Re: Losing patience with my 5 month old puppy – potty training

[AlliG]

Thank so much for your help Teresa! 🙂

I do not have a chart. She has been peeing 2-3 times a week. She hasn’t pooped in awhile, probably 3 weeks. It has happened at different times, once last week it happened when we were upstairs as well as this morning when she was so close to me she nearly peed on my feet. I realized that there is no way she would ever go all the way downstairs to ring the bell when she needed to go. So- we definitely need another way of her telling us other than the bell.

She has limited access to water- I give it to her with her meals, when she comes in from playing or a walk.
She has let us know only twice she needs to go out with the bell and both times she rang it and went directly to her spot and pooped. Neither time was pee.

She has her nose to the ground all the time, so she sniffs but nothing different before she squats. I can see no other consistent pattern or other way she is telling us she needs to go. We thought for a while she would whine – when she started whining we just guessed that might be her way of telling us so every time she whined we would take her out even if she had just been out. She has never whined prior to peeing on the floor though so I am not sure she was whining for that. She goes out so often that I wonder if she has had a chance to learn to tell me she needs to go.

Yes, we play with her outside. She is fine being outside with us, but she will not go out alone, at least not happily. Someone always takes her to her spot and stays near until she finishes. I wonder sometimes if she is worried she is going to get left outside as I have left her 2-3 times for as long as 15 or 20 minutes. (Not as a punishment, just because she should be able to go outside on her own.) She will stay on the deck and then eventually start wandering around looking for me. She is VERY attached to me.

She does not pee or poop in her crate except for excited peeing she used to do until I figured out how to fix that, and she had diarrhea at one point. She has never peed or pooped on purpose in her crate.

I hope this helps- thank you so much!