# I need help....



## Lexi's Mom 2 (Aug 28, 2007)

My malt is 14 months old. We keep her gated in the kitchen/nook/laundry room area while we're not at home. We have trained her to use a pad in the laundry room, which she does without fail as long as she is confined to the above mentioned area. We are wanting to take the gates down but on the few occasions that we have, she has pottied elsewhere in the house rather than go to her pad. What am I doing wrong? How do I get her to go to the pad when she is elsewhere in the house? :bysmilie:


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

1. She should only be outside her area when she is actively supervised. That means you are watching her, not doing anything else. 

2. Put her on a potty schedule so her body will expect when to go. That will also allow you to be sure she potties BEFORE letting her come out. 

3. At potty time, walk her to her pad, do not carry her. She needs to pattern the walk from any other room to the potty area.


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## Lexi's Mom 2 (Aug 28, 2007)

QUOTE (JMM @ Jul 24 2008, 08:36 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610236


> 1. She should only be outside her area when she is actively supervised. That means you are watching her, not doing anything else.
> 
> 2. Put her on a potty schedule so her body will expect when to go. That will also allow you to be sure she potties BEFORE letting her come out.
> 
> 3. At potty time, walk her to her pad, do not carry her. She needs to pattern the walk from any other room to the potty area.[/B]


I work during the day-how can I get her on a schedule?


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

QUOTE (Lexi's Mom 2 @ Jul 24 2008, 12:19 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610303


> QUOTE (JMM @ Jul 24 2008, 08:36 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610236





> 1. She should only be outside her area when she is actively supervised. That means you are watching her, not doing anything else.
> 
> 2. Put her on a potty schedule so her body will expect when to go. That will also allow you to be sure she potties BEFORE letting her come out.
> 
> 3. At potty time, walk her to her pad, do not carry her. She needs to pattern the walk from any other room to the potty area.[/B]


I work during the day-how can I get her on a schedule?
[/B][/QUOTE]


Take her out when you first wake up, before you leave and as soon as you get home and at bedtime. Repeat the same pattern daily.  You could also have someone come by and take her while you are at work. But at 14 mos she should be able to hold it for the length of time that you are gone, within reason.

Big emphasis on JMM's #1 point as well--when they are "roaming" you have to watch them every second. If she's in the middle of starting to go, rush her over to the pad.


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## cloey70 (Jan 6, 2008)

Wow, is there any hope for malts to be 100% trusted, and potty trained. I am getting really frustrated with Clifford too, and we are reverting back to 101 potty training. What is the point of having a dog if they have to be gated all day. I mean Clifford isn't all day, but I don't have time to watch him roam my house for even 20min. He loves to play with our cat, and would play with him all day if I let him. I am just soooo frustrated anymore, and have almost given up on it all. UGGGH!!!


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## bonniesmom (Jun 2, 2008)

Just a thought - you might try putting the pads in every room for a while so it's easier for her to find one. I don't know if this
is "correct" procedure, but it seems to have worked with Bonbon. Somewhere around 10 months or so, she suddenly just
caught on, and I gradually started removing the pads so that now we're down to one upstairs and one downstairs. I think
lots of praise and treats when she gets it right also help. Good luck! :bysmilie:


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

QUOTE (cloey70 @ Jul 24 2008, 01:06 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610325


> Wow, is there any hope for malts to be 100% trusted, and potty trained. I am getting really frustrated with Clifford too, and we are reverting back to 101 potty training. What is the point of having a dog if they have to be gated all day. I mean Clifford isn't all day, but I don't have time to watch him roam my house for even 20min. He loves to play with our cat, and would play with him all day if I let him. I am just soooo frustrated anymore, and have almost given up on it all. UGGGH!!![/B]


It's absolutely possible. Ollie is there and I'm a stay at home mom to two young kids (6 & 9). If anyone has 100 things going on at once, it's me . I just used to bring Ollie with me in whatever room I was in, which was mostly the kitchen and gate him in. As they grow they don't go potty nearly as frequently as when they were puppies so once they are several months old and you know they just went potty then you can mostly assume that they won't have to go again for at least a few hours. You don't have to have your eyes glued to them, just be in the same room keeping tabs.


