i have a 10 week old cavalier king charles spaniel pup, had her two weeks now. she's pretty good re: toileting - in general i can read her signs and let her out in time.

we mainly keep her in the kitchen, she has a cage in there (which she's content to be in) and she definitely does come all round the downstairs of the house with me, dining room & front room & plays in the garden during hte day. i just focus most of my time in kitchen as its easiest room for her to be good in.

we use puppy pads to help - leave one in a corner of her cage at night and have one by the back door in the day. if she goes on a pad i don't make any fuss (either parise her or tell her off, just ignore.) If she's goes outside i make a big fuss of her, tell her in no uncertain terms she's best pup in universe & give her little food treat. [she does go on pad in cage at night but she doesn't like having to do so. if she's had to poo in cage at night she's notciably more agitated in the morning.]

consequently she likes best to go outside and does 95% daytime elimination out there.

i have two questions:
1 - sometimes i find it difficult to see how she's trying to tell me that she wants to go out. she scratches at the pad sometimes and occasionally in last couple of days has started nipping me (she's quite play-bitey anyway but ew're getting that under control, see separate posts.) This has only happened once or twice but i definitely want to nip it in the bud and get her telling me she wants to go out in a different way - eg ideally barking/making a noise or poss scratching on back door or something like that. [She does sometimes sit quietly by the back door but i think she knows that she'll get let out to play if she does that. obv toilet's not imminent as she can sit quietly so when taken out she just gets distracted.] How can i encourage her to give me a more readable sign?

2 - she gets VERY VERY agitated, 'Mad 5 Mins' pup, in the half hour or so before she has to poo and takes her 10 mins or so to calm down afterwards. SHe races around like mad pup, can be a bit aggressive, is generally clearly very agitated & uncomfortable. I hope/imaigne this will get better with age/developing control - what do people think? Similar experiences? I'm concerned because (a) she has to race round the whole garden before she'll poo and (b) i just can't imagine her doing it quietly on a lead! Advice much appreciated......

Thanks everyone x

Sounds like a normal Cavalier to me

1.Re nipping basically ignore it if you react then she will repeat it as she is doing to your attention & by reacting you will add to the problem

2.The mad cavalier moments :D my boys still do that & it will not affect the walking on the lead. You might even find she will not go to the toilet away from home. One of my boys has never done anything away from the house & another has only done something once & he had a bit of an upset tummy when he did

well that's all reassuring, definitely - but maybe i didn't explain myself so well on the poo-point. (And please excuse the nitty gritty of this post!! There's just no way to be lady-like when talking about poo is there....;))

i am pretty sure i can tell when she's brewing for a no 2, she gets v agitated, very hyper sort of play (wants to shake/bite toys and tug of war lots; also can bomb around a bit) - she'll do the things that i know mean she wants to go out (eg sit by the back door staring at me) but hten she just goes mental when i take her outside, eats everything in sight (grass, soil, stones, mum's fuschias eeeek), scampers round and general gets completely distracted. so i wait 5-10 mins, trying to get/call her back to her toilet spot then i take her in again. so we play some frantic games inside (or i can try calming her down, but its not v successful) then i notice same signs again, take her out, she gets distracted, and on and on..... i can do this 3 or 4 times before she ends up depositing.

do you think this will improve with her control? i'm trying to teach her different commands to associate with wees and poos respectively - think she knows hte wee one already, pretty much, but am hoping once she's old enough to have some physical control that when i take her out knowing that she needs to go, i can use her poo command to focus her on the job (i didn't intend thta pun honest, ha ha!)

Otherwise my life & routine is going to be dictated by Ruby's toilet habits!!

DO you think that's a reasonable strategy/expectation?

It sounds like you (and she!) are getting there. At this stage try to only use the "poo" trigger word (ours is Hurryup) while she is actually pooing, and immediately after she's finished, praise, praise, praise in a really excited voice. Until she's associated the trigger-word with the exact desired action (to her it may mean rush madly about the garden!) it is going to be a matter of chance if she responds to it. She will learn in the end, they all do, so don't worry!
:)

oh one other little hting - as my pup's still pretty small, i have difficulty getting a collar the right size. am currently using a canvas one with a quick release clip. (Tried using an elastic cat collar but don't want to start using the lead with that one - i don't think it would be v safe w all that stretching.)

I can actually fit all 4 fingers underneath the collar though - she's quite happy with it on now so i want to start getting her used to the lead after all she is 10 weeks old now and i need to get her in a few more new situations over the next few weeks as part of the socialisation process.

That'll be ok won't it? No probs or other advice?

Just to reassure you that my pup also has a mad half hour after he's done a number two - I think he thinks he has done something really clever and he wants the world to know about it. If I'm not with him at the time he barks to let me know he's been good and needs a treat!

Jo

hee hee, they're so funny pups, aren't they!! mine is more hyper before - she takes a few minutes afterwards to calm down esp if its been a particularly big event, if you know what i mean, and then all that effort means she ends up having a good big sleep!!

just so adorable........:)