# Potty Training Set-Back



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Sorry to hear you were sick. Puppies are hard to deal with when you don't feel well. Don't let him take advantage of your being sick. Make sure that you get back on track asap. I think I gave you a link to some specific methods regarding potty training earlier. Check back to those.


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## janet6567 (Mar 11, 2014)

So sorry to hear you were so ill. Hope you are recovered soon.


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## GeriDe (Mar 2, 2014)

He picked back up pretty quick today - now that I've energy. One pee accident in the house, and of course, it was when I fell asleep. Other than that - by middle of the day he would wander to the door - I'd take him out, he'd pee, I'd treat and love and had time to play. I think he missed the outdoor play a lot. No matter how many toys he has, he just has to go in the woods and bring me a stick or wad of leaves with great pride. I was asleep on the sofa around 9 and he woke me - I looked and he went to the door - and he peed and then headed to the woods where he loves to poo. Then he proudly trotted to the door and sat, waiting for me to catch up with him LOL


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

What a very clever pup! I do sympathise - I raised a pup while going through chemo, and there were times when it was a struggle to make it out of the door, even if I managed to wake up! It did slow house training down, but we got there in the end. It sounds as if your week off is a hiccup that you are already overcoming - glad you are feeling better.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well but you should consider yourself lucky that your getting signals. Penny still doesn't give us any signals at all when she needs to go out and we've been at it for 2 months now. We're still taking her out every two hours so accidents have been minimal but when she does have an accident she just squats and pees where she is. No going to the back door, no whining like she wants out, no circling, nothing, just squat and pee. Hopefully she'll start catching on soon.

Rick


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

PoodleRick said:


> Penny still doesn't give us any signals at all when she needs to go out and we've been at it for 2 months now. We're still taking her out every two hours so accidents have been minimal but when she does have an accident she just squats and pees where she is. No going to the back door, no whining like she wants out, no circling, nothing, just squat and pee. Hopefully she'll start catching on soon.
> 
> Rick


Rick, do you "have a party" when she goes outside? Also have you tried putting potty on command? If you take her out and wait until you see her just start to squat and start saying a potty cue word in a happy voice and when she finishes say yeah, good_____ and make happy happy joy joy you should be able to help her get the picture. We use do one and do two for the two different things, but other things people I know use as potty commands include: empty, hurry, make now. You get the idea. The only trick is to make sure that your aren't likely to say the cue word in the house in a way that sounds like a command by mistake. Penny will figure it out soon.I am sure.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

lily cd re said:


> Rick, do you "have a party" when she goes outside? Also have you tried putting potty on command? If you take her out and wait until you see her just start to squat and start saying a potty cue word in a happy voice and when she finishes say yeah, good_____ and make happy happy joy joy you should be able to help her get the picture. We use do one and do two for the two different things, but other things people I know use as potty commands include: empty, hurry, make now. You get the idea. The only trick is to make sure that your aren't likely to say the cue word in the house in a way that sounds like a command by mistake. Penny will figure it out soon.I am sure.


Yup. Been doing all that. "Go PEEPEE", Happy clapping, treats, YES, GOOD GIRL. My neighbors probably think I'm losing my mind.  She'll get it soon, I'm sure. I hope.

Rick


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## Wild Kitten (Mar 13, 2014)

PoodleRick said:


> Sorry to hear you're not feeling well but you should consider yourself lucky that your getting signals. Penny still doesn't give us any signals at all when she needs to go out and we've been at it for 2 months now. We're still taking her out every two hours so accidents have been minimal* but when she does have an accident she just squats and pees where she is.* No going to the back door, no whining like she wants out, no circling, nothing, just squat and pee. Hopefully she'll start catching on soon.
> 
> Rick


Might be that she doesn't even know that she needs to go until the last second? As in, she doesn't feel too long in advance that she will need to go and then it is too late to do anything else but squat. 
Sort of like with kids and potty training, some are able to tell that they need to go much earlier than others.... Seeing how smart she is (from your other posts), I would guess that as soon as she knows that she _will need to go_ she will start "telling" you.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

Wild Kitten said:


> *Might be that she doesn't even know that she needs to go until the last second?* As in, she doesn't feel too long in advance that she will need to go and then it is too late to do anything else but squat.
> Sort of like with kids and potty training, some are able to tell that they need to go much earlier than others.... Seeing how smart she is (from your other posts), I would guess that as soon as she knows that she _will need to go_ she will start "telling" you.


