House Training

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Mrs Scooby

Boxer Pal
Hi Everyone, have got a quick question on house training.

We've had Scooby for 4 days now and we're not doing too bad with the toilet training.

We take him out really regularly during the day and evening (there is always someone home with him) so we hardly ever have any accidents, accept during the night where he is shut in the kitchen but that's to be accepted.

Everytime he goes in the garden we really praise him heavily and give him a special treat (a certain one for going potty in the garden). He loves the praise (it's soooo cute seeing his little tail wagging!), but I'm wondering if we're doing it right.

Earlier on this morning the door was open to the garden and I was upstairs, I came downstairs to a lovely pile of poo on the kitchen floor (lovely!), so he's obviously not grasped that outside is to go to the loo. If we do catch him in the act we do pick him up and put him outside, saying 'outside' in a stern voice.

What I'm wondering is if we continue with this method will he eventually get it? I know we've not been training long and there is no way we can expect it to happen overnight but I'd rather be doing the right thing from the beginning rather than trying to get rid of bad habits later!

We've considered a crate but really have no space for it. We've seen posts on here about bell training, and would really like to give that a go, but need to train him to know to go outside first!

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated!

Hayley
 

gmacleod

Elusive Moderator
Staff member
Hi Hayley,

Yes, he will eventually get it - just not quite in four days ;) In fact he'll be closer to six months old before he *completely* understands the potty-outside-without-exception thing (though you may be accident-free well before that).

But keep doing exactly what you're doing - praising the behaviour you want is the best way to train any puppy. If you want to bell-train him too, there's no need to wait until he's already asking to go out, he can learn both things simultaneously. It's really just a case of 'helping' him to ring the bell each time you take him out to potty, and in time he'll associate ringing the bell with going out. A search on bell training will bring up lots more info and advice :)

Gwyneth
 

adobeboxers

Boxer Booster
He'll learn but it may take weeks/months to be completely potty trained. You may want to start a command for when he goes the bathroom (like, be quick or hurry) and each time you take him outside pick a word for that too. It will help you and him figure out what you want him to do.

The worst thing about potty training is, right when you think they have it down, you find a little treat waiting for you.
 
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