Puppy won’t potty outdoors

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Kuri
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Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Kuri »

We have a wonderful 14 week old standard. She picked up potty training fast, but since we live in a high-rise, it wasn’t feasible to take her down all the time. We installed a doggie lawn on our balcony which she uses exclusively and refuses to potty outside. She will hold it until she gets to her doggie lawn.

Some people have said she will outgrow this. Did we mess up by introducing the doggie lawn too soon? Any info would be greatly appreciated. :)

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zeta1454
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by zeta1454 »

Welcome to the Forum :)

This is a tricky situation as living in a high rise without a garden you were doing the right thing in the early days to get your puppy trained not to toilet in the house. At the same time, dogs do quickly establish routines as to where they go and sometimes this is hard to break. We have known of dogs who have "held on" to go for many hours if they are not able to go in the place or kind of place they are used to.

Dogs are often drawn to pee / poo in places they have been before or on top of areas used by another dog. When we have been at shows with a "designated area" indoors, it has been impossible to encourage them to go but, if we took them outside where another dog had pee'd they were more likely to go in the same place.

A couple of suggestions would be:
1) to try and get some of your pup's pee in a container or even on a piece of fabric and take it out with you and put this down on a grassy area or wherever you want to encourage her to go outside. Let her sniff it and this may let her know it is OK to go there too.
2) see if you can find safe area where plenty of other dogs do pee and take her to sniff where they have been. If you have any friends with a dog / dogs can you go out with them and see if she is encouraged to go where they pee?

It could be something she will outgrow but I would be trying as much as possible to encourage her to toilet outside as well as / instead of her doggy lawn as some routines can become very hard to break if they are established early in life.

Lovely photo too - she is beautiful :)
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

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Dawnspell
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Dawnspell »

We had a similar issues with our first dog Barney. He was used to doing a poo in our garden at a specific spot and when he could go on the ground for walks away from home he would wait until he got back to do a poo. He did grow out of it and went the opposite way and would wait for a walk to do a poo and would only do one in the garden if he was really desparate :))

Shes gorgeous :x keep posting photos
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Kuri
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Kuri »

zeta1454 wrote: 13 May 2020, 10:06 Welcome to the Forum :)

This is a tricky situation as living in a high rise without a garden you were doing the right thing in the early days to get your puppy trained not to toilet in the house. At the same time, dogs do quickly establish routines as to where they go and sometimes this is hard to break. We have known of dogs who have "held on" to go for many hours if they are not able to go in the place or kind of place they are used to.

Dogs are often drawn to pee / poo in places they have been before or on top of areas used by another dog. When we have been at shows with a "designated area" indoors, it has been impossible to encourage them to go but, if we took them outside where another dog had pee'd they were more likely to go in the same place.

A couple of suggestions would be:
1) to try and get some of your pup's pee in a container or even on a piece of fabric and take it out with you and put this down on a grassy area or wherever you want to encourage her to go outside. Let her sniff it and this may let her know it is OK to go there too.
2) see if you can find safe area where plenty of other dogs do pee and take her to sniff where they have been. If you have any friends with a dog / dogs can you go out with them and see if she is encouraged to go where they pee?

It could be something she will outgrow but I would be trying as much as possible to encourage her to toilet outside as well as / instead of her doggy lawn as some routines can become very hard to break if they are established early in life.

Lovely photo too - she is beautiful :)
I'll try bringing some of her urine outside. She loves other dogs so I'll try and do a doggie-walk playdate with someone I trust. I've cut out a chuck of her doggie lawn and placed it outside too. She'll sniff it thoroughly but still refuses to go. Thank you so much for your advice!
Kuri
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Kuri »

Thank you so much for the advice! We'll certainly try it!
Kuri
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Kuri »

An update. She has started peeing both outside and on her doggie lawn on the balcony. The key was always making sure first loo was always first thing in the morning. It seems once she felt comfortable and safe outside, she was willing to pee. This took 2-3 weeks before she started going on command. SUCCESS!
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by zeta1454 »

