Victoria Stilwell

[Setter]

We have 2, 9 week old English Setter puppies and are finding it difficult to toilet train any suggestions please

[leigh]

what have you tried, and for how long? How long are they left alone? They are only very young and very tiny, so don't expect them to have full control of their bladders for quite some time. It is normal for them to have accidents inside. I hope that you are not punishing them for accidents inside - such as rubbing their nose in it, or shouting at them if you find pee or poop inside? That won't help at all.

see this page for pretty much everything that you could be told about toilet training pups:
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/pup-housetrain.pdf

do you have a regular routine - are you taking them outside immediately after playing, eating, sleeping? Are they fed at regular times every day? Are you using akey word such as "go pee" when they ar eliminating? And are you praising and possibly giving treats EVERY time that they go outside?

are the pups left inside on their own unsupervised so that they can go inside without you noticing? If so, keep them in the same room as you, or use a tether to your belt, and look for the signs that they need to go (circling, sniffing). If you can't supervise them, consider confining them to a small area or crate (I have no experience with this, as I house trained my dog by supervising her all the time).

If you catch them about to go inside, make a loud noise to startle them, (but not scare) and take them outside immediately and give them their cue to go, and again - praise praise praise if they go. However - you will no doubt have accidents inside for a few months, until they gain complete control over their bladder.

let us know how you go! good luck!

[emmabeth]

You DO have your hands full there.... two pups at once (i hope they arent both bitches).

Vigilance is the key, and im assuming you ahve had them a week or so, thats not long at all.

Dont use paper, your aim is to never let them go in the house at all, using paper confuses that aim.

Watch them constantly, every hour on the hour GO outside with them (dont let them out, GO), and praise like mad when they toilet.

This is going to be very hard as you have two pups and really, taking two out at once is going to be a nightmare makign sure they are toiletting and not using it as a playtime. Playtime is for AFTER toiletting, not before (unless you happen to like standing outside in teh dark, the rain, when you are late for something, whilst they play around instead of toiletting).

Take them out when they wake, before you want them to sleep, after food and drinks and after play, as WELL as the on the hour every hour.

Are you using crates? I would, and id use seperate crate for each pup.

If you are vigilant and if their crates are too small for them to seperate a sleep area from a toilet area ad IF you NEVER allow them to mess in their crates they will be unwilling to toilet in them and hopefully you can crate one whilst takign the other outside, once they havea little control.

Currently they havent much more control over eliminating than a small baby has!

Em

[MaiasMom]

It takes time for them to get it right, these are babies, be consistant in your training.

I used a one hour kitchen timer to make sure I remembered to take my babies out. I took them to the same spot in the yard each time, It's all in the nose!

Some dogs get it right away, some don't. I was fortunate, I had an older dog to show my puppies the ropes.

Also when I picked my baby up from the breeder I took along some of the soiled paper they peed and pooped on, put it in the yard where I wanted him to go, and BINGO. deed done. I had enough of the soiled paper for many days use. As she got better at going where I wanted her to go, I took the paper away.

You can't get a quick fix with babies, just like potty training a human child, it takes time. Pick a Potty routine and stick with it.

The nice thing about having an older trained dog is that the baby learns much from them, both good and not so good. My last baby was trained by his mother and father, from the time he could get up and down the stairs and out to the yard through the dog door, he never peed in the house.

We leashed trained by hooking baby to mama, he would follow her anyway so it was easy for him to learn. She sat, he sat, same thing with the bath, Mama loves her bath so I put him in with her on bath days.
_________________
The best days are spent with my dogs.

[Nettle]

important extra - don't expect them to last through the night and don't let them empty in their crates at night.

Set your alarm for three hours after their last trip out and take them straight out. If it's too late, make it two hours next time. Aim to increase the time by ten minutes every night - this is important as dogs have good clocks in their heads and will otherwise wake at the same time every night.

Alternatively have them in their crates in your room and when you hear them fidget, get up right away and take them out, wait with them, praise the success and back to bed.

It isn't fun but it isn't for long.
_________________
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

[emmabeth]

Ok this is my 'example' post... (check the forthcoming sticky-thread peeps).

Please can we all check the dates on posts before posting. This particular thread is 2 YEARS old....

Its really easy to miss dates on threads especially if someone else has bumped it up and especially if the thread is from the same month as this one is..... just two years ago.

Whilst its really good to have advice on threads for people to read.... bumping up really out of date threads means new, much more relevant and in some cases urgent posts get missed.

If you find a thread thats only a couple of months old and hasnt had a decent response to it, by all means post... but those that have... or those that are seriously out of date... leave them be!


*takes off Mod Hat. Drinks tea*

[Thurston Lodge]

And everytime they "perform" for you, use words. Ours goes on command excellently to "let's go be quick" for wees and "be quick, go poos" for, well, number 2's. And he's very tidy - for ages I would clean out his kennel/run and pop the "cleanings" under a bush or tree in our big garden and now he will always try to back his bottom as far under a bush or shrub as possible. Very nice. Makes up for some of his other less desirable habits LOL

[emmabeth]

Wonder if there is a way of teaching human beings to READ the information that is smack bang in front of them...

Thurston Lodge, thats good advice but ifyoud read the last post in this thread, OR the announcement placed there for everyones benefit, youd know that this thread was started TWO YEARS AGO.

Thus whilst your advice is absolutely first class... its just bumped a more recent and newer thread lower down the list, and wont be read by the initial poster as their puppies are now 2 year old adult dogs.

An online community such as this, with the objective of exchanging advice and ideas will ONLY work if everyone READS theposts in the thread rather than reading the first post and rushing to add their advice without reading anything else. Otherwise wed all spend our time saying exactly the same as everyone else and would never have a discussion at all, just monologues. Which is boring.

End of rant.

[Thurston Lodge]

Thank you very much Moderator. I'm boring. A new member, who unfortunately didn't notice that it said 2006, not 2008, because in order to post (being at the bottom of the world and in another time zone) was tired and misread it as 2008.

God I'm so sorry.

And thank you, I do know the protocols. I am a member of other fora you know. Horse ones mostly. However, I do notice that at least I PROFERRED a reply!

For some reason, have no idea why, the server copied my request for assistance several times. Be that as it may, instead of castigating me in such a sarcastic and unwelcoming manner, you might have better spent your energies perhaps assisting me instead. My dog may wee and poo on command but has very irritating licking habits. However, I'd rather he licked me to death than be "spoken" to in such a manner. Do you not think that as a moderator of this particular forum it would have been more welcoming and polite to PM me instead?

Don't bother, I'll find help elsewhere. If you are the sort of moderator Victoria employs, no wonder the dogs behave - they'd be terrified into it rather than encouraged.

Thanks, but no thanks.
Louise

PS: You probably think I'm some antipodean halfwit, a six-fingered banjo player from your attitude, funnily enough we lived in the UK for some time, my husband was a bobby in Sussex and exported our two labs with him when leaving to come back to NZ. And my mother's family has a heritage building still in Farnham.

You know what assumptions do .................