# Potty signals



## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

Archer has been home since Friday and is really doing great, my 2 year old daughter does make it difficult for him to be on his best behavior though lol. What we do now for potty is we play for a while, maybe ill sneak in a bit of basic training; sit, down and come. I will put him in his crate and let him relax for a bit and so my daughter can play with all of her little toys without him picking everything up causing me to constantly correct his behavior. I will leave him in his crate until he makes a fuss that he needs to go out, its a great system and prevents accidents from happening. But when he doesn't get his crate time its hard to tell when he needs to go out resulting in some accidents without any warning that he needs to go out except maybe some sniffing around. Do I just keep doing my crate and potty method or do I need to do something else so that he gives us more of an alert that he needs to go out?


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## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

BigHemi45 said:


> Archer has been home since Friday and is really doing great, my 2 year old daughter does make it difficult for him to be on his best behavior though lol. What we do now for potty is we play for a while, maybe ill sneak in a bit of basic training; sit, down and come. I will put him in his crate and let him relax for a bit and so my daughter can play with all of her little toys without him picking everything up causing me to constantly correct his behavior. I will leave him in his crate until he makes a fuss that he needs to go out, its a great system and prevents accidents from happening. But when he doesn't get his crate time its hard to tell when he needs to go out resulting in some accidents without any warning that he needs to go out except maybe some sniffing around. Do I just keep doing my crate and potty method or do I need to do something else so that he gives us more of an alert that he needs to go out?


 Why don't you just take him out after every time you feed him.?


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

After a while you will probably learn his potty schedule. Here's what I do with a young puppy. 

Take him out first thing in the am, about 10-15 min after each meal, after naps, and after a lot of exercise/play time. You'll probably end up taking him out every 1-2 hours during the day. Supervise him constantly and crate him if you can't watch him. 

It sounds like you're probably doing all or many of these things already. 

As far as cues he needs to go out, look for sniffing, circling, whining, restlessness, or heading towards the door. You'll learn to recognize his signals the longer you've had him. And make sure you clean up any messes with an enzematic cleaner so he's not attracted back to the same spot.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

Nurse Bishop said:


> Why don't you just take him out after every time you feed him.?


He goes potty more times than we feed him and he usually doesn't need to right after we feed him.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

sebrench said:


> After a while you will probably learn his potty schedule. Here's what I do with a young puppy.
> 
> Take him out first thing in the am, about 10-15 min after each meal, after naps, and after a lot of exercise/play time. You'll probably end up taking him out every 1-2 hours during the day. Supervise him constantly and crate him if you can't watch him.
> 
> ...


This is pretty much exactly what we do now. Most of the time I can catch him if he sniffing around but some times there is no warning at all. I have definitely made good use of the enzyme eradicator. Thanks! He held it for about 6 hours last night which made me pretty happy lol.


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## sebrench (Dec 2, 2014)

When you see him in the midst of a mistake, tell him "no" and take him outside to finish. I'm sure you're praising him when he goes outside. It sounds like you're doing the right things. It just takes a while before all the hard work pays off. He'll get there!


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

sebrench said:


> When you see him in the midst of a mistake, tell him "no" and take him outside to finish. I'm sure you're praising him when he goes outside. It sounds like you're doing the right things. It just takes a while before all the hard work pays off. He'll get there!


If I catch him, he will stop. He has done great with it so far. I guess I was just making sure there wasn't something else I should have been doing.


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## w_r_ranch (Dec 25, 2016)

We always hung a string of bells on the back door. Whenever we took them out, we would ring the bells... all of the pups picked up on that pretty quick. As they mature, the bells are put away.

Also when they would do their business, we also repeated "Hurry up" & then praised them upon completion. This becomes their routine (squatting on command) & is invaluable throughout their & our lives.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

w_r_ranch said:


> We always hung a string of bells on the back door. Whenever we took them out, we would ring the bells... all of the pups picked up on that pretty quick. As they mature, the bells are put away.
> 
> Also when they would do their business, we also repeated "Hurry up" & then praised them upon completion. This becomes their routine (squatting on command) & is invaluable throughout their & our lives.


