Toilet training 12-week old pup so hit and miss

Hi everyone,

I just want to hear people's personal experiences with toilet training their new puppy. We have a 12 week old Wheaten terrier that we have had for 2 weeks - toilet training is going very slowly! We love her and she is so much fun but during the day if we do not take her out to toilet every 20-30 minutes she will mess on the floor of her playpen or in the house (the bit of the house she is allowed access to). We don't have crate training as an option because she messes in her crate also (I have researched this and the crate is the correct size and she is happy to sit in her crate with the door open or closed). I read somewhere (most likely a puppy 'expert') that she should not need to go to the toilet for at least an hour at a time at her age so she clearly still has little bladder control. When we take her outside for toilet she does go quickly (with number 1s) and she has a favourite spot so that is a positive. We also use that special spray when she does mess inside to remove the smell so reduces the chances she will mess in the same place. My puppy is not a text book puppy. As crate training is not an option we leave her in the playpen overnight and put newspaper down so this might be causing some confusion for her. Am I expecting too much too soon? (I have never owned a dog before and everyone I speak to who has owned a puppy of the same age reports that their puppy was great at toilet training!). Would appreciate people's thoughts and suggestions? Thank you!

Do you have a space in the crate for her to mess?
Fergus never messed in his crate from the day we got him as his bedding covered the whole floor.
Dogs dont like to mess in their beds.

It is a little early so don't worry, it will just take a little time. No two puppies are the same but I honestly wouldn't expect puppies to be clean at that age unless they are exceptional.

Toilet training happens when two things come together - the ABILITY to hold the toilet, along with the DESIRE to hold it in order to earn the reward for doing so.

This is my advice for toilet training. Ideally you want her to not be in a position where she needs to toilet before you have her outdoors, so that every toilet is outside - as far as possible, there will be accidents! So set her up to succeed by taking her out even more than she needs; for example every 45 minutes to an hour and always after sleeping, eating, playing. The time between a puppy realising they need to toilet, and being unable to hold that toilet, is zero. So your aim is to have her outside before she can't help herself. When she toilets outdoors make a huge fuss (never mind the neighbours, act like outdoor toileting is the best thing you have ever seen) and reward her with a high value treat. Do that immediately, don't make her come to you for the treat so she is clear that it's for toileting and not for coming to you. The idea is that she wants to earn the treat enough to hold the toilet until she is outside - once she is physically able to control her toileting obviously. If she has an accident inside don't react at all. If you get annoyed she may learn to fear your reaction and avoid you if she needs to toilet - the opposite of what you want. As she is actually performing the toilet you can introduce words she can associate with it (like 'do weewee' and 'busy busy') that later when she is reliably trained you can use these to tell her when you want her to toilet.

Indoors if you see her circling or scratching the floor, that can sometimes precede toileting so get her out fast.

Overnight she is unlikely to be able to control her toilet as her little bladder and bowel are underdeveloped and not strong enough to hold all night so set your alarm to take her out at least once if not twice during the night.

Fergus said:

Do you have a space in the crate for her to mess?
Fergus never messed in his crate from the day we got him as his bedding covered the whole floor.
Dogs dont like to mess in their beds.

Click to expand...

Hi Fergus, The size of the crate is appropriate for her size - we checked. She likes her crate and sleeps in her crate but she also happens to wee in it and this is whether the door is closed or not....

A crate is a helpful tool for toilet training because as @Fergus says, dogs prefer not to soil their sleeping space. But if she is unable to hold her bladder and bowel (which at the moment are tiny, underdeveloped and weak) she simply won't be able to hold on - when you gotta go; you gotta go! That's why taking a puppy out during the night helps cement the toilet training - the more chances to toilet outdoors, the faster they get it.

Our puppy is 14 weeks old and we have not cracked it either. Our puppy slept in a crate from day 1 but the crate was in our room for the 1st week and she would sleep at 11pm. I would then wake up around 2/3am and take her out again and then around 7am. Once she was awake it was, like you say, every 20-30 mins, and I think this is pretty normal. We have made a big mistake of using puppy pads in 2 areas of the house, which has totally confused her!!! She will sometimes go and stand by the door, which is her signal she needs to go, or she will do it on the puppy pad. We have removed one puppy pad and if she is desperate she will wee in that spot, even though the pad is not there anymore. And this morning she must have got caught short as she went in the kitchen!! She has never soiled her crate, she also has a blanket which covers all of it. Now she sleeps from 10:30/11pm until 6/6:30 without need to go out. During the day she can last a few hours in the morning whilst I am at work and then from 12:00 onwards when I am home, every hour or so. I think you might have to set an alarm and take her out in the night.

Our first rescue beagle wasnt house trained until she was nearly 1. She was the reason we got a dog flap as I gave up trying to get her to tell us when she wanted to go out. Incidentally we are fostering a 5-6 month old puppy at the moment and she isnt housetrained either, OH is taking her out every 30 minutes to minimise accidents during the day. On the flip side our big lad was completely housetrained by about 4 months although with access to a dog flap overnight.