House training

[Greenveg]

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I have a Cockapoo puppy just over three months old.
I am trying to house train him. Sometimes he pees and poos in my back garden, and in the house also. I have tried puppy training pads, but he shreds them, I am worried about him eating the shredded bits, so I have stopped using them. I take him in the garden as much as I can.

 

[JoanneF]

Did you see the link posted in your other thread? We have a guide to house training HERE, but do shout out if anything seems unclear or you think may not work for you.

 

[curlydog]

In my experience a three month old puppy doesn't yet have the physical maturity to be house trained. Six months is more typical. With my boy pups, that maturity was marked by the boys switching to hiking a leg to pee. Younger puppies may have a vague idea they should do their business outside. They just don't yet have the ability to consistently recognize and respond to the signals coming from their nether regions. Even worse, a young puppy is eating much more than a comparably sized adult dog. Their growing body is generating a lot of construction debris. They need to unload the waste more frequently.

A pup is less likely to have an accident indoors when their bladder is empty. When my boys were three months old I was taking them out every two hours, plus one outing in the middle of the night. Yes, I was exhausted. I also learned, to my chagrin, that one of my pups was a double pooper. He never fully emptied himself on the first squat. I needed to keep him outside until he dropped a second load; otherwise that load would land on my floor.

I'm not a big fan of house training using piddle pads. As you have already discovered, most pups like to shred them. Plus a piddle pad with holes in it doesn't protect the floor underneath. Plus, you don't want the puppy becoming accustomed to peeing on surfaces that feel like textiles. Later in life, when piddle pads aren't available, you may find your dog seeking out similar surfaces: your bathmat, your doormat, the rug next to your bed, a lap blanket that slid onto the floor. Encourage the puppy to toilet on the kinds of surfaces you want him to toilet on in the future.

Meanwhile, confine the puppy to easily cleaned surfaces. I mounted baby gates on my kitchen entrances to confine my puppies to the easily cleaned kitchen tiles. I also used playpens, of the sort used to keep toddlers from getting into trouble, to confine the puppies when I wanted them with me instead of in the kitchen. I used a washable vinyl backed picnic blanket to protect the flooring underneath. Whelping blankets and waterproof mattress pads are also washable.