# 3 month old toilet training tips and biting



## Purley

I know its not funny, but I had to laugh -- been there done that! I didn't get Lucy until she was five months old. She wasn't house trained at all. She is now seven and a half months old and its only been in the past two weeks or so that she has not peed or pooped in the house if I didn't have her tethered to me. She still has the odd accident. 

For the first two months, if I didn't have her tethered to me on the leash, she would go and pee or poop in the house. She still doesn't ask. I think what you are experiencing is totally normal.

Its actually a real nuisance - the leash gets tangled around the furniture but the alternative is to have her peeing in the house. Its kind of "no pain no gain". So long as I put Lucy out on a regular basis, she doesn't need to be tethered to me any longer.

When she is completing house trained and totally reliable, then I will attempt to teach her to ask to go out. I think teaching her to ring a bell would be good, but I wonder if she will be ringing it all the time to go out and play -- which would not be my aim!

As to the biting. Lucy didn't do that so I will leave it for others to give solutions for that.


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## PaddleAddict

To this day my mini's signals that he needs to go out are very, very subtle. Like, he'll look at me, then at the door. If just stare at the door. If I'm not watching, I miss it. 

When he was your puppy's age, he had no signals, would just squat and go just like yours. I think he was just so interested in doing other things, that he didn't even realize he had to go until it was too late. 

When he was that age, I took him out to the potty stop every hour. I always took him out on a leash to the potty spot so he couldn't have fun sniffing and playing wherever he wanted to in the yard. If he didn't pee or poop when I knew he had to, he was not allowed off leash in the house until he went. And even then, he was not able to roam the house off leash at all until he was about 6 month old, and then he was allowed off leash only if I was right there watching him (i.e., no wandering off out of sight).


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## fjm

On the biting - the most important thing at this age is to teach her to inhibit her bite, rather than to stop her biting altogether - that comes later. If the children are too young to cope with this, encourage them to only play with her using toys etc, so there is minimal contact. Let her bite, and at the first pressure yelp loudly, tell her she has really hurt you, turn away and ignore her for a few moments. She will recognise this as similar behaviour to her litter mates, so should catch on pretty quickly. Eventually you can yelp at any mouth contact, but she needs to practice using her mouth gently first. More useful info and help here: Teaching Bite Inhibition | Dog Star Daily


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## Lilith

Oh geez. I totally hear you on both problems.

Lilith is not quite 5 months old now (I got her at 2 months old), and still has an accident now and then. The first 2 months with her were an endless, rigorous routine of taking her out _constantly_. She also gave no signs, so I didn't wait. If she was up and about, I took her out every 20 minutes. If she was asleep, the second she stirred she went out. I set the alarm for 2 different times overnight and took her out. The housekeepers similarly were instructed that she had to be crated and how to do so and how to take her out routinely and treat her for going outside.

Now, after about 3 months of this, I can leave the kitchen door hanging open and 90% of the time she will wander out on her own and pee and poo in her spot. She's actually nearly perfectly trained with the housekeepers, but when I am home she is allowed in more rooms of the house and we're working on teaching her that those rooms are also off-limits for doing her business.

I put bells up on the door, and she has hit them exactly one time. Only. And it wasn't to pee, I think it was just to see what would happen. So we're getting there, but wow is it a slow and painful process. Certainly no "she was housetrained in only 1 week!" type story here.

The biting thing we are still working on. She learned quickly to inhibit her bite strength, and I allowed gentle mouthing throughout her teething. She has her big-girl teeth now, though, so now we are working on no mouthing at all. We're not there yet. She knows she's not supposed to mouth, but she'll try it anyway and then turn her head as soon as she tries. Bonus is that her mouthing has become ridiculously soft, as if she's trying to nibble without me noticing or something.  More important to me at this point is getting her to stop jumping. She's 33 pounds, and today tried to jump up on a kid at the coffee shop that probably didn't weigh much more than that (!). 

Potty-training, mouthing, and jumping are, for me and Lilith, the more stubbornly difficult things to train. For potty-training and mouthing, persistence is the key here. Jumping, well,... it's hard to yell at her when she's jumps on other people (as they pet her and coo "no, it's ok..." .. sigh), so I'm still trying to figure out that one.

Wish I could offer better advice than 'keep at it', but that's the advice I received here and it has indeed been working (slowly). Good luck!


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## Olie

You have a puppy!! LOL> Puppies are notorious for popping a squat when they come back in - I wish I knew why. 

Crating and Tethering is key. Its that simple if done consistently. The hard part is US doing it. We want them with the family always, thinking its best but really they need strict guidance at this stage.

Biting is also one day at a time. Poodles love to mouth at everyone. I lightly place my fingers around the muzzle give a little tug and say "no" - and replace with a toy. If I see it coming, I try to redirect by making a noise or as they mature use a squirt bottle. Distractions work really for potty training and the nipping. But when it fails is when they are in another room or even across the room. '

Good luck


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