My first pup left on friday night and she had her first injections on saturday - vet said she was a well reared pup and a credit to her breeder ;-)

Anyway the woman who bought her seems a bit upset that she isnt housetrained. The pups are 8 weeks old and here I let them out at every opportunity and although we had the odd accident they were pleased to be out and did their business straight away!

Although Ive bought pups that were really quick to housetrain - my breed arent the cleanest of breeds and I though I'd explained that to all buyers... but they seem to want them housetrained already!

anyone have views on this - or is it just me!

Sorry but mine were all house trained by 6 weeks barring a couple of accidents but akitas are known to be very clean at toileting and it was a definate bonus to be able to tell all new owners this,sandra,

Hi Filbert

I'm not a breeder, but can give you a puppy purchaser's view :) I have a breed that is easy to housetrain, but when I get a new pup I would never even dream of it being housetrained at 8 weeks!! I would be looking for the breeder to have done as you do, ie letting the pup out whenever possible so that it begins to get the idea, but I would still expect to have to put in the work with housetraining once I got it home.

Trouble is, I think a lot of people like the idea of having a pup, but aren't prepared to put in the hard graft that having one involves. Sounds to me like you are doing everything right, and it's the prospective purchasers that are on the wrong track!!

Lesley

Don't think you can expect a pup of 8 weeks to be housetrained, some may be paper trained but most will not have control of the bladder and some will not have bowel control either. If you as a puppy purchaser, are not prepared to do the training yourself will you be prepared to do the rest of the training that you will need to do if you are to have a well behaved, well socialised dog. Think people that only want to 'own' a dog without the effort should try some sort of inanimate object that will only require the occasional dust.

Hi Filbert, When I bought my puppy I must admit it never occured to me to ask if she was house trained, I imagined it was `my job` to do this when I got her home!!! I was extremely grateful to the breeder when she told me that my pup was already paper trained and was waiting until she got let out of her run to wee during the day.

I can forsee problems with this owner if they haven't done sufficient research to know that only the rarest of puppies is housetrained at 8 weeks :(........... Some puppies aren't even housetrained at 6 months!! Although ofcourse this will depend on the methods used......... Breeders can help the process along by making sure the puppies have access to two different surfaces/areas for toiletting and sleeping/playing - the puppies that are easiest to housetrain seem to come from this sort of environment rather than those who live entirely in one area (like a shed or pen)

Totally agree that the two surfaces can be done but I think it is a bit much to expect total house training of this 8 week old Pup, Bless, they have so much to learn. JMO

Sweep

I always say to potential new owners that my pups are not housetrained - they can't learn to control them selves at the age they leave.

Whilst they may be "clean" when they leave me the new owners have to learn the signs and routines so unless they are long time odg owners or very observant it is unlikely that a pup will be totally clean in a new home.

Christine

Mine were always starting to get the idea that messing outside was better than inside, and that on the paper indoors is a good idea, but by no means would I expect a puppy to be properly housetrained at 8 weeks. That's the new owner's job!

I think anyone who knows anything about dogs would not expect them to be housetrained at 8 weeks.
Anyone who would expect a housetrained pup would need an education in dog owning. JMO :)

Totally agree with Steph!

I've had morons ringing up asking if my pups will be housetrained when they get them.with this sort of attitude i usually give them a mouthful.if people can't be bothered to research the ins and outs of puppy ownership they're definitely not having one of my pups!!

Thank you for the responses!

I was starting to worry that i wasnt doing my job right... but we have our own routine here and i know when they need the loo - so they go out... but new owners need to get to know their puppy and work together with their puppy!

To the person with the akitas' wow you lucky thing - i wish shih tzus were as easy!

are people completly barking!!!!! how many pups are house trained at 8 wks, why are some people so unrealistic. I have an eight week old beagle boy and he is slowly getting there, he knows go toilet nd 7 times out of 10 he will go outside with the old puddle in side, I consider that good for a pup of his age. I dont expect him to be anywhere near getting it right till nearer 16 weeks when this breed seems to be able to handle the toilet training. I expect you do have breeds that are excpetional to train and could be toilet trained at eight weeks.

I always thought to be realistic that to have to toilet train a eight week pup was part of the learning curve in having a new pup. I never expected them to come ready toilet trained. People have some unrealistic expectations, and not only with this issue, you could say with a lot of things in life!!

I think anyone who expects a puppy to be housetrained at 8 weeks obviously has not done any homework whatsoever, and I would worry that they do not know what they are letting themselves in for with a new puppy!

My sisters bitch (rough collie) had a small litter 2 years ago. When the new owner came to collect one pup at 8 weeks, the puppy was wriggling around in its owners arms and we suggested she put it down - it ran straight to its toiletting area and did a wee - we were so proud! The new owner was very impressed and wrote to us later that pup had only had one accident in the house.

Fiona and Saffy

I agree with what you're all saying about not expecting an 8 week old pup to be completely clean, but perhaps the potential owner just wanted to know if the pup was house-trained, or to what extent. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but they should be allowed to ask. If (all other things being equal) I had a choice of a pup that had already gotten the basic gist of toileting outside compared to one that had only ever been paper trained, I'd go for the one with the gist.

Also, I'm sure the winter weather has something to do with it. Toilet training a pup is one thing when it's warm and you can leave doors open and going outside isn't a problem, but when it's absolutely freezing the idea of toilet training a puppy perhaps isn't as appealing. If the breeder was to explain patiently what toilet training had to be done I think it would really help the potential owner. Let them know what they're really getting themselves into - that if they take a pup, they're going to have to work, and if they're not prepared to do it in the cold then they should probably reconsider. I'd rather the breeder tell me this than brush over and say how easy toilet training is or worse yet not explain at all how exactly to go about it.

I all ways told people that they were using the paper here but to never expect a pup to be house trained until it was about 6 months to a year and that all depends on how they house trained the puppy. I gave information on how to house train a puppy and was all ways around incase they needed to call me. If they had kids I said its pretty much the same as potty training your child except you go outside....Some people expect everything handed to them.

I too have Akitas, have bred them for some years... I can honestly say they are clean, fast at training BUT let us not fool everyone.
A pup is waddling around at 4 weeks, at 5 weeks bouncing about the place and will head to the newspaper if we are lucky. 6 weeks they are probably very good at finding the newspaper(in a very small area), but to say they are housetrained... mine.... not likely (Even in an area where there is a sleeping quarters and a exercise area.
Papertrained yes. Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of pups is that they do not start to develop ANY source of muscle control until they are 12-16 weeks... If a new owner is expecting anything before this STARTING point I would tell then to find a stuffed puppy... no problems there then is there... lol Sorry I couldn't resist

Des :-)