House Training (Potty Training) Your New Puppy

Thanks for this info. My puppy, Yoshi is now 8 weeks old and is paper trained, he always goes onto the paper to do his business. How can I get him to slowly move from the paper at the door to doing it outside?

I found the best way to move Pancakes from his training pads to the outdoors was to move the training pad to the back door, then have the training pad by the back door with the door open, then i moved it outside and took him out to do it on the training pad, then i removed the pads and he did it on the floor.
It takes patience and cant be done in one day, i moved it each step every 3 days...it worked though!
Now he knows when he goes for his long walk in the morning he does his business, then at lunch time he has a play and wee, then at night time he goes out the back for a wee before bed....
Routine, patience and persistance is key
You could even try putting Yoshi on his first lead and just leading him out to the back garden to do his business, then he will get used to toilet time being on a lead. This is what my nan did with her puppy as my technique didnt work with her shih-tzu....trial and error!

I totally agree with jketernity - this is what I did with Josh and ti worked brilliantly. You have to expect some accidents and mishaps and it will take a good few months before the penny completely drops about what you want but I think the fact that he is using the pads so well now is great because at least he won't be pidding everywhere
I always find with the boys that when the hormones kick in 6 months plus they are great for peeing on walks and toilet training is far easier with them than the girls. (Though stopping at every lampost in the world can be rather tiresome )

Thanks jketernity and simbalove, I took Yoshi out this morning on his lead which was his first time and quite an interesting experience for both of us. Once I got him moving he loved it, then after running around for around 5 mins he did a wee on the concrete in the back. I was so proud of him, he knew I was by my voice and reaction, as well as the added treat. Soon after we came back in an 10 mins later he did a poo on the paper. I'll do the same tomorrow again, and hopefully time it better, so he does both outside.

Thanks again you both, the feedback helped.

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Our house training isnt going to plan. She was doing well on puppy pads, but has recently started to pee where ever and when ever. we have started taking Lexi for walks now vaccinated but she does nothing when on a walk. she will go in the garden but only if outside playing not when taking out routinely as recommended. any suggestions?

Does she understand what you expect her to do when outside. I have trained my dog to do a wee on command. When you have her outside in the garden say the word wee wee ( or whatever word you choose ) when she does a wee praise and reward, soon she should asscociate the word with doing a wee. This all takes time and a lot of patience on your part. How old is Lexi ( love the name )?
We do tend to expect a lot from our dogs when all they have to go on is our body language . Dont ever get upset with her as Shih Tzu are sensitive little beings but you must train her and yourself to communicate in way you both understand. Patience is a real virtue.

Our back door has been opened for weeks now and Baxter has been very good going outside every time until yesterday and I found two puddles on the dining room floor. Not sure why but he's been fine today, so I'm hoping it was just a wee accident

xox

She is 14 weeks old now. when we got her she was puppy pad trained and when she went on her pad or after waking etc id say to her have a pee then praise her so she knows what have a pee is but to her the garden is a play park. when she has accident i just clean it up and dont scold her as i know they are very sensitive little souls. I do have patience but thought it do no harm to ask advice. I also have a labrador cross staffy and house trained her in a week when we got her at 12 weeks so think I was naive thinking Lexi might be just as easy. She is such a great little dog and brilliant with the kids,she loves all the attention and fuss so not being house trained isnt a big issue at the moment. thanks for advice

As they say all dogs are different, Coco was trained by about 7 months, Saska has taken forever, she is 3 years old now and even now she will have the odd accident indoors, but its not that long since she was house trained.

Whereas Coco goes to the door and whimpers, Saska just goes and pee's, although if I am in the kitchen and walking back into the room Saska will go towards the front door, so i know she needs out.

[img]http://shihtzuwhispers.org.uk/[/img]


Mali was trained in a few weeks but Tasha bless her is 2 1/2 years and still at nght will have the odd poo waitng for me in the morning. Tasha whinges when she wants to go out which is quite sweet and Mali just races to the door then back again to look at me and races back to the door and hopes I am their quick enough to open it and races down the path to the lawn.

glad to hear that all seems to be normal and that it not something I doing. Sands-62 that is a gorgeous photo. am hoping to get some more photos up now that know how to. thanks for everyones advice

I know that before I got Wispa and researched the breed that its says they are quite hard to toilet train, and yet Wispa was easy and she rings a bell to be let out, but then I got Poppy did everything the same with her and she was over 18 months before she got IT! Even now although we dont have any accidents she will hold a wee for hours and unless you take her for a walk she will take forever to have a wee in the garden, I am sure my neighbours are fed up of me constantly saying Poppy do Wee Wee's lol x

Bitches often prefer to go on home territory - when I showed my dogs the boys were great would cock their legs on the door posts as I took them out of the exhibition hall but my bitches would hang on, usually to the detriment of their movement, until they got home or more often till they could hold it no more and then they would be weeing as we walked in the show ring

14 weeks is very young and any puppy will not really understand house training until they are several months old - in fact they do not have control of their bladder until this time. So house training is really the "knack" of getting puppy outside to go at a time when they "need" to go... putting your toilet commands with the actions and one day the peeny drops and they connect the two.

