My Puppy Pees Outside Then Pees Inside!?!? Please, Stop The Madness!

361 Comments

1. I have a 5 month old puppy and she peed inside after I took her out. Yes I gave her plenty of time to go outside. Yes I clean inside with enzymatic cleaner and she still goes in the same area. Isn’t she getting too old for this? How do I stop this from happening? She seems perfectly comfortable going outside. There is no reason for her to go inside.

2. We have the same issue!!! I have no clue how to fix it 😕

3. Most of the answers on this site seem well suited for the generic puppy but don’t seem to address the issues of the commenters here and on other articles concerning puppies that pee within a short time of coming back inside. Out West Highland terrier, male, is 14 weeks old and the issue is getting worse especially the last 2 days. We have followed every suggestion in several books about positive reinforcement when outside, keeping a constant eye on the puppy when inside, etc. We take him out, he has no problem peeing. We have stayed out for an additional 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes and each time he has peed within a short time of coming back inside. No warning. Playing with his toys with one of us sitting within 3 to 4 feet. He will stand up and go to the gate and let go. Hold it in at night from 10 to 4am with no problem. It has been a rare occasion when he has actually peed twice outside in the same session. This seems to me to be a behavioral issue of some sort but I can’t figure it out. I don’t think reading Puppies for Dummies another time will be a big help. Has anyone else commenting on this site have an answer as to something that helped them.

4. Hi There,
   Great info on the article. My puppy is 4 1/2 mns old. Kennel training and still potty training. Though sometimes I get off track because of my job. She still piddles in the house even after spending time with her outside. It is frustrating, I’m not sure how else to fix it. Even after spending quite a bit of time with her outside, still piddles by the front or back door and does not communicate when she needs to go out. :/
   How can I train her better with communicating the need to go outside and how do I get her to stop piddling after we come inside?
   TIA

5. You’ll want to start potty training him from the beginning. Here’s an article you might find helpful: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

6. Recently got a 5 month GSD. Seems to be house trained except for peeing and poop. People I got him from said he was potty trained but he never notifies he has to go. Take him out right after his meals and try about every 1-2 hours but he will still do business in the house. Had him checked by vet but voiding issue wasn’t discussed.

7. Here’s our post on how to potty train a puppy. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

8. Hi, we have now 15 weeks old puppy. We have been potty training her outside yard and so far that’s working out great but we are still having problem potty training inside (She mainly stays in the living room). And especially when she enters bedrooms, she pees so we are afraid to take her to our bedrooms.
   How can we train her inside the house and also in other rooms like bedrooms?

9. In this situation I would definitely wait longer for your puppy to pee before bringing him back in the house. Also, I choose one spot for my puppy to potty and always go to that same spot in the yard. I don’t like to walk my puppy around the yard because he usually gets distracted and forgets he’s outside to potty. If your puppy had an accident in his crate then I’d check and make sure it’s not too big. It should only be large enough for your puppy to stand stretch and turn around. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

10. I just got a puppy few days ago, ive been doing the crate training for potty. This morning I gave him breakfast and water, I waited about 20 mins to take him outside to potty, he pooped and I praised him for that, I walked him around the yard a lil longer to see if he will pee, after just walking around and waiting for him to go, I decided that he didnt need to go yet. I brought him inside and placed him in his crate, 2 secs late he squats and pees a little in the crate, I got so mad I yelled at him “NO!”. How do I correct this? So that it doesnt happen again, he has been doin well going outside to potty and I reward him with treat and praise when he does.

11. Thanks Nicole, I appreciate your response. I’m glad you and others find my blog helpful. If you have any questions please let me know.

12. Wow! I’m so sorry that person felt the need to write that response. If she felt it was so awful to get thru she should have just quit reading and moved along. I have found your posts very insightful! It makes me feel better to know that my puppy’s not the only one out there doing this. Thank you for taking the time to help us out there needing help with our newest family members!

13. The guide dog school we work with recommends not restricting water because puppy’s can get in the habit of loading up on water when it’s available which can sometimes lead to more accidents and other issues. Also, it’s important that your puppy always reminds hydrated especially during the hot summer months.

14. 8 week labradoodle this article gives me a little stress relief, so we’ve had our puppy a week or so now and having the same issues with 3-4 accidents a day, we called our breeder and he suggested to limit free access to water and to instantly take him
    out after he drinks water , we pretty much have been taking him out every hour or two regularly it seems like we see him pee and he comes back in and pees more , is restricting the water normal and we live in florida we are concerned with dehydration

15. Thanks for your response. I’m sorry I can get a little long winded when writing to my blog. I think your sum up of the blog post is great. However, there are a few other points I’m trying to get across:

    1. This is normal behavior
    2. Thoroughly clean up all accidents
    3. Your puppy could have an infection
    4. Puppy management is important
    5. And of course your puppy’s bladder is probably not fully developed at 8 weeks

    Also, I like to tie in some of my own personal story in my blog posts.

16. I’m sorry but it was very painful getting through your puppy peeing in the house article.
    All that you needed to sum that up is, your puppies bladder isn’t fully developed at 8 weeks and it’s normal for this to happen. Try keeping him outside a bit longer after he pees to make sure he’s done. Voila

17. What works best for us is constant supervision and getting your puppy outside to potty before she thinks she has to potty. The more accidents your puppy has in the house the longer it will take her to understand where she’s supposed to go potty.

18. We have two 3-4 month old puppies (exact age is foggy since they are rescues). One puppy has gotten potty time down pat with very few accidents. The other does not. We have done everything suggested in this article, but she still can’t seem to grasp it. We praise her and give her lots of treats when she goes in the front yard or the back yard, and give her lots of time afterwards for a second or third time. But she doesn’t seem to understand that inside is still a no. She will do it in the house without hesitation or warning us like her brother does. We aren’t sure what else to do. We use positive reinforcement only except for clapping and saying NO while she is peeing inside to stop her, but no punishing or more yelling. Just calmly cleaning it up. She doesn’t have a specific spot in the house either (we’ve made sure to scrub). It’s whenever and wherever. I understand that it can take more time to learn, but her brother has grasped it quite well and we aren’t sure what other method to use with her.

19. Congratulations on your new puppy! Your puppy will start to associate the balcony as his potty spot. However, I wouldn’t be concerned. You can easily re-train him to go to the front door when your ready to take him to your front yard. Most puppies will have to be trained to go on a potty pad. If you’re using a play pen then you can start working on potty pad training.

    I work from home with my puppy and I keep him on a tie down near my desk most of the day. If I need a little break then I’ll crate my puppy for an hour. I don’t use a play pen with my puppies, but it’s perfectly fine to use a play pen just make sure you work on teaching your puppy the proper place to go potty.

    Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

20. Hello! This post relieved some of my anxiety about my puppy. He’s 10.5 weeks old and I’m having trouble finding a direction for potty training until he’s vaccinated. I live in an apartment without a yard (I have a cement base balcony where I was take him for potty break, but I’m worried he will permanently associate the balcony with potty time especially since it’s where he currently gets exercise). Do you have advice of what to do in the meantime until I can take him out the front door to the common ground to potty train him? He’s having accidents inside even with a potty pad in his small play pen. He does fine in his crate (he’s had a couple accidents right after coming in front outside, my fault!), I had given him the play pen so he can play a little on his own while I’m working, but I’m thinking I should go back to him being in the crate rather than the play pen. I haven’t found any articles speaking to my specific situation!

21. Congratulations on your new puppy! One thing we do with all our puppies until they are potty trained is keep an eye on them 100% of the time. We do this by keeping them on leash when indoors. If they show any signs that they have to potty we immediately take them outside. If your puppy is still having accidents in the house you might consider doing the same. While a puppy can hold his bladder in the crate it’s not fair to assume the same when he’s out of the crate playing. A puppy will mostly rest in his crate and not be active. It’s similar to when people sleep at night. It’s not uncommon for a puppy to potty again 10 minutes after the first time. Our current puppy has pee’d three times in 5 minutes. As I mentioned in the article I’ll keep my puppy outside at her potty spot for a couple extra minutes after she goes the first time outside. Also, when you bring your puppy inside you’ll want to keep a close eye on him if he’s awake. My puppy tends to pee every 5-10 minutes when she’s awake. Your situation does not sound uncommon. Just make sure to keep a close eye on your puppy throughout the day rather than give him freedom to roam the house as he pleases. One final thing to note: if your puppy is retreating to the crate after you yell “NO!” then it’s more likely you are scaring him rather than him understanding that he broke a rule. Good luck with your training!

22. Two things I’d stop doing immediately are yelling at your puppy and putting her nose in her potty accidents. These two things could be causing your puppy anxiety that are probably making things worse. There’s a chance your puppy is getting nervous and anxious before you let her out of the crate. Something you might try is make her successful every time you let her out of the crate. Try by only using the crate for a short period of time then letting her out. It could be as short as 5 seconds. Praise and reward her for being a good puppy. From that point you can increase the amount of time she’s in her crate to 10 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes etc…Also, try to be as calm as possible whenever you let her out of the crate. Good luck with your training!

23. I appreciated this article! However, I still have a question.

    Our 17 week old puppy is semi-potty trained. He knows to not go in house, and his communication is very deceptively quiet–he would just walk over to the front door and wait. Sometimes when we notice that he’s by the door a little too late, he would go right there. He doesn’t pee in his crate anymore, even when we leave him for the day and he holds his bladder and poop all night. So he DEFINITELY can hold his bladder. Yet, sometimes when he has just returned from outside, he would pee shortly after! For example, today, we let him out in the yard and saw him pee. Less than 10 minutes later, we have him inside, he goes to our stairs and pees right there! I said “NO!” and he quickly ran into his crate, waiting for us to close it because he knew he broke the rule. Still, he does it. How can we teach him to not do it again?

24. I’ve had my pup since she was 6 weeks old. She is now 18 weeks old. She stays in her crate all night and holds it. Immediately whenever someone unlocks the crate she pees in it! Every time! We have yelled at her, put her nose to it, it doesn’t help. We always clean it up and take her out to finish. This happens any time day or night when we let her out of her crate.

25. Congratulations on your new puppies! 9 weeks old is still very young for a puppy and every puppy is different and will develop at different times. If you’re puppies are having accidents in the house you want to make sure you thoroughly clean up accidents with an enzymatic cleaner like Rocco & Roxie. The best thing we do when we first start working on potty training is constant supervision or confinement if we can’t supervise. Take a look at this post when you have a chance to give you an idea of how often puppies potty: https://puppyintraining.com/my-puppy-pees-a-lot-is-it-normal-a-puppy-potty-schedule/

26. We’ve never had a dog before but I had done endless research on training dos and don’ts, so you can imagine my delight when our 2 new female pups started heading for the door within a couple of days and doing their business outside (the odd accident inside), but now one of the pups is constantly urinating around the house. We take them out regularly and both will still pee outside and given lots of praise. I try not to give any type of attention when she pees inside but its not getting any better, both pups are 9 weeks old

27. Congratulations on your new puppy! In general with the puppies I’ve raised they tend to have control of their poop sooner then they do their pee. 10 weeks is still pretty young for a puppy to have full control of her bladder.

28. I’m really happy I came across this article! I have a 10 week old female Bandog. She is super smart! She picked up on pooping outside the day we got her!! The peeing….it’s half and half. She will pee outside & then pee again inside. And if we see her sniffing we go immediately outside! The problem is sometimes her pee comes with no warning! When we see her peeing inside and we say “no!” She will usually head towards the door to finish outside, but sometimes she will just finish where she’s at. She goes outside about every half hour. And, she has never yet been alone for one minute since we have had her! In fact; we wait to use the bathroom or watch tv, or look at our phones until she’s either sleeping or another human relieves us!
    Basically after reading your article, does it sound right for a puppy to have control of poop and not pee at this age? Or can it be a bladder infection if she’s getting one & not the other? I just looked up bladder infection in a dog, and ouch!! I don’t want them to use a needle to extract her urine! :/
    I’ve never had a puppy be able to do one outside & not the other. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

29. Congratulations on your new puppy! We don’t allow our puppies on the bed or sofa until after they are potty trained. Something I’d recommend if you’re not already doing this is to have your puppy on leash when you take her outside and make sure she does her business in the same spot every time. We crate train all of our puppies so if we know our puppy has to potty and she doesn’t go when we take her out then we’ll bring her back in and crate her for 10 minutes then try again.

30. i have a 6 months old beagle pup. she sometimes pees outside and sometimes dosent . how do i make her pee outside. also if she dosent pee outside and i take her inside , she immediately pees there . what i have observed is that she never sniffs before peeing inside but will pee anywhere inside the house without any warning. ANYWHERE!!!!!!!!!! including the sofa and bed( so u have started to stop her from climbing the sofa and bed). PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!

31. Congratulations on your new puppy! Every puppy is different and learn at different rates. If your puppy is regularly having accidents in the crate then you need to start over with her crate training. Our friends at Labrador Training HQ have a detailed article on how to crate train a puppy. We put our crate next to our bed which helps us get our puppies out to their potty spot quickly. A couple things we’ve done with our puppies are:

    1. Take away all plush things like pillows, beds, blankets. If you have carpets then keep her off the carpets until she understand she’s not to go on the carpet.
    2. Constant Supervision. When potty training we’ll keep our puppy on leash when indoors.

    Also, she’s still young and it takes time to potty train a puppy. Most of our puppies start to really catch on at around 16 weeks old.

32. My little girl is 11 weeks old and she’s definitely been able to correlate that peeing outside = treats and praise, but it doesn’t prevent her from peeing inside regularly, including in her crate. I wake up and will hear her rustling about around 3 AM most nights and take her out immediately, but come back in to find she’d already done the deed moments before. She doesn’t try to wake me up, just goes right there and seems fine with it. (Yes, her crate is the right size – she can get up and turn around but not much else). Or for example, just now, she laid down on a pillow I let her sit on, peed, and then curled up on the other side of the pillow and is napping. She didn’t alert me at all that she had to go and doesn’t seem affected by laying right next to her own pee. I let her out at least hourly (definitely any time she wakes up from a nap, stops playing abruptly, or eats… so always.) Just not sure what to do to get her to stop going inside. I don’t want to start yelling and upsetting her, but just the praise and treats outside don’t seem to be working. She’s much better about pooping – almost always indicates to me she has to go and waits to be let out (other than when she sneaks under my bed when I’m not looking – little stinker).

33. You need to work on his potty training. Here’s an article on how to potty train a puppy.

34. Congratulations on your new puppy! Everything sounds very normal and it sounds like you’re doing everything right. Hopefully you can spot a sign that will alert you to when she has to potty. Most of the puppies we trained were not potty trained by 10 weeks old. On average I’d say our puppies are potty trained at around 16-20 weeks old. That being said Linus was potty trained after less than 2 weeks of training when he was 10 weeks old. Your black Lab did extremely well to be house trained after only a week. Remember every puppy is different some don’t even have full bladder control at 12 weeks old.

35. We have an 8 month old lab. He is the worst puppy in the world and I am at my wit’s end. He’ll pee outside occasionally without having to be walked around the neighborhood. But 9 times out of 10 he’ll either pee in the house then run outside and hide, pee on me while looking at me then run outside and hide or pee outside then come in and pee while walking around, then, you guessed it, run outside and hide. He’s kennel trained for night time. He does not pee in the house when my husband is home, which is maybe an hour before bed time during the week and weekends. I don’t know what to do. He is praised for peeing outside and we have a doggy door so he has unlimited access. Please some info would be great.

36. We got our first Wirehaired Pointing Griffon almost two years ago and our second 2 weeks ago. We seem to have a really tough time with house training! We take the puppy out often and always give her a chance to do both kinds of businesses. We often give her an opportunity to pee more then once (despite the fact that females typically empty at once since they do not mark) but she rarely pees more then once. We bring her inside to play with our other dog as well as ourselves. We never leave her to roam the house unattended and while she’s out playing we actively watch and engage her. Still with no signs at all (no sniffing, no, circling, etc she will sometimes just stop mid run or mid tug and just pee on the floor! I’m sure it’s not a control issue because she sleeps through the night without going out and even during the day can spend HOURS and I mean HOURS in her kennel without fuss or accidents. She’s 10 weeks old! If you have ANY suggestions we would super appreciate it! Our other pup did this too. And we never figured it out. But the last time I had a puppy over 11 years ago (a beautiful black lab) he was house trained in a week!

37. My 12 week old husky lab puppy is great for letting us know when she needs to go out and she does have accidents which is fine it’s a process I watch her a closely as I can. She is crate trained and pen trained never peed in either and won’t still. But when she isn’t in the pen or crate she asks to go pee every half hour and if she isn’t let out she pees in the house. we have built up to 3 hours in crate or pen without potty but she won’t hold it when she’s out of her pen or crate. It seems like she’s choosing not to hold it and I’ve tested this by putting her in her pen when she asks to go outside too frequently and she lasted another 2 hours without even whining to go out. We did get her at 6 weeks and have been at home the entire time keeping a close eye for potty signs.

38. Congratulations on your new puppy! Our puppies sometimes take a step back with their training and you’ll want to do the same. I’d work on #1 making sure you get your puppy outside:

    First thing in the morning.
    After each meal.
    After a nap.
    After playtime.
    Right before you and your pup retire for the night.

