Hi everyone.  We have a 12 week old Lhasa Apso male puppy - Stuart (Little).  We are novices to dogs - he is our first.  He keeps weeing on his bed.  His bed is kept in his crate (which he uses overnight to sleep in or when we have to go out shopping etc during the day.  He doesn't wee on his bed during the night but deliberately goes into the crate (the door is always left open) during the day and has a play or a drink and then stands on his bed and does a wee.  We have some accidents inside but by on large he will wee and poo on newspaper we keep by the back door or outside in the court yard.  Any advice?

Molly used to do this, I removed her bed during the day and only put it down at night because, like yours, she would use it as a toilet during the day but not overnight?! Glad to say she has her vet bed anytime now and hasn't wee'd on it for weeks :) She would also go and do it on Maddies' vet bed so I had to remove hers aswell for a while.

Dee

Thank you your reply Missie. I am showing my ignorance now but what's a vet bed?  Its obviously early days as we have only had Stuart for 3½ weeks now.

Vetbed is a fleecy sheepskin-type bedding which is very comfortable and easily cleaned.
:)

Hi Pamd, sorry I just assume everyone uses vetbeds nowadays cos like jeangenie says they are easy to keep washing and when you have to do this every day its so much easier than those foam beddings we used to have. Any way Molly did start off with a large plastic bed with removable cover that I had to keep washing, so it was much easier to change to a vetbed cos at least it kept the pup dry :)
Let us know how you get on

Dee

Hi Pam :)

I think it would also help if you completely ditched the newspaper idea - both inside and outside ;)  You're giving the little guy mixed signals - after all you want him to learn that he's supposed to do *all* his business outdoors in the garden or yard, a preferred area of either if you like.  There's is absolutely no point in letting him think it's ok to go on *anything* indoors -  he is just a baby and trying to please but he will only learn what to do if you show him consistently what you want him to do and at the moment you're showing him he has a few alternatives :(

Love his name BTW :)
Regards Teri

Hi Teri

We began as you suggested by always taking him outside and the number of accidents inside (not on newspaper) has consistently reduced.  Our breeder advised using the newspaper idea by the back door when we first picked up Stuart. However, your idea is certainly more logical and we're going to go back to this.  However her home was completely fitted with hardfloor - laminate/tiles etc.  So little accidents weren't too problematic.  We will be changing our carpets over to laminate but wanted to wait until Stuart was just about house trained.  He seems to prefer sleeping on wood surfaces - I don't know if the carpets make him too hot or it simply feels more comfortable.  We're using the praise good behaviour and ignore behaviour we don't like philosophy.  Not getting quite the success with his attitude towards the two cats we have (2 and 3). He chases them and tries to mount the younger one almost everytime he sees them.  They are both male, ones a rescue the other is black tipped british shorthair.  Any suggestions.  Many thanks Pam.

Hi Pam,

I have carpets throughout except for kitchen and bathrooms and didn't really find the occasional accidents (I had a litter of 8 pups last year so more occasional flood :P ) too difficult to deal with - if you clean up asap it's not a problem and should any seep through the carpet itself, make sure you also wash over the underlay too and your home should remain fragrant.

Afraid I really can't help you on the cat mounting issue - sorry, have a mental picture which is making me laugh till my eyes water :D  Poor confused Stuart Little :D   I've never known a resident cat yet that couldn't sort out a young whipper snapper PDQ if it really wanted to so as long as they always have an escape route and can either remove themselves to another room or jump high out of reach then I'm sure the attraction will eventually wear off ;)

Give the cute boy a cuddle from me, Teri :)