I've adopted a dog!

bebie

Hello

I've just adopted the most beautiful dog. She's a lab cross (prob with a collie). She is adorable. Shy, but is coming out of her shell.

She is aprox 18 months old. We have her sleeping in her basket in the kitchen. I don't think she is toilet trained. We brought her out so many times yesterday evening to see would she go before she went asleep. But she didn't go at all! So needless to say she had an accident.

Just looking for some advice on toilet training her. She is a very good girl and is eager to please so I'd say if I do it the right way she should get the hang of it. So how do I start????

Thanks for your help.

seamus

She's likely already been toilet trained, so it's more just a matter of reinforcing it. Dogs learn from an early age from their peers that using the den to go to the loo is not cool. So it's really just a matter of establishing for the dog what the boundaries of the den are.

Try to bring her out once every hour, even if it's just letting her out into the back garden. Make sure you go with her, don't just throw her out there and let her back in five minutes later. When she goes to the loo outside, praise the dog immediately afterwards and give her a cuddle.
When she goes to the loo inside, don't say anything, scorning her will be of limited use. Just quietly clean it up and then bring the dog outside, even though she probably won't go. If you catch the dog mid-stream, then obviously tell her a firm, "No", stop her (if you can) and take her outside.

Once you've gotten a routine, then you don't need to let her out every hour, you'll get to know what her usual is - I'd say 3 or 4 times a day for most dogs, including first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Learn to identify the signs that she needs to go - for most dogs when they start standing at the door looking to go out or get up out of a comfy seat and get boisterous and restless, it's usually time to let them out.

For the first few days she's going to be anxious and nervous and accidents are going to happen.

sionnaic

Congratulations!

She sounds like a lovely dog - would love to see a photo

We adopted a couple of dogs ourselves...which are now the centres of our universe :rolleyes: but sure we wouldn't have it any other way

Seamus is spot with his advice there, I absolutely agree.

best of luck

Tranceypoo

Ah, congratulations, many many years of doggie kisses and cuddles and fun ahead. Re the toilet training, just everything that Seamus said really!

bebie

Thanks for the advice. We are totally smitten by her. She is so lovely.

When you say 3 or 4 times, is that a number 2 or a wee? She's only done 1 so far and we have her over 24 hours. It's all new to us, but what a lovely dog to learn from.

Thanks again.:)

seamus

That's to pee really. It's not a whole lot different to humans - if she drinks a lot, she'll pee a lot! Dunno what the going rate for poos are - our girl usually goes twice a day, morning and evening, but she can go through periods where she doesn't go at all for 24 hours (changes in regularity usually indicates dietary or digestive problems).

You'll get to know your own dog and everyone will get into the routine.

bebie

Thanks Seamus,

It looks like she doesn't want me to see her doing anything. We've been on a good few walks, nothing happened then. I left her out the back garden when I collected the kids and there was a nice pressie when I came back.

I've been bringing her out on the hour or so and waited with her but to no avail. Then just there when I was hoovering (she's afraid of the hoover) she went out the back garden by herself, I kept hoover on but kept an eye on her and she did a wee!!!!!! Hurrah, we all praised her and gave her a treat, so hopefully she knows what it was for.

Thanks for the advice!

pokertalk

bebie wrote: »

Thanks Seamus,

It looks like she doesn't want me to see her doing anything. We've been on a good few walks, nothing happened then. I left her out the back garden when I collected the kids and there was a nice pressie when I came back.

I've been bringing her out on the hour or so and waited with her but to no avail. Then just there when I was hoovering (she's afraid of the hoover) she went out the back garden by herself, I kept hoover on but kept an eye on her and she did a wee!!!!!! Hurrah, we all praised her and gave her a treat, so hopefully she knows what it was for.

Thanks for the advice!

try keeping her on the lead preff a retractable on so she can get a bit of space between yourself and her . but ya can still see if she is doing anything and if she does go [it might take a few mins] then give her loads of rubbs and huggs to reinforce what she has done . the best thing that could happen is to catch her in mid pee in the house so you could address it from there and take her straight out the back