I learned a while ago to not do this, I haven't suffered her wrath in some time but when I did it could be anything from finding she had peed or pooped just out of my sight to finding something I value that had just been totally shredded. I found that I could scold her reasonably for what she had done but then I needed to immediately reinforce my love for her so that she knew she didn't need to rebel against me. This has worked well for me. Shouting at her would always reap me a grim reward in the end.
  • A

    Potty training

    Basenji Training
    24
    0 Votes
    24 Posts
    13k Views
    tanzaT
    @lisatest: Does a puppy have soft poop and as the puppy gets older the poop becomes more solid? It has been a while since I had a puupy so I can't remember. No… a puppy should also have a solid poo...
  • C

    Training classes?

    Basenji Training
    17
    0 Votes
    17 Posts
    6k Views
    NemoN
    @tanza: I think you are waiting too long. You should have two complete sets of shots before class. Waiting till they are 15/16wks you are missing critical socialization skills. Waiting for "all the shots" is pretty much old school these days. My pups go out even before that to things like lure trials… you just need to be careful and not let them "get" into anything like "old poop" laying around. I'm planning on taking her around the time of the 2nd shots if I can. But the problem is that the next round of puppy classes doesn't start till the last week of March, which would be around 14 weeks anyway. Maybe they will let me join the last half of the previous class but I'd have to check into that.