we have had our lab puppy for 3 weeks, he's been really good and has got the pooping outside bit really well, we havent had any of those accidents inside since the first few days of having him, don't get me wrong I know its only early days and everything, and he does pee outside a fair bit but he doesnt seem to understand yet that he cant wee indoors. lol. I havent told him off for any accidents we've had and have been advised not to use paper/pads because its confusing for the puppy to learn one behaviour and then to change it completly afterwards.

How long sould I expect this to go on for and are there any other things I can do other than just taking him outside every couple of hours and when he's sniffing?

Any feedback would be great thanks. Sam 

Just carry on what you are doing he will get the soon get the idea ! I am not sure if dogs are harder to toilet train than bitches ( as in the human variety :-D) as only ever having had bitches they were all very quick learner and only had the odd few accidents :-D

Might be worth cleaning the patches over with some biological washing liquid as well as this will remove and traces of wee smell. He might be associating the smell with the right place to wee because of this as normal detergents won't always remove all of the smell .

You seem to be doing the right things, the only other thing I can think of which you don't mention is praising him when he does go outside.

Labs do tend to get the idea pretty quickly so as LJS says keep up the good work, he'll soon get the idea.

hi and welcome! sounds like your doing fine and doing everything the right way.

just in case, other useful times for a toilet trip- following eating, drinking, naps and play. all key widdling periods :) the problem being all pups are different so its hard to say how long.

so wheres a pic then? :)

thanks guys, pics will follow soon, its cos all my photos are on my mobile and cant find the usb wire for it! how stupid lol.

> How long sould I expect this to go on for and are there any other things I can do other than just taking him outside every couple of hours and when he's sniffing?

You can expect the odd accident right up to 6 months.

I can't recall that mine ever poo'd indoors but we used to have the occasional wee accident.  He would also wee in his bed most nights for ages.  He didn't call us downstairs and they were small damp patches so we figured that is was more 'leaking' than a bursting bladder.  I guess he never read the books where they say a dog will never mess where it sleeps!!

If your boy came to you at 8 weeks or so he is still very young to only need a wee every 2 hours. Mine was every 30 minutes for the first few weeks then at least every hour at a similar age to yours.  Always after waking or playing too.

They sometimes take two steps forward then one step back so it can change week on week for a while.  I'm fairly sure we were 100% ok indoors by 5 months.

In addition to all the advice you've received already just watch him when it rains!  They often don't like peeing in the rain, who can blame them, so make sure you have a brolly and a coat to got outside with him.  Even now, when I'm in the garden at night I think of all those puppy people who must be doing the same :)

> In addition to all the advice you've received already just watch him when it rains!  They often don't like peeing in the rain

a very good point. at 7 years old one of ours still will fight like mad to avoid going out in the rain. then she basically just sticks her bum out, glaring at you the whole while and twitching like shes being burned every time the rain hits her.

i house broke my rat terrier by listeing to my vet.when thay mess in the house clean it up with a old rag and take the dog and the rag out in the yard and let them smell it.hey it works.i had my rat broke in 2wks time and I got him at 6wks.

I am suddenly very demoralised!  I have had my shih-tzu for 4 weeks and he still goes to the loo as much inside as out.  I feel like i am outside all the time, praise and treat him....then we come back in and 2 mins later he's doing a puddle or a po

He's up at about 6.30am and always does a wee and a poo straight away but this seems to be the only time we're understanding each other.  By the end of the evening it's a complete free-for-all, with me following him round the place like a hawk, waiting for the giveaway sniff.

I think some of this is due to him going to my sister's flat one day a week (she uses pads for him) so it must be confusing for him.  She says he's 50/50 on them.  Then my Mum picks up the kids one day and is here til 7pm and again, i think all training goes out the window.  You can't really expect someone else to put the effort into it that you do and as they've never had dogs i don't think they understand you have to be on the case the whole time, Teddy is certainly not gona put his paw up and ask to go to the loo!

Have to say, it's a bit of a worry as nothing worse than treading in an unseen dog-poo and all the clearing up it entails.  I could bear it if i was actually seeing some progress!

I also use the odour neutralises everywhere as have wooden floors; have taken up all the rugs and only use pads overnight in his cage which are always really wet by morning.

Am gona keep battling on, but am dead jealous of your Lab progress and not pooing in the house - bliss!

> By the end of the evening it's a complete free-for-all, with me following him round the place like a hawk, waiting for the giveaway sniff.

Teddyboy, ideally you should be pre-empting his need to go out rather than waiting for a 'sign'.  Some dogs give little or no indication at all and an actual request to go out can be months off yet.

After a while you'll start to notice a direct correlation between him eating and drinking, then needing to go out.  In the meantime go back to the basics and go out with him after eating, after playing, and upon waking.  Make sure you go out every 30 or 40 minutes til you get the hang of his routine.

You're right, few people will watch your pup like you do and puppy pads are confusing.  Hang on in there :)

Sorry to go OT but did anyone else come into this topic thinking it was about burglary ????? :-O

haha sorry bout the confusion there lol

>>Sorry to go OT but did anyone else come into this topic thinking it was about burglary ?????>>

Yes me Paula!! :-D I thought I was going nuts due to doing a lot of work for 2 shows coming up in the next month, glad it wasn't just me 

You probably are going nuts Cava14Una, but you're not alone :-D

> Sorry to go OT but did anyone else come into this topic thinking it was about burglary ?????>>
> Yes me Paula!! :-D I thought I was going nuts due to doing a lot of work for 2 shows coming up in the next month, glad it wasn't just me 

With this thread coming up just above (or below) the thread on cars being broken into, its no wonder the confusion arose!!

Visions of us giving tips on the best way to case a joint - use back or front doors ........noooo!!!!!

That makes sense thinking about it. At the moment i pick him up as he's about to go and am often too late and he must hate the disturbance!

What has worked very well for me with both my dogs reliably trained in a couple of weeks (dalmatian and collie cross) is a two-pronged attack.
1 Pre-empting his needs. Take him out after every meal, every sleep and before you are going to leave him alone, also during the night (just before you go to bed, then a few hours later, to try to avoid the weeing in the crate).
2 Watching like a hawk at all other times. In order to ensure i could watch my dogs properly I found a lead tied to my belt really useful, dog is not going off to pee behind the sofa etc, he is right by you ALL the time, so you just run for the door each time he starts to circle and sniff, he is attached to a lead, so he has to run for the door too. Before long you have a dog who is trained to run for the door when they get the urge to pee or poo.

You must be sure you are thoroughly cleaning up all accidents, get rid of the smell with a cleaner you can buy from a petshop which effectively gets rid of the smell of toilet accidents, do not use a kitchen cleaner with bleach in as that smells a bit like pee to a dog.

It is harder for you that sometimes others are in charge of the dog, maybe they could be encouraged to join in this routine, but if not he should get there eventually, just not so quickly.