# My 5 month old keeps having accidents, but only #2...?



## JamieGraceD (Mar 28, 2017)

A bit of a backstory: I have a 5 month old toy (or what some may consider a "tiny toy") poodle who I am indoor house training to use a potty pad. If I had to pick a number, I'd say he's about 75% trained. Every once and a while, maybe 5% of the time, he'll accidentally pee in the wrong spot, but even then his accidents are usually pretty close to his pad. The other 20% of the accidents are "Number 2s", if you know what I mean :wink: . The hardest part to deal with is that he normally tries to find little hidden places to go that I sometimes don't find until later. I know it's not uncommon for dogs to want to use the toilet in private, but he never seems to have this problem when he pees. He does have a designated area to use the potty that's part of a tiled bathroom area in my apartment (it's kind a his "room" and it's where he stays when I have to be gone for a few hours). Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this? 

Also, just a note in case anyone mentions it: I know that outdoor potty training is preferable, but I live in an apartment complex and have a disability that makes it difficult for me to take him all the way outside every time he has to use the bathroom. I also have experience training toy poodles to use an indoor potty pad, so I'm not necessarily a "newbie" and I'm definitely not looking for the "easy way out" (in fact, I know indoor housetraining is normally more difficult). I've just never encountered this problem before and would welcome some advice.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Indoor potty training given your circumstances is very understandable. I thin the failure here is that you are giving your puppy too much freedom to sneak away from you.

A five month old puppy cannot be considered housebroken no matter how hard he is trying to do the right thing. For the most part puppies don't develop the neuromuscular control over their sphincters to be reliable about pottying until they are 6 months old or more.

I would suggest that you need to eliminate all chances of your pup sneaking away from you to potty. Either keep him confined to an appropriate sized crate or tether him to you at any time that you are not directly interacting and supervising (playing/snuggling/feeding). Make sure you have found all of the sneak spots and cleaned them thoroughly with an enzyme based cleaner like Natures Miracle.


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## JamieGraceD (Mar 28, 2017)

Thanks for your answer and sorry it took me a while to respond. I've been keeping him on a much shorter leash (no pun intended) and it seems to be working. 

Also, I really appreciate your confirmation on the whole sphincter control issue. I was pretty sure it took at least 6 months for puppies to gain full control but I kept reading online that it was around 4 months and I'd been starting to doubt myself.

Anyways, thanks for the help!


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## UKpoodle (Jul 22, 2015)

If he's 5 months old and, as you say, is 75% there then it sounds like he's doing well and like Lily cd said, its just a case of constant supervision and making sure you're crating him when that's not possible. I didn't consider either of my dogs to be 100% toilet trained until they were 7 months old, up until that point I would use the crate for instances when I couldn't fully supervise (going in the shower, doing housework etc) as even though they fully understood that they had to go outside to potty, if I wasn't there to open the door the instant they rung the bells then there would inevitably be an accident!


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