STILL having mucky pup problems...

[Geordietyke]

After 6 weeks, Odie (14 weeks) is STILL doing a poo in his puppy pen whenever I leave him (either to go out or simply out of sight in another room).  It is so disheartening  especially when I've followed all the advice on this forum about toilet training/SA issues.  It is even more frustrating when I know when he goes to the toilet (I've kept a diary since day 1  ) and make sure he's out and about at the right time.  The only time he doesn't stick to his routine is if I put him in his pen in between these times - he always 'manages' to squeeze one out!  It's weird because he willingly goes in and out of the pen (which is in the kitchen) regularly throughout the day and is fed in there too.  He also has another pen in the living room which he takes himself off to on an evening. 

(1)  Do you think he will just stop this behaviour eventually on his own or is it so ingrained in him that I'm always going to have these problems?

(2)   Do all dogs ask/tell you when they need to go to the toilet - Odie doesn't ask

Sorry to keep posting about this but it really is getting me down, I feel such a failure and rubbish mummy cos I'm at a loss on how to manage it/move things on for him. 

[SimonandMandy]

Odie sounds like he is coming along just fine - at 14 weeks he is just a baby and it will be some time before he is clean and has control.  Just keep praising him everytime he goes outside, inside just quietly clean it up with no fuss and he will learn...  hang in there it is early days

[supergirl]

I had problems with Misha when she was a pup.  Not so much pooing, but definitely peeing.  You could take her outside for a wee, she would go and then come back inside and pee again.  She just took a little longer to get the idea.  In the end I had her crate within a small closed off area so that she could come and go from her crate at will but no access to the rest of the house.  Eventually she got the idea.  Some pups just take a little longer.  It is frustrating I know -   my first pup Indie was text book, and I thought that when I got Misha it would just be the same, but every pup is different.  You're not doing anything wrong, just need to stay calm, and don't worry about it.

Just make sure that you make a huge fuss when he gets it right and ignore any mistakes  - he'll get there.

[RoxyRed]

Dont know if this will help but maybe it might give you some hope...hopefully,lol.

Our little puppy Roxy, who is 17 weeks, has only been properly toilet trained for about 2 weeks. She will now jump up at the door to say she wants to go out.

When we first got her, i got really frustrated, she would wee and poo everywhere, i expected it at first but after the first few weeks i thought she would get the hang of it. She would wee in the house, i would then take her outside to say this is were you go, then put her in her crate whilst id clean it up and then id find she poo in there, guess i was giving her the wrong messages. Other times i would spend up to 45 mins outside with her, she not do anything, come in and she would do it inside. At some points, i was so frustrated she was making me cry, i just didnt know what to do with her. She was making my life so hard, i had to have eyes like a hawk, thank god for wooden flooring. I actually felt like looking after her was just another chore that i had to do and i just wasnt enjoying her which made me feel like a bad mummy. Me and my OH half work full time and had a week off together in March, well...what a difference it made, we fully house trained her in a week. Im guessing thats why it happened as we had all the time with her.

Sorry for the rambling but just showing you the light at the end which i have only just seen,lol.

Do you work or are you always with Odie? Its sounds like separation anxiety, tho im no expert.

We never had that with Roxy as she only had 1 brother and her mother hadnt bothered with them both since about 7 weeks and she has always been left due to work.

Hope this helps or at least gives you hope and sorry for the long reply

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[johndoran]

There will come a time sometime soon when you will realise that he has finally become house trained. I cant recall how long it took for Bonnie Boo, certainly a bit longer than 14 weeks but it just seemed to happen. I wish I had kept a diary but I know that all the things that puppies do that have people coming onto the forum asking for help ( I know I asked a few times ) Bonnie did in spades but pretty well all the bad behaviour (not norty,there is a difference) did stop. I'm sure that if I had a puppy now I wouldn't be as worried about things.

[Mel]

Don't fret! Tali is the same. The only issue with Tali is because we are in a flat and he can't yet go out, he'll not really learn til we start walking in just under 2 weeks.

