Toilet Training - when not there....

How do you toilet train a dog when you're in work all day?

I have Sparky in a crate at night & he goes toilet on a puppy pad which is fine. The first 2 weeks we had him I left him in his crate during the day & again he would go on the puppy pad. Yesterday for the first time I left him in the kitchen with Cassie & put a puppy pad donw for him to use but instead he did a couple of poo's round the kitchen (mainly under the table) & then ran through them so my kitchen was manky!!

He is very good when we are there & will ask at the back door if it's closed or will just go out himself if the door is open.

I thought of getting some drops I saw on the net that are meant to encourage them to go in a certain place & put the drops on the puppy pad,but I'm not sure this will work.

Any ideas?

Housetraining if no one is at home all day is very difficult and will take far longer (one reason it is usually better not to get a small puppy if no one is home all day -- it is really very difficult to ever effectively housetrain unless someone takes some holiday time off). Drops are not going to help.

Please do not crate a puppy all day -- the space is simply to small and you should never force a puppy or any dog to have to defecate and pee inside its crate -- you always want the crate to be the place they keep clean. Basically if you are going to use pads you need to focus on training him to the pad... this is the problem though -- when you are there you are training him to go outside but at home alone he cannot get out and doesn;t know he is supposed to use a pad. It is thus very important that he NOT be going on the pad in his crate at night. If he has going in the crate at night, you need to take him out at say 2 or 3am every night. I cannot stress this enough -- you will have permanent housetraining issues if he learns to go inside a crate where he is next to his own excrement and pee all night long -- he will NOT learn to keep clean and won;t be able to extend that concept to the rest of your house.

But really, a pup this young needs someone to come home a couple of times during the day to let him out -- a full day of work is too long for even an adult dog to have to hold itself every day (really, anything over 6 hours -- imagine having to hold yourself for that long every day; it is pretty uncomfortable). I think I already recommended buying Shirlee Kalstone's housetraining manual to you a week or two ago? I'd really recommend doing this right away as it offers detailed options for people who are working (and in all cases).

If no one can get home I'd recommend getting someone to at least come in at lunchtime and let the dog out and let them get some exercise as well. Finally please accept though that housetraining a puppy involves lots of accidents and cleanups just like potty training a child -- it doesn;t happen in days or weeks but takes months of focused time (we have all been there -- it is totally normal and is part of the responsibility of deciding to opt for a puppy rather than, say, an adult dog already mostly or completely trained -- puppies are *hard work* for the first year). This is going to be especially so with a pup left alone all day -- he has no where else to go and as no one is home during the day 5 days a week, he isn't getting any clear and reinforced messages on where to go.

Sorry our internet has been down for the past few working days!

I have that book on order Karlin so hopefully it'll be here soon.

We crated Sparky partly for his own safety the first while as our other dog was unsure of him & as we were at work we wouldn't have wanted any harn to have come to him but also wanted them to get used to each other - they're the best of friends now which is why they're both having the full kitchen area now & have done for the past 10 days or so.

The puppy pads do seem to be working & we have my mother in law looking in on them once during the day.

Sparky does seem to have decided to be clean himself at the moment, he has decided to do all his business by the back door when he needs to go when we're not there & so the last couple of days (working) we have left pads there & he uses them quite hapily, the rest of the time he goes to the door & asks by wining to go out. And obviously after meals & drinks & at regualr intervals he is taken out for wee's & poos. Also when we come home from work or being out he runs right for the back door - instead of trying to get past us to get up the stairs!

I think this change in him may also be bacause his stomach seems a lot better this past (almost) week (Touch wood &:xfngr:!). The JWB wasn't doing to well with him either & he managed to pinch a bit of my jack russells dinner one night, she eats Naturediet & that particualr night it was the fish & rice variety, that night his poo's seems a lot better so the following morning I gave him more of the naturediet with a little of his puppy food mixed in & again his poo's were much better - he's now eating only naturediet & although his poos still arent 100% solid they are much better & less frequent. I have the puppy variety of the naturediet on order now.

So maybe it wasn't a chicken allergy after all, maybe he just can't tollerate dry food? Who knows, but :xfngr: everything is going the right way now at least.