Ian Dunbar Toilet Training?

[Helen]

OK now I'm having a little sob over how lovely you're all being.

Thank you so much all.

Fingers crossed my little cherub will enjoy her time with us and she'll forgive my stressy first week with her. She's pretty incredible and in a week she's learned to sit and to fetch and she sleeps so well at night too. I need to put it into perspective and see what she's achieving already. 

I noticed that they need around 18 hours sleep. She definitely drops when she's finished!

And we have been to one puppy party (hosted by our vet) and she is going again tomorrow evening too. She was petrified of the other four puppies but she was the youngest by four weeks and the smallest. I didn't pick her up or Molly coddle. Hopefully tomorrow she will be a bit braver. I'm taking her to random places like the car dealership because I had a service last week. She got picked up for fuss by men and women there. It's so good for her. She's great being cuddled.

I can't wait for two weeks when we can get out and go for some fun walks and meet more doggies. I'm lucky that I live next to a big open green park and I have a wooden walk a mile from me too. Plus organised puppy walks and we are well away.

You'll be fine, they're very resilient 

here was my cruel regime    I collected Jago  at my busiest time of year (i'm a jewellery designer/maker) so he had to come to work with me and had to fit in.  For 4 hours of the day I PAID my assistant to be with him (she thought all her christmases had come at once!).  We had to paper train him in my office and then at home he had to learn to go outside - it was tricky but he eventually got it.  We got to the office in the morning after getting up,wee's and poo's, feeding him - we played for around half an hour at work, he did what he had to...and then he went in his crate (which he loved) which I covered with blankets as well for 2 hours sleep.  Then I sent my assistant up, she played with him for up to an hour and then the same routine - 2 hours sleep. Once he was able to go out for walks he became easier and easier. 

It has set us up for life    On the days he comes to work we walk and train, he comes upstairs and has a kong and snoozes for 3 hours, then I walk him again, back here for 3 hours, another break for him and then an hour or so before we go home.

We don't hear a peep from him, he's learnt to sleep and relax and have down time....and has absolutely no separation anxiety.  He's 15 months now and is not crated anymore but we did take one on holiday and he loved being back in it    

[daw]

Yes! That is because I am speaking as a Moderator! 

Ah! That's no problem Joules  to you too.

[Countrygirl]

Before you stick rigidly to this any more consider this: there was once a woman called Barbara Woodhouse who taught a whole generation of dog owners that having a choke chain on your dog and yanking its throat every couple of seconds was a good idea. I saw this as as a girl and was reduced to tears by it. And thousands of dogs probably got damaged, scarred throats as a result but she made a lot of money and became a celebrity. Please think again and consider another method.

I remember her and those dreadful choke chains.  My last but one cocker was called Rumpole and he was born in 1982.  When I took him to puppy training we were told that all dogs HAD to have one of these choke chains.  It seems unbelievable now but people then went along with it.

[Countrygirl]

P.s. - I've just looked at her solution for training an older dog -quote
" The remedy is simply to confine the dog in an indoor kennel whichnis just big enough for him to stand up and turn around in but not big enough to give him the freedom to cock his leg. (...). this should house train a dog in 24 hours. If it does not, have him castrated: the dog is probably oversexed" unquote!!!

I rest my case!😱

OMG!  I remember her and unbelievably in her day a lot of people thought she was wonderful.

[Countrygirl]

Ellie was a winter puppy, born on the 4th November and came home on the 30th December.  Her wonderful breeder had newspaper trained her so she would only wee and poo on newspaper.  We put newspaper behind the back door and everytime we saw her heading for the newspaper we picked her up, opened the back door and plonked her on the lawn.  Apart from overnight which obviously took longer, daytime housetraining was done and dusted in less than 2 weeks.

The downside of it is that she is only comfortable weeing on grass and has been known to try and drag me onto people's lawns if their front gardens are open plan!

Please don't worry Honeysmummy, you are doing really well and before you know it she will be housetrained and you will forget all about it.

[PennyB]

I have used crates but never for housetraining (mine have been used for all sorts of things, including keeping the kittens confined at night, a cat with a catheter in, a dog who has SA if am upstairs so she now sleeps in a crate upstairs so cats still have their haven and keep their food, confining pups when am out and sometimes overnight, sick dogs and so on)

I never stick rigidly to time re housetraining, i.e., letting them out every hour on the hour sort of thing but tend to use 'moments' in the day, e.g. after they wake up, before they eat, after they eat, before/after play/training, etc. and it seems to work. If they do have accidents then so be it  I find we get there in the end relatively easily regardless of accidents in the house and all pups will take as short or as long as they do - some pups longer than you expect and some yippee it works quickly.

I find with this method am more relaxed and so the pup I have usually is too

[Markr64]

Wow, what a thread this one has turned out to be! I have been watching it after my little input and it is obvious that we all have opinions which is great. Emotions can run high when it comes to the furry friends we love and this thread has proved that. I must admit I am lost for words at the moment which is rare for me.