Bella thinks it's normal to toilet inside! What do I do?

Since getting Bella a few months ago (she is now 18 weeks), we praised her when she went on the newspaper so that she would go in the same spot when inside. We took her outside whenever possible.

However, recently she has started to refuse to toilet outside.

I stay out with her for as long as half an hour (when I know she really needs to toilet) and she wont go.

As soon as I take her inside, she runs over the her paper and toilets (which results in me grabbing her and taking her outside, and the cycle continues).

Now I realise I've confused her my praising her for using the paper, but I have also been praising her for going outside.

What do I do to make her want to go outside?

Personally,I would begin with getting rid of the papers and start all over.
Its very confusing for her to be alowed to do one thing and the next day its no longer ok.
Good luck.

Yep, I'd get rid of the newspaper. Maybe put it just outside the front door for a day or two (if it won't blow away that is) and start from scratch. You've already put in the hard work, so even though you may be starting from scratch, the journey should be much shorter.

I agree that by having newspaper in the house, but expecting her to toilet outside as well, that it is giving mixed signals and is probably very confusing.

i was trying to post my own threat but cant

hi i was trying to post my own thread but can't seem to do it and saw yours and said id reply instead.
i can see your problem and feel sorry for you. my ruby is four months old and will go outside when i let her out and is very good most of the time. My problem is that we leave her out before we go to bed, and still the following morning at 7, which i think is quite early, that she has a poo done, and in respect to everyone reading this....the poo is not done on the paper it is done behind the utility door...which i have to open inwards to get into the room!!!!!! so it goes under the door..yuck!! the utility is quite big and she also has the downstairs bathroom. and if she goes in the daytime she always poo's on the paper so any ideas what i would do with this and can someone tell me how do i post my own thread??? sorry about this.

sorry i meant post my own THREAD NOT THREAT!!

oh my god i havent woken up yet. im sorry for my previous mistakes i must read before i post in future. i meant thread not threat!!!!

Like others have said,I would suggest taking the paper outside, put a rock or something on it so it won't blow away, and make that her "spot". Then start over on housetraining. Lots has been written about the subject. And expect some accidents, after all she is only 18 weeks old. How long it takes a dog to be reliable varies all over the map. Ours have taken as little as 6 months to our "nightmare" that took over a year!! Also keep in mind that once she seems reliable, that it's not unusual to have a "relapse" where you have to start housetraining all over just to remind her.

Good luck with her, I hope she is one of the easy ones to housebreak!

Totally agree that moving the paper outside is a good place to start, also try not to give her too much freedom around the house until she can be trusted to be clean in one area at a time, it can be almost a year before they are 100% trustworthy in this area.

Think of it like this, you are incredibly young and are happily playing away when you get the "urge", it's a long way to the back door and not always easy to make your human pets realise that you need to go and right now! :lol:

Basically, put her outside frequently, especially upon waking up after a nap and about 5-10 minutes after a meal. I am also very keen on advocating the use of a crate at night, a dog will very seldom soil it's own bed and crates are very efficient at helping the toilet training along in this way. Karlin often recommends a book too (Can't remember the name right now, Karlin? Care to help me out here please?? )

Anyway, hope this helps you out a little with your baby!!:luv:

I always think it it unfortunate that paper training is still foremost in people's minds as a housetraining approach. As far as I have found, it is a total waste of time -- the short-term convenience you get of having the puppy learn to go on a particular spot inside during the brief period when they can't hold themselves very long is more than offset by the fact that you have to totally re-housetrain again to go outside. Who in their right mind wants to housetrain TWICE? :yikes But it was the norm long ago when it might have made a bit more sense of people were home all day and really focused on the puppy. That isn't the case now. I think that in most cases this is extremely confusing to the dog who has worked hard to do what pleases you by learning to go inside then is suddenly switched to outside -- which to them,must make no sense at all, and leads to lots and lots of accidents when the papers vanish.

To put this in human context -- imagine you are taught a task at work to be done one way which you are praised for doing correctly for a few months, then all of a sudden and for no apparent reason you are expected to do it a completely different way. It is very hard to do correctly for the first while and would be very frustrating too! And at least we can understand an explanation -- with a puppy or dog, we can only try to train and reward. Or to give a dog example -- many of us find that if we first housetrain in an area of grass, our pup will not go on pavement for a long, long time, and vice versa. Even something like the type of ground underfoot becomes associated with the 'right' behaviour and is very hard to change.

Most modern housetraining manuals recommend totally skipping the (useless!) interim state of training to papers. This is more labour-heavy for the owner in the first 2-3 months, especially the first 4 weeks -- but saves time and mess in the longer run, and avoids the problems you are having now.

Whether you are in the UK/Ireland or in North America the two books that should be on every new puppy owners shelves is Shirlee Kalstone's How to Housetrain Your Dog in Seven Days and any of Dr Ian Dunbar's puppy manuals,for example, Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog. Having these to hand will answer so many questions right away and also, help people avoid problems before they arise by correct training.

Amazon in the UK is offering these two together at a discount:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-After-Getting-Your-Puppy/dp/1577314557

You have some good advice in this thread on ways to manage the problem -- which is basically recognising your puppy has to be re-housetrained all over again to go outside. Using a crate in this process (Kalstone gives instruction) may help.

Cheers Karlin!!