# How long does housebreaking usually take?



## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

The puppy should be housetrained before leaving the breeder. 

And if that doesn't happen, it might be a matter of up to 4 weeks before you're comfortable... but ideally we are so observant and careful we have no accidents. Many dogs and puppies poop multiple times per outing. If there's a lot of running around...expect more times pooping... 

Do you keep a list of when you take him out and what he does (and the times of any accidents?) If you share a few days we'd be able to discuss it...


----------



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Make sure she poops every single time you take her outside. Because the food is going through her system so fast, she will be going a lot.


----------



## cory (Aug 23, 2010)

I had no idea that she should have been housebroken by the time I brough her home from the breeder....I haven't been keeping a schedule but will definitely start with one now. I find that the most accidents are in the morning and the evening when I am trying to get the kids ready for school and ready for bed. It is only 1 week that she has been with us so I really shouldn't complain and need to definitely be more observant with myself.


----------



## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Keep a chart and share, that will definitely help.

And noticing that many accidents happen when you are busy with the kids... get everyone up a bit earlier so that you taking her out more often is not going to make anyone late. I would also crate her with a chew toy when you aren't directly supervising her during those times. 

Prevention: Crate/gate/on leash supervise directly so she cannot have a chance to have an accident.
Training: Keep a chart. Take her out on leash. Reinforce every time she eliminates outside.
If a mistake happens: Make a note on your chart. Clean it up. If this happens more than once a week, you need to change your prevention and training strategies.


----------



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Most of my puppies have been 'house trained' in a few days - but mostly it is careful watching and crating when I cannot watch.

Times to take a puppy outside are immediately after they wake up, after playing, after eating, after any excitement, whenever they come out of their crate and at least every x hours where x is their age in months (not at night though). For example, a 2 month old puppy needs to go outside at least every 2 hours - my puppies generally last through the night (10pm to 4am) after their first night but I pull water at 8pm. I kind of expect an accident around 5-6 months of age when they can be no-noed and brought outside - this is their only time getting a correction for house training.

Also, if the pup starts circling or sniffing, time to get them outside.

I personally do not expect my pups breeders to house break my pups - 1) the pups are really too young to have sufficient bladder control and 2) litters are a LOT of work even without the housebreaking. They will be started on house training but I would not consider them trained.


----------



## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Hank was about 12 weeks when he started "telling" me he needed to go out and not just squatting where ever he was.


----------



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> I personally do not expect my pups breeders to house break my pups - 1) the pups are really too young to have sufficient bladder control and 2) litters are a LOT of work even without the housebreaking. They will be started on house training but I would not consider them trained.


I think too... when breeders say that a puppy is "housetrained", they are just saying that the puppy has been trained to go outside or only on a certain type of material. It doesn't mean the puppy is not going to learn how to go in the house. 

Like my puppy was trained to go on cedar. When puppies in his litter had to go potty, they automatically went to their sawdust pile to go potty. 

I received specific instructions on how to keep this behavior going. And the breeder gave me a big bag of cedar to spread out in the yard where I wanted the puppy to go. 

And that first month I had a puppy who was running to the back door to go potty out in his cedar pile. <- I was stunned, amazed, and weirded out. But I guess I do believe breeders when they say their puppies are sent home housetrained. 

The problems that arise are due to owners relaxing too soon. Keep in mind a puppy is unable to hold very long for the first few months. And also once they figure out it's OK to go inside when they have to go instead of running to the door, they have to be housetrained (taught to only go outside) all over again.


----------



## Momx3 (Aug 18, 2010)

I don't have any answers, but we are in the same position as you guys. Daisy is 8 weeks 2 days old. She was paper trained from the breeder - she had a low rubbermaid type box filled with shredded paper where the puppies would pee. Our breeder has a regular job besides breeding dogs so i didn't expect her to house train the puppies.

Anyway, she is doing pretty well now that she's home with us, but she still has 1-2 accidents a day. I think all but one or two were our fault. Most were the fault of us thinking someone else was watching the dog when in reality nobody was watching her! Even when it had only been about 1-2 minutes it seems like as soon as nobody was watching that's when she decided to poop.  The only ones where I feel like we couldn't have done much better were when we took her out to pee and then she went again within 20 minutes of being back inside. Also, both of those pee accidents were on blankets - the breeder said she might still be confused with her old training where she was supposed to go on a soft surface inside.

I have been keeping a schedule, but I didn't keep it very well the last two days. I'm starting again today. Her pee schedule seems pretty consistent - about every 1 1/2 - 2 hours except those rare times where she surprises us and goes after 20 minutes. I'm having a harder time getting her on a poop schedule. The poster who said she should poop every time she goes out surprised me - Daisy usually only goes 2-3 times a day and unfortunately one of them is always in the middle of the night.

I really thought after all of the reading I did on house training that my dog would be one of those who rarely had any accidents - oh well, I was so wrong! Hopefully by this time next week we'll both have fewer accidents to clean up!


----------



## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

I think that the puppy should have an idea of a correct place to potty and an incorrect place to potty before leaving the breeder. For instance, understanding that s/he should potty on the cedar chips in the corner. Our breeder sent us home with some of the cedar chips to put in our yard to help him make the connection. It has worked out very, very well.

This is what Gibbs does, I don't know if it will help you.

In the AM as soon as he wakes up, we take (carry) him outside to potty. He pees and poops. It takes a few minutes but he will do both EVERY morning.

