Potty Training (14 weeks pup)

[Bryan4Bella7]

So I'm new here, but I'm already enjoying the site and layout! I had a few basic questions for a first time dog owner, and owner of my baby girl, Bella. She is 14 weeks, and we are having I wouldn't say a hard time, but a trying time getting her to pee outside. She poops fine when taken out and other than this morning when she went on the hard wood, shes been good. I felt like the accident this morning was my fault because I forgot she napped on my nap after I let her out this morning and when I took her upstairs she went. That's on me!!!

Anyways, the main concern with Bella girl, is she tends to not know 100% that pottying is meant to be an outside duty, and she has her occasional spills time to time. I try to keep a routine. We have her kennel cage in the basement, and when I take her out and clip the leash, I take her up to the garage and she knows it's potty time for the most part. She tends to get the pooping factor more so though however, and I would like to get her to get both down (peeing and pooping outside) for obvious reasons. Anyways, any input or advice would be greatly appreciated. If this was (and I'm sure) posted before, I apologize ahead of time as I am new to the boards.

To end on a positive note, this morning before the later accident was a good potty session!!! I took her out around 5 this morning, after I woke her a bit, and she immediately went 1 and 2 when I took her outside. It was cold, and usually it takes her a bit so I was grateful she went so quickly and thanked her with a treat and a bunch of "good girls!!!". I fed her and she scarfed. Which leads to my next post in another thread!!!

Cheers!!!

 

[Jennifer Clark]

Sometimes it just takes a bit for them to "get it". Just stay with the positive reinforcement like your doing and when she does accidentally go in the house just clean it up look sad that your having to do it but don't discipline her for it often bullies go on our emotions and all ready feel ashamed that they have done something that made their human sad. You can even go as far as making a crying sound while you clean it up, or you can train her to time out when she does something that is displeasing but make sure when you do this you catch her in the act.

sent from my Droid RAZR with love!

 

[Manydogs]

Yes, as Jennifer stated-rewarding works best with Bulldogs. My youngest is almost 7 months and has finally started asking to go out! She still will go on the pad sometimes, but I don't say a word! But I REALLY praise her, and give a treat, when she goes outside! Some take longer than others. Usually, if their an "only child" they learn faster-less distractions!!

 

[2BullyMama]

One big piece of info is that a pup can only hold thier bladder for 1 hour more than they are months old... so, she is 3 months so she can only hold no more than 4 hours.

You are doing great thinsg... stay with the schedule/routine, Bulldogs tend to be OCD so routine is everything with them. And as others said... positive reinforcement and treats, treats, treats

 

[Bryan4Bella7]

Thanks everyone for the advice and tips! I know she understands the process, but tends to have her occassional spills from time to time. I suppose I could be less stingy with the treats, and perhaps surprise her tonight and in the future with a reward for going along with the praise and positive reinforcement! She definetly enjoys the treats! We have steps that lead from the garage into the house and she is hesitant to take that step and tries, but if I begin making the treat bag noises as if I was going for one she comes right up! Is this good? It seems to be doing the trick but I do not want to spoil her...

Anyways, she always get a ton of kisses and good girls when she does something right, so I believe on that I'm doing okay.

Thanks again for the input!

 

[Vikinggirl]

Hi Bryan,

Re: Advice on potty training! I reposted this from an older post, hope it helps.




For potty training, we just used a schedule, this is what we did and they were trained by the time they were 5 months old, and we've never had a accident in the house.


Hi new Bully parents, my name is Monica, and I have 2 English Bulldog pups, they are both 9 months old, and are brother and sister, their names are Bulldozer and Blossom. I've noticed a lot of new puppy owners have posted questions regarding potty training for their new babies. Since my 2 are now 9 months old, and I have been through this already, I thought I might share what worked for us. The puppy stage is very much like having a baby in the house, the training takes time and patience, and sleepless nights, but it is a temporary phase. The best thing that you can do to make potty training go smooth and without accidents is to first crate train your new baby, this will make your life much easier. Crate training your pup is not a cruel thing to do, they actually learn that the crate is a safe place. You can use it for sleeping, and for a safe place to put puppy in when you can't watch or supervise them, and for when you need to go out. The other important thing to do for successful puppy training is establishing a schedule. This worked the best for us, and our babies were fully trained by 5 months old. The schedule that worked for us was:




6 am: Take puppy out for their first pee and poop of the day




7 am: Feed puppy breakfast 1/3 of a cup kibble mixed with water.
Place puppy back in crate for 10 mins to let tummy settle after eating.
Then take puppy out for potty again.




