Would appreciate some advice

[CherryT]

Well we are back from Cornwall and home again in our cottage.  I knew this next bit would be difficult but I am not sure how to start.  As you know Mollie has had to do her wees etc inside for her first 2 weeks with us as we have no outside space there and I couldn't let her out anywhere.  She got much better at using the newspaper although poos were rather random and without any notice!  She knows her name and comes racing over when you call her.  The day follows with periods of manic racing around like a dingbat followed by deep sleeps.  She is gorgeous and adorable but how do I get her to go outside?  We took her out into the garden at the weekend (giving her a day and night to get used to a new place and a new room to sleep in), said 'go and be a good girl' and 'quick, quick' and walked around with her, repeating it but she was so excited to be outside that she just raced around hysterically.  All I was aware of was how many holes and worrying bits there seemed to be in the garden a d just got anxious.  Yesterday I bought some chicken wire and, in the pouring rain, we we trailed it round as much as possible and put some pots in front of other possible escape places.  I let her out this morning as soon as she'd had her breakfast but she just wasn't interested.  I think she only recognises newspaper and a wooden floor and everything else is so new.  She has also not wanted to do a wee or a poo immediately after eating but seems to wait about ten minutes.  I expect I have got to totally start again which is hard for her and I feel I am doing everything wrong.  Help!

[MaggieR]

All sounds perfectly normal and you're not doing anything wrong
Info you're looking for is pretty much covered here http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=2014.0
She'll get there with time and patience, she's just a baby at the moment and the outside will be far more exciting than remembering to wee/poo for a while, so just bear with her and remember lots of praise when she does it where she should

[Sarah.H]

I think it's a case of perseverance. Perhaps take the paper outside for a bit so she understands that she can go to the toilet outside? Then wean her off of it. You need to be taking her out as often as possible throughout the day and after every meal.

[Honormum]

I was going to suggest putting paper out in the garden - maybe even paper she's already weed on?

Only give a cue word once she's actually performed until she is going reliably - otherwise, she will have no idea what you mean. So, as soon as she's weed outside, say the cue word and praise like mad.

She'll get there, but it's a long old slog and very stressful while she does.xxx

[M1llh0use]

you're already seeing the "pattern" for when she "goes" so just before 10 mins after eating take her outside until she goes, then HUGE praise! it'll be tricky to start but keep at it and you'll all get the idea for when where etc...

[JeffD]

Take some newspaper that she has peed on outside to where she would like to go and rub it on that area of ground so her smell is there.

[Jonnydog]

Agree with the others about putting the paper outside. You really do have to have incredible patience the first few weeks, but take heart - they do get there in the end!

As for possible escape routes from the garden, I had to do the same as you with the chicken wire, but we even went to the extent of buying some plastic netting to put over the stream that runs through our back garden because she fell into it so often! Luckily it's more of a storm culvert so never had much more than a trickle of water most of the time. After a couple of months she understood how to jump over the stream and we could take the netting away.

[CherryT]

That's really helpful, thank you so much.  The newspaper is a good idea and I will take some outside that she has just wee'd on and rub it on the flagstones.  I have been giving her huge praise when she has done a wee on the paper rather than the floor and don't tell her off if she makes a mistake - well, it's not really a mistake at her age, she doesn't really know what she's doing yet! If I see her looking as if she might want to go and I say 'quick quick' (which is what I used for my old Lucy), she does seem to start sniffing at the paper with her head down in quite a concentrated way and then do a wee and I shower praise on her.  I just need to take that outside all the time now...I am off to rub soiled newspaper into the flagstones.....at least it has stopped raining now!

[JeffD]

I am off to rub soiled newspaper into the flagstones.....at least it has stopped raining now!

The things we do for our pups

[CherryT]

Well, just had scary disaster!  I rubbed the wet newspaper into one of the larger flags and then took Molly out.  She raced around like mad and we then had a play in the top garden where the grass is.  Suddenly she disappears through the wire fencing on the right hand side behind the trees (it has wider squares and was put up as boundary fencing when we first moved in)' straight into next door's garden and disappears!!  There is wide picket fencing at the top of their garden, no wire, nothing to stop her going into the large field behind us. I start shouting for her and yelling for my neighbour as I have no way of getting into her garden, nor can I get into the field as the stone wall at the end of our garden is too high to climb over.  Luckily Harriet was in  and caught Molly in her garden, but she had been just about to go out!!  I was absolutely terrified.  When I let her out now it is going to have to be on a lead (and she hasn't even had a collar on yet) until Brian can chicken wire every inch of the garden!   I think I need a cup of tea!