After he eats his breakfast, 20 minutes later we go outside. Another pee and poop. Remember, their bodies are tiny and since they took some food in, they need to make room and poop whatever is left in their body. We had another accident-free day yesterday. That makes 2 in a row. The other days he would still have a pee accident. He is far from house trained at 12 weeks, but he is well on his way. 

About 2-3 hours after breakfast he will poop again.

Rinse & repeat for lunch and dinner! I just stopped keeping a journal or pee and poop times, what activities we did, etc. It really helped me get a handle on when he goes.


----------



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> I'm having a harder time getting her on a poop schedule. The poster who said she should poop every time she goes out surprised me - Daisy usually only goes 2-3 times a day and unfortunately one of them is always in the middle of the night.


Sorry, I may have generalized... 

It could be every puppy is different and it may depend on the puppy food too. Some types of dog food are formulated so there are fewer poop outings (Nutro Ultra is one). 

With my Jacks he went outside at least three times a night. And he would have to poop each time. 

During the day he had the quicky 'just drank' or 'just played' or 'just had a happy fit run' outings outside where he just had to pee. Those outings I really didn't fuss about poop, because sometimes they would be a half hour apart or whatever.

But the regular three or four outings (first thing in the morning, after each of his three meals, before bedtime), I made sure he pooped each time. 

As he switched to the two meal schedule, grew old/strong enough to hold, and was given better kibble, he only has to poop 2 or 3 times a day.


----------



## Momx3 (Aug 18, 2010)

Megora said:


> Sorry, I may have generalized...
> 
> It could be every puppy is different and it may depend on the puppy food too. Some types of dog food are formulated so there are fewer poop outings (Nutro Ultra is one).
> 
> ...



I was just worried Daisy isn't pooping enough! Right now she's eating Eukanuba LBP food from the breeder. I am probably going to switch her to Blue Buffalo or Wellness LBP food in the next few days, I wanted her to get used to her new home before switching her. I wonder if those will make her poop more since people say they are richer? Then again, I don't mind fewer poops - I just wish they would be at better times!


----------



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Momx3 said:


> I was just worried Daisy isn't pooping enough! Right now she's eating Eukanuba LBP food from the breeder. I am probably going to switch her to Blue Buffalo or Wellness LBP food in the next few days, I wanted her to get used to her new home before switching her. I wonder if those will make her poop more since people say they are richer? Then again, I don't mind fewer poops - I just wish they would be at better times!


Teeny tiny suggestion... don't switch until she is at least a month older, and then take a month or two to wean her over onto the new food. Go very slowly. 

Switch a puppy too soon and you risk messing up her digestive system and that's a nasty thing to go through with a puppy who is in the middle of housetraining. And most dogs have a little digestive upset from a change of diet, but if they are older their systems are better able to handle it.


----------



## MillysMom (Nov 5, 2008)

With a schedule it is very easy, and pretty fast to house train a puppy, or at least get them knowing where to go potty vs. where not to, and not giving them much room for mistakes. The schedule is key. In the past, I've never had a problem house breaking a puppy.

That said, I got Milly as an adult, and she was the hardest dog to house train. It didn't help that she was terrified of her crate. It took almost a year to be 100% accident free.


----------



## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

I wouldn't expect a young puppy to be housetrained as in 'leave them alone for 2 hours and no mess' but they should have a concept of going in a certain place, like on shavings or paper, be used to being in a crate without having a tantrum, and used to being clean so they're not comfortable with pooping/peeing in their bed/crate. 

If you watch your pup every second he's loose, you'll know when he has to go and be able to get him out quickly. If you're not watching and they learn to go in the other room to do their thing, it'll take much, much, much longer for them to housebreak. Keep on a routine and you'll start to know when they're ok and when they're not. Not too often does a pup just suddenly 'go' they usually will leave the area they're in and go off to find a spot, and sniff, sometimes circle... that's when you'd call them or take them outside to the 'right' area.

Lana


----------



## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

It seems to me that most of the puppies on the forum around Cosmo's age (the April puppies) no longer had accidents after 3 months old. I think most of us stuck to a schedule of taking the dog out after all the things that have been mentiond: running around, playing, drinking, eating and napping. 

Cosmo had about 5 accidents in the house (only pee) and by 3 months he never had one again. The breeder did teach him to go only on the cedar woodchips so he knew never to go in his sleeping areas at least.


----------



## cory (Aug 23, 2010)

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice. It sounds like I am doing a lot of things wrong with trying to housebreak Dakota so today will be a fresh start.


----------



## katelyn29 (Jul 21, 2010)

My little Sierra is just over 3 months now, and I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable with her housebreaking. She hasn't had an accident inside for a while now. I know she is not 100% housetrained (she just had an accident last night and my parents, but thats to be expected since its a new house, without a doggie door, and my "not so observant dad" was watching her) I just keep a close eye on her and take her out very often. Since Dakota is still pretty young, its just really up to you to make sure you are taking her out often enough, since her bladder is still rather small. With time, she will eventually catch on, that outside is the place to pee/poo.

I have been more relaxed with Sierra and housebreaking. I take her out as often as I can, but if I get to busy and she pees inside, then I just clean it up, and don't stress. Of course I want her to be housebroken as soon as possible, but we stressed so much with Dakota when he was little, and sure enough everything worked out fine, he caught on and the rest is history. It also helps a lot that we have a doggie door! Her and Dakota are in and out so often playing that she just knows to relieve herself when outside, and since she figured the door out about a week ago, I don't think she has messed inside since.


----------

