Puppy gone back to weeing off puppy pads

[lilbuff]

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My 12 week old puppy has previously being doing really well by going to the toilet on his puppy pads, he's recently been avoiding his puppy pads, he will step on his pads and sniff around and then will go for a wee on the carpet instead. he's even gone as far as pooing in his bed today.

can anyone please advise why he may be doing this and give me a little advice please

Thanks in advance

x

 

[JoanneF]

I hate puppy pads. All they do is confuse the puppy by giving mixed messages about whether it's ok to toilet in the house or not. If this is a sudden change though, you might want to see a vet to rule out a bladder or urinary tract infection (I accept that may be less likely given the poo this morning). Then back to basics with toilet training. 

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.

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

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

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

 

[excuseme]

You really should be taking your puppy outside frequently to do his wee's and poo's.

The nappies that you are paying so much for are just saying that it is ok to go indoors ! However I have always used newspaper (FREE) close to the outside door for accidents and praised for their use, but the papers are very quickly moved to outside, the puppy soon learns to ask to use the dry paper patch outside.

You need to be one step ahead of your puppy, and get successful wee's/poo's done outside before the puppy has to do it inside. When a puppy wakes from a sleep one of the first things it needs to do is have a wee, don't expect the puppy to walk to the outside garden as it will do a wee long before you get to the door, but while your puppy is young and small I find that it is helpful to carry him to outside. Again at night time, if you wake yourself and need to move around you will probably disturb the puppy and wake him too, I would suggest that you offer the puppy a visit outside to wee himself first ! and then maybe get one done yourself !! (indoors not in the garden).

There are so many of us who all have slightly different ideas, but we all have to help our puppies to understand somehow. Little and often is best.  

 

[gypsysmum2]

Ditch the puppy pads and put in lots of hard work

Follow the advice above.

Never chastise for mistakes. It causes all sorts of behaviour problems in later life.