Hi,

I've been putting newspaper on the floor at night for our 8 week old lab puppy.  He tends to wee once in the night and poo once.  He does this usually the nearest he can get to the back door (by the utility room door) and never on the paper.  He prefers to shred the newspaper - much more fun!  Has anyone tried those puppy pads you can get from pets at home?  Do they work?  They say on them that they are scented to encourage the dog to go there rather than on the floor.  We've had 2 nights with him so far, and both nights he has finally settled at about 2 am and woken just before 7 am.  We always let him out before we go to bed, and he usually does a wee.

Any advice gratefully received!

Regards,

Julia

I prefer to teach puppy owners that anything you use when toilet training should be veiwed as simply something to make cleaning up easier, not another substrate for your puppy to learn to use, and then have to unlearn - ie the only place you ACTIVELY encourage them to use, is the place you want them to go for ever........
To encourage him to use the garden, make sure he has plenty of opportunities to go out there, and make sure you reward him the second he does what you want out there (don't wait to get back into the house to give him a treat, or he'll rush back indoors, perhaps before he's finished......)  but don't expect miracles - at this age his bladder and bowels aren't big enough to be able to hold all through the night.  Some owners find it easier to have the dog in a crate in the bedroom, so they are woken up as the puppy gets restless, and can let it out in the night, others prefer toleave paper down, in the hope the puppy will use it and this makes it easier to clean up.  If you can confine the pup to a smaller area, and provide him with an area of paper and his bed, he will learn that the paper is where he HAS to go, but this won't make training easier in the long run, as you will then have to wean him off the paper........

I agree. If he is allowed to go indoors, regardless of what he goes on, it is only telling him that it's OK to go inside. It's better to ONLY take him outside to go. Sometimes you just have to get up in the middle of the night for a while and let him out.

Carrie

I totally agree .......mine are not pups now but if i put paper dowm they all wee on it straight away .....same goes for back door mats ,,,,lol

I wouldn't newspaper train at all if I were you. A friend of mine has a female pup from my last litter of puppies. The pups are about 11 months old. They trained the pup they got to use the newspapers. Now the dog won't go anywhere except the newspapers, not even outside. They take her outside and leave her out there for a long time, watching to see if she pees or poos. When she doesn't and they start to think maybe she doesn't have to go, they bring her inside. Before the pup visits anyone, she tears through the living room and into the kitchen, where the newspapers are. The pup then pees her little heart out, even if there aren't any newspapers on the floor. They wish now that they had listened to me and decided to not train with newspapers... :rolleyes: Its a shame to see an almost one year old dog still using newspapers and not even making an effort to toilet outside where she is supposed to. *sigh* No newspapers.

I agree, i would use the newspapers as "mopping up/management" but encourage and take the pup outside after play, eating, and waking and maybe even every hour to start, reward with a small food treat and oodles of praise. Basically try to avoid any accidents by prevention. I used to get up in the night rather than let my pup mess and they do start to hold on after a few weeks quite happily.

Good luck
Lindsay
X

I used the puppy pads but only overnight as during the day he got praise for going outside.  They are good and dont leave paper print over your kitchen floor which in my case is white and green!

Claire

Thank you to all for the advice.  He's very good in the day.  We have 4 steps leading from our patio to our raised garden, so we've blocked the garden off so that he doesn't hurt his joints.  Weve made him an area of play bark on the patio, and he happily pees in there, but likes to poo on the patio or grass (I carry him up the steps, but the little monkey has worked out he can go down them, and I haven't figured a way of blocking the top bit yet! Tried loads of big heavy plant pots, but he's small enough to go through the tiny gaps!).  He's doing very well considering he was 8 weeks old yesterday.  I give him his supper about 10 ish and then take him out frequently up til about midnight, but he holds onto his poo, and does it by 2 am!  He cries quite a lot, and I'm trying really hard not to go to him when he's crying - I wait for a pause!  I think I read in a book about putting paper down at night and dabbing it with his wee to encourage him to go there in the night, but he hasn't so far.  He just pees as close to the way out as he can.

Thanks again to all of you for the advice.  Will keep you posted.

Julia