# Breeders and housebreaking



## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

This is a question for breeders:

What kind of housetraining do you start with your puppies before they go home? Do you begin crate training and teach the pups to potty outside? Do you paper train? Potty pads?

Owners: Do you know what method your breeder used with the pups? Do you think the type of housetraining started with the breeder has an impact on the ease of housebreaking once the pup comes home?


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

When I got him, Vegas already prefered to go outside, I had him bell trained in a week (ringing bells at the door) and pretty much house trained by the end of our first month.

Karen had puppy pads in her fenced off area in her living room and kitchen where she kept the puppies, the room where the puppies were kept had french doors that she took the puppies out with. When the puppies went outside she would praise them (its on video on her youtube.)

She also provided puppy pads with his puppy package, though we never needed to use them since he was tethered and I took him out often.

I absolutely think that Karen eases the housetraining the puppies recieve at their homes, and I have a lot of respect for how much she had to do for Vegas's litter (and Hi-D's litter born two weeks before Vegas's.)

Oh, also, Vegas was born Dec 1st, 2009, so all his house training was done in the winter of northern utah.. that means A LOT of snow! I don't think he had seen snow before (southern utah is warm and deserty) but house training in the winter wasn't a problem at all.


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## Mumzilla (Aug 4, 2010)

I asked the 'breeder' if Zero was housebroken (she was 3 months old). She told me no, but it should be easy. And yes, I ignored this and many other red flags to bring my puppy love home. Well, I figured out pretty quickly that not only was she not housetrained - she had never even been on grass before! It was not an easy process, but we got there. I would most cetainly prefer a housebroken or at least started puppy and will make sure it is an option with my next spoo.


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## Beach girl (Aug 5, 2010)

Pippin, my rescue dog, came to me completely housebroken and other than once while he was on the Angel Eyes supplement, has never had one mistake in the house. Not one. He was older, but still, with a rescue you never know what you're going to get.

Bounder, my pet-store dog who was no doubt bred in a puppy mill in Oklahoma, was a snap to housebreak. I bought him December 8 when he was exactly 12 weeks old. He made a few mistakes in the house, but less than what I could count on both hands. By Christmas Eve, a bit more than 2 weeks later, he was letting me know when he had to go outside. He was pretty close to perfect all the years I had him. He was the one who made me fall in love with poodles.

Casey, my pretty boy, from excellent lines and a quality breeder - sigh. No, he was not started on housebreaking in any way I could tell. Maybe just a little bit. We did crate-training, lots of walks, etc., but he was more of a challenge than the other two, mostly with weeing on the carpet. He got it eventually, but it took longer than with Bounder, and he was older and should have had more bladder control, not less, in comparison.

He gets a sensitive tummy from time to time and will occasionally have diarhea in the house. Not fun.

For me, absolutely zero correlation between quality background and ease of housebreaking. The most unknown quantity was the best, puppy-mill boy nearly as good, and quality boy the most challenging.


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## penny_ann (May 29, 2010)

Penny hadn't even been outside when I brought her home. My breeder said she didn't take them out until they could navigate the steps by themselves. Which didn't happen until Penny was home for over a month ( I carried her outside starting the day we got home). 
I was told that she was trained to go on the pee pads. That didn't work for us. I bought a few for back up during the training process and all I saw her do was play with them. 
I do think that it slowed down the potty training that she wasn't introduced to it until I brought her home at 12 weeks. Things have improved though. Now, for the most part, she rings the bell to go outside.


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## plumcrazy (Sep 11, 2009)

Lucy was well on her way with house training when we brought her home at 8 weeks old. I know that Cherie, my breeder, worked with the puppies as soon as they were mobile enough to get around outside. When we got Lucy, we made sure to schedule EVERYTHING - feedings, waterings, potty times. I rarely carried her to go out - I wanted her to understand that it was her responsibility to get to the door to go outside. The only exception to that is when I'd take her out of her crate first thing in the morning when she was very young. We live in a multi-level house and there are a lot of stairs between our bedroom and the walk-out basement, so I'd carry her to the bottom of the last flight of stairs and let her walk to the door under her own steam.

Lucy was housetrained very quickly and I'm confident that it was a combination of a good foundation and a reliable schedule during her formative months - and the fact that she's a POODLE!!