He also poos in the crate and dances in it. All I can say is thank goodness for Simple Solution else the few carpets we do have would stink by now 

[Geordietyke]

Thanks for all your replies    I'm a stay at home mum so with Odie all day (apart from 1 school run of 25 mins at 3pm).  So he has my attention nearly 24/7!  I was thinking this was the problem (having me all the time) so I'm going out a bit more (with the same results though in the pen  ).  I do the usual - in and out, lengthening the time left etc.  After your replies, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will just 'click' sometime soon!!

BTW I've just had Odie out in our local park (off lead for a few mins at a time, bless him  ) and we were out around an hour (with plenty of rests).  He won't toilet at all whilst out, but will wait till we get back to the garden - is this usual/normal?  Will he eventually realise he can do it out and about, not just our garden?   

[cockers rock!]

Hector wasn't too bad with his poos - but he was very slow with his pees.  Basically he was still having accidents when he was 5 months.  This was despite the fact that there is someone there full time with him !!

We had spaniels before (they were springers) and they got it an awful lot faster.  We really began to worry that it was his early experience - his breeder did absolutely no housetraining with the pups (I think they used to lie in their mess  )

However the good news is that once he was past 6 months it just clicked - now he is a very good dog who 'holds it' for around 9 hours overnight and is good during the day!!  he is also very clean with his poos - if he get any on him he gets really agitated

So to sum up - he was very very slow but now he is an exemplary dog!!

It is frustrating but the only thing to do is keep reinforcing the message

[bracken]

2 of my cockers were very difficult with toileting I got Rosie at 6 months and she took until 12 months to train she would not ask to go out at all   I went back to puppy training taking her out every 30 mins and reward once she had a wee, then slowly increased the time.
Archie joined us at 10 months he was crate trained I was told she each time I popped him in his crate to go out for a short while he would mess his crate so he was bathed again and again  
I must admit I gave up with the crate and left him in the kitchen he started to improve and now thankfully at 2 he can go happily in his crate and not mess  
So not sure what use I am but just wanted to really say the penny will drop with routine and it can get you down but he is still just a baby and you will gets results   try to keep your chin up  

At 14 weeks he has a long way to go but he will get there  

[Geordietyke]

Aw many thanks for your morale boosting comments!    I realise he still is very young but had thought with 6 weeks constant routine he'd have clicked by now.  I can't really complain because on other ways he is brill - sleeps soundly overnight/took to lead walking 1st go/I can let him off lead in parks for a few mins at a time and his recall is very good so there is hope on the toiletting front yet!  Cheers again everyone! 

[Maria n Dennis]

Douglas is 7 months and we still get maybe one or two wees in the house a day  Its frustrating cause he dosnt ask to go out and i let him out a couple of times an hour and he will do a wee everytime. I know we will get there one day hes just really slow. Dennis was much much faster and i havnt done anything different with the two of them.

[siam]

Alfie is 6mths old now and we are lucky in that we didn't have any problems with toilet training. However despite the fact that he is taken for long walks (up to 10mls) he very rarely does the toilet when he is out, usually one pee and occasionally a poo, and on shorter walks like your pup he reserves it for the back garden. He hasn't started lifting his leg yet, so imagine he will perform more on walks once he starts marking his territory. I remember this happened with our previous cocker when he was a pup until eventually he was confident enough to perform on his walks. The main problem with Alfie is that he is a keen gardener! He loves to dig, dehead flowers, prune shrubs and peel the bark off any twigs.

[Geordietyke]

Yes, my pup is very partial to gardening too    So much so I'm sure he forgets why I've brought him out in the first place   I'm sure that when he is older and cocks his leg, he'll be doing it for England on walks too!!  BTW your 6 month old walks up to 10 miles?!  Not sure I could even manage that!    I thought it was only 5 mins for each month old your cocker was?

[waggytails]

Hattie is nearly 2 now but it took her until she was at least 6-7 months before she stopped peeing in the house and even then she would have the odd accident.  Also she will do wees and poo's when she is off lead running about but is less likely to do them while being walked on the lead ::)she will do them in the garden.

[siam]

I hadn't heard about walking your cocker the number of miles as per months old, but he's still raring to go after doing 10! He's not walked that amount every day-my son likes to take him on long walks when he's off shift. I'm walking him further as I'm on holiday just now and I like to take him longer walks at the weekend during term time when he can run freely off the lead.