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Abbey at 5 months

345 Views 11 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Missy
Abbey's been with us for two months now. She's about 6.5 lbs. She's almost completely potty trained but she still insists on peeing in her litter box with just her two front legs inside. Unfortunately, it's the wrong end 😂, so we're stuck cleaning up after she pees in her pen. That's been frustrating but we're working on it.

How do you encourage your puppy to tell you she needs to go potty outside when they rely on their litter box inside? I thought of using bells whenever we go outside but I don't want to mark up our doors.

We're still working with a private trainer and we're about to start small group puppy classes. We really need to work on recall.

My husband just looked at Abbey playing and said with much enthusiasm that he loves her so much. My feelings, exactly. 🥰



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She’s so fluffy and cute 😍
Thanks, NotAMuggle! She's getting her first real haircut this weekend. We may do a slight puppy cut.
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Abbey is so cute! 😀 My Ollie will be 5 months old next week. Is your ultimate aim to have Abbey potty only outside or are you thinking mainly outside but keep inside for emergencies?

I’m assuming you have a pen with a bed, toys and a potty in it so you can safely leave her when you can’t keep an eye on her? I tried this approach with my last puppy and it took me six weeks to potty train her to outside in the backyard. I finally just got rid of the inside pads and basically went back to square one, watching her every second, taking her out after all the usual activities and crating her when I couldn’t watch her. I honestly don’t know if trying to train her to two areas didn’t work because of the dog or because of me. LOL

I now live in a 3 bedroom condo apartment so no backyard but do have a balcony. I decided to forego a pen inside and put the pen on my balcony. The only thing in the pen are a couple of real grass pads for pottying. Ollie had been started at the breeder’s pottying on artificial turf in a pen. I think the pen is what clued him in he was to potty on whatever was inside it. He took to the real grass right away. Because it’s real grass, I’ve had no problems with him not wanting to relieve himself when I take him for a walk.

Since I had nowhere for him to go inside, I watched Ollie like a hawk and put him out on the pads often and after eating, playing, sleeping, etc. When I couldn’t watch him, he was in the crate which wasn’t that often, overnight and a couple of hours total during the day. It was a pretty intense way to train him but he was trained within a week! Since I’m all on one floor and he doesn’t yet have access to rooms if I’m not there, I’m always close enough to see if he needs to go out. He just goes and patiently stands by the balcony door and looks at me when he needs to go out.

Hopefully there might be something in this that will be helpful to you. 😀
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Abbey's been with us for two months now. She's about 6.5 lbs. She's almost completely potty trained but she still insists on peeing in her litter box with just her two front legs inside. Unfortunately, it's the wrong end 😂, so we're stuck cleaning up after she pees in her pen. That's been frustrating but we're working on it.
This is developmental (and more common with the boys than the girls... you just got unlucky! They have very little hind end awareness, and they really don't understand that they aren't doing it right when they only have their front feet on the tray! LOL! The good thing is that they DO figure it out eventually. It just clicks one day that, "OH! THOSE feet are part of me too!" and all four feet start getting on the tray more regularly!

Believe me, I feel your pain! I am currently potty training five puppies, FOUR of whom don't seem to have any idea that they have hind feet! LOL!
This is developmental (and more common with the boys than the girls... you just got unlucky! They have very little hind end awareness, and they really don't understand that they aren't doing it right when they only have their front feet on the tray! LOL!
🤣🤣🤣 Ollie’s got good aim but I’m waiting for him to figure out that the interesting fluffy thing he grabs that leads him in circles is actually his tail!
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Abbey is so cute! 😀 My Ollie will be 5 months old next week. Is your ultimate aim to have Abbey potty only outside or are you thinking mainly outside but keep inside for emergencies?

I’m assuming you have a pen with a bed, toys and a potty in it so you can safely leave her when you can’t keep an eye on her? I tried this approach with my last puppy and it took me six weeks to potty train her to outside in the backyard. I finally just got rid of the inside pads and basically went back to square one, watching her every second, taking her out after all the usual activities and crating her when I couldn’t watch her. I honestly don’t know if trying to train her to two areas didn’t work because of the dog or because of me. LOL

I now live in a 3 bedroom condo apartment so no backyard but do have a balcony. I decided to forego a pen inside and put the pen on my balcony. The only thing in the pen are a couple of real grass pads for pottying. Ollie had been started at the breeder’s pottying on artificial turf in a pen. I think the pen is what clued him in he was to potty on whatever was inside it. He took to the real grass right away. Because it’s real grass, I’ve had no problems with him not wanting to relieve himself when I take him for a walk.

Since I had nowhere for him to go inside, I watched Ollie like a hawk and put him out on the pads often and after eating, playing, sleeping, etc. When I couldn’t watch him, he was in the crate which wasn’t that often, overnight and a couple of hours total during the day. It was a pretty intense way to train him but he was trained within a week! Since I’m all on one floor and he doesn’t yet have access to rooms if I’m not there, I’m always close enough to see if he needs to go out. He just goes and patiently stands by the balcony door and looks at me when he needs to go out.

Hopefully there might be something in this that will be helpful to you. 😀
Thank you, Caroline! As of right now, we're planning on having Abbey go outside and inside. We still have her litter box inside her pen, with her crate attached, and food, water, and toys in the pen, as well. We also have another pen, litter box, bed, and crate in my husband's office upstairs.

Abbey relieves herself when we're outside but she doesn't have access to any doors to sit near or bark at, etc. to tell us when she has to go. We still have gates all around us in our living room to keep Abbey contained when she's not in her pen. She hasn't had accidents in quite a while, aside from the issue I mentioned above. I feel like we're all ready to lose the gates but our downstairs is open concept, so once we put the gates away, she has free reign of the house.
This is developmental (and more common with the boys than the girls... you just got unlucky! They have very little hind end awareness, and they really don't understand that they aren't doing it right when they only have their front feet on the tray! LOL! The good thing is that they DO figure it out eventually. It just clicks one day that, "OH! THOSE feet are part of me too!" and all four feet start getting on the tray more regularly!

Believe me, I feel your pain! I am currently potty training five puppies, FOUR of whom don't seem to have any idea that they have hind feet! LOL!
Thank you, Karen! I know you mentioned a lack of rear end awareness before. I hoped she would have outgrown it by now but I'm glad to know that she will eventually. I can't imagine going through this with more than one puppy!
Thank you, Karen! I know you mentioned a lack of rear end awareness before. I hoped she would have outgrown it by now but I'm glad to know that she will eventually. I can't imagine going through this with more than one puppy!
Well, mine are still with the litter… they will go home to their families in another week! LOL!
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Abby as adorable. I have found asking the question, ours is “do you want to your biz?” And then take them out or to their potty Teaches them to come to you when they have to go. Of course they come to you for a lot of other things too… but in time YOU learn the signals. For our boys that have passed the grumbled if we ignored them and they had to go out. For any other reason they just sat and stared.. Sydney our 11 month Hav gets a little frantic, she has not learned to come and tell us yet..
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