Hi All

i have got a 5 month old westie who is near enough clean, we sometimes have a wee mishap but not very often, his pooh he is completely clean with. What i have been doing is using a babies playpen overnight and in the morning when i am at work he goes in the playpen for around 3 hours, he is always dry and settles into his bed as good as gold with no crying or anything. Today i thought i would leave the door to the playpen open so that he could roam the conservatory while i wasn't there as this is where his playpen is, on returning he had wet twice in the conservatory but not in his playpen, i am unsure now whether to go back to shutting the door of the playpen while i am out or whether i should perservere with him. I know it was only the first day but i thought seeing as he has been dry for around 4 weeks on putting him into the playpen when i am not there that perhaps now was the time to leave his door open so that he could roam around the conservatory as he pleases, why would he be starting to wet just for me leaving his door open, would he perhaps feel frightened by the door being left open and perhaps not feeling as safe.
Any advice i would be grateful for as i would like to get him out of the playpen so that he can roam around as he wants but i do not want him to start to lose his housetraining habits through this.
Thanks
Helen

Helen - He is a baby and doesn't understand that the conservatory is not outside. He can obviously hold on for however long you are leaving him - but if he has space that he thinks is OK - he is going to relieve himself. He needs to be taught that going anywhere other than outside is wrong - but you can't chastise him after the event.

I would also very seriously think before leaving any animal in a conservatory anyway - they can become ovens and can make aany animal very ill - and worse - especially a young puppy. Can you leave hi in your kitchen?

Pam n the boys

Hi Helen,

As Pam said, a conservatory is too warm a place in the Summer to leave a dog.

If he is mostly housetrained, but clearly does not see the conservatory as part of the house (maybe tiles on the floor instead of rugs?), then I would spend time with him in the conservatory when he is free and you think it is about time for him to wee. You may need the chance for him to make a mistake while you are watching and can interrupt him "midstream" to take him outside, that way he will learn the conservatory is not the place to wee.

I would wait until your pup is completely housetrained to allow him complete freedom in the house. If he makes a mistake or two or three while you are gone he may regress and you will need to restart housetraining with him. The other consideration is what he will get up to in the house, even if he is clean.

Stacey

we're just about to have a conservatory build for our dog to use during the day, it comes with air conditioning so will be the coolest room in the house :D

Can I come live in your conservatory? :-)

certainly!! :) it's where I'll be camping if it doesnt cool down soon

My boyfriend thinks I'm insane putting in air conditioning just for Darcy but I know she'll love it
She's hating it at the moment. poor thing
Always moving about trying to find a cool bit to lay on

Hi All

I forgot to say that our conservatory has got air conditioning so he is staying cool when left during the morning when i am at work, i know it sounds mad but as our conservatory is south facing we had to have air con put in otherwise Hamish would have got too hot. His pen is out there all the time so he classes this as his room and we have not had any mishaps for a while when we are in as he waits by the door to go out, when he is penned in the mornings and overnight he hangs on until we come in to go out to the garden to wee, this was why i thought i would leave him in the conservatory where he associates this as his room thinking he may not wee but i was wrong. Today he went back to being put in his playpen and on returning he was dry like he has been. Can anybody suggest a way of me starting to get him out of the pen without him loosing his housetraining habits, i find it hard to see how he can be in his pen and clean but on leaving his playpen door open and him still being in the conservatory which is the room he has always slept in that this then starts him weeing, would he just feel insecure with the door being left open, i just wanted to give him a bit more room to be able to roam around the 1 room as he pleases but perhaps it is too early to start leaving him out at the moment. I was intending starting off with the 1 room and then letting him have the conservatory and kitchen to roam not the whole of the downstairs at once, but i think i am going to have to rethink at the moment.

thanks
Helen

Helen

Thanls for clarifying about the conservatory.