    Also, keep a close eye on your puppy when she is in the house and watch for pre-potty signs like sniffing, circling, squatting and make sure you get your puppy outside if you see these activities.

    Overall I think you just have to get a little more strict with training and your puppy will eventually start doing better.

39. Hello, we’ve got a 12 week old pug Rosie 💕 we got her at 8 weeks and the first 2 weeks she did amazing going on her training pads or outside but these last 2 weeks she keeps doing the odd poop or pee inside. I pick her up and put her straight onto her pad but it’s not working. We’ve got 2 small children so I’d hate them to walk in it. We praise her when she goes outside? Any tips

40. Congratulations on your new puppy! You may want to take her to your vet to rule out a urinary tract infection or other medical reason. She’s still very young especially for a smaller breed. It’s possible she may still not have full control of her bladder. A couple things you might try are keeping her outside a bit longer to make sure empties her entire bladder. Also, if she’s getting very excited some puppies will pee a little. If this is the case then try to keep her from getting overly excited. A lot of puppies will out grow this stage. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

41. Our Yorkie pup is about 14 weeks old. She will not pee in her crate, sleeps quietly all night in it, no peeing all night. Then throughout the day long we take her outside, she always does her business and when we are back in side she will pee tiny amounts everywhere every 10 min or so. She’s very smart so I’d hate for this not to work out.
    Help!

42. Keep an eye on her when she’s in the house and keep an eye out for pre-potty activities like circling, sniffing, squatting, etc. When you see her doing these things take her outside to her potty spot immediately. If you catch her in the middle of the act then take her outside immediately to her potty spot and have her potty. If she goes potty outside give lots of praise. Finally, make sure you clean up any messes with an enzymatic cleaner like Rocco & Roxie.

43. My puppy is 6 months old and walked 3 times a day and still pees in the house what can we do.? We tell her firmly NO! When she does it . But that’s not helping

44. Thank you for rescuing! Based on what you’ve said I’d guess that at some point in time she learned to potty in the crate or potty where she sleeps. Either way you’ll probably want to work on teaching her how not to potty in the crate. You can try re-training her by starting from the beginning with her crate training. Make sure your crate training sessions are very short making her successful each step of the way. I’ll look to writing a more detailed post on this subject in the near future. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

45. The crate should only be large enough so your puppy can stand up and turn around. Here’s a pretty good article on what size crate to get for your dog. Also, there’s a chance at some point she learned to potty where she sleeps which would mean you will need to teach her not to potty in the crate. If you think this might be the case then you can try re-training her by starting from the beginning with her crate training. Make sure your crate training sessions are very short making her successful each step of the way. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

46. Congratulations on your new puppy! Yes, I feel like 8 week puppies pee all the time. However, we have had puppies with urinary tract infections that have caused them to have more accidents then normal. If you think this might be an issue then you should see your vet for a checkup.

47. Hello,

    We have raised 2 boxer puppies and successfully potty trained them. Not one issue. We recently rescued a boxer mix, about 1 year 4 months old. The biggest sweetheart you’ll ever meet. Rough past, she was left outside for months and not fed regularly. She drinks water like it’s going out of style and does not have any sense of holding her pee. We have been regularly taking her out and rewarding her for going pee outside. Accidents in the house are limited as we are taking her out every 45 minutes. In the crate, she has an accident every time. I have recorded her and she will wake up (around 1.5 hrs after being in the crate) and just go. She is not crated regularly. We only do it when we need to. She was tested and treated for a UTI but we continue to have issues with this. Any recommendations?

48. My puppy is 10 months old and will pee outside a few times and still comes inside and pee in her crate. We just started crate training her because we just got her earlier this month, she was already potty trained. I’m not sure how to tell if her crate is too big, she pretty big and we got a large crate from petsmart shes a pitbull and husky mix.

49. We have an 8 week old puppy and she will pee 2, 3 or maybe even 4 times outside and then will still come inside and pee somewhere. Does that sound normal? It is very frustrating!

50. did you read the article lol

51. My puppy is 12 weeks old and doing this. No poop, just pee. Any suggestions?

52. Thanks. We will try that. We have also been encouraging him to pee more times outside by taking treats out and rewarding him when he goes potty. Is that ok???

53. Congratulations on your new puppy! One of the things we do when we’re having the problem of a puppy peeing outside the again inside is when we get our puppy back in the house after a potty break we monitor the pup to watch for potty signs like circling, sniffing, squatting etc. If our pup starts doing one of these things we pick her up and bring her straight back to her potty spot. In order to keep an eye on our puppy we keep her on leash by our side when we get her back in the house. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy.

54. Good evening! I just got a new Bichon Frise January 23rd. The person we bought him fro was moving and couldn’t take the puppy with her. She told me the breeder told her he was born July 4, 2019 which would make him about 7 months old but my vet said he was probably 9-10 months old versus the 7. Anyway we love him and he seems to be settling in great, but he seems to be struggling with being potty trained. We have him on a schedule and take him out regularly (every 2-3 hours) unless we are out. When we take him out we let him pee multiple times but when we come back in he ends up peeing again on our vinyl floors. Most of the time we do not see him do it and end up finding it after the fact. I need to get him to stop this or we will not be able to keep him. What should we do?

55. Congratulations on your new puppy! 10 weeks is still pretty young for a puppy to have potty training figured out. We notice around 16 weeks is when our puppies seem to really be figuring things out. I know it seems like a long road, but stay consistent, persistent, patient with your puppy and she’ll eventually get it. Good luck with your training!

56. I have a puppy German Shepard/ Mix, she’s 10 weeks old she’s pees outside but comes in and pees and poops. She would rather play and run around with head cut off, I do stay outside for 20- 30 minutes. Also ttake her every 1/2- 1 hour. HELP
    I Should say we have 3 cats about 8 months old and I think she forget cause playing hard, but no dam excuse. Fed Up.And how do I teach her to tell me when she has to go ??? Thanks

57. Congratulations on your new puppy! If it’s only been a few days then this sounds fairly normal for a new puppy. They pee all the time. When you have a chance take a look at this post on puppy potty schedules: https://puppyintraining.com/my-puppy-pees-a-lot-is-it-normal-a-puppy-potty-schedule/.

    As far as training goes you might try what others call umbilical cord training. Here’s a post from our friends at Labrador Training HQ that might be helpful: https://www.labradortraininghq.com/labrador-training/umbilical-cord-house-training/

    Hopefully that helps. Good luck with you puppy!

58. I’m a first time dog owner, so super naive and clueless, and we are having trouble with our puppy peeing in the house. She will hold it in the crate, but the moment I take her out after she wakes up, she pees. I don’t have time to take her outside. Then I take her outside, a lot, to prevent accidents, and she sometimes goes outside, sometimes not, but within minutes she’ll pee inside. And to top it off, she will just randomly pee all over the house as well. I have 5 kids, the youngest is 16 months, so I really am trying to keep an eye on her, but I do slip up and I don’t want her to spend all day in the crate! Is she just stressed out from coming to a new home and being bombarded by lots of kids?! Thanks!

59. Every puppy is different. He’s still young and he’s improving. Stay consistent with your training and he’ll eventually get it. By the way, most puppies have the attention span of a gnat. One thing you can try to do is remove as many distractions as possible from his potty area. When we had Stetson I used to take him to the grass in the backyard and there were always leaves. First I removed the leaves because he’d chase and play with them. Once those were gone he decided it was fun to grab mouths full of grass. Finally we moved him to a potty spot that was just gravel and that worked best for us.

60. We got a Sproodle (Springer Spaniel/Poodle) at 17 weeks old – he is now 20 weeks old. He is perfect in every way, but the potty training. We diligently take him out atleast every 2 hours – sometimes, he will relieve himself and we praise and give him a treat (he knows this is good because as soon as he relieves himself, he looks at us). However, he is so distracted other times chasing leaves and trying to get sticks, he does nothing and comes back into the house and pees. At first it was 6-7 times, now it is down to 4, but is very, very frustrating. How can we help him to focus … this is beyond frustrating. We have had several dogs, before but nothing like this has occurred.

61. He may be spending too much time in the crate. We’ve worked with puppies that have had behavioral issues because they were spending too much time in the crate. You might try reducing the amount of time your puppy spends in the crate by having someone work on his potty training throughout the day. You could also try enrolling him in a doggy daycare. There’s one near our house that will board and train puppies.

62. Hello,

    I have a dog that I just got from the shelter about a month ago. He’s pretty tiny (about 11 lbs) and is a beagle mix. I believe he might be part Dachshund, as well. He is full grown according to the vet, since he has all of his adult teeth. He is 1yr old. When I called the shelter they said they actually thought he was a puppy when he got to them, so they were training him on puppy pads.

    He is the sweetest boy, but we are having an EXTREMELY difficult time potty training. He sleeps with me and holds it all night. I get up at 5:45am take him downstairs and he pees and poops. I take him out again around 6:45, he pees again. Most of the time he poops again, too!

    I have a dog walker come everyday around 11:30-1pm to take him out and by this time he 90% of the time has peed in his crate. She says sometimes he poops at this time, again! I get home around 4:30 and I take him out again. Following that I take him out 3 more times per night and he STILL usually has 2-3 accidents inside. I’m at my wits end. I am taking him to the vet tomorrow to see if anything could be wrong (such as a urinary tract infection) but I’ve checked his pee – there is no blood and he doesn’t seem to be straining at all.

    I guess I am just looking for some advice. I’m guessing he learned these bad behaviors because no one trained him what to do. I love him and he’s mine forever, but it’s really difficult walking down three flights of stairs sooo many times to take him out. I feel like at this age, he should be able to hold it.

    Any advice?

63. My male 4 mo. Old Yorkie holds pee and poop all night. He however pees and poops in the house on a pad (most of the time). I take him out for walks for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, my problem is he doesn’t go while we are out but as soon as we come back inside he goes on his pad. How do I get him to go outside?

64. We adopted Sammie from a shelter when she was just one month old ( Dec-2017 ) and it was LOVE at first sight. It felt like she chose us as much as we chose her.
    She was such a tiny little puppy and we had no way of knowing she would grow to be this beautiful big wolf.

65. My Yorkie is just over 4 months old and would pee in your mouth if you let her. Her name is MIA and I also have a 16 yr old male named Scottie. Scottie was always territorial when I had my first Yorkie that passed away one year ago at the age of 15 1/2. Scottie stopped peeing in the house when Lucky died. Now that we have a new piss ass he is doing it again. Mia is showing her dominant side as well. She rarely poops outside, like the scent of clean floors. Lol. She pees a lot inside but can sleep through the night in her crate with no issues. I don’t understand that. I get so frustrated with her sometimes because I feel all I do is clean up pee and poop. We put her out all day long to pee and 5 minutes later she will do it again. I am afraid she is starting to get to old to break this dirty habit of hers. Any suggestions please.

66. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. Just an fyi a ” 20 week old puppy” is not a puppy anymore and actually almost a full grown dog at that point. You have to start treating it like a dog and not a baby.

    Peeing in the house at his age is a really bad sign. You are going to have a lot of trouble breaking those bad habits he’s already formed. May i ask what breed it is? Certain small dog breeds are notoriously difficult to house train and incredibly stubborn like the small toy breeds (Poodles, Pomeranians, etc.). They will literally piss on every surface of your house besides the areas they sleep because they are so hyper and scatter brain.

    The only course of action you have is to crate him all night (no exceptions). If he pees on the floor crate him, if he cocks his leg about to pee, crate him. He will get the idea and quickly.

67. Our 20 week old puppy is crate trained and sleeps through the night for 8 hours without soiling his crate. However during the day he still has some pee accidents in the house although we are vigilant and take him outdoors every one to two hours. He doesn’t seem to have made the connection. that peeing in the house is not an acceptable behavior although we praise him when he pees outside. I am of the no punishment persuasion but my spouse says this is not working and he believes a few whacks on the butt would get his attention. He says this has worked for him before. What say you?

68. Stop putting her in a crate

69. If you think your puppy has an infection then you should take her to see your vet. Most puppies pee quite often when they are awake. Here’s a post on potty training your puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

    My number one piece of advice is to keep an eye on your puppy 100% of the time when she’s in the house. When you notice pre-potty activity like circling, sniffing, or squatting get her outside to her potty spot asap. If she goes in her potty spot give her tons of praise. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

70. We’ve had our puppy a week, she’s 11 weeks old now…she will hold her bladder in her crate all night (8pm – 530 am) with no accidents but she pees every 10-15 minutes during the day. I wouldn’t think it’s a control issue OR an infection since night time is so good but I’m so frustrated with daytime accidents! What is going on and what do I do?

71. My puppy is 11 weeks old and is doing the exact same thing. We go out very frequently and he goes multiple times then goes in the house 10 minutes after coming back in. The vet said we don’t stay out long enough, which isn’t the case. He always goes multiple times outside before we come back in. She didn’t seem to think there may be anything wrong, like a bladder infection. I’ve never had this issue before.

72. Every puppy is different. Some puppies take longer then others. Stetson was still having accidents in the house when he was 6 months old. With him I think it was a combination of not having a strong bladder and also not completely getting the concept. Funny thing with Stetson even at an older age when we were out and about he had a short window for when he had to potty. We’d take him everywhere because he was training to be a guide dog and if we were in a store and I noticed him start to veer to the side I knew I had about 60 seconds to get him outside before he’d have an accident

    On the other hand Linus was pretty much potty trained when he was 10 weeks old and could hold it all day. Again, every puppy and dog is different. Stay patient, persistent, and consistent and your dog will eventually figure it out.

73. That is my same situation but I work at home and the dog still will pee inside. I’ll take him out side for a walk. and spend 15 minutes after with him and he’ll pee inside. I think I have a dumb dog and that is the real problem. My other dogs were not like this.

74. Congratulations on your new puppy! 12 weeks old is still pretty young to have a puppy potty trained. Most of our puppies start to really figure it out at around 16 weeks. You may be experiencing some behavior problems because your puppy is spending too much time in his crate. At 12 weeks old it’s recommended puppies don’t spend more than 3 hours in the crate during the day. I know it’s tough with full time jobs, but if you could get your puppy into daycare or get help from friends, family, neighbors, or a pet sitter to have him spend less time in his crate you might see an improvement in his behavior and training. Good luck with your puppy!

75. Omg this is exactly my same situation. My puppy is perfect about her crate yet as soon as I let her out and keep her in the living room with me, she pee’s as much as possible, even when I take her outside regularly and she knows the command and area to pee. She’s very smart so it totally feels intentional to me..

76. My puppy is around 12 weeks now. I would understand if the issue is just bladder control, but he holds it for a long time in his crate. He is crated to sleep, about 5 or 6 hours, and never makes a mistake during the night, and is crated while we are at work, another 8 hours or so, and again, never makes a mistake in his crate. While we’re home we had him on a 2 hour schedule, then 1 hour, now 45 minutes because he keeps peeing (multiple times) after being taken outside.
    Is this deliberate behavior if he can hold it many hours in the crate?

77. My puppy, Stan Lee, generally spends most of the week with me and is basically potty trained. However, when we go to our other house where there are more people and our other dog, he goes to the bathroom all over the place, even after he has gone outside. How to we train him not to go inside? Like I said he is trained in one house but not the other. Thanks.

78. My new puppy is about 10 weeks. We’ve had her for two weeks now. She’s generally a good dog, but pees in the house a lot. I have had dogs my entire life and know to take her out constantly and we do. About 10 minutes after eating she is let out for approximately half an hour. She pees as soon as her little feet hit the ground, and a few more times. We only come inside when we has gone quite a few times, but she still pees or poops on the floor within 10 minutes of coming inside.
    She has been on antibiotics for a UTI for about 2 weeks, I feel like she should not still be peeing so much. It’s really frustrating. I don’t remember ever having this much trouble.

79. I have a 4 and a half pit bull puppy. Good puppy but she pees in her crate a lot but doesn’t pee at all in the house. We only put her in her crate when we leave the house. But when we come back home to let her out she’s peeing in her crate what can we do about this?

80. Congratulations on your new puppy! Every puppy is different and it sounds like yours had a difficult start to her life. It sounds like you may be crating her too long during the day. You might look into getting some help with her during the day. Here’s an article we wrote on raising a puppy while working full time that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/what-do-you-do-with-your-puppy-when-you-work-full-time/

    One thing I’d recommend is teaching her where she is supposed to potty. We like to manage our puppies when we’re home by keeping them by our side with a leash that way we are able to identify potty accidents before they happen then get our puppy to their outdoor potty spots. Here’s an article we wrote on potty training that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

    Good luck with your puppy!

81. Sorry for the late response. One of the top things we do with our puppies when potty training is managing their behavior at all times. We do this by keeping them on leash an by our side when they are indoors and if we can’t monitor them 100% of the time we use our crate, tie downs, or x-pens. Here’s an article on potty training that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

82. I’m in the same boat as you!
    My puppy is a little night mare and the complete opposite of how easy my other 2 dogs were at potty training. She has no problem turning around and looking at you and peeing on the floor. she has no problem sleeping in her own pee either.

