April 23, 2010
why wont my puppy potty train?
Destiny P asked:
I have a yellow lab, beagle mix. I got her from a rescue shelter. She’s about 7 months old, and I’ve had her for 5 weeks. I am a stay at home mom, so every day I take her outside every 45min to an hour to make her go potty, and she does it. When she’s done I pet her and praise her and feed her a treat. When we leave somewhere I put her outside so she doesn’t have accidents in the house. But at night time, she must be getting up to go, because when I wake up she has at least 1, (lately 3) potty spots on the floor. I don’t punish her for these since I didn’t catch her doing them, I just clean them up. But I have never caught her in the act of going on the floor to take her outside when she’s doing this. She wont let me know when she needs to go either. She doesn’t try to wake me up at night when she needs to go. What can I do?
Korinne, how did you teach your puupy to ring a bell when she needs to go potty? And, I just had my puppy at the vet on Monday to do a health check, she is healthy other than a small heart murmur.
I have a yellow lab, beagle mix. I got her from a rescue shelter. She’s about 7 months old, and I’ve had her for 5 weeks. I am a stay at home mom, so every day I take her outside every 45min to an hour to make her go potty, and she does it. When she’s done I pet her and praise her and feed her a treat. When we leave somewhere I put her outside so she doesn’t have accidents in the house. But at night time, she must be getting up to go, because when I wake up she has at least 1, (lately 3) potty spots on the floor. I don’t punish her for these since I didn’t catch her doing them, I just clean them up. But I have never caught her in the act of going on the floor to take her outside when she’s doing this. She wont let me know when she needs to go either. She doesn’t try to wake me up at night when she needs to go. What can I do?
Korinne, how did you teach your puupy to ring a bell when she needs to go potty? And, I just had my puppy at the vet on Monday to do a health check, she is healthy other than a small heart murmur.
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Filed under Puppies Problems by on Apr 23rd, 2010. Comment. 
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Comments on why wont my puppy potty train?
You could try training her to alert you when she needs to go out. I’ve trained my 5 month old Wheaten to ring a bell when he needs to go potty. Of course he still has the occasional accident.
You could also crate your puppy at night. Crating at night will teach your puppy to hold it and keeps her from going on the floor.
You need to get a crate and use it when you’re sleeping. Keep it in your bedroom because chances are if she has to go she’ll fuss. That way you can take her out. You can also use this when you have to go out which is better than leaving her outside unsupervised.
I would also take up her water and have her last meal at least 2 hours before bed. This will increase her chances of being ‘empty’ at bedtime. If she has access to water all night, she’ll *** all night.
Here’s my full article on housetraining, it also covers crates.
Google crate training and give it a try. In a nutshell, you crate the dog when you can’t watch her. She should be able to hold it for a good 6 hours at 7 months old (and possibly longer). Since you are around during the day, I’d suggest only crating at night. You might also want to consider lengthening the time between trips outside during the day. She might be so used to going all the time that she just expects it and doesn’t know how to hold it at night. Just watch her closely between trips and slowly increase the time.
Also, I’d take her to a vet to rule out a physical cause, just in case.