Could be. I'll just keep doing what the books and PF members say to do and she'll get it.

Rick


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## IthacaSpoo (Jan 22, 2014)

Pedro sounds same as Penny, no signals but on a schedule. If I falter off that schedule at all, there's a little round circle of yellow. And he's not at all sorry. We're good with #2 though, I think it's been a while. Interestingly, we have a cure word for #2, but not pee. Light bulb!:aetsch:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

PoodleRick said:


> Yup. Been doing all that. "Go PEEPEE", Happy clapping, treats, YES, GOOD GIRL. My neighbors probably think I'm losing my mind.  She'll get it soon, I'm sure. I hope.
> 
> Rick


What my neighbors thought was crazy was all the stopping and turning around that I did in the street while teaching loose leash walking! She'll get it. If she doesn't, I'll take her off your hands....lol


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

IthacaSpoo said:


> Pedro sounds same as Penny, no signals but on a schedule. If I falter off that schedule at all, there's a little round circle of yellow. And he's not at all sorry. We're good with #2 though, I think it's been a while. Interestingly, we have a cure word for #2, but not pee. Light bulb!:aetsch:


A cue word for both is handy!


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

PoodleRick said:


> Sorry to hear you're not feeling well but you should consider yourself lucky that your getting signals. Penny still doesn't give us any signals at all when she needs to go out and we've been at it for 2 months now. We're still taking her out every two hours so accidents have been minimal but when she does have an accident she just squats and pees where she is. No going to the back door, no whining like she wants out, no circling, nothing, just squat and pee. Hopefully she'll start catching on soon.
> 
> Rick


i don't think she knows she needs to tell you, since you are otherwise so faithful with anticipating her need. and what do you do to let her know that in the house is not acceptable? 

maybe she is a candidate for bell training. some dogs do better with that than with whining or going to the door.

eta: may want to try leashing her to you, too, so you can catch her in the act of going inside and interrupt to take her out. i think that may be the best way of sending the message that inside is not acceptable.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

patk said:


> i don't think she knows she needs to tell you, since you are otherwise so faithful with anticipating her need. *and what do you do to let her know that in the house is not acceptable?*


Nothing really. I see accidents as my fault.



> maybe she is a candidate for bell training. some dogs do better with that than with whining or going to the door.
> 
> eta: *may want to try leashing her to you*, too, so you can catch her in the act of going inside and interrupt to take her out. i think that may be the best way of sending the message that inside is not acceptable.


Oh, she's leashed to us almost all the time. The only time she's off leash in the house is the half hour or so after going potty outside. Then we work on the recall and some other training stuff or sometimes just play and a=have some fun.

Rick


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

IthacaSpoo said:


> Pedro sounds same as Penny, no signals but on a schedule. If I falter off that schedule at all, there's a little round circle of yellow. And he's not at all sorry. We're good with #2 though, I think it's been a while. Interestingly, we have a cure word for #2, but not pee. Light bulb!:aetsch:


Sounds familiar.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

PoodleRick said:


> Nothing really. I see accidents as my fault.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


but when she has accidents inside, you're not catching her in the act and taking her outside immediately? she must be fast!


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

Jazz is the only dog we've ever had that gave absolutely no signal when she needed to go out. In retrospect, it might have been quicker had I tethered her to me all the time, but I'm not sure even that would have worked--she'd be trotting around and suddenly, BANG, she'd squat and pee. It took several weeks (and she was almost five months old when we got her, not a baby). As I recall, the turning point came when my husband saw her squat and raised his very deep voice to her. She made the connection and got it right shortly after that. Once she did get it, she was rock-solid ever after. She's almost two years old now, and she still doesn't give any indication that she's going to pee, just suddenly is squatting. Now poop is a different story. She circles for a while before she finds the perfect spot for that.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

patk said:


> but when she has accidents inside, you're not catching her in the act and taking her outside immediately? she must be fast!


It is super fast but to be honest even though she's tethered to us it's not like we have our eyes on her 100% of the time. So she does slip through the cracks sometimes. But the times I do see her going I do interrupt and take her out but she's usually empty by then.

