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I have a 6 month Cavalier. My advice is to be patient. Ours wasn't mostly housebroken till 4.5 months. Mainly because keeping an eye on them for their every move is hard. We have a busy household and it's just hard to focus on the puppy all the time.
Sounds like you need to turn your 5 minutes in to 10-15 minutes. Shortly after we got our puppy we had 2-3 weeks of rain. That made for countless unpleasant trips outside! As soon as he was supposedly done doing his business we came in immediately. Only then 5 minutes later we'd discover he wasn't done
What kind of leash are you using? We started with a thick one that he hated and he'd try to bite at it and he'd run INTO his CRATE when he saw it. It was very distracting. We switched to one of those flex-leashes that has a thin retractable cord. He got used to that MUCH easier.
Oh, and earlier I said "mostly" housebroken - We trained him to ring bells by the door to go outside. It works wonderfully. He hadn't had any accidents in the house for a month. Only problem is that he rings the bells to go outside when he is BORED. 2 days ago he was ringing them incessantly and was in and out all day. Eventually I got the attitude of "No, I'm SURE you DONT have to go!" Well he left me a present on the floor while I was cooking dinner.
I have a 6 month Cavalier. My advice is to be patient. Ours wasn't mostly housebroken till 4.5 months. Mainly because keeping an eye on them for their every move is hard. We have a busy household and it's just hard to focus on the puppy all the time.
Sounds like you need to turn your 5 minutes in to 10-15 minutes. Shortly after we got our puppy we had 2-3 weeks of rain. That made for countless unpleasant trips outside! As soon as he was supposedly done doing his business we came in immediately. Only then 5 minutes later we'd discover he wasn't done
What kind of leash are you using? We started with a thick one that he hated and he'd try to bite at it and he'd run INTO his CRATE when he saw it. It was very distracting. We switched to one of those flex-leashes that has a thin retractable cord. He got used to that MUCH easier.
Oh, and earlier I said "mostly" housebroken - We trained him to ring bells by the door to go outside. It works wonderfully. He hadn't had any accidents in the house for a month. Only problem is that he rings the bells to go outside when he is BORED. 2 days ago he was ringing them incessantly and was in and out all day. Eventually I got the attitude of "No, I'm SURE you DONT have to go!" Well he left me a present on the floor while I was cooking dinner.
My dog is half Cavalier. We also trained him to ring the bell when he needed to go out to potty. Sadly he became a bell abuser and rang it when he saw a squirrel or chipmunk or leaf or anything outside that he wanted to check out. He was driving us crazy so we had to get rid of the bells. Now he just finds me where ever I am, makes sure I see him and runs to the door. Works just fine.
My dog is half Cavalier. We also trained him to ring the bell when he needed to go out to potty. Sadly he became a bell abuser and rang it when he saw a squirrel or chipmunk or leaf or anything outside that he wanted to check out. He was driving us crazy so we had to get rid of the bells. Now he just finds me where ever I am, makes sure I see him and runs to the door. Works just fine.
Secondly - She will not let us use a leash on her. She will not move and when we try and pull she resisits fiercely! I tried a harness and she wiggled her way out of it! any suggestions?
I foster dogs and usually when they first come I'll put a very lightweight 8 ft leash on them and let them drag it as they walk (in a safe location, fenced, in the house, etc.) This acclimates them to the leash. If I need to interrupt their behavior, all I have to do is step on the leash. It is much less stressful on the dog and helps transition nicely to off leash reliability.
Please ensure safety if you try this route and do not leave the leash attached if you are not able to watch her, even in the house. You can use tethering to help eliminate the possibility of an accident. Attach her leash to you via belt loop, etc. so she cannot slip away to eliminate. You will find housebreaking much easier if you prevent the accidents so as not to develop bad habits. Be gentle, Cavaliers are lovely little dogs.
Wonderful choice in breed! I have one. 9 years and well attended.
Ask the vet on feed schedule. Ours was twice a day, small amounts. and water at all times. They know their thirst level. Now as an adult it's once a day and modified quantity. Again your vet can give the proper food intake.
The break habit thru crate training works. animals learn where it's acceptable. Ours was introduced to a puppy patch outside.. And it worked.
Ours learned to do a behavior signal when it was potty time. he had a toy that he connotated with outside relief.
The getting up at all odd hours is setting a future behavior... You may want to reconsider that.
Enjoy this phase, they are genuinely well tempered and wishing to be accepted in the home.