83. My female puppy river will be 9 weeks old next week. Potty training her is a complete nightmare. My other 2 were so easy and very seldom had an accident after the first month. she is fed and very limited water intake at 5:00 am by my spouse and then let out. I get up at 7 for work and she is let out and we spend a solid 10-15 minutes outside. She goes in her crate. I go home at lunch around 11-11:30 and let her out and we spend another 10-15 minutes together. I do not feed her or give her water after this. She had already pee’d in her cage and is covered in her own urine. by 4-4:30 my spouse is home and she has done both her duties. she came from a pretty nasty home where it was okay for her siblings and the older dogs to use the house as the bathroom. So i’m thinking maybe this is why she has been so difficult. We have had her since she was a little under 7 weeks due to the previous owner not being able to care for them anymore.
    So she has a set schedule, and she is outside 90% of the time after being fed until bedtime.

84. My puppy is 7 months old now we got her when she was 8wks as a Christmas gift for our daughters, we knew she would have accident’s and we where willing to deal and work with it, BUT she is now 7months old and sure enough she still has accident’s maybe accidentally on purpose accident’s 🤔🤔 we put her in her cage when she squats in the house and pee’s just to let her back out later on in the day for her to do it all over again, and it’s not like it’s always in the same spot either!!! Today she came in from going potty jumped up on the couch and pee’d we just scrubbed the furniture lastnite so of course we weren’t thrilled about this at all….PLEASE HELP!!!! I don’t wanna get rid of her but might have to if she keeps peeing in the house!! 🤔😢😭

85. It’s tough to tell without actually being their to see exactly what your puppy is doing. You might want to consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer to work with you and your puppy. Here are some other articles that might help:

    https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/
    https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/
    https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

    Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

86. We got our 8 week old border collie blue heeler mix puppies 2 weeks ago. They are brothers. Comet is great, (he has only had one accident in 2 weeks) and Thor pees EVERYWHERE! (except in the crate) He pees outside, then he walks inside and pees. He pees while he’s sitting, he pees while he’s eating, he pees while he’s walking… I’m making him a vet appointment today because unfortunately, I really don’t think it’s a matter of “not getting it all out” at this point. 🙁
    I hope you were able to resolve your issue and keep your puppy! They really are extremely smart dogs. In just 2 weeks they’ve learned their names and several basic commands. It is frustrating but they are just babies. (Human babies are worse… I have one that’s 3 and still isn’t potty trained 😂)

87. We have a 15 wk French bulldog. He can hold it for over 5 hours but no matter when he goes outside, if we put him by himself in his crate, he pees again. It almost seems like he is being spiteful. He seems to have the poop down to only outside. He can lie with us on the bed for hours and won’t go, but we can take him outside and then put him into the crate, he will pee the moment we turn away. Can it be some sort of seperation anxiety or just plain spite?

88. My puppy is 12 weeks and she comes to us and taps us to let us know she needs to go. But lately she has been tapping us to go and I get to the door and she has already gone. What’s the reason for this.

89. That list is what we did with our Jack Russell Terrier puppy and we had no luck with her for over a year. We had resigned ourselves to accepting that she was never going to figure out what we wanted her to do with potty training, and yet she was brilliant in every other way. Then suddenly, she just got it. She hasn’t had an accident inside since that day. I think it was when she was about a year and one month old at that time. Keep doing the things on that list. Your dog will eventually figure it out. Some dogs just take longer than others. Even if they are smart dogs in other areas of behavior. We are glad that we kept her because she is now a great dog and we love her very much.

90. I feel for you I amgoing through same thing and my nerves are getting shattered…I feel our pup is not learning pees on my lounge rug and anywhere she likes we are exhausted taking her outside. My husband takes her out all hours of the morning even 4am she is 3.2 months old.. a darling lab but a terriost.i

91. Congratulations on your new puppy! Potty training takes time. It can definitely be frustrating. Here’s an article on potty training that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/. The number one thing we’ve noticed with our puppies is the fewer accidents (the more you can prevent) in the house the quicker they learn potty training. We do this by keeping them on their leash by our side most of the time in the house until they learn not to potty indoors.

92. This is the exact problem we’re having with our 13 week old boxador puppy. He goes outside fine. He knows he gets treats when he goes outside. He goes 8 hours at night without going, but it just seems like if he gets the urge during the day, he just goes. It doesn’t matter where he is and it is never the same place twice. And surface doesn’t matter, carpet, wood, tile, couch…

93. We have the same problem, I think. We take our 10 week old puppy out every 1-2 hours. Everytime we open her kennel door she pees-so we stopped talking to her to try to avoid exciting her, or if we grab the leash she pees- so we try to hide the leash and put it on as soon as we go outside, she pees when she sees we are putting our boots and coats on. She will not pee outside. On the rare occasion we get her out side before she tinkles she waits until we come in the house to pee. I have tried not playing with her outside, I have tried praising her outside, I have tried ignoring he outside and she will still come in and pee shortly after we are in. I just bought doggy diapers and I am in hope that will help us train. Have you found any solutions? Or have any tips?

94. I’m having the same problem with my 5 month old lab/malamute mix. We also have a 9 mth old bulldog mix, who was a breeze to train, which is why we decided on the 2nd puppy. The lab will go outside without a problem, but inside it’s like she either doesn’t recognize the need to go, or just can’t hold it. She holds it during the day in her crate (3-4 hours at a time) just fine, and no accidents over night, but outside her crate, it’s like she just doesn’t pay enough attention to it. And the places she pees are different every time, she doesn’t seek out a place to pee. She’ll just be too busy to remember she has to go potty. It’s definitely gotten better the last couple of weeks, but we’ll go 2-3 days and think we’re finally there, and then she’ll pee again, and we start all over.

95. When our puppies get pee when they get excited we try to make the situation less exciting. Something we do that you might try is just have any new guests (especially men) just ignore your puppy when they first come over. Also, tell anyone not to act excited when greeting your puppies.

96. I’ll put together a full post on this one when I work with my upcoming service dog puppy. I can tell you right now the first thing I will do is teach my puppy the cue “touch”. Stay tuned for a more detailed answer in a future blog post.

97. I have two 16 weeks old catahoula leopard print/pitbull mix litter mates…..One of them is already crate trained and does not have any accidents, the other one however is always having “accidents” but I noticed he only does it when he’s excited especially around men….what can I do to prevent that?

98. Colby, how did you train your puppy to ring a bell when they need to go out?

99. We do everything on your list except reprimand when there’s an accident. If we can catch our puppy in the act then we grab him immediately, take him outside, and praise if he finishes up outside.

    One thing I’ve learned over the years is the key to potty training is to not let your puppy have accidents in the house. The best way to do this is to monitor your puppy at all times when he’s in the house and if you can’t keep an eye on him then use your crate (hopefully you crate trained your puppy).

100. Congratulations on your new puppy! You probably need to re-train your puppy with his crate. After you thoroughly clean your crate with an enzymatic cleaner start by crating him for a very short period of time so he’s successful. As he continues to be successful in his crate slowly increment the amount of time he stays in his crate until he can stay in the crate without accidents. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

101. Hey I feel for you. We got our puppy at eight weeks and for the first week I felt like the world was crashing down on me. What have we gotten ourselves into? Is this what life is going to be like from now on – worrying about the dog needing to go to the bathroom all the time? Maybe the breeder would take him back even if we have to forfeit the cost.

     Our puppy is now seven months and he still has an accident about once a week (mostly pee but recently poop). Most of the time he would let us know that he has to go, but sometimes I guess the accidents were “accidents.” He has pee in his crate in the past – I found out only after the pee has dried and smelling it. I only hope it gets better.

     The only feedback I can provide is what I’ve been reading and taught by other trainers.
     1) Make sure the crate is not too large when crate training.
     2) When out of crate tether the puppy to you.
     3) Rule out urinary infection or other medical issue (puppy shouldn’t have to go every five
     minutes)
     4) Massive praise when puppy goes outside
     5) When puppy goes inside immediately reprimand and take puppy outside.
     6) If puppy has an accident immediately start from square one and crate train.

     All the above is plastered all over the internet and sometimes you say to yourself if only it was that easy. I suppose it depends on the dog as well. Some dogs just get it sooner than others.

     Good luck.

102. I have an 18 week golden retriever puppy who likes to pee in his crate. At first I thought it was because we had been putting a towel in there, but he will go in there whether or not there’s a towel. The crate is proper sized. He just doesn’t seem to care. He just lays down in it resulting in me having to constantly bathe him if there’s no towel to soak it up. He’s not having any accidents in the house anymore, although he peed on me while laying on my lap on the couch a few days ago and has also peed out of excitement (I’m assuming) while eating his food. I’ve just never had a dog who will pee and not care if he has to lay in it. I need help!!! My husband and I are exhausted from having to bathe him every day. What should I do?

103. Every puppy we have had has been different. Take a look at this article when you have a moment:

     https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

     If your 3 month old is already potty trained then if it were me I’d work consistently with your 5 month old. Keep an eye on her 100% of the time and catch any accidents before they happen. Also, make sure and cleanup any area she had an accident with an enzymatic cleaner. It’s likely she’s going back to the same places because she can smell urine. Remember a dog’s sense of smell is thousands to millions of time better than a humans. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

104. I have a 5 month old lab/husky mix puppy who will pee outside with no problem. But she also likes to pee inside. It seems like she does it to be spiteful. She pees next to my feet, next to our gate, on the couch in the spot where I lay on the couch.
     We also have a 3 month old mastiff/Australian Sheppard mix who is completely potty trained to go outside and we have no problems with him.
     We potty trained them the same exact way and I dont know what else to do with her.
     They go out every 2 to 2.5 hours and she still continues to have these accidents. We took her to the vet to see if it was a bladder infection or a UTI. Everything came back negative. Please help me!

105. If he will go potty on something that you can take outside – towel, pee pad – take that outside once he has peed on it. If he smells it, maybe he will know to go outside.

     Someone else may have better advice. It is worth a try.

106. Our puppy is 9 weeks old. He won’t pee outside, but as soon as he gets inside, he squats. Today, we either held him or took him outside for a total of about 4 hours. He never went outside, but after that period of time – it was late and cold outside. He came in and within 2 minutes he peed. Any suggestions?

107. That’s great to hear! Hopefully the doggy diaper continues to do the trick for you.

108. Colby,

     No accidents today with the puppy diaper (and it remained dry). I was also able to let him roam free downstairs. I’ve always had to keep a close watch on him, so this was very refreshing. This is day one. It may be a fluke that he had no accidents. He’s going to the door and ringing his bell to go outside. I am hopeful that he has made a turn in training.

     My plan is to use the diaper until I feel that he is consistently going to the door to be let out. Then I will stop using the diaper.

     Fingers crossed. Hang in there. This has been so frustrating.

109. We’ve never tried the doggy diapers with our puppies. Let us know how it goes.

110. Congratulations on your new puppy! Here’s a post that might help with the accidents in the crate: https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/. If he’s peeing every 5 minutes then it’s probably a good idea to have your veterinarian check him out to make sure he doesn’t have a urinary tract infection or any other health issues. One thing I haven’t mentioned before is if you’re in extreme weather it’s possible that your puppy is not getting it all out when outside because he wants to come back in to the house. If this is the case then you should do your best to give him extra time to “get it all out” or have an alternate spot for him to potty. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

111. My 13-week old puppy does the same. However, he won’t pee in his crate. I think that he gets distracted too easily and doesn’t get all of his pee out when he goes. I ordered some of the doggy diapers (he is a male, so it is the belt) to use when he is in the house and out of his crate. This is an experiment. I have no idea if it will work. My thought is that he won’t want to pee on himself, so he won’t go while the diaper is on. If he starts peeing in the diaper, I won’t use it again. I’m grasping at straws now. Something has to work.

112. We got a border collie blue heeler mix about a week ago he is going to be 12 weeks on Saturday and it seems as if he goes pee every 5 minutes and it’s reallt getting us down. To the point of giving him up because we can’t take the stress. We didn’t realize it was going to be this hard. Any tips and tricks could help. I read all of the comments. It’s tiring going outside every five minutes and we are becoming extremely discouraged like we won’t get there. It’s making us both miserable. He’s even peeing in his crate.

113. Thank you for stopping by. Since this is a blog I like to tell more story about my own dogs and not just a straight how to guide. I’m sorry that I get a little bit too wordy. I am planning to put together a puppy training guide that will be more straight to the point.

114. Thank you for this article, it’s quite excellent. But you use too many words to get to the point, a common failing of puppy/dog training articles. Please condense your information.

115. Our puppy is 15 weeks and isn’t getting house training at all 🙁 we take him out after naps etc and any time it looks like hes sniffing but he’s just not getting it, really feeing like its never going to happen and its really getting me and my partner down about it. Any tips would be great, definitely going to try the bells but need him to actually want to go outside!

116. I’m so glad I’m not alone!!! We’ve had our puppy 2 weeks (he’s 11 weeks tomorrow) and everytime I think we have it down he pees in the house again!! He’s so incredibly stubborn and hard headed.. brilliant when we are training but super defiant.. I can’t help but wonder if it’s an act of toddler defiance.. sort of a “you can’t tell me what to do” type of thing. We’ve been doing the bell since day one and he will ring it 99% of the time but once a day he just HAS to pee in the house… I’ve been sleeping on the couch with him in a small gated area to make sure he doesn’t pee in the house because he HATES his kennel and will pee in the room is someone doesn’t catch it.

117. This is exactly what I am going through and I’m every discouraged! My puppy is an 8 week old male husky… It’s very upsetting

118. I’m glad things turned around for you and your puppy. Hopefully mine will turn a corner soon. I just want to enjoy spending time with him without watching every little move he makes. My bells are coming tomorrow!

119. Don’t give up hope! I can remember one day when I took her outside to go to the bathroom, and then brought her inside to eat. After finishing her foot she promptly walked over to the carpet and peed on the floor!

     We were starting to feel like it was never going to change until one day it just clicked and she started asking to go out. I feel like it is a definite combination of having her pee outside consistently and showing her that every time the bells ring, the door opens.

     I hope it all works out for you soon. It is a huge relief not having to watch her every move.

120. Marc,

     You are giving me hope. My 11-week-old puppy is doing the same thing. I take him outside after every nap, every time he plays for a while, and after he eats (and then any time he looks like he’s trying to tell me something).. I feel like I’m constantly taking him out. He can hold it, as he sleeps for 9- 10 hours at night. I have to wake him up in the morning to go outside.

     He never poops in the house and will go to the door to poop. (I actually ordered the bells a few days ago and can’t wait to get them.) For some reason, he pees all of the time. Sometimes it is only ten minutes after I just took him out. I clean the pee up with an enzyme cleaner. I’m so scared that he will never be able to be trained.

     I’m going to try taking him out every 20-30 minutes. Hopefully that will do the trick. He is such a sweetheart. I just need to be able to trust him in the house. It is exhausting having to watch every little thing he does and he still manages to pee in front of me. (It is hard to tell when he goes. His stance barely changes.)

     Any ideas are greatly welcomed.

121. Nice! I’m going to try the bell thing too! Was reading about that today! Thankyou for reaponding! Makes me feel a lot better!

122. Yes! She stopped a couple weeks later. We had to just consistently take her outside to pee every 20-30min. After she peed we would bring her inside as well so that she would get the idea that she was only outside so she would pee. It was weird, one day she just stopped, as though she suddenly realized that outside is the place we go to the bathroom. We also put jingle bells on our back door and got her to ring it every time we went outside. Now she rings them to let us know she wants to go out.

123. Hi did this get any better for you? I’m having the same issue with my 10 week old puppy. My other dog was
     10 weeks when i got her and never had accidents in the house.

124. I like that…”Double-Barrel Bladder” I’m glad the term isn’t “Six Shooter” that would be no bueno.

125. Ha! At our house we call this the Double-Barrel Bladder” trick. It’s a matter of training yourself and your family to remember that it’s going to happen every single time for almost a month or more.

126. Our puppy is 13 weeks old. We got her later (12 weeks) and she was basically raised as a farm dog. Waiting extra time after a pee does nothing. I can take her for a half an hour walk where she will pee at the start and then do nothing the rest of the walk. We come in and hang out for about 15-20 minutes and then she will just walk over and start peeing on the carpet. I know she can hold it too since she is crated for 5-7 hours at a time and hasn’t messed in her crate once. We have no idea why she is doing it and shows none of the usual signs to indicate that she needs another pee.

127. In agreement with all of these stories – leaving my puppy outside a little longer definitely does not work. I can have him outside for hours and he’ll still come in and pee and poop on the floor. This also happens when I take him out for short periods of time. He’ll pee on the couch if he’s sitting on the couch or walking up the stairs if that’s where he is. He CAN hold it, because when we’re at work and he’s in the crate he holds it, and he can hold it all night. This is purely mental, but I don’t know how to fix it. It seems we have to keep him in the crate when he’s not outside, which is no fun for anyone. We could use some help.

128. I have a 1.5yr old husky. I wish I could say he is potty trained but he has this tendency of peeing and pooping in the house after the fact he was out moments earlier and went potty. he was out roaming and running around afterwards for 10-20mins. when we bring g him inside. he will have moments he will go in the living room and go again. we took him to the vet he is healthy. he has plenty of land to run and exercise chase everything. we play mental games with him, but even after that he still will go inside and do the same thing. it’s a once a week ritual, what other possibilities could I pursue?

129. My 10 week old Boston terrier is doing this and it is so frustrating. I have to constantly take him outside what feels like every 15 minutes and he will come in and just randomly pee. On the wood floor, tile, carpet, my bed, it doesn’t matter. I praise him and treat him for peeing outside and treat him for doing so. But he just doesn’t get it.