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## Beach girl (Aug 5, 2010)

Reliable schedule counts for a LOT. I did the same as you with with both Bounder and Casey, carrying them to the downstairs level and then walking out. I think maybe for a few days with Bounder in particular I carried him right up to the door, and then he walked over the threshold on his own. It helped to get him as close as possible to that door to prevent accidents. He was such a tiny thing, he didn't cover much ground with each step and I wanted to make sure he had success every time.

I was prepared for things to be a lot harder with him, since he had been in a crate at the pet store and far as I knew, had little or no experience with the outside. Maybe his breeder had indeed introduced him to grass and outdoor pottying; I doubt it but you never know.

Anyway, I expected him to be harder, and he was easy. I expected Casey to be easier, and he was more difficult. They are all individuals, even if they are naturally brilliant poodles. ;-)


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

I don't know what Henry's breeder did as far as potty training, but he came home at 9 weeks already knowing to potty outside. Took him a little longer to figure out NOT to have accidents inside. But overall, Henry was a BREEZE!

Millie's breeder mentioned once that she paper trained the pups. Millie came home at 10 weeks and never had a poo poo accident. She seemed to have a texture preference for peeing on soft things like carpet.:/ She learned within a day that outside grass was for pottying. But, like Henry, she took a while to stop having the occasional accident in the house. 

Millie had accidents in her crate for longer than I would have expected, especially since she was raised in a home (kitchen) - not a kennel environment. She did always seemed bothered by her mess, though. She would sit and lean as far away from her mess as possible. (Which IMO shows she truly had the accident because she just couldn't wait any longer). I really think she lacked strong bladder control.


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## Beach girl (Aug 5, 2010)

When I was researching breeders before buying Casey, I came across one web site where the breeder explained how the whelping and nursery boxes were arranged to assist with housebreaking. At first of course all puppies were with the dam. Then when they got old enough, another "wing" was added on to the whelping box, so there was a nursing area with mom on one side, a play area (separate area, set off by short walls) on the other side, and a potty area (on papers or pee pads) through a "doorway" behind the play area.

A little hard to describe without drawing a picture - basically the play area and potty areas were two squares forming a large rectangle opposite the nursing area, and each space was separate and distinct. In this way the puppies from a very early age got the idea that pottying was done in an area away from food and from playtime. He claimed that all his puppies were clean and very easily housebroken when they went to their buyers' homes, since they had such a good foundation.

If memory serves this breeder was not breeding poodles but some other breed - I think. Anyway, the way he did it seemed very impressive to me, very well thought-out.


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## GingerDotson (May 18, 2011)

I know this is an older post but I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. I have a 6 month old male spoo that I have had since he was 14 weeks old. He was raised in a kennel in a pole barn and not in the home. He has been quite the challenge to potty train. He is, for the most part, trained now but still pees in his crate at night. It doesn't even seem to bother him to lay in his urine, and he steps all in his poop after he goes in the yard and doesn't seem to bother him. I had an english bulldog that I lost last year and she came from a breeder that kept her puppies in the house and she was a BREEZE to house train! I will in the future definately get a puppy from a breeder that keeps the puppies in the house and has started potty training! Lesson learned for me!


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## DoeValley Poodles (Jun 12, 2010)

We introduce a litter pan with recycled paper pellets in the whelping pen at age 2.5wks old. They start using the pan immediately with help of mom guiding them in. By 4 wks of age we have a success rate of 95% potties in box with almost zero poops outside. As they get bigger the boxes also get larger with higher sides. As their play area gets larger we add multiple boxes so they can run & make it to one before going on the floor. Depending on the weather the pups start going outside at 3.5wks (up to 5wks if very cold winter & deep snow) to potty on regular schedule (5-6x daily). At 6.5wks they begin sleeping in individual crates at night starting with a couple hours working up to 8 hours. By 8 weeks they are comfortable in the crate, and are well on the way to being housetrained. Makes for a very easy transition for new owners.


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## Apres Argent (Aug 9, 2010)

What kind of housetraining do you start with your puppies before they go home? 

I start with a potty box in the whelping box and x-pen, then at about 7 weeks they graduate to crates for short periods of time, by 12 weeks they are pretty reliable but still need to go often.