Often a second puppy causes problems because the training is not quite as it was with the first puppy especially as when the new puppy goes to the loo outside when they are both there doesn't mean it has understood why it is there.

For your own personal problem ewok, puppies can get very confused because 1st off it has learned to pee on a pad and then it is taken outside and doesn't connect the two things. I suggest you have a pee pad and when you take her outside put it down for her to go. Eventually you will be able to remove the pad. The best time to get her to understand that the garden is also a toilet is probably first thing in the morning when she wakes.

Hope that helps

Glad I found this thread as I've been telling Daisy off when I catch her peeing or pooping indoors. I am taking her out every couple of hours unless she's already been out after sleeping, playing etc. For the most part she is good and I just say 'go potty' to her until she goes and then give her loads of praise. However not sure if I should be using puppy pads indoors too for when she wants to go and is inside, or am I just going to give her more reason to do it indoors

Lyn

gr8 btw I used puppy pads with Josh as I took him into work and it didn't seem to be a problem but with Isabella I just took her out often. Sometimes the pads can be useful like if you take her somewhere else with no access to outside. They mostly work out what is wanted as they grow up a bit. If she is using the pads then it might help prevent unwanted accidents elsewhere in the house (though a playing puppy doesn;t always realise until they are going ) - if she is not using the pads at all then I would probably say don't bother. Its up to you really but to finalise Josh's training I had to move the puppy pad to the garden and then he got the idea that was where he needed to go full stop

simbalove wrote:gr8 btw I used puppy pads with Josh as I took him into work and it didn't seem to be a problem but with Isabella I just took her out often. Sometimes the pads can be useful like if you take her somewhere else with no access to outside. They mostly work out what is wanted as they grow up a bit. If she is using the pads then it might help prevent unwanted accidents elsewhere in the house (though a playing puppy doesn;t always realise until they are going ) - if she is not using the pads at all then I would probably say don't bother. Its up to you really but to finalise Josh's training I had to move the puppy pad to the garden and then he got the idea that was where he needed to go full stop

That is a very good tip about using them when going out, I hadn't thought of that. My mum had wanted to see Daisy at some point but obviously I am concerned about her peeing on her carpets, can't see that going down well. So a puppy pad would work for that and any other situations where we feel she may be 'caught short'.

I feel really bad now for telling her off, I thought I was doing the right thing but I can see it makes sense to ignore it but praise when she goes outside.

Lyn

dog training has changed a lot over recent years as we get to understand them more and become better owners too so don't beat yourself up about it xx

I put her out first thing at about 7am and she did a pee eventually. Brought her in and about an hour later she did another one on the carpet but I just picked her up and put her outside and said nothing.

I was starting to worry that she wasn't pooping as I hadn't seen her do any yesterday, then I noticed two lots of it on the edge of the patio. Wondering if somehow at her breeders place she was encouraged to do that on concrete or may just be a coincidence. Have to say it's easier to pick up off the patio than on the grass.

Lyn

Could well be that is where the breeder encouraged her to go, so she may be more used to going there. As long as it is outside that's the main thing!

Is it just me or are Shih Tzu's slow to pee

I think I could read War & Peace in the time we are walking round and round the garden before Daisy finally decides to have a wee.

She spends most of the time with her nose to the ground sniffing away and picking up any fallen leaf she can find. I had no idea they were such scavengers.

Lyn

Mercedes55 wrote:I put her out first thing at about 7am and she did a pee eventually. Brought her in and about an hour later she did another one on the carpet but I just picked her up and put her outside and said nothing.

I was starting to worry that she wasn't pooping as I hadn't seen her do any yesterday, then I noticed two lots of it on the edge of the patio. Wondering if somehow at her breeders place she was encouraged to do that on concrete or may just be a coincidence. Have to say it's easier to pick up off the patio than on the grass.

Lyn

It is quite possible they only had concrete there... if you have several dogs it is easier to keep clean BTW shih tzu often do two wees in a morning so get into the habit of taking her out again shortly after the first one

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