House Breaking a Puppy

[Motley]

We have a new 9 week old male lab puppy for a week. He does great overnight in his pen, but during day he has a tendency to piddle a small amount around the house. Sometimes he's sitting and a little amount comes out. We take him outside very frequently, and he's going there, but many times comes back in and in a few minutes piddles some. He's even gone in his crate.

Could he be a little too young still? Am I impatient? Is he still too young at 8-9 to fully control his bladder? His next vet appointment is over a week away, and the vet suggested we wait until then to see how he's doing.

[Jeepnokc]

We have a new 9 week old male lab puppy for a week. He does great overnight in his pen, but during day he has a tendency to piddle a small amount around the house. Sometimes he's sitting and a little amount comes out. We take him outside very frequently, and he's going there, but many times comes back in and in a few minutes piddles some. He's even gone in his crate.

Could he be a little too young still? Am I impatient? Is he still too young at 8-9 to fully control his bladder? His next vet appointment is over a week away, and the vet suggested we wait until then to see how he's doing.

Really? Puppy question without a picture of the puppy?

[FighttheGoodFight]

It is all about consistency. Every pee and poo outside gets a treat and praise. Just keep at it! And he will have accidents for a while but keep at the positive reenforcing!

[HangryHippo]

He’s a 9 week old puppy! Relax and be consistent.

Also, post pictures. : )

[Laramie]

When he poops or pees, rub his nose in it and immediately put him outside. This will train him where you want him to use his instincts to relive himself.

[Motley]

[Motley]

He's a big guy. 18lbs at 7 weeks. When not covered in red dirt, he's very light cream.

[roci28]

Rubbing the puppies nose in it is not a great way to go!! Old method!! We have a 5 mo. old and when we first got him at 8 weeks bells were recommended. We hung on door and trained him to ring the bells with his nose to let us know...we still have the bells and I'm not sure when they actually go away lol, but for now if I'm in a different area of the house I can hear that he needs to go out. Its also a lot of praise and treats for now. You want to praise the action, like "good potty", "good sit", "good leave it". Not just good boy, that way they know what action they are doing that you like. I learned all this from our puppy class. You can you tube a couple of the bells method and see how it works. When we first put the bells on the door we would jingle a bit until he hit them, say good potty and give a treat. Every time he hits the bells you say "good potty" and right after they pee or poop also say "good potty" several times and give good rubs!! They associate the action of going to the bathroom, with the word potty and the bells with the word potty. Sorry if it sounds complicated!! Kind of hard to explain this way. It was effective though, and quickly too. Damn this is a long post!! lol Good luck!!

[BBatesokc]

Our dog is a smaller breed, but my wife had great success house training him at around 16 weeks to actually ring a bell whenever he needs to go outside. She just tied a ribbon to a small bell she bought at Walmart and then tied the end to the doorknob.

When we'd take him out we'd place him in front of the bell, take his paw and ring the bell and tell him "Go outside." I thought there is no way that would work. Sure enough, after about 2 weeks he went over and rang the bell on his own. Does it without fail now. So much better then trying to remember who took him out last and when or trying to listen for him to whine.

[Motley]

I'll definitely get the bell for our door, thanks. Funny, he has trouble knowing when to go out, but if outside, he has no problem letting us know when he wants back in by whining and crying. I don't respond until he settles down and is calmly sitting before opening the door. The bell is a much better idea than letting him cry to get out.

I was worried that maybe he has a UTI, but this is a full week of nights in which he held it fine for 3-4 hour periods of sleep and promptly goes outside to use it. I think he may be too distracted during the day to care, so far.

[FighttheGoodFight]

I'll definitely get the bell for our door, thanks. Funny, he has trouble knowing when to go out, but if outside, he has no problem letting us know when he wants back in by whining and crying. I don't respond until he settles down and is calmly sitting before opening the door. The bell is a much better idea than letting him cry to get out.

I was worried that maybe he has a UTI, but this is a full week of nights in which he held it fine for 3-4 hour periods of sleep and promptly goes outside to use it. I think he may be too distracted during the day to care, so far.

You got this! Labs are very smart and he will be trained in no time!

[Jeepnokc]

I'll definitely get the bell for our door, thanks. Funny, he has trouble knowing when to go out, but if outside, he has no problem letting us know when he wants back in by whining and crying. I don't respond until he settles down and is calmly sitting before opening the door. The bell is a much better idea than letting him cry to get out.

I was worried that maybe he has a UTI, but this is a full week of nights in which he held it fine for 3-4 hour periods of sleep and promptly goes outside to use it. I think he may be too distracted during the day to care, so far.

He is a cutie. Puppy pads are great also. We can tell if our old lady dane has a UTI because it is a horrible smell. Not your typical urine smell...much more intense. Also...from pet webMD...."Experts recommend that you begin house training your puppy when he is between 12 weeks and 16 weeks old. At that point, he has enough control of his bladder and bowel movements to learn to hold it."

[Motley]

Thanks everyone. We always adopted from shelters before so they were older pups, except for a female beagle, and she was pretty easy to train and didn't fight staying in a pen, but this little guy turned out to be much more stubborn. It's reassuring to know that a few more weeks may make all the difference. Come to think of it, of all the dogs we've had, we never had one less than 3-4 months old already.

[HangryHippo]

Motley - your pup is adorable! He's a little too young (probably) to hold it all night, but keep working with him and he'll get there.

[PhiAlpha]

When I was house breaking my lab puppy, in addition to frequent trips outside, the most important thing for me was making sure that his access was limited to only certain parts of the house and if I had to leave those areas for more than a few minutes and couldn't supervise him...I crated him. Making sure you're in position to catch your puppy in the act if/when they have an accident in the house is key because immediately correcting the action and redirecting them (using whatever your correction word/sound is then taking him outside) is much more effective while the negative behavior is happening than anything that you do after the fact. When he goes to the bathroom outside, make sure to heap on the praise so he knows he's doing a good job!

As he progresses, you can start opening up the rest of the house to him...though labs can definitely be destructive when bored and unsupervised so it's still probably better to make sure you can keep an eye on him when not crated until he's out of the puppy phase (and potentially longer depending on the dog lol). If I'm not in the room when he needs to go out, mine will either bark or come find me and make a bunch of noise...though the bell idea from roci & BBates up thread is a good one.

Can't go wrong with a lab, mine is about to turn 10 and has been the best dog I've ever had. Have fun!!!