I have a lovely westie. This is his 2nd day at home. All the feelings I had when I brought my daughter home (now 14!) have resurfaced. Feeling scared, how am I going to do this, dont understand what it wants etc. But joy as well. I am using the crate method and have read lots about it but now that I am doing it for real it doesnt seem so simple. I have had one accident in the crate first day. A few on the carpet (groan) and some sucess in the garden in the designated toilet area. However when I take Rory out to the garden he becomes distracted and doesnt always go and then when I give up and bring him in he immediately goes on the carpet! He chews everything in the garden and I have to constantly watch him. I'm not sure of the sequencing of crateing for example what do I do when I have fed Rory. Should I take him out straight away or put back in crate for a while?

NB He has had his first injections at the breeders. 2nd lot in 3 weeks. Is it OK to take hime into garden for toiletting?

Advice whould be very much appreciated.

Hi!
It's very early days yet so he simply doesn't know what's what yet, things WILL settle. :) The crate is for when you CAN'T watch him, such at night or if you leave the room, go upstairs, whatever. He needs to go outside every time he's eaten, woken up from a nap, had a play session etc as that is when he most needs to go.  Yes he definitely has to go in your garden. If you are able to at all, it will speed things up a lot if you can have the back door open -I did this with my Papillon puppy and he learnt in just a few days that he was to go outside, and now he just trots outside whenever he needs to, and if the door is shut due to rain or whatever he will go to the door and ask to be let out. However I know this isn't always possible, but I found it a great help when it is.

You need to restrict the puppy's access to the house before he is house trained as well, don't let him have the run of all of the house, stick to one room. Don't shut the door on him but use baby gates. You can then increase the amount of space he has when he is a bit older and knows where the back door is!

As for being distracted when he is outside, this is a typical puppy thing unfortunately and all you can do is wait. It too will pass as he gets used to his new surroundings and doesn't feel he has to explore all the time. Much the same goes for chewing everything outside -again typical puppy. :)

Good luck!

Marianne

Hi

we went through the same thing with our Westie it just takes time you've got to remember they are just like babies I used to let mine out straight after he's eaten or drank and slowly he got to go he's only just five months and up untill a few weeks ago we still had the odd accident we bought puppy wee pads from our local pet store and put them near the back door if he did have an accident it was usually on the pad and slowy it stopped he now goes out side or when we go for a walk,as for going in the garden I am sure he is fine but dont be tempted to take him out till he's had all his injections and the vet tells you its safe to do so I think we waited 2 weeks after he had his last injection.As for the crate we use a crate at the begining we where tempted to give in and get him and bring him up stairs as he was crying through the night but we resisted temptation and he still only has access to down stairs he now realises his crate is his for when he wants peace and quiet (from a 12 and 8 yr old !!) and he knows thats where he has to sleep
you have made a good choice with a Westie we have had nothing but joy from ours he's such a character.
where did you buy him from is he going to be a pet or are you going to show him?
hope this helps
John

Hi

Use the crate as Marianne suggested.  Put him outside immediately after eating and when he wakes up. 

As soon as he has is doing a wee give him a command like 'have a wee', as he finishes praise him.  Do exactly the same for a poo, but you may want to change the command.

After a few days, as you put him out give the command and plenty of praise when he has done it, he will soon cotton on to what you want.

If distractions in the garden are a problem, then pop him on a light lead while you are out there until he has been, I found that helped a lot, but don't let him lead you all around the garden, you pick a spot and stand still so he only has the length of the lead to go to.  Using the same spot may help to as they are more likey to go where the previous smell was.

Personally I would not use puppy pads or newspaper as I feel it teaches the pup it is ok to go indoors, but everyone has different idea's on that one.

Good luck, don't forget it is very early days

Sandra

The puppy pads we used where scented to attract the pup to use them for weeing on when ever we found our pup using them we used to lift him off and let him finish his business outside slowly this worked and as I said before we now have no accidents inside  and I found them really usefull but everyone has differant opions .

John.

I found this topic useful as tonight is my 2nd night with our shih tzu puppy. And like everyone we have had the "presents" inside, I just clean them up and don't say anything but make such a fuss and praise her when she does it outside. As for the puppy training pads, breeder says she will go on them, and on paper, not here she won't, she will sleep on them, play on them, chew them, play with them, but not GO on them, lol.