I would love to, but he doesn't have access to the potty door. We have a townhome and when you walk in the door you have to go up or down. We have a gate at the first floor landing since we have a 2 year old and a 13 stair staircase going to the 2nd floor. He will never be using the staircase to go upstairs and I am carrying down the 5 steps to the front door. I would love to put bells on the baby gate but my daughter would be ringing them all frickin day.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

Take him out every fifteen minutes. As he gets older, he will be able to wait longer.


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## Nurse Bishop (Nov 20, 2016)

BigHemi45 said:


> He goes potty more times than we feed him and he usually doesn't need to right after we feed him.


 I meant a short while after you feed him. My puppy only relieved herself in the house three times that was it. She was let out after crating and also the second she started sniffing and circling. She was given lavish raise for going to do her business outside. Accident areas on the floor were cleaned with clorox water. We got her when she was six weeks old.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

Nurse Bishop said:


> I meant a short while after you feed him. My puppy only relieved herself in the house three times that was it. She was let out after crating and also the second she started sniffing and circling. She was given lavish raise for going to do her business outside. Accident areas on the floor were cleaned with clorox water. We got her when she was six weeks old.


He only had a couple of accidents with me but those are already done with. I was more asking for when my wife is home alone. She hasn't been following him around the way that I have. We have a gate up now between the kitchen and the living room so you don't have to follow him through the house. You can see him from the couch if you aren't playing with him and he can't sneak into the kitchen and mess without you noticing.


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## KaiserAus (Dec 16, 2016)

I was wondering if there was a way to teach them to bark if they need to go out?


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## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

KaiserAus said:


> I was wondering if there was a way to teach them to bark if they need to go out?


It's funny that you asked that. I have recently been werking with Ranger on the "SPEAK" command. He just yesterday started coming up to me and barking and walking up to the door. Without fail he had to go do business every time. I'm hoping this behavior sticks.


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## BigHemi45 (May 10, 2016)

Luckily for me Archer now nudges the gate we have up with his nose and sits by it when he has to go out.


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## KaiserAus (Dec 16, 2016)

Shooter said:


> It's funny that you asked that. I have recently been werking with Ranger on the "SPEAK" command. He just yesterday started coming up to me and barking and walking up to the door. Without fail he had to go do business every time. I'm hoping this behavior sticks.


Ahh... will try that one - teach him "speak" and then before I let him out for toilet I will get him to "speak" - perhaps it will sink in that way.


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## Shooter (Nov 19, 2016)

KaiserAus said:


> Ahh... will try that one - teach him "speak" and then before I let him out for toilet I will get him to "speak" - perhaps it will sink in that way.


My days and nights are mixed up because Im on nights right now but I think has he now done this for 4 days. It was just a lucky thing for me.


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## lonecat (Nov 2, 2016)

I managed to teach my pup to bark at the backdoor when she needs to go in under 3 weeks, but she is the most easy pup I have met. I firstly taught her the bark command, which she learned under 3 days with intensive treat sessions. Then I asked her to bark at the back door whenever we went out to let her pee. It took around 2 weeks for her to associate it and became reliable. She is now accident-free at 3.5 month. Though once she becomes around 6 months old or so, I plan to stop letting her out when she barks unless she is sick with diarrhea as I would start to expect her following a reasonable potty schedule at my convenience around that time. I also make the pee trips business-like and take her out for walks at my own schedule when she is not barking to avoid her associating barking to fun walks. You can also try training the dog to ring a bell when he needs to potty, but in my house my cats wind up playing with it and make noises all the time.

Note: during the first two weeks after training her the bark command, she sometimes would bark when I say another command, clearly expecting a treat for her barking. I did not give her a treat when she barked while performing the other command, even though if she performed the other command otherwise correctly. It confused her somewhat (she would lay down barking, clearly expecting a treat for both laying down at my down command and for barking since I treated when she barked when I tried to teach her the bark command), but the confusion went away with practice in under 2 weeks and she no longer barks for treats anymore during other commands.


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