130. Our Havanese puppy just turned 16 weeks and she does this all the time! Its very frustrating, we take her out A LOT during the day (about every 15-30 min) and she will pee each time and then come inside and pee again 5 or 10 minutes later. I’m beginning to feel like we need to stay outside with her all day long which is just not possible. She can go all night long without peeing in her crate but can’t seem to go 5 minutes without peeing in the house, ugh!

131. I have the same problem with my dog except he is twelve. He will go outside pee a little and then sit at the back door refusing to go back into the yard. Now I am outside with him because if I send him out alone sometimed he won’t go at all. He is potty trained. He goes outside or even uses a potty pad when we visit my parents. But at home he refuses to use the potty pad. Which makes it difficult if I need to leave the house for a few hours. I stay home with him now so we get to take plenty of potty breaks but he still goes in the house (moments after being outside). We’ve been to the vet and no problems there. I’ve tried the belly bands but he gets heat rash from them and his vet has asked that we stop using them. Eventhough he only wore them during the day. He can hold it all night fine. We potty right before bed and first thing when we get up. So, I took down my curtains and put a potty pad right by the back door in the spot he likes to go and hoped. I caught him standing on the pad and lifting his leg to pee down the wall less than five minutes after coming back inside.He doesn’t stay in a crate anymore because he stayed with a family member a few years ago who we found out didn’t create him because they thought it was cruel. So now if he’s created he screams bloody murder and does not tire. We’re connected to another house so can’t just let him scream. I’m at a loss. I feel like I’ve tried everything and I’m afraid to leave him alone.

132. Thank the Lord we aren’t the only ones!!! My wife’s going mental at the moment – our puppy turned 12 weeks today and we’ve only had him 5 days.
     At night he will either go out and do his business (usually sparked off by one of our cats going out and him following) or he’ll go on a puppy pad.
     However, once daylight hits he will go outside, not bother to pee, then head back inside, wander into the kitchen and go for it!
     I’m putting this down to excitement in a new house, along with multiple things to take his attention away from his bladder (cats, kids etc). We can’t remember what our previous dog did when he was a puppy, which makes all this seem worse than it probably is!
     I suppose the good thing is that when he does pee inside, he only does it in two specific locations.

133. Thank, now I know we just keep taking her outside and clening up the inside jobs and pray she gets blatter control down pat.

134. I have a 2 month old puppy and she used to pee outside and then pee inside but then I started to walk around with her and stayed a little longer with you should to.

     My only problem is that she gets scared to go at night because it’s dark and then pees inside😣!!!

135. I have a yorkie 1.5 years old. She goes outside for up to an hour. Then comes into bed and peed on my hubby’s pillow or his side of the bed.

136. I have a 3 month old golden doodle, took her camping for a week, not one mess in the camper. Brought her home and the first night home she pees on the floor, later that morning she pees in the kitchen! I don’t understand. She can obviously hold it, she proved it when we were camping…..help!!

137. I’m having the same issue. All night is fine. She did better when she was little and is actually getting worse now.

138. My puppy is 14 weeks, we’ve had him since 9 weeks. We take him outside to pee and he just sits and stares at us, take him back inside and he instantly pees on the floor. He has now started peeing on my bed! 5 times this week! And he even lAyed on me and started peeing. We can’t even say hi to him with out him peeing everywhere. Please help, we don’t want to get rid of him but he’s ruined a brand new mattress!

139. This happens sometimes with my puppy. It has helped if i pace around instead of standing still or sitting on the steps. Seems like when i start pacing and ignoring the puppy, she feels more “free” to go smell around and do her business.

140. I’m having the same problem, my little guy is 16 weeks old and will hold it all night. But I can take hind out where he owes. Nd then he will come in and pee right in front of me. I’ve never had this problem before.

141. Here are some more articles on potty training:

     https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/
     https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/

     Hopefully there are some helpful tips in those articles as well as the one above. Good luck with your training

142. This is something you should probably check with your vet. In my experience every puppy has been different, but in general they seem to get a pretty good handle on potty training between 16-20 weeks which would lead me to guess that by that age they do have full control of their bladder.

143. When does a puppy get full control of their bladder? We are still having this issue with our 5 month old beagle.

144. Out dog is six months and has a doggie diaper on. Pees outside then comes inside and pees again. What wrong with him.?

145. I am trying to crate train him and he freaks out completely. Once in the crate he barks, whimpers, whines and will pee and poop. I am lost! I am in untraveled waters….HELP! 🙂

146. My 10 week old rescue does the same thing. Goes outside does his business and then comes back in and will pee or poo randomly. He will be playing and instantly squat and take a pee or poo. I take him out all the time and there is never any notice. My 8 week old german shepherd girl would sit by the back door and ring a bell. It seems as if this puppy doesn’t understand. I have cleaned up more pee and poo in 1 week of having him than I have in the past 3 years with my shepherd. HELP! 🙂

147. I do this with my 9 week old puppy, but then he cries in the crate and pees while he’s crying.

148. From experience, put him back on the crate than 20-30 mins later try again, until he pees

149. My puppy is a Golden Retriever, and he is 10 weeks old. We take him outside to pee and he does not pee and just lays in the grass. Once we bring him inside he pees right away. What can I do to stop this

150. I took my puppy from a dog foster home about a year ago. I love him to bits; he has a great personality, and I feel that he loves our family so much. BUT, whenever I leave him at home he pees in the house: on the carpet, on the bed, on flowers… My husband and I were thinking about taking him to ‘doggy school’, but then again, it’s extremely expensive, and the nearest ‘doggy school’ is far away from us. Maybe you have some advice? THANK YOU!!!!

151. My puppy is 16 weeks old today. She came home to us at 9 weeks. She has always seemed to pee a lot; maybe needing to go out every hour or so, except at bedtime. She has never peed in her crate. Her vet thinks that’s too often. Recently she has been peeing a fair bit inside. Just today we had her outside playing with our older dog for at least an hour, and she peed twice for sure. Upon bringing her inside, she peed twice within an hour, and not a little bit either. Any thoughts as to why?

152. I’m in desperate need of help or advice… my puppy is now 15 weeks we got her at 9 weeks, she’s an English bulldog and is our very first puppy. Potty training was going so good especially with the crate however this week she’s been peeing and pooping inside her crate even if we take her out every hour. Sometimes I’ll take her outside on a leash and stand there like a tree for 25 mins and she will not pee or pop but as soon as we como in and I put her in her crate 5 mins will go by and she will do her business inside the crate and that’s when she’ll start crying or whinning. I give her lots of time but nothing is helping.

153. I have a 12,week old pup, staff/German Shepard. She will wee outside when I take her but doesn’t really show me that she wants to. She is rewarded and praised when she gets it right but she will still per indoors 😢

154. Your husband punishing the dog could be cause for some of the problems. You should look into bringing a certified professional dog trainer for an in home assessment.

155. My dog is a year old and pees in the house when we aren’t looking. She is fully potty trained but still for some reason can’t make it more than an hour without having an accident. She is fine in her kennel, but the second we look away or have company over she pees everywhere, including the couch. I believe this is nervous behavior because my husband is overly aggressive when punishing her. I’m not sure how to break her of this behavior! I have convinced him to stop interacting with her anytime she does anything bad so he cannot punish her at all because she clearly has some anxieties regarding him but I’m not use to this. Help!

156. I have a 5 moth old puppy. She has been confined to the kitchen while we are gone. Her crate is in there as well but she is not inside as it is open. My problem is that she goes to the bathroom on the kitchen floor while she is in there. My concern is that she will constantly do this and always think it is ok to go on the floor in the kitchen. She is having accidents at times but does go outside fairly well. I am at my wits end.

157. It can mean both lol

158. I have a special pup. Fluid on the brain. I will let him out of crate to pee and poop he will stay out for hours no poop within 30 minutes of being in crate he will poop. What to do?

159. Okay, so we have a 4 month German Sheppard pup and we have been giving her a bath everyday due to the fact that she potties in her kennel. We let her out to play with the other dog for at least 4 or more hours everyday. We have been training her to sit on the carpet in front of the door when she needs to go out and we take her out regularly. We have even been getting up in the middle of the night to put her out and yet when morning comes she has pottied in her kennel without even whining that she needed out. The other night I fed her in her crate when we had dinner and right after she was done eating she pottied in her crate and we had just taken her out. But there was no warning that she even needed to go out. I have cut back on leaving the big water dispenser down to just a half hour after we get home from work and then just giving small cups of water periodically. We just want to learn how to fix this because we are at a loss right now. 🙁

160. My little Morkie is 11 weeks old. We got him at 6 weeks. He had a couple accidents those first few days but caught on very quickly. He started scratching and whining/ barking at the door to go out by 8ish weeks. Just in the last few days he has stopped barking to let us know he needs to potty! He will go to the door and sit there but if I don’t notice (i have 2 very young children) that he is silently sitting there he’ll pee or poop inside. Any ideas why he would have stopped telling us he needs to go?
     We were at the vet today for a check up and all is well.

161. I received a 12 week old golden doodle for an early Christmas present. I love him to pieces but I am beginning to think he has a problem. I take him out all the time, do all the right things, keep him on a leash, give him a treat and praise him afterwards and he walks in and pees again. I clean it up and he does it again in another spot. My poor house is ruined. Destroyed in two days. I want to cry. I am truly at my wit’s end. If you have any answers besides continuing to do the same thing and cleaning things up, I’d love to hear. If I turn my back to clean up, he’ll pee. There are no signs, he’ll just drop and do it before I can even catch him. I’m losing it. Help.

162. Hallo there, i have 4 dogs and just found another dog. I decided to keep her and have a grate for her. She does not pee in there and i take her out sooo many times but she still pees in the house. I also put a leash on her to keep her on my side and i cant even react this fast as she pees. Very frustrating. It does not really helps that she doesn’t stop playing with my big dogs. All over them and biting them. Really frustrating. I have one more week before i have to go to work and did not have her all day in the grate but might not have a different choice. I really hope it will get better because it is very frustrating.

163. I have a 4 month old pug who I’ve had for 5 weeks I’ve trained her to go outside the dog flap to poo and wee like my 3yr old pug does, she was doing fantastic I tell her to go out when I think she needs to go and she does her business then I praise her give her a treat she responds well and sometimes goes out by herself and I reward her everytime, but she still has accidents she kept doing it at the back door and now she’s done it on the carpet a few times and I’ll shout at her if I see her do it, and if I’m out I shut her in the kitchen she’ll do all her business in the kitchen. I don’t understand it she has permenant access to the garden, any ideas ??

164. So, I have a 15 week old puppy and she is so scared to come out of her kennel and go outside. When she finally gets outside she does her business and than she will also pee on the floor. I am not sure what else to do with her. I know she is little but why would she be doing this. I am going to set a schedule for feedings and also potty breaks outside its just so hard. Also, as soon as she whines in the kennel and you dont get her right outside she will have a accident in her kennel. I dont know what else to do!

165. I have a 9 week old puppy today I have had him since he was 6 weeks old. He goes in his crate all night long poop and pee. And then I get him up but right before I get to him he pees then I take him out he doesn’t go I come inside he walks with me so I can go to the bathroom and then he goes right after that so I pick him up during his accident and take him out but nothing then I come in he is fine then he will eat a little bit and then I take him out he goes then we come inside I sit down and now he is peeing literally every 5 minutes on the carpet the couch and even peeing on me in his sleep then I tell him no bad dog take him out he goes but as soon as he comes in he pees again. I’m losing my patience. I don’t know what to do he goes outside comes on and goes again and then every 5 minutes lately he is peeing on my carpet I can’t take him out every 5 minutes I have a life too. What do I do????

166. People keep saying “introduce the crate very slowly” and provide the same advice seen here. In the very next breath, they tell you to make sure a pup sleeps in their crate and is in the crate whenever you aren’t home. This either means i go days to weeks without sleeping, or introducing a crate “slowly” somehow is fully accomplished between noon the day puppy arrives and 8pm when it’s time for puppy to sleep that day. How does the “introduce the crate slowly” advice play out in the real world?

167. Not sure if this will help but, I had a German Shepherd that loved to chew on my kitchen table. A friend told me to put some spicy type powder on the leg, where she was chewing. A dab of water and a little spicy powder. She did it twice, after that, wouldn’t touch it lol

168. Daisy, is your pooch doing better? I guess mine read my post and got embarrassed! Within a few days of writing that she just decided no more accidents! Goes to the door and whines – though sometimes she’s faking it & just wants to go out. But almost 10 weeks later, yep she’s had a few accidents, but they are very rare.

     Her problem now is chewing wood furniture. I’m going to have to see if I can get a table repaired, and it’s a special one, I’ll be upset if I can’t. And she has literally every possible chew toy and at least half dozen different rawhide chews, and she chews them. She sometimes gets a little wood stuck in her throat and coughs it out. Scares me. She winds up spending more and more time in her playpen. I work from home but I’m on the clock, just as if I were at an office. Makes me sad to pen her up, but not counting the table – she’s ruined cords to electronics that cost $125 to replace. If I wrote about the great lengths she goes to I order to sneak, I bet no one would believe it. She’s smart and sneaky… and so cute!

169. I have an 18 week old Golden Retriever pup who is still peeing inside at any given opportunity. I take her out at least 12 times during the day (she stays dry the entire night until about 4.30am when she lets me know ) but no matter what I try she will wee outside and not even 30 minutes later do it inside. I work from home so she is generally around me all day and does not give me a cue at all that she needs to go.I walk her 3 times a day (she pees on each walk) and I play with her for about 20 minutes every 2 hours so she is not lacking my attention or interaction. I am dealing with slight seperation anxiety as if I go into a room she is not allowed access to she will bark and whine at the door and regularly have a wee at the doorway while I’m gone. She is not crate trained as she gets car sick and now associates the crate with her pet carrier I use if I take her anywhere. I am beginning to get beyond frustrated as inbetween trying to do my job I am cleaning wee off hardwood floors..

170. We have an 11 week teacup chihuahua. He is completely crate trained. We are training him to potty indoors on potty pads. The issue we are running into is that he will pee on the pad and then a few minutes later he will pee another huge (shocking large puddles for such a small peanut!) puddle right on the floor. No where near the pad. Sometimes he will pee 3+ times within ten minutes and without warning. Even if we try to keep him on the pad to pee again, he refuses and runs away. Any suggestions to correct this? We never yell or punish. He gets a treat every time he potties on the pad.

171. Hey Jodi!
     I was wondering how everything was going with your puppy & its training?

172. My puppy is 13 weeks old and we are trying so hard with the toilet training, it’s like taking 2 steps forward and 4 back. She wees outside but still randomly does it inside. I’m at a loss of where to go from here. Any help and advice would be great.

173. I have a 3 month German Shepherd puppy and cannot get her potty trained. She will pee in the crate and lay in it. I confine her to the kitchen, she will pee, she lays in it and will run thru it, doesn’t bother her in the least. Omg! What do I do? I’m at my wit’s end.

174. I got my Golden Retriever 3 days ago and normally she goes out to potty no problem, of course there have been accidents in the house but she’s young so it’s ok I guess.. but I just went out with her to potty after the accident, and she peed like 10 times dusting this one break and pooped 3 times and when we got home she peed a little again.. what this could be..?

175. I hv a 10 week old puppy and she lets me know when she needs to go #2 outside but when it comes to peeing she goes in the house.. she even pees where she sleeps.. I don’t know what to do. I walk her she does her business and she still goes in the house.. any suggestions on how to stop this from happening?

176. My nearly 5 month old Weimaraner had taken to peeing on the kitchen floor during the evening meal. Dry all day and night, the last week has seen a puddle around or under the table every evening.

     Even with taking him outside and walking in the garden ‘minding my own’ (secretly watching to make sure he IS going) prior to sitting to eat, hes still doing it.

     Tonight it was on his ‘day’ bed. I haven’t had this issue with my three year old lady Weimaraner – The biggest issue with her was creating her well eating and she managed to rip claws off because she was so frantic to get out.

     Help please. .

177. A really lovely article… Would like to share some if Snoopys pups and picture here soon as soon as the open their eyes thanks

178. A really lovely article… Would like to share some if Snoopys pups and picture here soon as soon as the open their eyes

179. My puppy is 4 months old and she doesn’t just pee in the house she poops too she refuses to poop outside. We scold her for peeing and pooping in the house because she looks right at us and does it. We tried puppy pads to no avail she won’t use them. Every time we thought we were getting closer away from square one (she’d be doing her business outside a couple days in a row) she’d randomly start it up again and back to square one! I am really frustrated and it’s stressful and we’re running out of options she’s ruining our pretty carpet and nice hardwood floors! Please help!

180. We have a 4 year old dog and so we put in a doggie door. Now we have a 3 month old puppy that uses the doggie door and spends quite a bit of time outside. We crate trained her when we got her and she was doing well but now she comes in and pees! I can’t shut the doggie door or my other dog goes crazy! What do I do?

181. I am having similar problems. Daisy is 15 weeks old and is in her kennel 8 to 9 hours at night. When she gets up I put her outside. She will be outside for thirty minutes crying and scratching at the door to get in. She does not pee. When she comes in she holds it till she can sneak off by herself and do her business. I can’t spend all day following her around and am feeling very frustrated. If we happen to be outside durning the day when she needs to go she will. But seems to do so only if she feels like it. I was out with her one day for 2 hours. She came in the house ran down the hall and had a pee on the floor.

