# Potty training timeline??



## Foster's Mom (Nov 29, 2016)

Welcome! 

We didn't pick Foster up from the breeder until he was 11 weeks, and she had been working on it with him. He only had one poop accident in our house from the time we got him, and it was because he was sick. He did have a lot of pee accidents, mostly because they simply can't hold it that long when they are so little. I would say by about 4 1/2 or 5 months he was "fully" trained (only had an accident once in a while). 

We brought him outside every half hour when we first got him, and every single time he went in the yard we would get excited and say "good potty." I still do that actually, and he's 16 months.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Our training school tells new puppy owners that, regardless of what you do or don't do, a dog will become reliably clean in the house at around five or six months of age. This was certainly true for my last golden retriever, who was between five and six months. In the case of my daughter's poodle, it took nearly a year. He understood what we wanted but chose not to do it (it's a poodle thing). My current golden never really had an accident in the house after the age of 12-14 weeks. However, he's an exception; he's just a quick learner. Also, I'm self-employed working from home, so it was easy to establish a regular routine.

If you aim for five to six months, you're unlikely to be disappointed.

Good luck.


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## savannah_mclain (Jul 12, 2017)

Thanks for your post! I try to take him out as much as possible. Like with yours, he hasn't had many poop accidents at all unless he was feeling under the weather, but pee accidents is much more common. Patience is key with potty training, and I am learning that!


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## savannah_mclain (Jul 12, 2017)

I will be sure to expect that time frame, thank you for the information!


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

set a timer to remind yourself to keep on schedule, the tighter ship you run, the fewer mistakes.


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## silver9 (Jul 11, 2017)

What do you guys recommend to either cover the floors (wood or carpet) or to clean it? I used nature's miracle with cats (never peed - just threw up sometimes) & that seems to do well on carpet. I also used it with dog vomit (my foster never peed either, but his stomach did not like the treats the vet gave us!) I don't have wood now, but I am going to have it soon. I can keep his crate close to the back door, but it's definitely wood not linoleum (unless he was left in the laundry room but I don't wan to do that really). 

I was thinking to buy a big sheet of linoleum from Home Depot and just lay it over the wood in front of the sliding door & put one of those pens (probably 2 pens together so it's big enough) for a "play area" when he's not in the crate. I was going to generally use the crate & always time the pee breaks for every 3-4 hours. I am no sure how people sleep entirely...with an 8-week old especially. Without doing this linoleum & pen thing (which seems a bit much?) I am not really sure what to do.

(This is all assuming I still get the dog from the breeder people were skeptical about in the other thread... but it's helpful info anyway if you have a suggestion.)


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## Kalhayd (May 4, 2016)

We used vinegar & water. 

Our first Golden was an anomaly and never had an accident after 9 weeks! 

Our second, was reliability potty trained at 5 months.


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## silver9 (Jul 11, 2017)

Well that's easy. And here I am thinking about creating a fake floor and pen... lol


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## Anne Y. (Jan 6, 2017)

We did keep our puppy in an x pen with a heavy duty tarp over our floors until he was 3 1/2 months old. (We of course took him out, that was just his "area") We replaced the tarp every two weeks, but he had a grass patch in the pen so there were very few accidents off his grass in the pen when he was little. By 14-16 weeks he was pretty dang reliable and only had a few accidents after that, and two of those 3 accidents were not at all his "fault". He hasn't had an accident besides the one he had after being attacked by a 100 pound dog in the apartment since 4-4.5 months old. 

We used Nature's Miracle and it worked like a charm. Magic in a bottle. I also sprayed our floors with vinegar where he had accidents before I'd mop with my steam mop just to be certain any and all odor was gone-but I go a bit overboard with cleaning, so I wouldn't say that's totally necessary.


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## Vika the Golden ! (Jun 18, 2017)

Potty training was very easy with my puppy I must say my puppy was fully Potty trained by 5 months old! Whereas my friends Westie still has accidens and is currently 10 months old ! 

