Potty training inside AND outside?
I've been trying to research all of the potty training & crate training threads, but I still have some questions. I've got to get serious about it now because she's almost here! I can't believe I've been in contact with the breeder and waiting on this particular puppy for 3 months, and now we've only got 5 weeks to go! Yay! (Nanny is 4wks old today!) 
Okay, I got lots of advice when I asked about the best solution for her while we're at work all day. We will be gone from about 8am to 5:45 pm (nearly 10 hours!  ). Jason is going to take off for the first week, but then it's back to work. We have also started looking for a dog walker for the afternoons. However... none of this will be enough for her to hold it all day in her crate, so I'm going to have to put down potty pads and give her a sectioned off area. I guess I can put the crate in the sectioned area, but leave the door open to reach the potty area. While we're home and on the weekends, I plan to potty train her to go in the backyard.
Do you think the potty pads half the time and outside half the time will be confusing? Will she now think it's fine to go in the house? Maybe when she's a few months old the afternoon dog walker will be enough? Maybe I can just teach him to use a litter box. 
I wish I could just stay home with her all day. |
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| I paper-train and belong to another group of tons of furmoms who also do it because we have malteses...
I would not describe it as confusing rather than the dogs normally take a FAST preference to... you guessed it, going outside. I always tell my friends who have FAILED at it that their mistake was not listening to me telling them to paper-train until they GET IT and make it where they go the majority of the time for a long time. ...like, let's say during the day where they are gated in a small area. My dog got the paper-training in less than a week (to perfection) but I kept her in the bathroom while I was gone and she rarely went outside... No confusion at all though. I just babysat a shih tzu who I paper-trained the week she was with me, and the second she went to her forever home.... her parents let her go outside once, and that was it. She never wanted to go on the pads again. Yuki also went (half-on/half-off) for the first week or so, and she got it pretty quickly even though the pads weren't really for her, but I knew right away I didn't want her peeing on them (amount). WITH THAT SAID, I would never paper-train an OES if you plan on doing it past 20lbs (for all I know...less than that). The best puppy pads will still leak from my experience at the amount that comes out of a big dog. Even if they don't leak, the smell would be way over-powering (to this clean freak). If you give it a go, good luck. |
Joahaeyo wrote: WITH THAT SAID, I would never paper-train an OES if you plan on doing it past 20lbs (for all I know...less than that). The best puppy pads will still leak from my experience at the amount that comes out of a big dog. Even if they don't leak, the smell would be way over-powering (to this clean freak).
If you give it a go, good luck. Sorry, I'm confused.  Are you saying I shouldn't put out the pads at all? I believe she'll be about 15 - 20 lbs when we get her at 9wks old. The breeder teaches them to go on cedar shavings, so I'll probably put a puppy bad in the lid of a big cardboard box and then put the shavings on top of the pad. I'll change out the box every day when I get home.
Other than giving her a place to go during the day while we're gone, I don't know what else to do. Any other suggestions? |
| I was saying that I wouldn't do it.
But if the dogs are already trained then I'm not sure what the problem is! At least you can continue it until you find a better solution. You may have a dog who can hold it very long. My maltese would hold it for 12-14 hrs from the very start when I got her. She never had to as I was home, but that's just her....and still how she is. My dog viewed the pellets/cedar chips as things to eat and play fetch with, so I had to stick to puppy pads.  |
| Does anyone else have experience with this? I thought the rule was a puppy can hold it for 2 hours at 2mo old, 3 hrs at 3mo, etc.
Should we just leave her in her crate for 5 hours at a time with no potty option? That seems cruel.
FYI- A sectioned off area outside is not an option. We live on a golf course and have standard iron fences throughout the neighborhood. Anyone playing golf (or outside in their own backyard) can see into our yard and walk straight into it if they wanted. (They don't lock) Doesn't seem like a safe option to me. |
| we have had our puppy for 3 weeks now. she is getting better but can only go about 3 hours without a wee. if you are leaving her for that length of time it will be like a swimming pool when you get home! Both my dogs liked crates but tended to wee in them so the oes has one but just goes in there now and then. when is pup actually coming home? |
| I used the puppy pads with both my sheepies. Ben was locked in our front entry for 9-10 hrs a day, I laid pads down & he used they without fail. When I was home in the evening & the weekends, I placed the pads by the back door (that we let the pups out to potty) to direct him to tha area, all while taking him out frequently. He got the idea & was trained to use only the potty pads during the day until he was about 3 months then he would hold it. He only used the pads by the door twice as I recall.
Lily on the other hand insisted on shredding the pads, and when she wasn't shredding them she was peeing half on them and mostly off as ahe likes to walk as she pees  I resorted to buying her a crate to go about it that way & she still pees every day.....I almost fee like it's a lost cause to potty train her.
So there are pro's & con's...I think you'll just have to try a few things to see what will work for you & the pup |
| Stephanie:
I am a new mommy too. Heart is 12 weeks. I'm sure you will get alot more posts with great suggestions so I am just letting you know that I know what you are going through. The first week Heart was here, (I took off a week, like your husband) I took her out every 20 minutes. NOW, when she has to go, she "flings" herself on the back door and barks. The first week back at work, I was coming home 3X a day--that lasted for a month-- 10/noon/2-- let her out and give her the noon feeding. (Is the puppy going to be fed 2 or 3 x per day when you get her?) Now I have the "luxury" of coming home at 11:30, take her out to potty, run around about 10-15 minutes....go back to work.....I return at about 2:00, take her out to potty, run around about 10-15 minutes..  ( we dropped the noon feeding--she wasn't eating it!!)
