Thanks all for your previous advice.  It's been invaluable.

My question at the moment is this; whilst toilet training, the pup has been confined to kitchen (never alone) as the floor is easily cleaned.  She is doing really well with the training and only has one or sometimes two pee accidents a day.  We've decided to introduce her to the living room now so that we can all cosy down together in the evening.  However, everytime we bring her in she immediately pees and sometimes poos on the carpet even though we always take her outside to toilet before bringing her into the room.  Also, she runs manic around the room and gets so excited she starts nipping, biting, growling and barking.  Previously, whilst in the kitchen in an evening (never alone), she settles down with a chew toy and generally is quite sleepy, dozing on and off.  She is very active during the day and we have lots of play and training sessions with her.  How can I keep her calm and clean in the living room?  Also, when she meets new people (inside or outside) she gets so excited she wets herself!  Even if she's just been!  In every other aspect, she's doing really, really well.  But it would be lovely for us all (inc. pup) if we could cosy down and be dozy together of an evening.

Any advice very gratefully received.

Thanks

Helen

Hi your pup sounds adorable what breed is she?  I would try when its just you & little one allow her access to the front room as its a whole new world to explore she gets excited the less simulation like telly on everyone in there will send her mind into overdrive! Do you have paper down in the kitchen? as getting her to go on that is the first step in her learning to go in a certain spot just a matter of her learning paper= wee rather than wee= just when she needs too, also having newspaper down that she's been toilet on she will smell that's the place to go, because we clean it up every time she has no idea of where her toilet is, they should naturally want to go in the same place. My friends dog always wee'd when anyone made a fuss of him or when we would go into her house it was  just overexcitement, it carried on until he was over 2 years old !!

Hi Helen,

TBH I've always let pups have "access all areas" (supervised) from the outset because otherwise, IME, when introducing them to new places within the home they don't know how to "ask out" - i.e. where to head for :)

I'd suggest you just keep an ever watchful eye on the puppy - accidents are always our own fault (I've had plenty of them myself - erm, with my dogs that is )

The running around the new environment within your home is almost certainly down to over excitement and best that you remain as calm as possible and try to distract the puppy with an organised behaviour - a calmer game with a toy, a few brief lessons on basic training such as sits/fetch/paw/down etc - mental stimulation tires them out more quickly anyway :)

The widdling when meeting strangers can be nervous/submissive behaviour (which doesn't sound the cause with your puppy!) or, again, over excitement.  It will pass with age and development of bladder control which is really an ongoing learning curve for many months.

I would not recommend going down the route of training your pup to paper or pads - all you're doing with that regime is encouraging her to "go" indoors - she wont make the connection that it's just a temporary measure.  Go back to basics with her now and let her have free access when your around to other parts of the house - watch her like a hawk and any signs of sniffing or circling then gather her up quickly and take her out.  Within a week or less she'll have worked out what best body language she uses to catch your attention whatever area of the house she's in :)

HTH, Teri

She's a westie called Tessie.  She'll be 13 weeks old tomorrow.  I don't have paper down anywhere in the house as she is really good at going outside.  I watch her very carefully for signals and sometimes she lets me know she needs to go.  The inside accidents usually happen like this morning.  It was raining outside and even though I'd taken her out, she didn't like the rain.  I stood outside for 10-15 mins with her sayin "go bzzzz" (usual word we use for toilet) but she waited until the minute we came back in and did it on the floor!  I think the living room/new people accidents are generally due to over excitement.  Do you think if I teach her a word i.e. 'settle' and reward when she's on cushion? 

Her reaction seems to be one of understandable over-excitement. She seems to be of a good sound temperament - some pups respond to new situations with apprehension but she seems to think it's a jolly good game! I must admit I only limit my pups' access to the house to rooms that we're in (and not upstairs) because I want them to learn early on that the whole house is to be treated as the 'home area' to not be soiled, not just one room. I need them to know the layout of the house so that they can make their way to the back door to go out to relieve themselves.

The weeing when she meets new people is out of her control, so just do your best to ensure she only meets new people out of doors where a puddle doesn't matter! As she matures and calms down she'll grow out of it - our old lab, who was clean and dry in the house by 10 weeks of age, finally grew out of the weeing-and-greeting when she was a year old!

Oh yes i would do that, My Tinkerbell who is staff+ patterdale+lab was an utter live wire still is even though she is 4. she now knows rather than jumping up at me and flying in my face= i ignore her so she jumps in her bed and just sits giving me that love look . I did just randomly give her a treat if she was lying in there, now when I give her anything she trots to her bed with it. Not surprised about the rain both mine look out the kitchen door looking depressed at the rain . Once the weather gets better you can leave your back door open so she can wonder in and out [if safe enough of course] always tell her shes been a good girl when she has been outside but ignore it if she has an accident indoors . You have to say any command eg settle/go bzzzz at least 50 [separate] times for them to associate it with anything the shorter the word the better I say "toilet " as too many words can confuse bzzz should be good enough. Will all take time as still a wee babe . Bet she's a cutey :)

Hi again Helen,

you're doing grand with the pup and seem to be making good headway for a mere 13 weeks :)   My pup is no fan of wet/windy weather to ask out but we've pretty much gotten over that now and seen the biggest turn around at 14 weeks + so you're nearly there :) (Mine is now 17 wks)

Trying to teach a "settle" type of command will do no harm but IME it's not very successful with such a young pup - having "the zoomies" is pretty much par for the course at this age (and in my breed well into their golden years LOL) and is just something they grow out of or at least temper a bit as they mature.

I hope this doesn't come across as intentionally dissing magica's advice but I'd not go along the route of simply leaving a back door open during better weather - this doesn't train the pup to "ask" out to relieve itself and often owners are surprised further down the line when their apparently "trained dog" out of the blue soils indoors.  It's important to always supervise toilet breaks to ensure we can use our cue word and praise at appropriate times.

I think you're both doing very well so far - it's not easy at this time of year (I've always had spring/summer pups before) but do-able as you've demonstrated so far :)

regards, Teri

Wow! Thanks all!  You all seem to know sooooooo much!  It's great to get your advice.  I'm always worried I'm doing it wrong/not giving enough attention/ giving wrong signals etc.

I've got to say, this forum is the best thing since sliced bread!

Many thanks.

Helen