182. We have crate trained with another dog, but I didn’t put her in the crate unless we were going out and at bedtime. So I’m curious how it helps to put them in the crate for a nap?Sometimes our pup goes in the crate on her own to nap. Other times it’s on the bare floor – I know my last dog also loved the wood floors, especially in the summer. But, if crating during naps somehow helps with potty training, I’ll try it! 😊🐶

183. I would like to see some answers on puppies at 3, 4, 5, 6 months and beyond. Here’s another potty question. (13 week old puppy). I work at home and I’m usually in my recliner with my laptop. I can’t keep her on the leash and be able to work. Today, she went to the door and I took her out. Most times she will go, other times she will only sit, lay, roll in the grass, and pull up grass or root around. I walked her and walked her, she also wanted to play. After 15 minutes, I brought her in, she peed on her doggie bed a few minutes later. She did not circle or give me any sign. I can’t take her out for 30 minutes at a time, but we do take her out to play for a while 2-3 times a day. Also – she very rarely has a crate accident – so no doubt she can hold it for 6 hours. We adopted her 2 weeks ago. She was spayed at 6-7 weeks. I wonder if that’s part of the problem. Vet has always suggested 4 months for other puppies, so 6-7 weeks seems young.

184. We have a 4 month old yorkie. He pees outsides or on his potty pad but if u go in a room he can’t get in…..closed door or baby gate…he will pee outside it.

185. Here are a couple articles that might help:

     How to potty train a puppy
     How can I get my dog to stop peeing in her crate?

     Good luck with your training!

186. We have a 6 month old shelter puppy. We’ve had her since she was 6 weeks old. She’s a Austrailian Shepard/Minature Shetland Sheepdog. She looks like she’ll be about 13 lbs as an adult. We’ve crate trained 6 dogs (all purebred Shiba Inu’s), so for the most part we’ve got that covered. She goes to the vet regularly and there is nothing physically wrong with her. Also, we’ve already potty trained her sister. We’ve tried the puppy pads, taking her out regularly, and then leaving a bare bottom tray. She doesn’t even let us know she needs to go out but she does let us know after she’s soiled the crate. There does seem to be one room she won’t pee/poop in., my husband’s game room. She’ll take a nap with him or just lay at his feet. But anywhere else she has no qualms about peeing anywhere else. It’s too hot to keep her out most of the time because we live in Texas and it is too hot for that. Please help.

187. That’s a great way to handle excited puppies. We always have our puppies wait until we say “ok” to come out of the crate, but maybe we’ll have to change that to having them sit. Thanks for sharing your story.

188. I had that problem, puppy got excited and lost control when so close. I started having her sit before I let her out of the crate. It got her focused and the problem stopped. Plus she’s so cute whens she’s obedient!

189. I agree with @Julie. 8 weeks old is very young. It takes a little while before puppies understand potty training and at 8 weeks most puppies do not have full control of their bladder. Good luck with your training.

190. It’s common for a 9 week old puppy to pee often when he is awake. Keep an eye on him 100% of the time and watch for signs that he might potty like circling, sniffing, squatting etc. The fewer accidents your puppy has in the house the quicker he will learn potty training.

191. An 8 week old puppy is still very young. At that age, my puppy peed in the house the second she drank anything and sometimes just after doing potty outside too. Don’t worry, praise her everytime she pees outside and she’ll learn.

192. Help! We have a 9 week old Australian Shepherd. He is crate trained. Does not pee in his crate while we sleep or during the day when we are not at home. But, he pees every 20 min when he’s not in his crate. What gives?

193. Hello, I have an 8 week old Golden Retriever Puppy and whenever she goes outside to use the bathroom, she does very well and goes. But when we take her back inside, she pees on the floor? What should we do?? Im thinking she still is nervous because we got her a day ago, but she has been doing very well about going outside to use the potty.

194. My 6 month old female golden retriever puppy can hold it for about 4 hours normally, but once a day she pees in the house 30 minutes after peeing on a walk. We do not punish her in any way for peeing indoors, just reward her with treats for doing it outside. Is it normal for a puppy to still not be potty trained at this age? Should we do something else?

195. I have a 4 month old Golden Retriever that I crate trained when he was 8 weeks old. Since then he’d been having an accident every couple days, but was good at sitting near the door to tell us he needed to go out. A few days ago he started peeing inside the house. He won’t go to the door to tell us he needs to be let out, and when we do let him out he either goes #2 or eats dirt and leaves. When he has an accident in the house I’m very calm about it, and I ignore him, dump him in his crate (because he bites at the paper towels) and clean up the mess. I don’t get excited and I don’t give him attention. I don’t shove his face in his mess because I’ve read that it could scare him out of telling me he needs to go. This happened a total of five times today–four times within the last two hours. The vet says that he doesn’t have any medical issues but that he’s a bit too submissive (he’s had accidents when he was scared or excited.) But the last accidents everything’s been calm. I’m thinking maybe this is because he’s bored, because it usually happens when I’m not paying attention. He doesn’t have accidents during the night and he sleeps in a separate part of the house, so I’m thinking it’s because there’s no one there to give him any attention. Any advice on how to correct this problem is much appreciated (:

196. I just recently got an 8 week old chocolate lab, and every time I take him outside, he sits right beside me, or either scrapes up on the door, not doing his business. Once I bring him inside, not even 2 minutes later, he starts sniffing around and the next thing you know, he’s doing his thing. What do I do to train him and make him go outside without winning and staying right by me?

197. Please Help! My puppy is now 8 months old and every time I take him out he pees just a little but then does this six or seven times…as soon as I bring him in the house he goes in the kitchen and pees a big puddle all over the floor. When he is outside peeing its more of him marking his territory type peeing. He will pee on a tree or bush even other dogs feces that the owner did not pick up. Its like a sprinkle. When we first brought him home we used the pee pad method. We did not want him to go outside until he had all of his parvo shots. Any help or ideas is greatly appreciated.

198. You have probably figured this out already but any activity for puppy will cause them to have to go potty. So before bringing your puppy inside from being out for a while make sure he or she pees. Its best to be outside with the puppy so that way you know they went potty.

199. I have an almost 9 month old pomeranian/American eskimo mix and is fully crate trained. He will not have any accidents in his crate. I let him out several times and he goes to the door to let me know and he will pee but like 10 minutes later he goes and pees on the pee pads in the house. I am having trouble getting him to only go outside and to get rid of the per pads, but can’t since he still uses them even if he goes outside. Any advice will be appreciated.

200. I have a Maltese that is almost 5 yrs old. He is doing the same pees alot outside but saves some for the inside. We could be outside for 20 mins, once i notice that he doesnt have anymore to pee we go inside. But within 5-10 mins he’ll either dribble some more or leave a puddle. By the way he is crate trained & doesn’t pee in his space(4ftx8ft) at all. What do i do to stop this madness?

201. Hello,

     So i just adopted an 8 week old pitbull lab mix puppy last week. He has gotten so much better potty training in the week we have had him but he doesnt something very strange. He will not have any accidents in his cage all night and will bark to let me know he needs to go we go to his spot and he goes pee. But the last two days during the day and around dinner time when he isnt in his crate and we are playing he will run TO his cage and pee inside. Also he will not go #2 in his crate but sometimes he runs to the front of it and poop. Any suggestions as to why he would run to his crate to pee when he is so good at nigh not to pee in it?

202. hey so I have a staffordshire bull terrier 10 weeks at the moment … I’ve had him for about a week and a half and I’ve been crate training him… he goes in the crate doesn’t whine or anything so I’m assuming he likes it in there which is a good thing….the first week he was eliminating outside very few accidents inside the house but now sometimes he doesn’t want to go out side and he is very comfortable with going inside . or he ll go outside and then go inside too…it’s like he doesn’t even try to hold it… and when he does eliminate inside and I see him I say no very loud and it’s like he knows he did so.ething wrong because he ll run in the crate or go hide ..I’m thinking it’s because he’s done it once in the house so his scent is in there and he keeps doing it… so I mopped the whole house and took up all the rugs because I have hardwood floors… do you think this will help? he also doesn’t want to walk outside like he use to either

203. We have a 9 week old husky mix. He really has been great with crate training. No accidents. We have been consistently taking him outside but he continues to have small accidents inside the house when we bring him in. He also is not telling us that he needs to go all the time. When I catch him sniffing in circles I bring him out but even when I am sitting right next to him it is not fast enough.
     Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
     Thank you

204. My dog is a Goldendoodle four months old she did pretty good for awhile not peeing in the house now she pees like 30 seconds after she comes in from outside. What can I do to stop this?

205. I have a 12 week old puppy. We take him out several times a day and he will piddle 2 or 3 times outside. Then will come inside and pee right in the floor. He doesn’t pee on carpet for the most part but he does on hard wood floors constantly. Any suggestions? We also have self feeders for our other dog and he eats quite a bit and drinks a lot. Should we take up his food?

206. My 8 week old husky lab cross will be outside for a couple hrs then come inside and pee on the floor. I will tell her no and take her back out to her potty spot she will go pee again ill leave her outside for a bit then she comes inside and will pee again on the floor whats going on?

207. I’ve walked my dog for 20-25 mins and he wont go once during this walk… so i walk him around my yard after that because its familiar and he’ll let out a tiny bit and after walking and walking we go in and boom accident right away.. I dont understand why he has ample time and places to go on our walks but nothing..nothing.. im so frustrated because i find myself taking him outside every hour even if he’s sleeping i wake him up to go just to make sure yet i find accidents all over my house day and night

208. My 4 months old poodle puppy doesn’t bark or whine or anything. Shes just pee right there, wherever she is. I don’t know what to do. Pls help me

209. This is submissive behavior. Happened with my 4 month puppy as well. Everytime i came home he did it.
     Took me 3 days to build is confidence.
     When u come home. Dont look at him for 5-10 min.
     Dont even talk to him. Dont even look.
     Just like he dont exist. If u have some who can let him thats wonderful. Then let him come to you.
     Or u open door aftet 5 min. This way he will know u are here. And he will not be scared or excited . Never go to him too fast.
     If he hold it untill he comes to u. Take him out straight away. I hope this helps u

210. If you haven’t already you might want to go get your puppy a vet check. If you know the moments when your puppy has these little accidents you might work on not getting him too excited for instance when running up stairs or during greetings. In our experience when this is not a health issue our puppies usually outgrow the behavior as they get older.

211. Congratulations on your new puppy! Here are answers to your questions:

     1. Ideally we like using one crate, but with an upstairs downstairs arrangement I don’t think having two crates is a bad arrangement.
     2. I don’t usually see 9 week old puppies marking too often, but it’s possible. Try to make sure and clean thoroughly clean the crate with an enzymatic cleaner and if you don’t do this already you might remove any blankets or doggy beds from the crate.
     3. That includes naps. Pretty much anytime our puppy falls asleep.

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

212. We just recently got a 16 week old puppy. He was doing really good with his house training but the last couple days he has been peeing nonstop and peeing in his crate. I haven’t changed anything in his routine besides not give him as much water to help this issue. It is not helping, he has also just started peeing outside if his crate while inside, any tips and tricks to help with our issues?

213. Why … my pup sat on the couch with me and just got up and peed on the couch she is 51/2 months old now . Really struggerling to potty train her x she knows to go to the door when she needs to go out but the last week she is peeing everywhere and any where on my bed , going down the stairs eating her poo .

214. I have a 4.5 month old GSD puppy who seems to squirt out little bits of pee inside the house on occasion still, and especially often when running up and down the stairs in the house (3 story house = lots of stairs for him to pee on). He knows where to go outside and to let me know when he needs out. The small squirts don’t seem like full accidental pees, there is no squatting or leg lifting like when he goes to his potty spot outside. More like a little just comes out when he is really excited or when running up and down stairs. Can I assume that this just means a lack of full bladder control still? Because he does seem to understand the rules and on good days is a well house broken dog.

215. My puppy is an 9 week old french bull dog we are attempting to crate train when fortunately have an upstairs downstairs home with the bedrooms upstairs we have a big crate for the dog downstairs and one smaller upstairs for sleeping you think this is a bad idea? I’ve also been noticing that he doesn’t have accidents in the downstairs crate but once I clean the crate out he’ll go in there and pee but just a little is he just marking? I was reading one of your articles and it said if the dog falls asleep anywhere else you pick him up and put him into the crate does that include naps or just for bedtime? Thanks in advanced for all of your answers

216. My puppy goes outside, to go to toilet comes in and pee indoors he is 6 months old I am not happy that is why I see to the end of the tunnel

217. There are a number of products available for cleaning. I’d recommend using an enzymatic cleaner to help remove the odor. As far as having accidents on the carpet I would consider managing your puppy in the house by keeping an eye on him at all times this way you can catch his pre-potty behaviors before he has an accident in the house. I usually do this with my puppies by keeping them on leash by my side until they are potty trained. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

218. We have a five month old chocolate cocker . I love him to bits but even though he asks to go out he comes in and later he’ll pee on the carpet . I’ve used all sorts to clean it but he still goes and does it . I didn’t crate train him our house is too small and he gets loads of exercise and has plenty of toys . He is with me all day and goes out regularly and does his business . Yet he still goes on the carpet . Any suggestions especially what to clean the area with

219. Congratulations on your new puppy! Something you can try is re-introducing the crate to your puppy very slowly and only associating positive experiences with the crate. Let her eat meals in the crate, put treats in the crate, her favorite toys, give her chews, etc. Here’s another article we wrote that might help:

     Crate training your puppy

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

220. First thing I would do is make sure and thoroughly clean any area where your puppy has had an accident. If your puppy has recently started having accidents in the house then you might consider stepping back in your training and constantly manage your puppy’s behavior when in the house. When he stops having accidents in the house you can start giving him a little more freedom. Puppies will often rub their face in areas like the carpet when they smell an odor (food, poop, vomit, etc). Thoroughly cleaning this area should help keep your puppy from rubbing his face on the carpet.

221. My husband brought home a puppy from the pet store and the puppy will go in crate even if she just went outside. She hates it. She barks like crazy and has an explosive diarrhea. Don’t know what to do. We will take her to go potty outside, she goes and then goes in the crate immediately after. What can we do?

222. My 7 month puppy is a male and what he does is pee outside several times (3 time at least) in different spots (each time he gets a reward) but lately he comes inside and he started to pee next to wall, chairs or even sofa.

     Also, he loves to rub his face to the carpet.

     Any suggestion

223. You might want to get a vet check to make sure everything is okay with your puppy. When our puppy gets excited and has accidents in the crate we work on desensitizing him. First, we try to be as calm as possible anytime we first interact with our puppy. Second, we work on desensitizing our puppy throughout the day in training sessions. In most cases are as our puppy got older he eventually outgrew this behavior.

224. My 5 month old puppy pees in his kennel but only when I go to take him out. It’s like as soon as I approach the kennel, he pees. I can be gone the whole day and he won’t pee at all, so I know it’s not a lack of him not being able to hold it. It doesn’t matter how often, or not, I take him out. It’s really frustrating because it happens at least 3 times per day and every time, the pee gets all over him. I’ve even tried sneaking up on him and taking him out before he realizes what’s going on, but I’m just never fast enough. I’ve been searching high and low for why this could be. Has anyone experienced this? How’d you get it to stop? When I take him out to pee, I praise him and give him treats. he even runs up to me after he goes because he knows that a treat will follow.

225. We unceremoniously call this excita-pee. I’m not sure it that’s a real word, but basically your puppy gets excited and dribbles some pee. The best thing to do is try your best not to get your puppy overly excited. Most of the puppies (not all) we’ve raised eventually outgrow this behavior.

226. My 6.5 month old lab puppy pees on the floor whenever excited for example when company stops over or he’s excited while i am filling his food bowl etc. He doesnt squat or lift his leg (he is male) it just sprinkles out like he doesnt even know its happening. Assuming that he does not have a bladder infection, what gives and what can be done to correct? He goes out regularly and eliminates every time. He does not ever do this in his cage. Its almost like an excited sprinkle!

227. When my puppies regress I always take a step back and tighten up my training. Basically, if there accidents start occurring in the house then I work on my puppy management and keep an eye on him 100% of the time to catch any noticeable pre-potty activities. Yes, it is possible that the retractable leash has something to do with his changed behavior as it’s possible he’s exploring the environment and forgetting about doing his business. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

228. Sorry you are having a tough time of it. Know that it doesn’t last forever. And neither does puppyhood, for sure!!! It’s gone before you even know it, so please do everything you can to enjoy it. Congratulations on your puppy.

229. I assume you have already roped off an area where it is safer for your Golden to make a mess.

     I would make some checks with various medical sources, possibly taking your puppy 🐶 for a second

     or third opinion, if you don’t get any help. Never consider one source only, when searching for information or support . I like the trainer idea, also.

     My thoughts are puppy has overstimulation or oversensitivity of the bladder muscle, or, too much anxiety – either chemically or separation from family.

     Because dogs can be so sensitive, I think it’s somewhat imperative to keep a very positive interaction between you/ little reaction as possible, even though you’d like to vent frustration (don’t do it there). They don’t understand the connection of the irritation at this age I think, but they are clueless, which means anger is completely counterproductive. To a degree they look at you with major dependence for trust (safety.) Negative emotions can confuse them about if they are safe with you or not, and spur nervous reactions and behaviors, and, interfere with the kind of bonding you’re seeking.