Rick


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## GeriDe (Mar 2, 2014)

Khaos is doing better. He makes it about 4 hours in his kennel and doesn't pee or poo but when he gets out - boy he leaves a lot all over the place. The only times there are accidents are when I'm not paying attention to him - he sniffs in the living room near the door and that's when I say "go outside? cookie! Peeeeeee" and he does, he gets the cookie then he pees and I say "yayyyy you peeeeeeee" and give him a cookie - actually just those tiny training treats. He just has more energy than I do.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I am reminded of going to a folk festival with friends and their two year old daughter. As small children often do with favourite adults, she attached herself to me for the afternoon, even accompanying me to the join the queue for the Ladies and into the loo. I had not taken into account that she, like these pups, was in the throes of toilet training, and was unprepared for the flow of cheerful encouragement... After reminders of the steps necessary to take before sitting down, there were loud, cheerful and encouraging cries of "Ooooh! That's a really LONG pee! Do you need to do a poo too? Well DONE!!" Rather inhibiting, as I recall, especially given the giggling audience outside the door!


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## Sabrina (Feb 14, 2014)

*Sorry to hear about your illness.*

Dogs are like children when it comes to their parent being sick. They try your patience a lot. Hope you feel better. good lluck!


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## genuineljl (Dec 16, 2013)

PoodleRick said:


> Sorry to hear you're not feeling well but you should consider yourself lucky that your getting signals. Penny still doesn't give us any signals at all when she needs to go out and we've been at it for 2 months now. We're still taking her out every two hours so accidents have been minimal but when she does have an accident she just squats and pees where she is. No going to the back door, no whining like she wants out, no circling, nothing, just squat and pee. Hopefully she'll start catching on soon.
> 
> Rick


@PoodleRick - we've chatted before on here.  Your Penny is just like my Brigitta!!! I keep a close eye on her and there's no warning. She's still giving me no signs about wanting/needing to go outside. She's a 4 month old toy (5 months on 5/13) and I'm starting to get concerned. I bring her to the bells and say let's go outside and go potty (every 2-3 hours when I'm not at work), I think she's doing her business on command (done in less than 3-5 minutes), I reward her with a potty party and treats after she does her business, and yet she still offers no signs to me if she needs to go outside of that 2-3 hour window. No circling or sniffing - just squats and by the time I scoop her up it's too late. Last night she had an accident within an hour of taking her outside and watching her do her business. She's using her grass pad in her pen religiously when I'm at work, but won't do her #2 on there anymore and holds it for her walk. No accidents in the pen or crate, so I feel lucky there.


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## PoodleRick (Mar 18, 2013)

genuineljl said:


> @PoodleRick - we've chatted before on here.  Your Penny is just like my Brigitta!!! I keep a close eye on her and there's no warning. She's still giving me no signs about wanting/needing to go outside. She's a 4 month old toy (5 months on 5/13) and I'm starting to get concerned. I bring her to the bells and say let's go outside and go potty (every 2-3 hours when I'm not at work), I think she's doing her business on command (done in less than 3-5 minutes), I reward her with a potty party and treats after she does her business, and yet she still offers no signs to me if she needs to go outside of that 2-3 hour window. No circling or sniffing - just squats and by the time I scoop her up it's too late. Last night she had an accident within an hour of taking her outside and watching her do her business. She's using her grass pad in her pen religiously when I'm at work, but won't do her #2 on there anymore and holds it for her walk. No accidents in the pen or crate, so I feel lucky there.


It's like they're practically twins. Penny is going longer between trips outside but there is still no warning. No accidents for the last few weeks or so but that's because we take her out every 2 to 2/12 hours.

Rick


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## hopetocurl (Jan 8, 2014)

I am about to start down the potty training road again very soon. I do remember my previous dog was very hard for us to potty train. Same thing... no signal just a squat. What finally worked was the bell...but, I had to use a VERY high value treat...I used those Gerber baby vienna type sausages (better ingredients than vienna sausages). I had to wipe that smell all over the bells every day or so. Then, when she went outside she got that treat. That was the only time she got that treat. It took a week and a half.... then, it was ring, ring, ring, just to go outside. But, you still have to take them every time they ring. That's all I've got for you guys on this.... I am writing this so I can refer back to it in a few weeks when I am at my wits end. :afraid:


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