I have a gorgous 12 week old westie. I have had Rory for 2 weeks. He seemed to get the idea almost straight away that he needs to toilet in the garden. He does it on command! Sometimes he still has accidents in the house and I know that is because we have not read the cues or our concentration lapsed! However I am also convinced that there are times that he chooses to do it in the house. Take this morning - he had his food and then immediately went to 2 areas of the house and pooed twice and then wee'ed in the kitchen in about 2 mins! The back door was open and he could have gone out. I know he knows the way out because he shoots out the door when he has put something in his mouth that he should not. What was I doing? Well I was trying to make some toast before going to work and keep an eye on him. I called him to come to the back door and that is when he decided to do it on the carpet. Usually he comes straight away when  called. I can only guarentee that he will perform in the garden if I pick him up and carry him out. Also although he is 12 weeks old he still needs to wee every hour.(or less). I know I am being impatient as he has only been with me for 2 weeks. but he is a pretty smart chap too. Would anyone else agree that he could be deliberatly going in the house sometimes? What can I do? I dont feel that ignoring this is going to help.

You done very well to get him to this stage at 12 weeks, well done.  It may be that, even though the door is open, he doesn't feel 100% confident sometimes going outside (maybe the presence of another dog in a garden nearby is worrying him slightly?).  As you've already made such great progress, keep doing what you are doing, he'll get there eventually.

Hi June

Yes I agree that he could be going in the house on purpose. Mine did the same. Whilst they are most trainable at this age, they are still stubborn little so and sos so if he has had enough of your voice and just doesnt fancy going out, he wont!

I dont think that you should ignore it at all but at the same time its not a big issue seeing as you have got him this far at such a young age. You should continue to praise him when hes been outside and maybe give a little treat. This is bribery I know but it will help him to learn that its far nicer to go outside and get praised than to do it indoors and get no reaction.

As for the comment below
'he had his food and then immediately went to 2 areas of the house and pooed twice and then wee'ed in the kitchen in about 2 mins!'
I would take him straight out in the garden and stay with him until he has done his business. This will help to eliminate the habit of going indoors.

Sounds like you have made great progress though so keep doing what youre doing.

I'm glad that you think Rorys doing so well. this is my first puppy so I have nothing to compare him with. He certainly seems a smart little thing, understands what I am trying to teach him very quickly. There are no other dogs near and he can certainly find his way out when he wants too! I hadnt thought of giving him a treat although I do praise him so I will try that. We have been keeping a log of how often he wee's and it is every 30mins increasing to hourly in the afternoon. I thought that 12 week old pups could have bladder control for 2-3 hours? Perhaps Rory has'nt been reading the same books lol!

My westie is only 9 weeks old and is still piddling everywhere i can stand in the garden for ages waiting on him he will go about 2 times but he comes straight back in and pees where he wants. He poos outside most of the time but always go's on the paper if not got the spray from pet shop that says they will scent the spray and always go there ( if only) he smelt it then peed at other side of the room thank goodness for laminate. The joys of puppies eh.

I got Rory when he was 9 weeks old and he was like that too! But within about 2 days he was weeing on command in the garden. He just doesnt seem to have progressed any further. Westies are supposed to be intelligent arent they? I suspect that also means that they can try and outwit us!

Now that Bailey sleeps in the kitchen with the pup he never whines he went to bed at midnight and slept right through until 7.30am when i went down he had only one wee on the paper so they must have good bladder control when they want to. Never mind I have just forgotten what its like having a pup around the worst part is no slippers and a nice puddle you have not seen (yuk) it just blends into the laminate flooring.

Blimey you too are really lucky, my 9 week old lab wee's everywhere but on the newspaper at night!!!!

Mind you I think we've done quite well, she is virtually clean during the day - the treat training is really working, she almost 'goes' on command!!

We're having realy problems with the crate training though - we seem to have a puppy who moves around a lot in her sleep and she goes mental if we lock her in her crate - she's goes through from 11pm - 6am now and will probably go longer as long as she doesn't hear us moving around, but not if we lock her in a crate she cries all night non stop - I had no idea a puppy could make so much noise!!

We have some fun days ahead of us..............

Nicky x

Oooh think I will try the treat thing with Coco when she goes outside, must admit she is having fewer accidents inside, so we are slowly gettign there. Past few nights she has only done a small wee, watch now I said it I will be greeted with the other in the morning.

I think you may be expecting to much from your little puppy. At 12 weeks it is absolutely normal to go pee 30min-1hr and that should be the schedule till he is atleast 4-5 months old. Try to read his signs, if he has none then deliberately take him out every hour even if he has not drank so he knows the routine well. Good luck!

We have a 14 week old weimaraner and have only just maanger to get him to wee on the paper when we are out in the day (the spray from the pet job was the only thing thats worked) and he will now hold a poo all day till we get in however the wees he still needs to go at least every hour. So i wouldn't worry to much. Also ours will not follow us out to the garden if it is cold or wet i have to still pick him up and carry him out if he doesn't fancy it.

So keep persavering

I agree with the others that your pup is doing very well and that you don't really need to worry.

I don't think he's messing in the house 'deliberately', as in, to be awkward.  Although they pick up very quickly that 'emptying self in garden=rewarding', I actually think it's much longer before they put together 'going outside into the garden' and 'weeing/pooing in the garden'.  It's two things which they have to chain together and it's the first, the going out, that seems to take longer to learn.  And that's why people (not you) who try to housetrain their dogs by leaving the back door open find it doesn't work.  IMHO

If you had taken him outside after his meal, he probably would have done it out there wouldn't he?