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## poodlemommy1 (Jun 27, 2011)

Beach girl said:


> When I was researching breeders before buying Casey, I came across one web site where the breeder explained how the whelping and nursery boxes were arranged to assist with housebreaking. At first of course all puppies were with the dam. Then when they got old enough, another "wing" was added on to the whelping box, so there was a nursing area with mom on one side, a play area (separate area, set off by short walls) on the other side, and a potty area (on papers or pee pads) through a "doorway" behind the play area.
> 
> A little hard to describe without drawing a picture - basically the play area and potty areas were two squares forming a large rectangle opposite the nursing area, and each space was separate and distinct. In this way the puppies from a very early age got the idea that pottying was done in an area away from food and from playtime. He claimed that all his puppies were clean and very easily housebroken when they went to their buyers' homes, since they had such a good foundation.
> 
> If memory serves this breeder was not breeding poodles but some other breed - I think. Anyway, the way he did it seemed very impressive to me, very well thought-out.


I saw this website (Misty Havanese, I believe) when I was preparing for my bitch to whelp. I had carpet in the whelping room (spare bedroom in my house, next to my bedroom) and laid down first waterproof canvas, then long wide strips of cardboard (had to be changed every other day) then paper on top (the type you use for packing dishes when moving-- 12x12 squares, quite $$!!). Then I cordoned off the area with a long 18" side board, leaving an "entrance". As soon as the pups started eliminating in the whelping box more than Lucy could clean reliably (there were 9 pups), I began removing them to the potty run. When they began to spill out of the whelping box, I moved it to the entrance of the potty run, so the paper was the first thing they stepped on. By 6 weeks they were running around in the carpeted bedroom but using the potty run, for the most part. Then when the room became too small to contain them, I opened the door into the hallway, put paper down in the hall bathroom and gave them the run of the back part of the house where they were drunk with power for a few more weeks, until even that was too small to contain them. Then I opened up the rest of the house to them, put paper down on the slate next to the front door, and between the 3 places, they'd usually hit one. When it became better weather and they could go outside, my son and I would carry them downstairs and out the back door 2 at a time and put them in a corralled area on the grass. They *instantly* preferred grass. They left my home when they were 12-14 weeks old, each of them very well paper trained and familiar with the grass. All the new owners had fenced yards so it has been an easy transition. The only difficulty is reading the "cues" that a new puppy gives when he wants to potty, and a vigilant new owner usually gets it pretty quickly. I do believe that there's always one or two that take longer to "get it" but ... they eventually do! My biggest failure was with my own pup's potty training, it was winter here and rather than take her downstairs and out every hour, I put paper down, and by the time good weather arrived, it was set in stone and to this day she will not potty on grass or dirt, she needs a hard surface. She won't potty on walks, either. Arrgh!!!

All I know is that I seemed to live and breathe poop and pee from weeks 4-14, the volume was enormous - I awoke every morning by 7 a.m. and didn't go to sleep until well after midnight. There is no way I could have held down a job outside the home during that time, I was busy changing papers, cleaning pups, wiping up the accidents and steam cleaning carpets every day. Half the carpet in the whelping room was removed by week 8. It was perhaps the most decisive factor in my getting my male neutered. That and the heartache every time a baby left home! I had someone email me and tell me he wanted one of my male poodles so he could "make me some goldendoodles" and boy, did I send him a response with the cold hard facts about breeding without thought. Mine were an "accident" that I made sure didn't happen again, even though in the end, I don't regret the experience a bit.


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## stealthq (Aug 4, 2011)

In my experience, the big thing is not that the breeder start the potty training as far as going out, but that they provide an area separate from the sleep/eat/play area for the pups to go, and if a pup happens to not go there that someone is watching and cleans up the mess immediately. Those pups are used to being clean and don't like it when they aren't - huge leg up on potty training.

My last Sheltie was not raised this way - one play/eat/potty area for all pups, and while the pups weren't filthy or anything, they did end up regularly romping through messes before anyone got around to cleaning it up. That dog was very difficult to potty train because he thought nothing of laying in his own mess. I did eventually get it done - by 6 mo. he was pretty reliable and telling me when he needed to go, but he was so much slower than our other Shelties who had been kept scrupulously clean as pups.


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## Winnow (Jan 2, 2010)

Our puppies go out in the yard several times a day after they are 5 weeks old.
When I take them outside they do there business and then they can play.
I praise them well for a job well done


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