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## Nikki's Mom (Feb 13, 2008)

Nikki is potty pad trained. I don't crate or gate her when I go out. She's 8 months old. The only thing we can't do yet is let her sleep in our bed. She's crated at night.


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## cloey70 (Jan 6, 2008)

QUOTE (camfan @ Jul 24 2008, 12:47 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610339


> QUOTE (cloey70 @ Jul 24 2008, 01:06 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610325





> Wow, is there any hope for malts to be 100% trusted, and potty trained. I am getting really frustrated with Clifford too, and we are reverting back to 101 potty training. What is the point of having a dog if they have to be gated all day. I mean Clifford isn't all day, but I don't have time to watch him roam my house for even 20min. He loves to play with our cat, and would play with him all day if I let him. I am just soooo frustrated anymore, and have almost given up on it all. UGGGH!!![/B]


It's absolutely possible. Ollie is there and I'm a stay at home mom to two young kids (6 & 9). If anyone has 100 things going on at once, it's me . I just used to bring Ollie with me in whatever room I was in, which was mostly the kitchen and gate him in. As they grow they don't go potty nearly as frequently as when they were puppies so once they are several months old and you know they just went potty then you can mostly assume that they won't have to go again for at least a few hours. You don't have to have your eyes glued to them, just be in the same room keeping tabs.
[/B][/QUOTE]


Well we have something in common, I am a mom too. I have a 2 and 4 year old girls who keep me rather busy. The problem I have is a cat, and those two play together all day, and roam all over. I have put a stop to things since yesterday when i caught him in the act going pee on my carpet. Now he is gated in the kitchen nook, and I have to be honest, I am pretty upset with him. He was doing so well, and I am not sure why he did this. Before I was giving him a test of trust by putting a belly band around him, and he had no accidents for like two months, and I assumed he got the routine, but boy was I wrong. After I caught him in the act, I broke out the ultraviolet light and scanned my house, and found spots everywhere. So, you can understand my frustration, and why I am so disappointed. This potty training this is too hard, and ridiclous. I would think a 11 month old malt would get it by now.Trust me, I have stucke to a schedule for a long time, and am not sure why he started doing this, and these are not markings, but large puddles. I was letting him out very frequent, like every two hours, even though I feel he could hold it every 3 to 4 at his age. It seems the parents that work all day and crate their babies seem to be potty trained so much faster, is this what I have to do, for him to get it. I hate to crate him, but I will for awhile, and just pretend I am ont home..........Sorry OP, didn't mean to take over this thread, but maybe you could get some insight from my frustration........


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

I like the idea of gating them in the room with you to prevent wandering. Leashing the dog to you works as well. 

Compare your dog to an 11 month old labrador...no way would the owner leave the dog loose unattended. Their house would be gone. Perhaps its this longer-term crating that aids in housetraining. 

I haven't had trouble training any of mine, though I have to admit they are confined during the day on a regular basis.


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## Deborah (Jan 8, 2006)

I got Rylee when she was 8 months and was supposed to be potty trained. Anytime something is changed they can have accidents. I live in a large house and have a large yard in AZ therefore she goes outside to go potty. The place she was trained was in a desert setting and her potty area was on a cement area as the rest of the land was desert dirt and cacti. Rylee goes on the grass now but she does so near the patio. For the longest time I thought she was pooping on the cement and got frustrated. Turns out that she was going on the grass but her poop flew off on the cement. Rylee can bark but she doesn't the way I know that she had to go potty is because she does a circle dance at the patio door. Anytime she has had an accident it was definitely human error. We do not have a doggie door because she is 6 pounds and we do have wildlife around here including birds of prey. She has slept in my bed since the day I brought her home. She has never had an accident in bed.

If you think your baby is going potty too often I would have it checked out by a vet they do get urinary tract infections. The other advice here is excellent. Take them potty on a schedule and one that works for you that way you will remember specific times to take them out. Praise and treat. Rylee will sometimes go out and I did not know that she was put out so when I put her out too soon the little rascal will fake it. I still give her treats in the morning and at night. 