     In the interim, dedicating some entire days to nothing but building positive ‘family’ relationship, and successful outdoor use, reducing failure opportunity to zero, could have some effect and be worth the investment. See if there aren’t any even stronger reinforcers you haven’t thought of, like blanket wrestling…. or, who knows? It’s worth ruining something (her own; already gnarly; whatever size) as an investment on getting your life back, and it could make you both very happy.

     And, if you get nowhere an indoor post over a drain could be a nerve-saving option while you find someone who can help.

     Think beyond typical. They have great souls, and deserve a unique chance.

230. Our Boston Hua Hua will be 7 months old in a couple of days Max was doing really well he’d have an accident randomly mainly pee , poop seems to be well controlled for the last couple months . All of the sudden after about 6 months I would take him out for good walk try to watch him to pee and poop , almost fairly consistently we come in from our last walk and he pees again in the house before we go up to bed . He has also pooped in the house on two occasions within the last week within a couple minutes of being in the house from outside . He sleeps through the night and holds his pee for a good eight hours on a regular consistent basis . About the same time this started I started using a retractable leash could that have something to do with this . I’d like to thank you in advance and I look forward to your wisdom .

231. My puppy is ten weeks old. When we first got her at six weeks she was doing so well then all the sudden she started this. So I started leaving her outside a little longer and a little longer. I have taken my puppy out for 45 minutes and waited for them to pee a second time. They did, I praised them, brought her inside and ten minutes later (with no food or water between that) she proceeded to pee in the middle of my bed. She is about 10 weeks old now and didn’t show this problem the first two weeks we had her. What do I do? Why is she going backwards?

232. Congratulations on your new puppy! We don’t allow our puppies on the bed until after they are potty trained, have learned good house manners, and basic obedience. In the past most of our puppies got excited and had accidents during greetings (when we first got home or when people came over). In order to minimize accidents we work on not getting our puppies excited by remaining very calm when getting home or if our pup is still having accidents not acknowledging him until he calms down. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

233. My puppy is 14 weeks old. As soon as she wakes up we go right out side potty and life was fine. But now she wakes up and she pees before I can even get her off the bed. She is also starting to pee when she is excited too. We try to stay clam and to come at her fast but still she pees. What can I do??

234. Here are a few articles we have on crate training an potty training:

     https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/
     https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/
     https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/

     If you’ve been following the guidelines in the above articles since your puppy was 8 weeks old then unless your puppy has a medical issue I do think you should have seen some progress. You might want to consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer for an in home evaluation. Good luck with your training!

235. I understand having this problem at 8 weeks old. But Golden Retriever puppy is now almost 13 weeks old and pees every half hour. We do all the praise and treats for outside but that doesn’t stop he from starting to go in the house every 30 minutes. At night, he whines at least every 2 hours and will go in his crate in between. Getting very frustrated here!

236. I’ve noticed that changes in the house will often cause our dogs to behave differently. Follow the tips in the article. Try to stick to routines, stay consistent, and tighten up on your training.

237. We have a 11 month old Golden Doodle who is fully potty trained. However, the last week since our 7 month old daughter started crawling he has gone outside to pee and come in and peed on her floor mat. This has happened two different times. I do not want him to get into a habit of this. What is a solution? and why would he just begin to do this? rebelling/ jealousy cause she is mobile now?

238. Sorry if I didn’t get back to your previous question. I get backed up quite often trying to respond to everyone’s comments. If she’s not having accidents while your gone and only while you are at home you might try restricting her freedom while you are home and keeping her by your side so you can identify when she’s having these accidents. That way you might be able to find a pattern or reason why she’s having accidents. It could be that she’s getting excited, frightened, or even marking. If you can figure out when she is having accidents then you might also be able to figure out why as well.

239. Hello! I left a reply in August or so regarding my pup who will be turning 6 months in October. She is a 7lb female mini poodle. She is able to hold it all day while we are at work. We don’t have her crate trained but we section off our kitchen. She holds it all day with no problem. She does a good job letting us know when she has to go once we are home. She has tiny little accidents randomly even after we take her out. It seems she releases her bladder fully outside. The amount she releases inside is very very small compared to her going outside.

     We have her contained in two rooms when we are home by baby gates. What are your suggestions? The vet has ruled out any uti or urinary concerns.

240. My puppy does this too. I’ve had him a week now. I’m a groomer so he goes to work with me. In the first week we only had 3 accidents. Today, however… He had 4 accidents just in one day! What the heck! I think it might be my fault because I don’t take him out on a leash and he gets distracted by neighbors dogs or he just goes and lays in the shade. You’d think I’d be better at this considering my profession but.. It’s been 10 years since I’ve had a puppy.

241. Is your puppy crate trained? Does your puppy have accidents if you don’t wake up and let him out 3 times a night?

     Until our puppies are house trained we don’t leave them alone (unless crated) for any amount of time. We like to keep our puppies on leash by are side at all times until we know they will not have accidents in the house.

242. Hello Colby,

     I’ve just read a few of your observations and I am pretty concerned about two things. My four month and a half Daschund won’t stop wanting to go to pee. The thing is, I stop giving him water at 9 pm. Then I would go for a last walk around midnight after a previous one at 10.30 or 11 in order to make sure he gets it all out as very well said in the main article not to mention I would basically stay not less than ten minutes outside. So my question is : how come do I have to wake up at 2-3 am, 4am and 6-7 am? The 2-3am walk does include pooping by the way.

     My second question is : is there a good explanation for the fact that the little guy would pee inside the house after being left alone for only 15 minutes (my wife and I would still be in the house) even after a 20-30 minute walk?

     Thank you very much in advance.

     Pierre

243. Hi Lora, I left another comment on your other post. The only other thing I wanted to bring up that I’ve seen in puppies is they do sometimes get extremely excited (usually when first greeting someone). If this is the case with your puppy then what we do is we try to not get our puppies overly excited. Most of our pups eventually out grow this stage. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

244. Linus’ first trainer used to always tell us “Play makes pee!” Based on what you said this statement seems to ring true. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with limiting playing time. That is exactly what we do with our pups. After 5 or so minutes we’ll take our puppy outside for a potty break. Yes, as our pups get older they have much better control of their bladder and stop having accidents during play time.

245. Thankyou for replying. When daisy roams around the kitchen she doesn’t have any accidents. It’s only when she is playing/wrestling with one of the kids or our older dog. She just gets so excited and crazy running around. So maybe just allowing her to do that outside only? She’s 4 1/2 mo and I think she pretty much gets it but looses control when playing hard. She sits and stays on command too, so she’s doing well in other areas. Thanks again so very, very much for your time.

246. Our 4 1/2 month female lab will stop and pee suddenly in the middle of playing with our children or our other older lab. Example: she will have just gone out, then come back inside and while I make dinner one of the kids will be playing with her or she’ll be wrestling with our other dog and all of a sudden there’s a puddle. Yesterday evening she literally peed on my daughter when she was playing with her. She pees on demand outside. I know she knows the word because sometimes she doesn’t want/”have” to go and so she’ll walk back to the house but I keep putting her on the grass and say “go potty”. If she doesn’t want to go it will take several times of me doing this before she’ll give in, squat and dribble a little bit out. She sleeps in a crate at night from 9pm to 6:30am. Shes excited in the morning but makes it all the way downstairs, through the kitchen which is a ways from the stairs, through the porch, and finally across the deck and to the grass. She does this every morning with no problem. So its just playing that makes her lose control? She literally just “forgets” to hold it? I don’t get it. We had to start leashing her up again next to her crate. 🙁 so do we limit play time? A 5-7 minute wrestle, stop after like 2 min.? She will grow out of this right???

247. If your puppy is having accidents at 8 months old you might try taking a step back and starting the potty training process from the beginning. Here’s a guide that might help you: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

248. Yes, but is it normal when he does it at 8 months old? We take him out for at least 10 minutes where he usually pees 2-3 times then a minute later once we’re inside, he is upstairs peeing in the same exact spot every time.

249. Hi. I just got a German shepherd puppy that’s about to be 6 months old. I don’t know what to do because when we got her the first 4 months of her life she was an outside dog. We will take her outside in the morning and whenever we feel like she needs to go out……but everyday it’s the same thing she just pees or poops in my house. And right in front of us at that. I mean we take her out at least every hour or hour in a half. Please help I just don’t understand if she has been using the potty outside since the being of her life why is it so hard to get her to stop doing it my house?

250. I have a 4 month old mini poodle who will bark to go out and can hold it when I am at work. She will only leave small piddles in the house. We have a puppy pad that she was using prior but has stopped. the amount of urine she releases in the house versus outside is very small. Any suggestions? I know her bladder is really small. She is only 5 lbs. she knows to ask to go out when needing to poop or pee but she will not ask prior to her leaving little puddles around

251. Congratulations on your new puppy! 6 1/2 weeks is very young and I wouldn’t expect any puppy to understand potty training at that age. Most puppies at that age probably do not have full control of their bladders yet. A few things you might try are:

     1. Put a leash on your puppy when it’s time to take him outside to go potty.
     2. When you are outside shorten up the leash and only allow your puppy a small area to sniff around and find a spot to potty.
     3. If he’s playing around and not going potty bring him back into the house and put him in his crate for 10 minutes then try again.

     As I mentioned 6 1/2 weeks is very young. Most of our puppies seem to “get it” around 4 months old although we’ve had a few prodigies figure out potty training much earlier as well as a few late bloomers figure it out later than 4 months.

252. I’m not positive because I haven’t seen your dog, but a 30 inch crate sounds too large for a 13 pound dog. We use a 36 inch crate for our 80 pound dog. The crate should be just large enough for a puppy to stand stretch and turn around. Also, since your puppy has had a few accidents in her crate you might consider starting from scratch on her crate training. Here’s an article that might have a few tips: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/. Something we’ve done in the evening is set our alarm clock several times at night the let our puppy out for potty breaks. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

253. I just recently got a puppy. Hes about 6 & a half weeks old. He knows that he has to go outside to do his business & he usually hovers around the door & whines to go out. After he naps or eats i take him outside. But a few times now after he wakes from his nap or eats id say come on lets go outside, hed follow til about halfway to the door, stop turn around walk back the same distance & just pee on the floor. So frustrating! He also pee once we gets outside but wont poop. He’ll just run around, play & eat grass. But pretty much after he gets in the house he’ll just go poop somewhere. I give proper affection after he does his business outside so I just dont know why he’s doing this inside. I need help!!

254. I have a 10 mo old Shih Tzu/ mix pup I adopted from a rescue. He pees in his crate every night and then wakes me up at 5 am to get him out because he has pee in there. I have had him vet checked and he has crystals in his urine sample that were cleared up using a RX food. Still peeing in the crate. He is 13 lbs and his crate is about 30 inches long. I am not thinking the crate size is the problem. Help!!

255. It sounds like he hasn’t fully grasped the idea of potty training. When we potty train our puppies we keep them on leash when they are in the house so we can catch our pups before they have accidents. We usually do this until they stop having accidents in the house. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

256. My male chihuahua puppy is about 6-months old and still does both duties, inside and out. After coming inside, almost right away he does it again. I have lung problems and sometimes can’t walk him outside because of the heat, but I have a large outside patio and he knows it’s ok to do his business out there. He used to use puppy pads really well, but chances are now, he picks it up and tears it up. He knows exactly what he’s doing because he won’t let me see him for a few minutes and then he acts like a little kid who knows he’s in trouble and wants to play. I try and catch him to put him outside to let him know that’s where he goes, but he’s really fast. Haha. He’s ornery, but great company and I love him. Any ideas?

257. My apologies, I try to answer questions here as best as possible, but it is sometimes difficult because I get dozens of questions everyday and this is not my job just something I do during my free time to help others who have questions about their puppies.

     I do often mention that you should keep an eye on your puppy 100% of the time and I’ve expanded upon this somewhere else on the blog, but I have noticed I’ve been a bit short on some of my recent replies. What I do with my puppy is keep an eye on him 100% of the time if he is ever free to roam the house. If I’m doing dishes, cleaning, etc then I keep him tethered to my side with a short leash. If I’m doing something around the house where I cannot watch him (for instance, helping kids with homework) then I crate him for a short period. I also use tie downs to help manage my pup’s behavior. A better answer to this question would probably be manage your puppy 100% of the time.

     All that being said do you really have to “manage your puppy 100% of the time.” No, but the quickest way to potty training a puppy is to allow as few accidents as possible.

     How long does it take to potty train a puppy? We’ve been raising and training guide and service dog puppies for nearly 10 years now and I’d guess on average our puppies figure out potty training at around 4 months old.

     Hopefully that helps with your questions. Good luck with your puppy!

258. Keeping an eye on the puppy 100% of the time? Really? That is not a realistic solution for the rest of us. Restriction of areas and keeping him on the leash is much more doable. Colby it sounds like you do not have a house to run or kids to look after. ( Sorry) My 12 week old lab is given a lot of attention and love but I simply cannot “watch him 100% of the time ” while I am doing the dishes or helping my kid with homework. I have the same issue. We are taking him out every 30 minutes to the same place to pee, and praise him, but he comes inside and will piddle on the rugs. Very frustrating. When can I expect this to “grow out of it”.

259. Young puppies can be a bit of a mystery when working on potty training. 🙂 At your puppy’s age after she pees you might only give her another minute or two to “get it all out” then bring her back in. The main reason I say this is because in our experience when young puppies are awake and playing they seem to pee about every 15 minutes. In your situation your puppy may be going potty immediately playing for another 15 minutes while you’re outside then ready to potty again.

260. Congratulations on your new puppy! Potty training takes time and patience. When our puppies are 5 months old they usually have very good bladder control and when they don’t it’s almost always something medical. My best advice for potty training your puppy is to manage your puppy by keeping an eye on her 100% of the time when she’s in the house this way you can catch pre-potty behaviors (circling, sniffing, etc) and get her outside before she has an accident. If your puppy is having accidents immediately after peeing outside then try some of the tips in this article. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

261. thanks for this advise. I’m going to try it

262. We have a similar situation with our 3 month old. I understand that she has little bladder control but when we take her out she pees almost immediately and then we can spend 10-15 minutes just walking around and she is more concerned about playing than peeing/or pooping again. Then as soon as we’re inside she goes at least 2-3 times within a 5 minute time frame. Suggestions?

263. Might be the size of your crate. Our puppy was doing the same. Got a smaller crate and viola no more peeing in her crate (unless she is left too long and just can’t hold it anymore…on those rare occasions)

264. Hi Zack,

     I have a almost five month old puppy and she is doing the same thing. We adopted her only two weeks ago and she is doing a little better but is still having daily accidents. I am not sure if this is normal at this age. I’ve heard that they can hold their bladder an hour for every month old they are, ex. five months means they should be able to hold for five hours but my puppy is definitely not doing this. Also, she is pooping like five times a day, is that normal? I am going to give her some more time and see what happens.

     Hope it is going well for you!

     Elizabeth

265. If you’re sure he doesn’t have a bladder infection or any medical conditions then try doing what you can to make him successful every time he’s in his crate. I’d start off by leaving him in his crate for only 5 minutes (or however long you think he will be successful) then letting him out to do his business. If after you take him out and he does his business in his potty spot then give him tons of praise so he knows he did a good job. Once he becomes successful with 5 minutes try increasing the amount of time you leave him in his crate.

266. Ugh we are struggling right now. Our rott pup is 12 weeks old and I understand that he doesn’t have control of his bladder. But he constantly pees in his crate and lays down in his own urine. We take him out every half hour or so but he just does not seem to care about peeing on himself 🙁 Any tips for improving this issue?

267. Yeah, it can be pretty frustrating. After having puppies in our house all the time for the past 10 years it’s fairly commonplace for us. The good news is their bladders develop quickly and after a few weeks this problem goes away. When you’re raising a puppy it does help to hear that it’s happening to everyone else and it’s normal for all of these unusual puppy behaviors.

268. After 11 years without a puppy in the house, I started fostering last year for a local rescue I work with and I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d had this article then. I had completely forgotten what it’s like to have a puppy in the house and that whole “peeing right after peeing” thing kind of threw me for a loop 😉

269. One thing I’d consider is work on limiting your puppies freedom and managing her environment. In most situations I just keep my puppy on my leash by my side at all times. While our pup will still occasionally have accidents I’m always right there to catch him before or during the accident and get him outside to finish up his business.

270. My daughter rescued a one year old foxhound two weeks ago. The rescue believes that she had never been an inside dog. She pees & poops outside but randomly afterward will come in and pee right in front of my daughter. She doesn’t understand this is not the place to go. It isn’t that they aren’t reading each other’s signals, it’s more that she really doesn’t understand this is wrong. Any advise?

271. Potty training your puppy can be very frustrating if you’ve never done it before or haven’t done it in a while. Lucky (or not so lucky) for us we usually have a new puppy every year so we’ve got our routine down. If you’re friends have any questions tell them to leave a comment or send me a message through the contact form.

272. Excellent counsel for puppy owners! I have two friends bringing home puppies in June and my youngest dog is now four so a lot of these issues are a distant memory. I will flag your blog for them immediately.

