Hi Sarah. This is exactly the scenario which is covered in the main article above so all my thoughts can be found there. Good luck.

Hi Rebecca. My best guess is that the intervals between trips out of the crate are too long so that she is busting to go when you get her out. Until she gets better control you might have to double the number of trips. The other option is that she is just urinating from excitement, which is never a problem as they grow out of it. However, it should not be more than a few sprinkles if so.

I’m having a lot of trouble with my 11 week old cocker spaniel/samoyed puppy. I’ve only had her a few days, but I get so anxious because she pees immediately after leaving the crate, even when I try to pick her up first and take her outside as fast as possible. I’ve tried to make outdoors more fun, like playing with her out there, taking her to shortest grass, its even nice and warm outside right now! I’m just anxious its not going to get better.

Hi Andrew,
I’ve had my puppy now for 1 full week. She’s 14 weeks old and we were told she was 90% house trained. She was great at the start, doing her business outside, on walks and just around the house. A few days later the accidents started to happen, I just assumed it was my fault and didn’t take her out often enough or didn’t catch her when she had a drink. I’ve now realised she’d rather go inside! We could be on a walk and she’d be loving it but will never go but as soon as we get home, within seconds she will have either peed or pooed in the house. I have tried over the last few days to start putting her in a pen as I know she won’t go in her bed. I done this for 5 hours yesterday and not once did she do anything outside, I forgot to lift her into the house on my last try and as soon as she was in the front door she peed. I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong or what I can do to help her. If you have any guidance for me it would be much appreciated! Thanks, Sarah.

Wow I am sore you are going through this but also happy to know I am not alone. I used pee pads until my puppy was vaccinated and it was safe to expose him outdoors and not get sick. He absolutely refuses to potty outside. I’ve been taking him regularly for at least 1 month and he has only pottied 3 times. I keep him outside sometimes for hours at a time he whines and cries because he has to potty and thinks he’s supposed to hold it until he gets to his pee pad. I’m starting to think pee pads are not a good idea because it confuses the puppy when it’s time to go outside.

Hi Grace. That’s a tough one. You will definitely need to keep using pads a lot just so he doesn’t also learn to go on the floor when he’s desperate. I think just accept that it’s going to be slow and take pads with you when you go out. I would then try and make them gradually get smaller (over weeks to months), until he’s more on the grass than the pad. That way he should learn to go on the new surface without distress, which would set him back.

Hi Julie. It sounds like you’re doing things pretty well. My two thoughts are that firstly, it’s often just a matter of persistence and things come good. You don’t have to have perfection, just consistency, and the dogs will eventually pick it up. The second is that the problem probably occurred in those first few days when you were given a false sense of security. It’s those days when prevention of toileting inside makes the greatest difference, as it prevents the action being normalised.