The training will come do not give up. I hope this helps a little. I would not keep a dog crated if I could help it.


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## Gail (Oct 14, 2007)

QUOTE (cloey70 @ Jul 24 2008, 12:06 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610325


> Wow, is there any hope for malts to be 100% trusted, and potty trained. I am getting really frustrated with Clifford too, and we are reverting back to 101 potty training. What is the point of having a dog if they have to be gated all day. I mean Clifford isn't all day, but I don't have time to watch him roam my house for even 20min. He loves to play with our cat, and would play with him all day if I let him. I am just soooo frustrated anymore, and have almost given up on it all. UGGGH!!![/B]



I had to watch Scarlett very close at first. As she got better at going outside, I could leave the room for short periods without worrying. Now I can leave her unsupervised for several hours. I didn't start doing that until she was over a year old. It takes time and patience.


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## revakb2 (Sep 8, 2006)

We trained Bogie by keeping him confined in a baby play yard. In there we kept his food, a potty pad, toys and his crate. He slept in his crate. He already knew about potty pads courtesy of his breeder. We took him for walks every couple of hours. Gradually he stoped using the potty pads. He would wait till we took him outside. At about 8 months, we took away the play pen and gated him in the kitchen when we were not able to watch him or when we went away. We didn't fully trust Bogie till about 18 months. Now he has the run of the house, and never has an accident except when he has been sick. He has also slept with us since he was five months old without any accidents. Like others have said, don't give you puppy a chance to fail. Confinement in a small area, and gradually increasing the area as the puppy shows reliability is the key.
Good luck.


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## momtoboo (Jan 30, 2006)

QUOTE (cloey70 @ Jul 24 2008, 12:06 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=610325


> Wow, is there any hope for malts to be 100% trusted, and potty trained. I am getting really frustrated with Clifford too, and we are reverting back to 101 potty training. What is the point of having a dog if they have to be gated all day. I mean Clifford isn't all day, but I don't have time to watch him roam my house for even 20min. He loves to play with our cat, and would play with him all day if I let him. I am just soooo frustrated anymore, and have almost given up on it all. UGGGH!!![/B]


Yes, there is hope. Boo is 100% outside pottytrained & has been since before he was even 6 mths old. He's now 4 1/2 yrs old. Hannah is 99.99% pottypad trained. That's my fault,she will not use a dirty pad & I occasionally forget to put down a fresh one. They both have the total run of the house even when I'm gone.I used the cratetraining method for Boo. Since Hannah was already an adult, I just kept really close tabs on her & did not let her roam until she recognized our whole house as her den & I also let her pick her own potty area.


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## tippy9876 (Jul 19, 2008)

Potty training will happen! - Riley took so long to learn his piddle pad was for pottying, but now he pee-pees consistently and we're working on the #2
lol. Potty training just takes these pups a while- he took a long time to understand he was supposed to make #1 on the piddle pads, but now he is very consistent! we will be playing with him and he'll suddenly walk away to potty on the pad- so they do get it, some just take a little longer, especially to teach them to potty indoors. and i really do think it's harder for them to learn to use the pads to do #2...


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## jaimielaura (Jul 22, 2008)

When I adopted Felix, we were on a very strict schedule until I knew his behavior. He is a three year old dog. So, of course his bladder is more developed than a puppy. This will sound really severe, but...he was crated when we slept (in the bedroom with us), then taken immediately out first thing in the morning (7 AM), ate breakfast, taken for a 30 min walk, then taken out to yard before work (8:30 AM), crated ALL day until we got home at 5:30, immediately taken out for pee, then ate dinner, walked around 8:30 PM, crated around 11 PM. I did this for three weeks until we made sure he really had a pattern in place for what to expect for pee, poop, food and play. Because he came as a rescue dog, I did not know what to expect. After this, we transitioned to crating only during day when at work for two weeks. Now he has the free roam of the house. He has been with us since the first of June, absolutely NO accidents in the house. 

So, the crating may sound severe, but it really helped me to develop a behavior pattern and expectations w/ Felix. I hope this info helps.


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