Kuri wrote: 21 Jun 2020, 19:58 An update. She has started peeing both outside and on her doggie lawn on the balcony. The key was always making sure first loo was always first thing in the morning. It seems once she felt comfortable and safe outside, she was willing to pee. This took 2-3 weeks before she started going on command. SUCCESS!
That's great news. Well done :-bd :o3
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

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CKC44
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by CKC44 »

This string is very encouraging! :D

We are getting our little one soon and plan to use the little lawn on the patio before he gets all of his shots. :)
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Jonathanr »

Hi, hope it’s ok to add to this thread.
I’m worried that I’ve made my puppy depend on me to remind him to go and wee.There are lots of positives but, he will still wee in the kitchen, even when the door is open to the garden. He’s 17 weeks and I’ve had him for 8. Straightaway I crate trained him with a pen around his crate. He has never soiled or wee’d in his crate - he will go all through the night and never barks or whines in the night. I religiously take him out every time he comes out of his pen. He will now wee on command and he will always poo outside - without prompting - but I still dont trust him to wander anywhere inside unsupervised - just last night while I was sat reading (door open to garden) he wee’d near me on the kitchen floor (I didn’t spot him doing it) - he gave me no signals. Is he depending on me to tell him to go outside to wee? He will go out on command with me stood in the kitchen - I used to always go out with him. It probably sounds ridiculous- but he is doing so many good things and that’s why I’m asking the question - if he can do them, why is he not taking himself outside to wee?
Any advice or guidance would greatly appreciated!
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Dawnspell »

Try adding a command, we use "pee pee" say it as he starts to pee, when hes finished give lots of praise and high value treats. It will help reinforce the place to go is outside and the only place he hears the word "pee pee" is outside which is yet another reinforcement that outside is the place. It also comes in useful when you are going out and need them to relieve themselves.

You may find he is actually trying to tell you in someway, you just havent caught up with his training technique and worked out what it is yet :)) Our first dog would come to me and just stare. At first I thought he just wanted attention. Then I remembered his breeder telling me his Mum would just sit and stare when she wanted to go out. I wouldnt have picked up on his cue so quick if she hadnt told me. Jasper scratches at door but its not the door he goes through to go outside its the one he goes through to go to bed, work that one out =))
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Jonathanr »

Thank you - there are some great points here, I will have a re-think about what I do.
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zeta1454
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by zeta1454 »

17 weeks old is still very young and, as you say, it may be because your puppy has been so good that you are expecting him to be perfect in all ways. As said above, he may be giving a cue that he needs to go out which you are missing or he may have been looking for your attention or wanting you to go outside with him. Sometimes it can be hard for us humans to understand exactly what our dogs are trying to say to us although this does get better over time if you really bond well.

Until you are certain that he is housetrained in that he will ask to go out to pee / poo, I would make sure that unless you are interacting with him or at least watching him, that he is in his pen rather than being able to wander round inside the house, even with the door to outside open. Accidents in the home do happen but the more often this occurs, the more the scent will be on floor / furniture and provide a trigger for the place to be used again.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Magic - Silversocks Sharade at Darksprite
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Oscar 12345
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Oscar 12345 »

I trained the "wee wee first" command. Before offering dinner or a nice treat I would open the door, point outside, show the food or treat and say wee wee first. This command comes after always saying wee wee when he has had a wee outside so he eventually gets it. Otto would then race to have a quick wee and then race back. Did that every time before dinner and now it is trained. I do wish though I hadn't used my box spiral as the place to point to as he has made it go rather brown. Worked really well for us and even when it is raining he will run out for a quick wee.
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Re: Puppy won’t potty outdoors

Post by Jonathanr »

Thank you - you have all been brilliant with your advice and it’s also made me feel more positive. Hopefully, I’ll learn what his signals are to go outside. 😀
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