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My puppy is 12 weeks. He sleeps in a pen at night but destroys his pee pads. His pee has stuck to the laminate floors and it smells so bad. What are some ideas with potty training and pee pads? He’s a 12 week German shepherd.
How do you train a mill breed dog with a leash?
My puppy (6 month lab/curr mix) is terrified of strangers. She barks and growls whenever she is exposed to people outside of my family. This behavior started at 3 months. With training and positive exposure, will she ever grow out of it?
Did this happen in spite of proper socialization?
Yes, positive training and socialization should get him at least indifferent. At this point, I’d recommend doing that with professional guidance, though, where situations can be fully controlled to keep things below his threshold.
Hi, our six month old puppy had to wear a cone for a week due to an eye injury and now one of her ears is stuck sticking up (the other one is floppy). Is there anything we can do to train her stuck ear to go back to the normal position?
Thank you!
Hi Ashley,
nobody is answering this one, frankly, I don’t know how you could train the ear into the right position either. I feel that with time it will settle where it belongs. I wouldn’t see this as a major problem to really worry about. Is the ear resisting being gently folder over into the right position? If so that would worry my. Otherwise I wouldn’t worry. You could probably gently fold it over when petting her.
When we crate our puppy we actually don’t put pee pads in there — take him out at night and in the morning and do it consistently and it teaches them when to go to the bathroom
We were told not to put pee pads in the crate as they should not be encouraged to go to the bathroom in their den. It takes a little while to get used to but we found getting rid of pee pads altogether was the best thing ever. We had our months of accidents but now our guy never goes to the bathroom inside.
I found pee pads increased his incontinence
Give him some space and toys and stuff and reinforce him for going in the den and just making sure he doesn’t have water before bed and is taken outside
Also make sure his kennel doesn’t smell like urine or feces — he may not realize he isn’t suppose to go to the bathroom in there and he may be playing or destroying the pee pads because he is teething — there are awesome rubber toys you can get and we just popped out the squeek mechanism in them so ours could chew on them all night and also make sure he gets a long walk and lots of exercise before he goes in so he isn’t full of energy!!
if he’s urinating constantly could be a UTI so many get checked for that!
i pretty much agree with everything Piper has said, but I’d like to add a few things.
when you’re home, take him out every half hour. set him up for success, and don’t let him urinate or defacate anywhere in the house. this sets a rule – it tells him outside is where he’s to do his business. every time he DOES use the yard, throw a party. make it rain treats. make him think he just did the best thing ever. throw out the pee pads, all they do is teach him it’s okay to pee in the house, plus they act as a possible obstruction if he ever decides to eat the plastic.
i want to reinforce: make sure he’s EMPTY before you come inside for the night. this is really crucial to his training and the comfort of your sense of smell. 😉 and for now it may be best to get up in the middle of the night to take him out, just until he gets the hang of sleeping through the night. we had to do that with our previous puppy until his death – he couldn’t hold it due to a birth defect, and it made everyone happier if no one had to clean up a lake of urine every morning.
do you crate him? this might be more effective than pee pads in a pen – get a crate appropriate for his adult size, but make sure it has a divider, and set the divider so he has just enough room to turn around and lie down. make sure it doesn’t start out smelling like urine, too.
to clean up your house and any of his stuff, use an enzyme cleaner. Nature’s Miracle can help – we found some success with it – and it’s available at Petsmart/Petco.
if he’s eliminating during the day, can someone come home around lunchtime? if you can’t come home, can you hire a dog walker to let him out, or maybe a trusted neighbor? that really would help a great deal.
Yep, you are training your sweet puppy to pee and poop in your house when you use pee pads. Follow the directions below to house train your pup, and sleep in sweats or something like that so you can pop up in the middle of the night and take that puppy outside if he starts indicating he needs to pee (he should be sleeping in a crate that is small enough that he does not want to pee in it). I sleep in sweats with slip on shoes beside the door for all my dogs until they are 6 months old.
I have a 11 year old Scottie that was taught to pee on pads in the bathroom when he was a puppy, (before I got him at 6 months old) and to this day when it is cold or rainy at night he will go into the bathroom and use the bath mat instead of going out the doggie door which is 4 feet away. If you teach them to use a pee pad you will struggle with the results the rest of his life.
Fight the good fight!
Basics of potty training: 1. you need a crate – you can get a large crate that will hold his adult size but has a divider so you can make it small for him now. He should only be able to sit up and lay out flat in his crate, no more room than that. Or get a small crate now, and a larger crate as he grows (keep the small crate for the next puppy, or sell it on Craigs List).
2. When you are not watching him he is in the crate.
3. When he comes out of the crate he goes outside — does not pass go, does not pick up a ball…right outside until he pees and maybe poops (depending on time of day). When he does his business it make it rain treats, jump or joy, and laugh! Then play with him outside for a few mins so he connects being outdoors and peeing outdoors with fun and games.
4. He is allowed back into the house and the freedom to explore as long as you can watch him to make sure he doesn’t have an accident. You might want to tie him to you (leash) while you move through the house, just so you know what he is doing and he can’t disappear and have an accident while you are cooking or such.
Remember: He goes back outside after a meal (eating = bowel movement about 15 to 20 after a meal)
He goes back outside after active playing (exercise and excitement = pee and/or a bowel movement).
He goes outside right before getting into his crate for the night, and don’t give him water after he pees so he can make it through the night.
During the times he is out of the crate, take him outside every hour or so and give him a command to pee (do your business, get busy, …)
Sleep in something that you are not embarrassed to wear outside in the middle of the night so you can jump up and take him outside if he whines or stirs around in his crate in the middle of the night.