As for the weeing - it's a space thing. He won't wee his pen as it's so small - but to him your conservatory will seem huge in comparison and so it's OK for it to have a toilet spot or two. As was mentioned before - he needs to learn that the conservatory is not an OK place to toilet and so you must train him using the method mentioned before.

hth

Pam n the boys

Hi

I am glad i cleared the problem up about the conservatory i wouldn't like people to think he was out there sweltering in the heat. I am sure that Hamish knows he is not to wee in the conservatory as when we have had an accident and we are there his ears go flat down to his head and he races out the garden quick to finish his wee, so i think he knows not to wee in the conservatory but it is just getting him to hang on when out of his pen and we are not around. I am using the odourkill to spray on the tiles of the conservatory when we do have an accident as i find that this gets rid of the smell quite nicely. We have also got the same tiles in our kitchen and he does not wee on these.
I think i may have to place him in his play pen for a little longer as at least i know he stays dry in here, usually he goes into his playpen around 9am in the morning and i come home at 12pm and he is then out for the rest of the day with me, it was just that yesterday i had to pop out for half an hour and i thought i would leave him in the conservatory with the playpen door open so that he could come and go as he pleased but i came home to 2 puddles on the floor, it just surprised me that he goes around 3 hours in the morning and is dry and then i left him for half an hour and he wee'd twice.
At night he is brilliant he goes off to bed himself at around 9.30pm and gets into his bed with his little dog that he snuggles up to and i then close his door and he does not get up until 7am, he is still usually asleep aswell when i come down in the morning and he is quite content to stay there for longer but i open his door and then he goes out to pooh and wee as good as gold. It is just the fact that leaving the door open at the moment for him to roam around seems to be confusing him and he is loosing his cleanliness but only his wee not his pooh, which i know is good for a 5 month old puppy but i do not want him to get too used to weeing around the conservatory now i have got him clean, i am unsure whether to carry on leaving the door open and put up with puddles around or pen him for a little while longer and try him again, he seems to be quite content in his pen as he does not cry or bark when i leave him but i would like to see him out all of the time instead of being in his pen.
I am not sure what else i can do as he knows that he is not to wee in the conservatory but then if i am not there to let him out and he wants to wee what else can he do, but then on the otherhand i think when he is in his pen he holds on so what is the difference with the door being left open on the playpen.
I am a bit confused as to how to go about this.
Helen

Hiya,

Hows it going with your pup?

I have to say here, no matter how much u think your puppy knows not to wee in your conservatory, he really and honestly doesnt.

He may well know not to do it if you are there, he may well know not to wee in his pen, but dogs learn things a bit differently to ppl. For dogs, it can entirely depend on setting. For instance, the dog that will sit, when asked to, but ONLY when the owner is standing up! Or Only indoors, not outdoors. Tempting as it is to believe that your pup knows it mustnt or must do something in a certain place, especially when they show u body language that suggests you are right, please, DONT believe it.

If you work on the assumption that your pup DOES NOT know where the right place to go is, then training will happen much faster, if u assume he does, then all you will do is make the process take longer if not forever.

My three dogs all have a different level of housetraining.
Rocky is 100% clean in house, he wont go if im out, in someone elses house, asleep, even if he desperate. I once had to leave him in a friends back yard for a few hours, when i came back, as soon as i let him out onto the grass outside their house, he weed and weed adn weed, and i realised he hadnt gone in my friends yard, because i wasnt there to say it was ok!!!!!!!!!!! (next time, made sure he weed first!).
Saffi is about 80% clean. She wont mess in front of me, unless she is very veyr desperate and i have noticed her 'asking'. Since saffis 'asking' to go out is very subtle, can be easy to miss. She will hold on over night, but if she is in the kitchen on her own for more than about 7 hours, she will go. also, if left at an odd time of day, that she wasnt expecting, she will go if she needs to.
Dilly is errr, not housetrained. He will wee on command outside, however he will also not ask everytime he needs to go, and will sneak off to wee, or wait until i am asleep. He did this the other night, i tried to stay awake, took him out every time he whined, (about 4 or 5 times) eventually passed out, fully clothed, woke up to find he had weed on the floor.

So there are three dogs, of varying ages, who all have different agendas when it comes to peeing or pooping.