[piph]

Another thing you could try is instead of taking the newspaper outside straight away, just continue to let her use it indoors and every day move it closer to the door, then, on the first day after that, put it just outside the door and so on until you get it where you want her to 'perform'  Good luck, you'll get there, it just takes patience and peseverance, and lots of kitchen roll!!!  

[CherryT]

Thanks Piph, I'd forgotten that one.  I have an area of newspaper in part of the kitchen and she seems to know to go there when she wants to do a wee (at least most of the time!) so I will start putting some at the top of the steps by the back door.  It would help if we had a more normal house! As we have a smallish kitchen then 4 deep wooden steps up into the 'top kitchen'/utility room and then the back door.  The cottage is very old. Molly can get up the steps but cries to be helped down, they must look like Mount Everest to her!  Molly is now sleeping in the top kitchen in a crate with the door open and dog play pen attached to it so she can go out to wee in the night on the newspaper.  We bought the crate size as advised by the breeder but it didn't give any space for a weeing place and water bowl once you'd put a half piece of vet bed in and she hated the door shut and poo'd in her bed 3 nights running and was very upset so we rushed out to buy her a foldable pen so she had more room and she is fine now and goes from 11pm to nearly 7am.    I wish I'd bought a bigger crate now and shall buy a larger one later on so we don't have to use the pen.  She always does a poo at night and a wee but doesn't let us know, just starts crying at about ten to seven.  Sorry about such long posts but I am sure I am making such a hash of this!

[piph]

Thanks Piph, I'd forgotten that one.  I have an area of newspaper in part of the kitchen and she seems to know to go there when she wants to do a wee (at least most of the time!) so I will start putting some at the top of the steps by the back door.  It would help if we had a more normal house! As we have a smallish kitchen then 4 deep wooden steps up into the 'top kitchen'/utility room and then the back door.  The cottage is very old. Molly can get up the steps but cries to be helped down, they must look like Mount Everest to her!  Molly is now sleeping in the top kitchen in a crate with the door open and dog play pen attached to it so she can go out to wee in the night on the newspaper.  We bought the crate size as advised by the breeder but it didn't give any space for a weeing place and water bowl once you'd put a half piece of vet bed in and she hated the door shut and poo'd in her bed 3 nights running and was very upset so we rushed out to buy her a foldable pen so she had more room and she is fine now and goes from 11pm to nearly 7am.    I wish I'd bought a bigger crate now and shall buy a larger one later on so we don't have to use the pen.  She always does a poo at night and a wee but doesn't let us know, just starts crying at about ten to seven.  Sorry about such long posts but I am sure I am making such a hash of this!

Don't be daft - of course you're not making a hash of it - it sounds as if you are doing exactly the right thing!  11pm to 7am is good going for a pup that young.  We never got up to Ozzy in the night (didn't want him to get the idea that we would!), just put paper down in his puppy pen, and at first he wee'd every night, and pooed sometimes. At first we were getting up at 6am.  As time went on it got less and less, and later and later.  We get up about 7am, although I don't know how long he'd go if we just left him. Now, at six months old, I still put the paper down (funnily enough, it's his signal that it's bedtime and he goes straight to his bed and sits there waiting for his bedtime biscuit) but he hasn't used it for weeks.  He still has the occasional 'accident' in the house.  You are doing brilliantly well, just go with your instincts, and don't take too much notice of people who say their puppy was fully house-trained at 12 weeks - that's a very rare occurrence indeed. If your Molly is totally reliable before a year old, you're doing well! 

[Holly Berry]

You could also make a small run in the garden if you're worried about her esacaping. My Mum used to do this with her dogs as she had a garden on 2 levels and the bottom one wasn't that secure. The upside was that her dogs always then restricted their toileting to the one area and made cleaning up much easier.

Are you happy with her going on the flags even when she is older, because if not you will then have to wean her off the flags and onto the grass. We found this out the hardway with Ebony, we had a new stone patio laid, 6 months after we got her and being porous retains the smell and stains 

[CherryT]

Oh Piph, you are lovely!

Holly Berry (great name): that sounds a good idea, I will run it past OH.  I think the flags will be ok, Lucy went on them regularly and they get pretty mucky with green bits by the end of the year anyway so Brian always power washes them and they come up really clean. B's working all this week so we can't do more chicken wiring until the weekend (we'd already gone through a whole roll at £30 - I think her new name should be "you can put your pin number in now" - and then we will go over every inch!