273. Those are great words! Almost everything on this blog is “simple advice and common sense”. However, it sometime difficult to figure things out in the heat of the moment. After 10 years of raising and training guide and service dog puppies I still need to hear “simple advice” from fellow raisers and trainers when working with my pups.

274. Sometimes simple advice and comon sense can make a difference!

275. We’ve been using positive reinforcement and clicker training with Archer. Raven was the first older dog we’ve had to potty train in a while and lucky for us she figured out pretty quickly.

276. We’ve had some of our puppies do the same thing and we’ve done as you’ve done and had guests ignore our pup for at least 10-15 minutes. We always called this behavior the not so technical term Excitapee. Luckily for us all of our puppies eventually outgrew this behavior. However, you might want to get a checkup from your vet and also look into having a certified professional dog trainer stop by for an in home visit.

277. We use positive reinforcement methods for all training. McKenzie Rae was about 2 years old when we rescued her from the E-list. She was a stray dog. It took longer than normal to potty train her. It took a ton of praise, treats and patience.

278. I have a one year old golden retriever that IS housebroken. The only problem I’m having is if company comes over, she gets so excited that she pees if they talk to her. I have everyone just ignore her for at least 10 – 15 minutes when they first come in. She is fine with them just talking to us but as soon as they look at her and speak at her, she pees. Even if she just came in from going to the bathroom. She loves people and I was hoping to train her as a therapy dog but I can’t take her any place because of the nervous peeing. Or whatever it is. The strange thing is, as soon as she pees, she is fine and loves to have them pet her and play with her. It just seems she has to pee first before she can accept them. Is there any way of breaking her of this? Or is it something she will have to outgrow? I would really like to be able to take her places for therapy type work and training but I can’t until she stops peeing every time someone talks to her.

279. I’m glad you found a system that works for everyone and thank you for responding back with your progress.

280. I’ve finally found a system that works for everyone. I’ve started bringing them in when I’m off of work and just lounging on the couch. Molly immediately goes to the couch, and I have a 6′ leash tied to the coffee table that I hook Tera to. This gives Tera enough room to roam our living area and has full range of both our couches and the floor space around the coffee table. She won’t potty in the living area, so she’s allowed to freely move around the coffee table and couches. She whines a little bit with this system, but has started to accept it and will quickly lay back down and nap. I just bring her out for 10 minutes or so any time they start moving again after a nap, and Tera gets to potty, stretch and move around, and then they both come back inside. It’s been wonderful. Thank you for the advice!

281. You might try giving her a little freedom right after she does her business outside. Yes, I’d put her back on leash after you allow her to roam around for a while. We keep our puppies on leash in the house all day and take them out periodically or when they’re showing signs that they have to potty. We give our puppies access to water throughout the day, but keep an eye on when and how much they drink.

282. I’ll have to try that and see. So when I start giving her freedom I just let her roam a few minutes and put her straight back on the leash? Should I take her outside between roaming sessions? For the first week or so should I make her spend a certain amount of time in the house on the leash holding it before I take her out to potty again? How often should I allow her to access her water when she’s in the house?

283. In my experience the best way to potty train your puppy is to prevent them from having accidents in the house. I know this is not what you want to hear, but the best way to do this is to manage your puppy by limiting her freedom when she’s in the house. Once she is successful with limited freedom for say at least a week you then might try incrementally start giving her a little more freedom when in the house. By small I mean maybe just a couple minutes at a time. If she’s successful with a couple minutes for another week then take another baby step forward and increase the time. The key is to make sure you’re successful every step of the way and if she regresses take a step back in her training. Good luck!

284. Best way I can describe her behavior is like a curious toddler. She won’t sit still, but she just roams around the room sniffing everything, picking up things (socks, toys, a stray cup, piece of paper, etc.) and putting it back down two steps later. Comes back to the couch, plays with us or Molly for a few minutes, repeat. She’s perfectly healthy (just got a full check up and spayed last week) and can hold her bladder for their full 8 hour bedtime. Midnight-8am. I can tell when she has an excited/nervous accident, and while annoying, I’m not particularly worried about those because it’s not often and every other dog I’ve had grew out of it within 2 years. She only gets to come inside after she potties outside first, but I just can’t seem to get it through to her to hold it in the house because almost everytime I attempt to give her more freedom, she stops and potties wherever she is and keeps roaming. There seems to be no pattern either because it can be as soon as I let her inside or 15 minutes after. And she’ll pee literally anywhere in the room, so I don’t have particular “spot” to watch out for. Pooping I finally figured out I need to give her at least 10 minutes outside because she’ll poop, roam, repeat about 3-5 times before she’s done. Peeing usually 2-3 times if she’s been in her crate a while. I’m a broke college student and I can’t really afford a trainer to come help me. So my only options at the moment are to leave her outside/crated only and bring her in for only 15-30 minutes at a time before she gets unbearably restless and cranky on the leash. I want to be able to bring her inside so much more while I’m home, but she’s just miserable if she can’t roam and move around and I’ve usually got too much schoolwork to do to devote every second she is off leash to making sure she won’t potty, which is hard enough to catch when I am obsessively watching. (My boyfriend is pretty much useless in all this. He likes keeping them in the house but won’t get off his phone or computer to help watch her and refuses to keep her on a leash in the house).

285. It’s tough to say without actually being able to see your puppies in their own environment. Did you have a vet check her for a urinary tract infection? Do you know if she’s having an accident out of excitement? If you haven’t had her checked by a vet then I’d consider making a visit to your vet. You also might consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer for an in-home visit so he/she can see exactly what your puppy is doing in your home.

286. Sorry this is long, but I’ve never had a dog so hard to house break. Anyway, my boyfriend and I adopted our first 5 week old puppy Tera last November. Granted, we were slow to potty train properly. Most days I kept a close eye on her and would walk her every 5- 10 minutes and she would pee everytime when I said “go potty” and then come inside and still pee a few drops on the carpet. We ignored this behavior and just assumed lack of bladder control. She picked up pooping outside like a charm and almost never went in the house after the first week or so. When she wasn’t being watched she would go in her kennel (she accepts it but has never liked being in it. She hates being confined in any way) When the accidents got bigger, she got more crate time than play time because she never stopped having accidents even if I let her out to pee every 5 minutes. When we were home and she was small, we kept her tethered on the front porch so she could have playtime but we could still hear her and check on her often. Now she’s 7 months old, crate trained, and lives outside in the backyard during the day with her 1 year old sister we adopted in March. They’re never left unsupervised in the house. The new one has never had an accident in her kennel at night or in the house even if in the house for a few hours. But Tera, has now had MONTHS of potty training, never potties in her crate, and will go outside whenever she is brought and told to go potty. However, if she so much as moves 5 feet away from me or I turn my back at all, she will still potty in the house even if she just went outside. I tried to replaced the old nasty rugs that had a lot of urine smell and scrubbed the floors but that did nothing to help. She’s even recently (like the last month) reverted back to pooping in the house again. I want to let the girls in the house more. Molly, the new one, loves to cuddle and lounge on the couch, but Tera hates sitting still, so she won’t stay on the sofa more than 5 minutes and whines miserably on a leash, but I can’t let her roam because she’ll potty without giving a signal, so I end up having to put her back outside or in her crate. Even after an hour or more of exercising outside and she’s exhausted she still hates sitting still unless she falls asleep (which might last 15 min before she’s up and roaming again). I know play creates potty, but she’s literally just calmly walking around the room most of the time. The most play she does is on the couch wrestling with Molly and she won’t pee on the furniture unless she nervous pees. Is there anything I can do that she’ll stop pottying in the house when I allow her to roam around the room? (They’re always kept in the same room with me and never have free run of the house or left alone in the house). I’m completely at a loss of what to do with her.

287. Something that works for us is getting our puppies into a routine. In general puppies will have to potty on a regular schedule:

     1. When they wake up
     2. After a meal
     3. After a nap
     4. After playtime

     During these times we take our pups outside through the same door to the same potty spot and wait for up to 10 minutes for them to potty. If our pup does not potty then we take him back to the crate and leave him in his crate for 10 minutes then try again. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

288. We have rescued a 19 week puppy that had been trained to use pee pads. He is good at going on pee pads. He is walked 3 times per day –excellent on the walk, not a sniffer but even when I stop to give him opportunities to pee/poo he is doesn’t often go. This is also the case when we take in the backyard to encourage him to go to bathroom. Its like he doesn’t know to pee outside because he will go when he comes inside. I am afraid to remove the pee pad as at least if he goes it isn’t make a mess. His accidents have occurred the moment we are distracted he will sneak off — he then slinks around like he knows its wrong even though we have never made a fuss about his accidents.
     From reading the blog, we need 100% attention but do you have any tips to encourage him to go outside the whole family is excellent about taking him out.
     He is crate trained and spends time here when he is alone. He has never had an accident in the crate or any other place accept the pee pad. We also put pee pads by the door, but he doesn’t use these.

289. Regarding your Husky. Take a look at this article: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/. I’d consider going back to the beginning and shortening the amount of time you crate your Husky to make him successful. When he’s successful in his crate at shorter times slowly start increasing the amount of time you crate him.

     Regarding your 6 month old puppy: Take a look at this article: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/. I’d consider restricting your puppy’s freedom by keeping him on leash by your side at all times. This will help you to identify his pre-potty behaviors (circling, sniffing, etc) before he has an accident.

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

290. Thanks for sharing your tips!

291. Take a look at this article when you have a moment: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ If you’re taking him outside every 30 minutes and he’s still having accidents I’d try taking him out more frequently, maybe every 10-15 minutes while he’s awake and as he gets better start increasing this time.

     Regarding your question: Every puppy is different. Linus was pretty much accident free sometime between 10-12 weeks. Most of our puppies seem to have a good grasp of potty training by the time they are 4-5 months old. However, Stetson was still having accidents until he was about 6 months old.

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

292. Hi, I have a 3 year old husky that will pee in his crate almost daily. Sometimes I feel he does this out of spite. Not sure what I can do at this point to break him of this.
     Our new puppy is 6 months old. He knows how to potty outside and will squat 2-3 times before coming in. Before I know it, he will be squatting again inside. Sometimes it’s a few drops, other times it’s almost 15-20 seconds long. What can I do to fix this?

293. TREATS and praise get the point across about where you are willing to reward ‘calls of doody. ‘

     Peanut butter, banana bites, carrots, and of course broken up dog treats. You can also get another tasty kind of pet food to give piece by piece to keep costs down. The TASTIER the BETTER. I even gave spoonfuls of canned puppy food when he’s done his stuff consistently, to reinforce. He misses the treat when he’s going in the wrong place, and is willing to work harder.

     You’ll be amazed what they can learn very young. Look for videos of trained puppies for assisting personal needs. Tiny puppy opens closes doors, helps get out products and handle objects training to help for disabled.

     YouTube has positive potty training for puppy too.

294. Hi. My puppy’s roughly 10 weeks old, I understand that he’s far too young to control his bladder, but I take my pup out every 30 minutes, he will pee/poo and we will stand there for atleast another 15/20 mins, he will always pee again inside the house. Also he will not use the pads we put down for him over night either, the other trouble I have is he gives off no ‘warning signs’ so regardless of me taking him for regular toilet time, he’d prefer my floors 😕 How long does it usually take to completely potty train a puppy?

295. It sounds like you have a great relationship with your puppy. Thank you for sharing your tips.

296. Congratulations on your new puppy! When you have a moment take a look at our article on potty training a puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

297. I’m very lucky as my puppy pays attention when he is corrected most of the time.

     My logic is this. If the dog isn’t allowed to do something, he can’t form a bad habit. So, STOPPING him from doing something is the best way to end a variety of unfavorable behavior. Stopping biting, stop removing stuffings, stop peeing.

     It’s a lot of effort for several days and weeks. But, WAY easier than breaking bad habits. (That’s why puppy-in-training recommends leashing puppy to you). I say you sort of give up your time and chores for a while, until the controls are higher. That’s how you make gains so you can move on. And teach words so you can communicate.

     Yes, ‘move outside.’ Play, run around. Bring your phone. Point “Here. Piddle.” “Goood piddle! Good puppy!!! Good puppy Good puppy. Reward’n reward coming in. Keep rewards interesting too!! Reward surprise when he does everything right. Time time time. It’s an investment for a future.

     Play play play. Keep life interesting! They don’t seem to even understand why you are pissed. What they do understand is FUN. So, it’s all fun and games until you have to clean up a mess. I’ve crated Raph while cleaning up sometimes so he doesn’t walk through it. He always does have to wait. Fun? Not so much. Then, fun again!!!! Like a faucet. There has to be a big difference; get it?? She’ll understand THAT, and selfishly stop creating the mess that distracts you from being fun.

     Stopping – how?

     Understanding “No.” Make a loud jolting noise and stop, “no! outside!!” Provide distraction. Repetition =learning. Last resort – pennies in a coffee can taped closed. Loud enough to stop in his tracks, but not cause ear pain.

     If there’s already pee on everything then it doesnt hurt to pull the dog outside while she’s peeing.

     Get in the way of the bad activity. Stand right in the way. Be firm. Remove items from mouth.

     Teach limits- Take it away at the point where it becomes destructive. You know when something is amiss. Replace with appropriate chew items and keep it interesting.

     How to distract?
     Short attention span. Provide favored toys. I rotate toys out of circulation! My dog gets bored with them. So I ‘keep it fresh.’ Snacks whatever she likes. Apples, carrots, veggies, ice cubes!
     If you think enjoyment and read your puppy right , you’ll know novel stuff that you’ll enjoy doing with him. Lie on the floor for a minute. Your dog will stop anything she is doing to pounce on you and lick your face.

     Relationship building is so key. It puts the ‘why’ into why I follow your lead. So build the kind of relationship you want with your dog. Read all different information until you find a place that speaks your language and gives you success. Watch videos. Get extra help locally. Ask your vet to call you. Per stores offer trainings. Trainings are for YOU. Your peace of mind is worth it!!!!

298. Our 9 week old was fostered by a person who has a room in her home with newspapers all over the floor, so of course, Tallulah is used to just going in the house. If she wasn’t in that room, she was outside, roaming free..We get her outside often, but when she comes in, she pees and poops here and there. We were wondering if we should teach her it’s ok to use a puppy pad in the house until she can hold it all of the time….Maybe place it by the door so that she has a designated place in the house for now. She does really well in her crate over night…5-6 hours….Thanks…

299. As one of our past trainers used to say: “Play makes Pee!” If your puppy is regularly having accidents in the house then he likely does not understand where he’s supposed to got potty. You might consider taking a few steps back in your training and reduce the amount of freedom you give your puppy when in the house. When our pups are not completely potty trained we keep them on leash by our side whenever we are in the house. Also, take a look at this article: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

300. He also pees as soon as I let him out so I know he knows better

301. My pup was born on September 22nd and he still randomly pees the house atleast once a day or every other day. It’s not a stationary pee but he runs around and pees occasionally stopping to pee. He also pees as ge eats sometimes

302. If you are using the leash as a drag line make sure you keep an eye on her 100% of the time so she doesn’t get caught on anything. Also, we use bitter apple spray when our pup’s bite or chew on the leash. It works with some puppies, but not with others.

303. Yes I’m trying that so far so good lol but I think she is getting upset that she is on a leash in the house cause she chewed up the leash so I had to go out and buy a thicker one

304. Did you get a chance to try the suggestions in the article? If so, did they work? If not, did you get a chance to take your puppy to the vet?

305. Most puppies are not fully potty trained at 12 weeks. However, it’s best to catch most accidents before they happen by keeping an eye on your puppy 100% of the time and identifying pre-potty behavior (circling, sniffing, etc) before an accident happens. Good luck with your training!

306. As we mentioned in the article try and stay outside a few extra minutes after your puppy does his business the first time. Is your puppy getting excited when people hold him? If so, you should try your best not to get him too excited when picking him up. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

307. Hi I’ve got a 4 month old mini sibarine husky I take her out after she has played for 10 minute’s even after she eats I keep her our about 15 minute’s she does pee and poop when I being her back in less then 10 minute’s she look’s at me and pees it’s not a lot just a tiny bit what kind I do please help

308. My 12 week old lab will have no accidents for a couple of days then all of the sudden will pee in the house and some times will pee as she is walking around. Is the normal?

309. I have an 11 week old Shiranian, he has a problem with going outside, doing his business and then doing it again in the house… Also, he will just pee on someone when they are holding him…. help!?!?!?

310. I love my puppy so much! Thanks for the advice.

311. I just bought Puppy Training Pads.

312. Congratulations on your new puppy! We clap our hands and say something like “ep ep ep!” to startle our pups while in mid stream, but try not to scare them. Yes, we will also say “no” if we catch our pups peeing in the house. Good luck with your training.

313. My pup is 9 weeks old. So when you catch them peeing on the floor do you immediately take them out or let them finish and clean it up then take them out?? I’ve tried to grab him pretty fast to get him out the door when I’ve caught him and I think it scares him, which I would like to avoid.
     Also is telling him no ok while he’s peeing considering he really doesn’t have control of his bladder??

314. It sounds like your dog is not potty trained. Check out this article: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ A few quick tips:

     1. Restrict your dog’s freedom in the house. We do this by keeping our dogs on leash by our side when they are in the house
     2. Make sure your dog goes potty before bringing him in the house.
     3. Clean any area that he’s pee’d on thoroughly with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle.