7 am: From 7 am to 2 pm take your puppy out every hour or two throughout the day , and increase the
time by an hour each week , so they learn to hold.




2 pm: Feed puppy lunch 1/3 of a cup of kibble mixed with water.
Place puppy in crate for 10 mins to let tummy settle after eating.
Then take puppy out for potty again.




2 pm: From 2 pm to 8 pm, take your puppy out every hour or two during the day.




8 pm: Feed puppy dinner 1/3 of a cup of kibble mixed with water.
Place puppy back in crate of 10 mins to,let tummy settle after eating.
Then take puppy out again.




8 pm: From 8 pm to 11 pm , take your puppy out every hour or two, until around 11 pm or 11:30 pm.
The last pee and poo break will be at around 11 pm before you go to bed.
Take your puppy's water away around 8 or 9 pm, otherwise you will have many accidents throughout
the night.




2 am: We would set our cell phone for 2 am to go out for a pee. The time between 11 pm and 6 am when
they go out for their first pee is too long for the new puppy to hold, but again this a temporary phase,
and the puppy will eventually be able to hold all night. This happened for us when the pups were 5
months old. After they were 5 months old, we were able to eliminate the 2 am outing, and they were
able to hold for 4 or 5 hours at a time during the day.




I hope this helps any new puppy owner that has maybe never owned a pup before, and doesn't know how to train a puppy, or anyone who has a new puppy and is struggling to train them. At first it's like you are training when the puppies will go, but eventually they will tell you when they need to go out, they will either go to the door, or bark, or whine, my female Blossom will whine, when she wants out, my male Dozer will bark. Another thing to do is take your puppy out before and after they play, as they will always go pee after they have been excited.




Good luck to everyone, and remember this is a temporary phase , your puppy will be trained before
You know it. Enjoy your new baby.


0 Comment(s)
Last edited by Vikinggirl; 07-05-2013 at 02:02 PM.

 

[Jennifer Clark]

Also on the treats you can also make your own so you know what your baby is getting you can use a variety if things ice cubes small teaspoons of yogurt flavored with peanut butter (Sheldon's favorite) frozen into small treats assorted veggies and fruits.

sent from my Droid RAZR with love!

 

[Alisha]

hey there! with my bullie we had stairs to go down too.. he was always hesitant..we held treats at the op and bottom until he got used to them. thats totally fine!!! as far as potty training... ours was fairly easy once we got the timing down.. he never pooed in the house tbut peeing was a difficult one at first.

we started off with taking him out first thing in the morning right after taking him out f his crate.. that was always a success.
through out the day was harder. what worked for us was always keeping him on his leash (they tend to not go when they cant get away from where they're at because they dont want to 'soil their bed' or wherever they are) and we would take him out every 15-20 min and slowly increase that time.

when he was off leash in the house we took him out every 20-30 min and we watched him like a hawk.

when he got a bit older (hes only a year now) we slowly started leaving some time inbetween taking him out of the kennel and taking him outside because the first potty of the day was always perfect with out fail because they dont want to soil where they sleep. but since he could 'go' in the house and then get away from it when we werent looking it was ok. so as we slowly increased the time in between kennel and going outside he kinda assocated the rest of the house as his bed because he hadnt been taken outside. it seemed to work for us and now he can hold it for a veryyyy long time.

one thing i did to test him, probbly not the nicest but i had a feeling he was just associating our house with the outside and/or being stubborn was because he NEVER went in his kennel but would go in the house if he wasnt on leash.. i would feed him before bed and give him a bunch of water and then put him to bed for about 6 hours to see if he would go in his kennel cause he had to go so bad.. he didnt. just like i thought and he went as soon as we took him outside.. thats when we started letting him out of his kennel and waiting to take him potty.. so he would think he had a much bigger kennel. it worked great for us!

sorry for the novel