Good luck,
Em

Hi

Thanks for your message, the last couple of days i have put him back into his playpen again while i have been out, and he has stayed dry. What i am wanting to know is how do i let him stay out to roam the conservatory on his own without him weeing, i cannot see how he is going to learn not to wee in the conservatory when i am not there, as when nobody is there and he wee's i cannot tell him off when i get home because he won't remember what he did. He doesn't wee in the house when there is somebody with him so how will he learn not to wee when he is on his own? Hope somebody may be able to help me as i cannot see how i can train him to be dry when he is on his own or will he learn as he gets older. Never having a dog before i am not sure how to go about this, it was quite easy to housetrain him while we were there to get him out into the garden but i cannot see how i am going to get him dry when i am not around.
Hope somebody may have an idea.

Thanks
Helen

Hiya,

Yeah, u have hit on the big problem with having a pup and workin! Basically it is gonna take you longer.

If you give him little/no opportunity to mess in the house, and make sure he NEVER ever has to mess in his pen (ie dont leave him so long he really cant hang on) then eventually, he will just not consider the house an appropriate place to mess.

Obviously, with working, this is going to take longer for you, than it would for someone home all day (hehe, though not necessarily, i dotn work, but 2 out of three dogs arent 100%!) but be persistant.

If you are worried about keeping him in a small pen, you could buy some wire mesh panels, to make a bigger pen, and gradually increase the amount of space he has. If you do that, do it VERY slowly.

Also, dogs are often very specific about the surfaces they will use, ie some dogs, like my own, wont go on the concrete path, or pavement. Nor will they go on carpet. so, if you make the pen a lil bigger, put a square of carpet on the floor.

Basically, thats pretty much it, time, persistance, and prevention will work in the end.

Em

Hi,
Just out of interest, what are you cleaning the floor with? If you use a solution of biological washing powder, it is supposed to remove all smells that attract the dog to wee there again.
:)

Hi

I am using odourkill to clean the floor with as somebody on the board suggested it and i have found it quite good. Well this worked when we were training him while we were around but it is the keeping him dry bit when we are out that is now the problem.

Helen

Hi, you might not be able to smell it but it doesn't mean the dog can't!
Firstly, clean the floor thoroughly with biological washing powder, and then with white spirit (test it on an inconspicuous area first, it might take the colour off your floor) to make sure there is absolutely no odour to the dog at all.
Basically, your dog will not want to go in his nest, and you need to teach him that the whole house is his nest. It could be that because his playpen is his nest, the rest of the conservatory is fair game.
Does he 'go' in the same area? If he does, try feeding him there, dogs do not like to go to the toilet where they eat.
Spend time with him, playing in there, encouraging him to settle in areas that are not his playpen, and he will see that as his nest too.
I agree with what someone said earlier (forget who, sorry!) to take him out of there regularly so that gets used to leaving the conservatory for the toilet.
I wouldn't just go and leave him in there for 3 hours straight off, because the chances are he will need to go at some point during that time. Just after he has eliminated, pop him in the conservatory for about half an hour with some toys, a treat ball would be good because he's playing and eating in there, and then come back and praise him for being a good boy. Take him outside to give him another chance to go, and if he does, reward him big time with something he loves, maybe even the ultimate, a walk! It will mean that he wanted to go, but held on which is great.
If he doesn't, go back and play with him, and supervise him until he does need to go, then take him outside and give him his big reward.
Do that on a weekend, or whenever you have some time spare, and in the meantime keep him in his playpen when you can't supervise.
Out of interest, what is the floor like in your conservatory, and what substance does he usually go on outside?
Good luck,
Jo

Hi Helen

Is there anyway you could get a dog flap fitted in the conservatory to the outside at all ? That is what we have and and have two puppies since we have had it and it took a few days for them both to suss that outside was where they had to go and have been fully housetrained since ! :)

Just a thought !

Lucy

i dont like the sound of having a dog flap for the pup to use! being able to get outside alone when your out, what if the pup hurts itself? there are lots of hidden dangers in gardens, pups are mischevious and should never be left outside a secure area alone! sorry just my opinion.

Hi Jacqi

The area the girls are allowed out to is secured and is all paved and has no hazards ! It is just like a luxury dog kennel and run really ! I didn't mean to imply that it should be straight out into the garden.:)

Lucy

sorry lucy, must have been the way i read it.

Jacki

I didn't mention about outside being secure in my original post ! I agree that a puppy should be only left to be in a safe environment !!:)

Lucy