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## WI12345 (Dec 31, 2016)

We have a Cooper puppy, too! He's almost 6 months now. He was trained in a litter box before we picked him up at 8 weeks. When we got him home, he was great at peeing as soon as we took him out (every half hour or so), but a few times he would go over to a throw rug and pee on it as if he thought that was what he was supposed to do. I picked up the throw rugs and he didn't have anymore accidents. He never ever pooped in the house!! I was shocked because our last Golden did as a puppy and I figured it was to be expected. Just when I was bragging to everyone that Cooper was completely potty trained, we were at someone's house and he walked over to their dog's sleeping pad and peed on it! Shortly after that we bought him a dog bed, and twice he peed on that! Very strange, but for some reason he thinks those places are OK to pee! I put the bed away and he has not had an accident (although those were really not accidents) in a couple of months. He can hold it for a really long time. I think Goldens are one of the easiest breeds to train. I wish he had not been trained to go indoors before we got him. The weather was certainly not a factor, since it was in Florida. My daughter has Westies and they still pee and poop in my house when they come over. They are both long past being puppies.


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## Vika the Golden ! (Jun 18, 2017)

WI12345 said:


> We have a Cooper puppy, too! He's almost 6 months now. He was trained in a litter box before we picked him up at 8 weeks. When we got him home, he was great at peeing as soon as we took him out (every half hour or so), but a few times he would go over to a throw rug and pee on it as if he thought that was what he was supposed to do. I picked up the throw rugs and he didn't have anymore accidents. He never ever pooped in the house!! I was shocked because our last Golden did as a puppy and I figured it was to be expected. Just when I was bragging to everyone that Cooper was completely potty trained, we were at someone's house and he walked over to their dog's sleeping pad and peed on it! Shortly after that we bought him a dog bed, and twice he peed on that! Very strange, but for some reason he thinks those places are OK to pee! I put the bed away and he has not had an accident (although those were really not accidents) in a couple of months. He can hold it for a really long time. I think Goldens are one of the easiest breeds to train. I wish he had not been trained to go indoors before we got him. The weather was certainly not a factor, since it was in Florida. My daughter has Westies and they still pee and poop in my house when they come over. They are both long past being puppies.


I think smaller dogs are more difficult to train ! 

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## IrisBramble (Oct 15, 2015)

My girl was about 7-8 months old when she was trained but was still having the occasional accident up until about 9-10 months old she will be 2 in Oct and and only when shes sick will she have an accident which is completely understandable (eats to much grass outside and gets the runs) i think our mistake and what took us so long to train her was our use of puppy pads we used them to long and she got used to them and when we took them away it took us longer to train her.


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## twins&golden (Jul 14, 2007)

We feel like the last few days, we've turned a corner for potty training. She hasn't had an accident in the house in three days and will whine to go out and she's 13 weeks tomorrow. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!


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## Vika the Golden ! (Jun 18, 2017)

My puppy used puppy pads for a month until she finished her vaccinations but I must say compared to my friends Westie and my neighbours beagle my Golden has been learning things so much easier!

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## FosterGolden (Mar 10, 2014)

My current two were very different. Older one was trained early on, but got hot easily, drank a lot, then would play and remember he had to pee and run to the door while peeing -- certainly can't scold a dog for trying! So, it was a lot of work to take him from a play session to potty and take him out, no kidding, every 10 minutes when he was awake and playing (which was anytime he was awake, really). I would say that by six or seven months, that completely stopped. If he didn't have the "pee while running" issue, I'd say that he "got it" around four or five months but his bladder took some time to catch up. 

My younger dog, also a male, never did the "pee while running" thing and I think he was solidly potty trained by three months, but I had to remember not to "trust" him too much as he was so young. He is my precocious little over-achiever and is nick-named by all of my friends "Perfect Wyatt". I don't think he ever bit me either. So, he was and still is something of an anomaly.


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