Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since bringing home my pup and although he is about 90% potty trained there's still some surprise piddles on the floor.
He is 15 wks old. How long does it usually take before they stop going in the house?
At 15 weeks he still doesn't have full bladder control. 90% after 2 1/2 weeks is pretty good. Make sure you take him out right after after a nap, meals, excited playing. Watch for signs he needs to go, like pacing and sniffing around, and get him out quickly, saying lets go outside, or let's go out and pee. Go out with him so you can praise/treat him immediately when he does his business. Clean up any mistakes with an enzyme cleaner. Crate him if he'll be alone or unsupervised for extended periods.
general rule of thnumb with puppies and potty is 1 hour of "holding it" per month of life so at 16 weeks he shoudl be able to go ABOUT 4 hours between potty breaks...
BUT they must be trined to do that by taking them out BEFORE it reaches the "OMG NEED TO GO" stage
if hes having accidents its because your not taking him out frequently enough, are not watching him close enough nd are giving him too much free acess to the house......
Last edited by Sam I Am; 02-14-2013 at 04:34 PM..
Reason: moved but forgot to merge, then merged posts and not threads. Sigh.
Tom, you may have had some other responses but somehow I managed to obliterate a lot of things in trying to move this to it's own thread. Senility, I suppose!
I apologize to anyone who may have answered Tom and ask that you please re-post your replies. I just lost control, LOL!
I think it varies by dog breed. We've had German Shepherd pups who were trained in about a month. They did have a couple of accidents, but they were due to the owners. Our Golden Retriever took about 6 months before she was fully reliable. We had a Bichon Frise who took 3 years. Many times she'd go to the dog door, see that it was raining and just squat about 3' away from the door.
Congratulations on doing so well in just 2 1/2 weeks! You got your pup at a good time. We got a 7-month old who had never been housetrained last November, and we're still at 90% too! It's harder when they get used to going wherever they please!
Foxy nailed it. Breed does come into play a bit though. Some of those Toy breeds have a bladder the size of peanut, so some of them never are able to be considered 100% potty trained.
How long depends upon how diligent you are in your training. If you are getting piddles on the floor, you aren't paying enough attention and it is going to take you a lot longer.
I fostered a puppy around 3 months of age. She was very sick the first week and still recovering from parvo the 2nd week. I took her out often during that stage but really wasn't worried about accidents. Week 3 we started in earnest trying to catch her needing to go out and by week 4, I was reading her signals pretty good. The last 2 days she was here before her adoption, she didn't have a single accident -- because I was trained.
Actually, the same way a child is potty trained is how you train a dog - the parent/owner is trained to recognize the signal and achieve success. Success is what does the training.
So take your puppy out every hour if you have to. Use the same phrase for going out to go potty all the time. Use a different phrase for going outside to play. I use the command to "do your business" when we arrive at the potty spot. I use that phrase because I wouldn't use it for any other purpose. The dog not only learns what the purpose of the outside trip is but also learns the location where I want him to do it.
Funny thing is that we were adopted last night by a stray and already he knows where I want him to go.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.