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

315. What about a 3 year old dog? He goes outside all day as soon as he comes in the house he goes straight to the kitchen and pee on the trashcan. Please help me!!

316. Great information! Thanks for sharing. I’m sure this will help many others when they are working with their puppies.

317. This is my first puppy in 25 years, I’m out of practice. 3 months old, he came from adoption kennels and had bad toileting habits. But I was relieved when I found out he was familiar with some important behavior words, like come-here, leave-it, and off. That’s when I realized communication is very important. You essentially start with an uneducated foreigner and teach them your world and a shared language.

     It seems there are a few important factors to puppy learning where TO go.

     At first, I have to catch him before he gets the chance to do wrong – this is done by timing. Knowing the general number of minutes after eating, and, immediately or about every 20 minutes after a big drink of water for about 3x or more, and tapering off to every hour or two. Also, teach to ring the bell on the door. LEARN the wiggle/ walk, For mine, there is a pace he does when he puts his nose down and starts looking for a spot, after a while my ear tells me TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT. .. “he’s doing the pace.” His activity level rises. He no longer lies down. And, he disappears. Normally, I can’t scratch my elbow without his attention. These signs are right in front and you catch them if you replay the preceding behavior right before pottying on your floor.

     As well as, catch him in the act of doing potty on the floor or rugs, and stopping him with a very loud [surprising] correction he recognizes. Once he understands NO!! and OUTSIDE!!! he stops in mid stream. [Years ago used to shake a coffee can of bolts. At first I rushed him outside so he would get the idea, and treat him and praise him and give him attention for doing right! Then, because his toileting was to get me to take him out, I started making him wait right by me until I take him out – while I clean up the mess, or put on my parka and boots, hat and gloves.

     The better he behaves the bigger the treats. I try to make fun things throughout the day, keep things interesting by switching his toys, upstairs and downstairs. I put some away and take out others, to keep things interesting, because he really likes that! If he leaves wet spots he must now watch me clean it up before we can go outside or play, pet or lounge. We may stay outside longer than he wants to waiting for him to go. If he does it outside, he gets to know my “good puppy” tone and knows he has a treat at mouth level, and another treat when the does #2, and he gets to run to the house. If he does both of those he gets another treat coming in the door, lots of praise and petting and can chill on the sofa with me. Carrots, cheese, mix canned dog food in when he comes inside. The treats get better and better. “Hey, I can control treats with my actions…” = good dog. Later on, you space out the treats for greater behaviors because your affection is treat enough and they get smarter and actually need more challenge.

     I didn’t realize I was going to need to get him outside during the [winter] middle of the night to have the best chance at zero accidents. Just for a few months, by his age, now 4.5 months. But, it defiinitely helps, and he is finally trending toward making no messes in the crate at night, sometimes. Ahhh, sigh….

     Relationship, relationship, relationship. You can’t just change diapers, feed and watch the dog. Affection. Spend time learning how to play effectively together. Walks and social time. Go to pet store together. Time trips for right after he toilets and carry along the clean up stuff just like a diaper bag. Life should be interesting and fun, so he knows the difference, when the fun stops for clean-ups.

     Everything is a learning experience. If she likes other dogs, gave her hang out with other dogs who demo doing their duty correctly! You have to do training with him to learn about how things are consistantly said and done in your house. Words. Expectations. Cycles. Schedules. What do you mean? What do you want? How do you feel about your dog? Where does the pet stand? They have to ‘learn you!’ Also, training helps them gain respect. You know how important it is to respect a person with whom YOU have a relationship, right?

     As your relationship evolves you will solve some of these mysteries and develop different questions. Its nice making progress even if it is slow, and you don’t get the full fix overnight. It gives you hope! I’ve had my

     Buy an enzyme cleaner you like the smell of. And, buy a lot of it. You can treat everything before washing it and get rid of the odor. Its a relief knowing you’ve gotten the stuff out of the house, and you can start again, fresh.

     Don’t lose hope. Develop trends that work and keep your eyes open for successes. Soon, the successes are more frequent than the fails, and you know you are getting there. Keep going. It gets better and better

     GOOD LUCK!!!!

318. It’s difficult to tell without observing the behavior. You might try bringing on a professional dog trainer for an in home visit. One thing I like to stress is to limit her freedom and set boundaries. When first training our guide dog puppies I keep them on leash by my side at all times until they understand potty training. Good luck with your training!

319. Ok so I’ve checked out the blog yo referenced. My puppy is 12 weeks. When we brought her home at 6 weeks, we immediately started house training her. I’ve already trained 2 dogs and it was simple. But this little girl is testing me. She has peed in her bed and I’ve seen her pee on the big dog pillows where she lays with the other 2 dogs. Is she marking her spot?

320. I’d consider starting over on the potty training, set strict boundaries and rules, and restrict his freedom. Take a look at our article on how to potty train a puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

321. Hi my puppy is almost 9 month old and he still peeing and potty inside,he always pee in the rug.He used to pee and potty in the bathroom on training pads I changed him training pads with litter box and he start again peeing on the floor,rug ..!! Maybe was my mistake that I changed training pads.

     Please help me 😭!!

322. Congratulations on your new puppy! Unless you catch your puppy in the act there’s a good chance she doesn’t know what you are getting angry about. When working on potty training it’s important to keep an eye on your puppy 100% of the time so you can pay attention to the signals (circling, sniffing, etc) that they have to go potty. This is especially important with a puppy as young as yours. When you see those signals take your puppy immediately outside to her potty spot. After she goes potty don’t forget to praise her. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

323. My puppy is 3 months old and very good at pooping outside and telling us she has to go outside to go number 2. However when it comes to peeing she will pee inside and she knows she does wrong when we reprimand her. What should we do ? Please help us so distracting !!!

324. Congratulations on your new puppy! Yes, puppies prefer to potty on the soft plush things vs the hard floors (unfortunately for us). Take a look at this post on how to potty train your puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/. One thing that has helped our pups learn potty training more quickly is we keep our puppy on leash by our side 100% of the time when we are at home until our pup figures out potty training. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

325. Thank you for adopting from your local shelter. We’ve written a post on potty training: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/, but it sounds like you already have a pretty good idea on how to potty train puppies. We recently brought home 1 1/2 year old Golden Retriever who wasn’t potty trained or crate trained. We basically treated her like an 8 week old puppy and kept her by our side on leash at all times. Took her out regularly out the same door to the same potty spot every time. Gradually we gave her more and more freedom. Although their were a few hiccups she eventually figured it out. Your suggestions sounds more difficult. My main suggestion would be to restrict your pup’s freedom and keep her by your side or in her crate 100% of the time until she learns the proper place to potty. Good luck with your training!

326. My puppy is 12 weeks old. She’s doing really good going outside and doing her business . She pees a few times and we go back inside. We have been taking her out every 2 hours during the day and we get up multiple times during the night to let her out, yet she has this new habit of peeing on any an all our throw rugs. The big one in the living room and the two in the bathroom. It’s really frustrating and I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to have to confine her to one room. I also don’t want to have to worry about taking her to family or a friend house because I am afraid she will pee on something there… Can anyone help me?

327. Oh and my other dog Max doesn’t have this issue. Vet cleared her of any physical issues. This breed isn’t fully mature until 24 months but we may not make it that long.

328. I have a 17 month old Boxador we named CoCoa after we rescued her from a local shelter. She was an owner surrender for being destructive and had been there fir four months.

     No matter what we have tried we can’t seem to get her potty trained. Do you have any recommendations for retraining a dog that was not properly potty trained while a puppy? Is there a certain point where it’s learned behavior that can’t be reversed? We have had her for almost three months and despite numerous walks, crate training for two solid weeks, tethering, treats, and numerous other ideas, we still see little to no change.

     I have trained a lot of dogs but never have I seen anything like this.

     Tonight, we were getting ready for bed and she just got up randomly and peed on the floor at the foot of the bed. Thankfully we have laminate floors but she is going everywhere in the house. Yesterday was at my feet in the kitchen 30 mins after being walked with access to the backyard. My husband and I are truly getting desperate and aren’t sure how much more we can take. We love her but we are starting to think she’s just not happy with us.

329. Oh! and, when he walks away, out of sight…. that’s when he needs to go outside!

330. My puppy grew up in the kennels of a pet adoption network, and learned to potty inside. I got him at 12 weeks. Its been a trip, but I’m seeing progress.

     Getting to know their schedules helps significantly. My 4 month old puppy is very dry for hours, in the a.m. after his accidents and going outside, and sleeps a lot. One of us stops in to let him out at noon. At the end of the day, he is drinking a lot of water so I have to curb it as it gets later at night. When he is drinking a lot he goes outside about every 20 minutes. What this is doing is building up outdoor performance. So, as his bladder has grown, he’s held it longer and I’ve been seeing slow progress. His poop schedule is usually somewhat predictable. When he goes in the crate and we’re not around, he’s very upset and makes a huge mess or eats some of it, so really trying to predict those times. Finally going whole days without accidents, sometimes. SOMETIMES. It gives me hope for knowing it won’t be this way forever. Although, it would be so nice if he was this cute and small AND not making messes.

     Keeping eye on him 100% while caring for a home, doing chores and handling affairs [wrapping gifts] and going to work is just not possible, and it is frustrating. The gradual small wins add up, and patience while he learns and those brain sells light up is rewarding, at last. Hanging in there. ~ K

331. I love my puppy so much! THanks for the advice.

332. At 4 1/2 months she probably has pretty good control of her bladder, but it sounds like your puppy doesn’t fully understand where she is supposed to potty. When our pup’s still don’t understand where to potty we keep them on leash by our side to make sure they don’t go off and have accidents. Good luck with your training!

333. My puppy is 4 1/2 months old and we are still struggling a little with house training. She stays in her crate for a few hours during the day while my husband and I are at work and never goes to the bathroom in her crate. We always let her out as soon as she gets up, when we get home and 20 minutes after eating. When she uses the bathroom outside I praise her and give her a small treat. The problem is when I bring her back inside she will sometimes sneak off and use the bathroom within an hour of being let out. Shouldn’t she have control over her bladder at this age? When I am home with her during the day I let her out every 2 hours and she will usually signal me by sitting by the door to let me know when she needs to go out. I really would like to correct this behavior. Please help!

334. As Linus’ dog trainer used to say: “Play makes pee!” When puppies play it seems like they have to pee every couple minutes. When our pups play we take them out about every 5 minutes or so to give them a chance to relieve themselves. As our puppies get older this is not as much of a problem. Good luck with your training!

335. I have 2 puppies about 13 weeks old. they can be very good about not peeing around the house. They can hold their bladder easily for multiple hours. When I put them on the couch with me they never have an accident. But when they are running around on the floor, they go sometimes. Sometimes immediately after going out and peeing. Is this the same issue? Again, they have absolutely no problem keeping from having accidents when on the couch or in their crate.

336. Thank you for rescuing! It sounds like you’re doing the right thing. I’m not sure how long you’ve been working on her potty training, but it can take some dogs a while to figure it out. We brought home a 1 1/2 year old Golden Retriever in a similar situation and we’re going through the same situation. After 3 months she is better, but she still doesn’t have it totally figured out. We’re just sticking to the routine (similar to yours) and being patient, persistent, consistent with her training. Good luck with your training.

337. Thank you

338. My wife and I just rescued a husky from 2 irresponsible teenagers that literally had her in a kennel all day and are having issues potty training.

     A little back story, she is 9 months old and very lovable, never shown aggression to a person, I’m breaking her currently from having aggression to our other dog when it comes to attention. That is going fantastic, she is realizing that no matter what she does she will get the same amount of attention. What she can’t get down is to use the bathroom outside. She will squat and pee for like 2 seconds and and then won’t go anymore. As soon as we bring her inside she goes on the carpet, pee and poop.

     What we do is we are trying to kennel train her. We wake up she goes out, she pees. She comes in and pees again. She goes in the kennel for 30 min we take her outside. When outside if she pees she gets to stay out. If she doesn’t she goes into the kennel.

     I really don’t know what to do. It worked like a charm for our other husky. she is so attention starved that treats don’t even work for her. The act of giving her a treat is more satisfying than eating it. We make sure to have a mini party every time she pees outside, we don’t scold her to much from being inside due to her past. What do you think?

339. Two things I would consider if this were my puppy. 1. Get a vet check to make sure she doesn’t have a bladder infection. 2. Restrict her freedom by keeping her on leash by your side when she’s in the house. Hopefully that helps good luck with your training!

340. My family has a 5 month old puppy. One of us will let her out she will pee 5 time then come inside and wait 10 minutes and pee on the rug. Any tips would be great as my parents are getting frustrated with her

341. Hi Carl, your puppy most likely doesn’t fully understand where he should go potty. At 3 months of age most puppies are not fully potty trained. The quickest way to potty train your puppy is to make sure he has zero accidents in the house. I do this with my pups by keeping an eye on them 100% of time or if I cannot keep an eye on my pup then I use the crate. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

342. OK my puppy is 3 months uses the doggy door stays out for 20 minutes comes in and pee’s he knows to go out side and has done it many times, is he lazy, marking (male) or just being a turd?

343. Congratulations on your new puppy! One thing we do with all of our puppies when they are not fully potty trained is keep an eye on theme 100% of the time when they are in the house. This way either catch our puppies having potty accidents in the house or we can easily identify when they need to potty (sniffing, circling, etc). Here’s a link on potty training your puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ Good luck with your training!

344. Help, I adopted a puppy 6 weeks ago. He’s very smart and sweet, however there are two consistent issues. He constantly jumps on the counters and he urinates inside. I take him out as many times as humanly possible. Then he comes inside and I find puddles. I take him back outside and this cycle repeats all day long. I know he can hold it. I leave him in a crate while I work, and he sleeps in my bed with me and never has an accident.
     Please, I’m not sure what to do.

345. Congratulations on your new puppies! Did you get a chance to read this blog post: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/?

     Your puppies are still young and it takes time and patience to potty train your puppy. We crate train our puppies and if they don’t go potty when we take them out for 10-15 minutes we bring them back to their crate for 10-15 minutes then try again. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

346. HELP! I have a 14 week old puppy and an 11 week old puppy. I regularly take them outside for their business, will wait with them for a good 10-15 minutes and they won’t do anything, but as soon as we return to the house they soil the house. What can I do? I am doing everything by the book and praising them when they so urinate etc outside. I feel like am not getting anywhere and nothings getting better.

347. Check out this blog post when you have a moment: https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/

     Good luck with your training!

348. Our 6 months old pup keeps peeing in his crate how can I stop this ?

     Thanks 😀

349. One of the dog trainers I used to work with always said about our puppies: “Play makes Pee!” When we first bring home our pups it’s fairly common for them to pee every 5 or so minutes when they are playing. As they get better control of their bladder this becomes less frequent. Good luck with your training!

350. Our puppy is 12 weeks old and she still pees constantly in the house. We take her out every 45 minutes or so and she usually pees, runs around a bit and then pees some more. But within 10-15 minutes of being inside again, she’ll pee 2 or 3 times. She doesn’t sniff or anything either, just squats. Is there something we’re doing wrong? Is this normal for her age? She can hold it because she now sleeps through the night (about 6 hours) before she needs to go potty at 5am.

351. What’s weird is when my dog goes #2 inside, she’ll actually only do it on the rug and then she’ll use her nose (I think) to fold the corners of the rug to hide it. Every time I see the rug folder over I know there’s a present for me. I guess I just need to give her a bit more time outside.

352. When we raise our guide dog pups we are taught not to allow our pups to sniff when out on walks. The sniffing around usually leads to the marking. You might try not allowing your puppy to sniff if you want to curb the marking.

353. In our quick fix society, we take our puppies out and expect them to finish as quickly as us. The advice to just be patient and give them an extra couple minutes to truly “get it all out” is very practical and an easy fix to a frustrating problem.

354. What I want to know is how my puppy learned to mark! He doesn’t do it in the house, but it drives me crazy that he has recently become obsessed with marking on our walks. Is this a driving instinct?

355. my puppy is 6 months old and still has this problem! it’s very frustrating. thanks for the advice and tips…hopefully i can fix this issue soon.

     zack

356. If it makes you feel better, my dogs used to pee on the floor.

357. It is definitely not a normal situation for a puppy to pee in the crate – the place where he/she sleeps, regardless of his/her age. After the age of one year the puppy should already have a full bladder control. There are exceptions of course and accidents happens all the time… My Brittany dog , for example, who is 10 months old developed better control of her bladder, but when she is overexcited to see me in the end of the day, she is not absolutely able to control herself. As a pet owner I can control this accidents easily – I just take her outside, ignoring her excitement and after she had the job done, I give her the needed attention and love.

358. In general it’s not “normal” behavior for a puppy, even a young one to pee in the crate. A puppy will normally not pee where he/she sleeps. If you haven’t had a chance take a look at this article: https://puppyintraining.com/how-can-i-get-my-dog-to-stop-peeing-in-her-crate/. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

359. My 6 month old puppy is still peeing in the crate, sometimes within an hour of a walk. For how long is this behavior considered “normal”?

360. I actually get this question all the time. It is fairly confusing when it first happens, but makes more sense when you think about the fact that at such a young age a puppy will not be able to control his/her bladder.

361. Thanks for sharing these tips! This common problem makes sense because they are still so young to control their bladder.

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