Puppy training?

It's OK, you are halfway there!

Taking her out A) right after meals, B) when she's waking up from sleep/naps, or C) after excessive exercise/playtime (when they start to slow down) is what you need to do to make sure you prevent any opportunity for accidents (these are the times when their puppy metabolisms start pushing out the potty!)

What you can do to get her to go potty faster:

STEP 1: Take her over to the door and *PUT ON HER LEASH.* (Yes, I know, pups hate the leash-they want freedom! But darnit, the sooner they learn that it's a part of their life, the better!) After the leash is on, open the door and walk her out over to a specific area on the grass. When you get there, simply stand still and wait. This method essentially is to help her realize that she's not going to get the run of the yard to sniff and explore (that's what takes 25 minutes after all!)...so, hopefully she will realize that-uh-oh!-she needs to go potty!

IMPORTANT TIP: Don't talk to her or say her name, just be quiet and wait patiently. Asking her to "go potty" at this point is meaningless to her. When she starts peeing/pooping, softly draw out the phrase "gooo potty....gooo potty.." while she's going, so that she learns to associate that phrase with what she's doing at the time (which will come in handy later, when you want to cue her to go!) The nanosecond that she's finished pottying, tell her "Good Potty!" in a more upbeat, happy voice and then, without a moment gone by, give her a tiny bite of her favorite treat so that she knows what she did on the grass at that moment was AMAZING!! :)

Step 2:

OK, so if you're standing there and she does not go potty within 5 minutes, simply bring her back into the house and put her into a crate (make sure it's the correct size--too big and she'll go potty on one side and then hang out on the other side!). She should stay in the crate for no more than 5 minutes, and then you'll take her out again and repeat Step 1.

If she goes, then great! Praise and treat her the instant that she's done and then **take off the leash** to show her that now she has won the entire run of the yard and/or small open area in the house until the next potty trip...which should be about 1 to 1.5 hours for a dog of her age/size (2 hours for a 3 month old 20lb dog; 3 hours for a 3 month old dog over 20lbs).

OTHER TIPS:

1) Crate her when you can't watch her like a hawk/whenever you leave for 1-3 hours during the day. Crate Training is not cruel, it's a great way to safely confine your dog, prevent accidents and help teach them how to "hold it" (again, I'm talking about 5 minutes here, not 5 hours--THAT is inhumane).

2) Use an "exercise pen" (which looks like a wire-gating baby pen) to enclose her to an area when you can watch her half the time, or when leaving the house for over 3 hours during the day (which in that case should have potty pads or a grass "dog potty" square at *one corner* inside of it)

3) Feed her meals at the SAME TIMES every single day. Since she's a pup under 5 months, most vets recommend feeding them 3 times daily. Figure out how much she is supposed to eat in one day (according to the label on the container of her dog food) and divide that amount by 3.

We'll pretend her daily feeding amount is 1 cup a day. Okay, so feed her a 1/3 cup at 7am, a 1/3 cup at 12pm and a 1/3 cup at 5pm. Stick to it. Put whatever's leftover up on the counter or in the fridge until the next mealtime-adding the entire next meal's serving size to what's left of it. Give her 10 minutes to go to town. Pick up what's leftover, repeat! You simply cannot free-feed and expect a puppy (or dog) to not need to go potty at random, all throughout the day. And no, she will not starve if she doesn't finish it! If anything, a little hunger will entice her to finish her food completely at her next mean, and every meal...which means a regular, predictable potty schedule...YES! :)

4) Of course she's smart, she's 12 weeks old! Puppies start learning from their environment at 6 weeks of age. They also have developed their adult brains by a mere 9 weeks old! They simply lack the knowledge or experience of an adult dog.

5) Enroll in a positive reinforcement based training class. You can find a great trainer through www.apdt.com. If you start doing training with her, you will establish an easier, more reliable way to communicate with her the things that you want! Don't brush off problems because she's a little Chi--instead, capitalize on her intelligence, and get someone to help you before other problems get worse. I promise, she will thank you for it later! :)

Best of Luck!

Caitlin Lane, CPDT

Hi, I understand that you are looking for some advice or resources to help fully train your dog or fix behavior problems. If a professional dog trainer is not an option at this time, or if you want to trt training your dog on your own (a great way to bond), I'd suggest you https://bitly.im/aLXJ3

A friend recommened it to me a few years ago, and I was amazed how quickly it worked, which is why I recommend it to others. The dog training academy also has as an excellent home training course.

Now is the time that you have to get the puppy trained or they'll stay in the habit. When she goes in the house, put her nose in and just give her a little smack on the back. Nothing hard to be abusive, but just to get her attention. Yell NO very loud as you do so. Then put her outside. She'll get the message in a about a week, if not less.

It may be because she is very young but its better to teach them when they are younger. Try pee pads and when she does it rightt treat her with really good treats that she likes. Dont give her those treats unless she goes right. When you take her out wait a couple minutes before you leave the house just in case she is digesting or something than go outside until she goes the first time. For the pee pads put one in every room if you can then slowly take one out but make sure she knows so she doesnt keep going there.

hi sometimes if u take there p and p out to where u want them 2 go and keep a little around the spot, just 1 thing I'll men (maybe don't ND 2) is that u can only punish them when u catch them in the act, if u punish them after the fact you'll end up with a crazy, i dog lover

Crate training works. Dogs won't relieve themselves where they sleep, make sure the crate is the right size. Have a routine. When you see her going in your house, startle her with a loud noise or squirt her with a water bottle, then take her outside. When you find poop in your house, put it outside where you want her to go. Some people litter train small dogs. Good luck.

That is complicated i hated it lol.... you make sure to take her out when she wakes up and wait a little after she eats for it to digest when you see her wanting to go take her out....if you had other dogs it would be easier but...just wait then she will know try to take her out every hour or two till she gets the hang of it once she does it only takes about a week or two...

What we did to train my dog was when was a puppy we put newpaper on the ground in a spot and showed him to go there and only there.Once he started to get older we showed him to go by the door so we no to left him out.And it worked cause he never makes a mess in our house again.

When I trained my puppy i took her out about every 20 minutes. When she went then i praised her. They will have accidents so don't be too discouraged

to keep her from going everywhere you might want to invest in some puppy pads. These are designed to help you train your puppy, and also she will only go on the pads.