I take her out immediately after she gets out of the crate. But if I am not watching her constantly she will just go anywhere. I am trying to stay outside longer and hopefully that will help with going. It is just hard at 2:30 in the morning when I have to get up for work at 6am. She lasted last night from 10pm till 4. Took her out at 4 and she did both 1 & 2. However, she just wanted to play after that and would not let me get back to sleep. She would just whine and whine in the crate. finally had to get back up and play with her to get her tired. She went back to sleep at 5:30. Gave me a whopping 20 minutes to rest before "I got back up". Again, I am not sure what else to do? I take her out every 20 minutes and usually she goes No.1.
As far as the leash, I have a small thin leash. when I put it on her she just stops dead in her tracks. Maybe I should leave it on her and let her drag it across the house? then she also bites it and resists
As far as feeding - we have gone to twice a day. Per the puppy food we have her on, she is supposed to eat 1 1/2 cups a food a day. Well, she really only eats 3/4 a cup. she leaves the food in the bowl, and as I have been told if she doesn't eat all of it in 15 minutes or leaves it I am supposed to pick it up. Is that correct?
No one enjoys the housebreaking phase. It's just something you have to get through. Remember, she's still a very young pup!
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I take her out immediately after she gets out of the crate. But if I am not watching her constantly she will just go anywhere. I am trying to stay outside longer and hopefully that will help with going. It is just hard at 2:30 in the morning when I have to get up for work at 6am. She lasted last night from 10pm till 4. Took her out at 4 and she did both 1 & 2. However, she just wanted to play after that and would not let me get back to sleep. She would just whine and whine in the crate. finally had to get back up and play with her to get her tired. She went back to sleep at 5:30. Gave me a whopping 20 minutes to rest before "I got back up". Again, I am not sure what else to do? I take her out every 20 minutes and usually she goes No.1.
You keep doing what you are doing. She'll catch on eventually as long as you are consistent.
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As far as the leash, I have a small thin leash. when I put it on her she just stops dead in her tracks. Maybe I should leave it on her and let her drag it across the house? then she also bites it and resists
Who cares if she resists it, as long as she isn't hurt by it and doesn't get her way? Some amount of resistance is NORMAL when a puppy first encounters a collar/harness and leash, as the leash restricts her freedom. Let her fight it all she wants, until she understands that fighting the leash gains her nothing. Then she'll stop.
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As far as feeding - we have gone to twice a day. Per the puppy food we have her on, she is supposed to eat 1 1/2 cups a food a day. Well, she really only eats 3/4 a cup. she leaves the food in the bowl, and as I have been told if she doesn't eat all of it in 15 minutes or leaves it I am supposed to pick it up. Is that correct?
That's correct. Don't leave the food down too long, or she'll learn to become a lazy (or even picky) eater.
as far as the leash goes, she wont go anywhere with it? she haunches down and wont go anywhere. I can pull her across the grass I guess? Just wondering if there was another way of her getting used to it?
I asked this in the other thread but thought this needed a thread all on its own. Our puppy is 9 weeks old today. We have been crate training for a week. whenever we cannot supervise she is in the crate and even then she goes to the bathroom. My real question is what to do at night. We take her out at 8:30, then we go to sleep, we then get up at 1:30 to take her out, then we go back to sleep and then getup again for good at 5:30 and take her out. She is in the crate when we are asleep. She is not crying or whining at all. We just get up because we thought she could not "Hold it" all night. Is that the case? as long as she is not whining or going potty in the crate we can see how long she can last?
As far as in normal times, sometime we take her out - she goes potty and then comes in. 15 minutes later she goes potty again on our floor. not understand why?
Secondly feeding question - Do we just need to feed her at set times? right now as she got acclimated to our house we just leave food in there all the time. I am thinking this is a bad idea. Seems like she need a routine. So how many times a day and how much? we have puppy food for her and she is 5lbs. I was thinking about 1 feeding in the morning, 1 feeding midday and 1 at our suppertime around 6
thx in advance for the help!
I am the happy doggie dad to four Cavaliers. Two we got as puppies, two are rescues who were 3YO when they came to us. We had an elder Cocker that did most of the housebreaking for us with these guys, and two others over the years. They all just followed her in and out the doggie door. In my experience, a doggie door will greatly simplify housebreaking, and if you a have a contained yard, the dog will surely enjoy some time in the sun or bird watching if you're not around to entertain her. Never been a fan of crates, and never needed them (yet), but I'd especially not want to crate a Cavalier unless it was absolutely necessary. The females seem to be less 'clingy', but I think our boys would go out of their minds if they didn't have a lap to sit on.
We feed twice a day at set times, mostly because we have one 'foodie' and don't have the option of leaving it out.
Good luck with the new puppy. We'll never be without a Cavalier or two.
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