In another month, I will cut it to coming home on my lunch 1/2 hours only... hopefully...
When she is in her crate, there is an old bath towel for accidents, which is not very often and a hard chew bone and a squeaky so she doesn't get bored and chew the towel. Will you be getting Nanny on a weekend? It may be helpful if you do since then you will have 2 days to "test" different methods. If Nanny is a chewer/shredder then you may have a problem with potty pads, newspaper or cedar chips. Your husband being home for the week will really help with training too. He will be able to get her on some kind of schedule and he will also get to know her "signals" when she has to go. I know you will do great...and Nanny will do great too....It just takes time. Good luck and keep us posted..... |
| I agree with Mrs. J.
I wouldn't paper train. If your puppy comes home at 8 weeks and someone is home for the first week you should be well on your way to being able to crate the puppy all day. I would look for someone to come in mid day for the first month and focus on outside. Like Mrs. J I have a small dog and a big. The Maltese is paper trained and goes outside but I didn't have to use paper for Tasker. He could "hold it" all day by the time he was 4 or 5 months. |
| I had the luxury of bringing Beaureguard with me to work until he was pretty well trained. But, even when I started leaving him home part of the day, I had a neighbor come in and let him out to potty during the time he was there alone. At that point, he wasn't crated, but rather gated off in the the kitchen. And, if he'd had an accident, she just cleaned it up. I never tried using the pads as I was afraid it would confuse him.
Do you have a neighbor who could help you out for a few months? Even now, I go home at lunch every day to let them out. I know they can hold it, but it's just the routine we got used to doing, so I kept it up. |
KTB wrote: when is pup actually coming home? We are going to get her on a Friday evening, October 12th. sheepieshake wrote: The first week back at work, I was coming home 3X a day--that lasted for a month-- 10/noon/2-- let her out and give her the noon feeding. (Is the puppy going to be fed 2 or 3 x per day when you get her?) Will you be getting Nanny on a weekend? It may be helpful if you do since then you will have 2 days to "test" different methods. If Nanny is a chewer/shredder then you may have a problem with potty pads, newspaper or cedar chips. According to the breeder, she will be eating only in the evenings when we get her. The breeder is going to provide extensive instructions on Nanny's schedule at that time. And yes, I definitely wanted to get her at the beginning of a weekend!  That will give her a full 9 days with us before we're both at work and she's at home. (And 9 days for the cat to get acquainted with supervision!! ) Beaureguard's Mom wrote: I never tried using the pads as I was afraid it would confuse him. Do you have a neighbor who could help you out for a few months?
We are already looking into having a neighbor come early in the afternoon to take her in the backyard to play & potty. We plan to have someone come once a day until she's a few months old, and then we'll phase them out until she's old enough to stay in her crate. I'm also hoping, that once she's old enough, she can spend the day out of the crate (limited access to certain rooms though). That's how a friend did it with her dogs. Who knows, maybe going out at 8am, 1pm, and 6pm will be enough when she's 10 weeks old.
We'll just have to figure it out. |
| One feeding a day is not enough at that age!!! |
| Ditto the feedings. At that age, she should still be getting 3 small meals spread out over the day. |
| I reread her email, and I think she was referring to some other type of food. She said she'll keep dry food out all the time but feed them somthing else in the evenings. I don't know...we haven't discussed the feeding in the detail yet.
I'm not really worried about the food right now, because I will get that straightened out as the time gets closer. I haven't done a lot research on the puppy feeding yet, because I'm still freaked out about her being home while we're gone all day! That is my main concern at the moment. |
| When she eats and drinks is directly related to when she pees and poos, so knowing her feeding schedule will help you plan her potty breaks. |
| I just wanted to say that I think we found a dog walker! She lives right around the corner in my neighborhood, has 2 dogs, and is a stay-at-home mom. We haven't discussed price yet, but I'm thinking $25 a week is good. I'm just asking that she come by around noon for about 20-30 minutes, Mon - Fri, to let Nanny go in the backyard to play/potty. Does $5 a day ($25 a week) seem fair for that?
Everything is getting closer...I'm so excited! She is 5 weeks old today. I also talked to the breeder about the potty/crate training, and she was very helpful. As far as feeding and drinking... do you think at 9 weeks we should just give her water in the morning, evening, and during her afternoon play-time, or will she need water all day long? |
| That's a heck of a deal if she'll take it. I paid my dog walker $15 a day for 20-30 minutes! |
| $15 a day!! That would be $300 a month just to have someone let her run around the backyard for 20 minutes! If that is the case, maybe I'll just sneak her into my office.
Actually, there was a kid who had put an add in our neighborhood for dog walking, and he charged $5 a trip. |
| $25 per week is what I paid my neighbor when she was letting Beaureguard out to potty during the day. Some days she came more than once, too. |
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