But she will whilst in her play pen at night.

Slept through last night don't think i will be as lucky tonight though.

You really don't want to use anything to encourage your pup to wee or poo indoors.
:)

I dont think there is a problem using puppy pads personally I find them a god send and I had both my girls house trained within a week mainly being vigilant taking pup out every 15mins or so and watching for the sniffing and circling motion then using specific commands.We have used pads though during the night.

Thanks for all your advice - its helpful to know that I am on the right track, just needed reassurance I think. My Westie, Rory, I'm sure knows the commands wee and poo already. He is pretty good at going in the garden, and sometimes when I say have a wee and he can't he goes to his water bowl and drinks and then has another go!! Sometimes however I can be standing in the garden for an hour and he doesnt go. I dont know whether that means he has bladder control or not. But early days as you say. He is sleeping through the night but wakes up at 5am (groan) needing to go outside. He is then wide awake and playful.

One of the other things that you can do if you are observant is watch for the distinctive 'sniffing in a circle' behaviour and wisk him out quickly. For the first two weeks I did this up to every 20 mins and at the end of 2 weeks ours was 99% house trained. It takes dedication but is worth it in the end (out prrevious pup took almost 6 months to house train!)

Yea, I have managed to get my pup outside when i saw the "circling and sniffing" and sometimes when I tell her to "do her stuff" and "do weewee" she does, bless, has done a mess to when i tell her to "do poopoo" but still has some accidents in the house, which is only natural, shes only a baby.

1st night she slept through...
2nd Night woke up howling for 30 mins, I got up to her, tried ignoring her but she wasn't having it, she was soaked and had messed so she needed to go out and have her bed cleaning, put her back in her clean bed and she slept the rest of the night...
3rd night howled again, so got up to see if she needed to go out, no she lay down and tried nodding off so I picked her up and put her back in bed with no fuss and went back to bed, when she wimpered I told her to be quiet, slept through rest of the night...
4th night Watch this space

Glad she isn't having me up all night though I'd never cope.

Aww what a darling :D

4th night - Soon as i heard her howling i told her to be quiet, slept through again, aww isn't she good?

Bless - but dont let her lull you in to a false sense of security ;)

Its hard to know if they need to go out or just want attention when they howl in the middle of the night.How do you differentiate between the two? I would be more inclined to take the pup outside if she woke up in the night,just incase??? It must be horrible for them having to pee but cant get out to do it!

Certainly for the first few weeks I always get up and take them out. They dont get any cuddles or conversation - Im not good at doing much at 2am! They go straight back to bed and ignored if they fret. Most seem to work out that the only reason to make a noise at night is if they need to 'go'. The difficult bit is leaping out of bed quick enough to be effective as most only squeek as they are starting to go. But since they spend the first couple of nights on the bed beside me and then in a box beside the bed you can hear tehm start to move and are ready to leap out when they start to squeek. Also it is surprising how fast you can move if you know YOUR bed will need changing! 

I think you are doing well Ioxia. Rory slept through the night for the first 2 nights. The 3rd night I was so tired I went to bed at 9.30 and of course he was awake at midnight! Last night he woke me at 2.30 I took him outside where he did a wee and then I put him back to bed and he slept through until 6am. I think my husband is waking him up as he is not a good sleeper and often gets up in the night. Yesterday was not a good day for toilet training although I took him out regularly he still wet the carpet several times, I was wondering whether he had caught a "chill". But otherwise he seems healthy - enormous appetite.

I wonder if anyone has some tips for getting them used to crates? Rory makes a fuss initially and if I ignore him he goes to sleep (this is when I put him in the crate when he is getting sleepy) but he creates a real fuss if I put him in the crate when I need to go and do something (like eat or go to the loo!) I have read the advice about getting them gradually used to the crate with the door open but he always pops straight out. Treats are suggested but the treats in the pet shop say not to give unless over 3 months old and Rory is just approaching his 11 week from today. My goal is that in 6 weeks time he will be happy to be left for 2 hours. (I have to go back to work). What else could help?

Dispite what some say about crates, one of mine has never been a big fan, no matter what I did. He would only go in it if bribed with at treat and would never stay in there unless locked in and then initially he would scream. I just made sure that I never went back to him whilst he was making a noise and eventually he stopped the noise. For treats for very small pups I have PMed you.