# House training puppy - 2nd floor apartment



## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

We have just signed and paid the adoption fees for a Hound Terrier mix puppy. She will be a little over 10 weeks when we pick her up on 8/14.

I’m looking for some advice for house training. From everything that I have read, there are two schools of thought:

1 - Use pads in the same room as the puppy is initially introduced to and slowly move them closer to the door, and eventually outside.

2 - Take her out frequently, if she is caught in the act, run her outside.

In both cases she would be rewarded when eliminating where she is supposed to.

I live on the 2nd floor of a two family house and I’m not sure which method would be better.

I’m leaning towards the first because I wouldn’t be able to run outside with her if she is in the act. Realistically, running down stairs isn’t always safe, especially with someone peeing right under where you are about to step.

I also doubt that a puppy of her size (currently 10 inches long) would be able to go down the stairs without being carried. 

Maybe a better way would be a hybrid of both methods… if she is in the act, run her to a pad, but also take her out every hour?

Thanks in advance!


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## hachna (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi BsF,
Do you have a verandah/balcony? If you have, try to use the area. It will save a lot of hassle during night time.
I am anti pads as it does not help much for the dog unless there is medical reason for that. Frequent visits to outside are the better one and please do not scold the puppy if accidents happened but make huge fuss when the dog did right. You need to limit water and food as well at night. During night time you will require to get up at least a few times for toilet break. If your options are limited, I think a crate is a way to go.
If you have more specific questions, please post them. Good luck.
Hachna


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Thanks for the fast reply.

We do have a roofed balcony... but it is on the opposite end of our apartment than where our bedroom is.

There is a small hallway (about 6 feet x 6 feet) that connects a few rooms in our house, including the bedroom, that can be gated off very easily.

Our plan was to place the crate in the doorway such that the puppy could see us sleep from the crate, but have the option to go into the small hallway. We were thinking about putting the pads in the hallway, so if she has to eliminate between us taking her out, she will have a place to do so.

We also fully understand the part of not scolding accidents and highly rewarding going for where we want her to.

So are you recommending that we let her freely eliminate on our balcony?


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I think a roofed balcony is 1) too much like the inside and could confuse the dog and 2)not someplace you want her eliminating because it won't get cleaned by rain or easy to hose off. 

I would go up and down the stairs with her. Crating at night and while you are gone and leashing her to you when you are home (tie her leash to your belt or run your belt through the leash hand loop). If you are taking her out regularly enough, it should be a rare occasion that you actually have to interrupt her "midstream" to run down the stairs. She will probably be able to take the stairs on her own (well, on a leash of course, I mean not being carried) very soon.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Shell said:


> I would go up and down the stairs with her.


What happens if she has to go at night or if I leave the house for a few hours? I see these two options, but I'm not sure which is better, or if it even makes sense to go with Option 2 as it might confuse her:

Option 1: Just deal with it until she can hold it long enough (which could be a few months)

Option 2: Train her to go on the training pad if she must, but also highly reward for going outside


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

If she has an accident run her downstairs. Reward for going outside and making. Eventually she'll be able to do the stairs on her own. If you start with puppy pads it will make it harder to completely change, and if you take her enough when not crated, you might not have any accidents.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

tskoffina said:


> If she has an accident run her downstairs.


Is this while she is in the act or after she has finished inside?


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

While she's doing it, but don't yell at her for it, just grab and run, LOL.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Haha... that would be a funny sight. 

I'm not sure if I want to run down a flight of stairs while someone is wetting the steps in front of me...


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

LOL, true. Is your building a "building"? I'm in So FL, so most of ours when you go out your door you're "outside", even on the second floor... It's open air, even if under an over hang. If that's how yours is put her down, but from my experience, when you pick them up they stop cause they're startled I guess. They don't usually go in your arms.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

tskoffina said:


> LOL, true. Is your building a "building"? I'm in So FL, so most of ours when you go out your door you're "outside", even on the second floor... It's open air, even if under an over hang. If that's how yours is put her down, but from my experience, when you pick them up they stop cause they're startled I guess. They don't usually go in your arms.


The staircase is considered part of our unit and the bottom of it is directly outside. I've read a few things saying that they will stop going when picked up (due to some muscle contracting), but I guess I'll find out first hand.

So in other words, would it be too confusing to teach her to use the pad and go outside?


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

It'll probably take longer. I only know one person who tried that, and even with crates and a fenced yard, their 11 and 5 year old dogs aren't trained. We only used them at night for our terminally ill dog, towards the end, but that's different all together. I don't know really what it will do, but once she's trained, I would think you'd have to re-train to only go outside when you take the pads away.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

From the puppies perspective... if she gets treats for going on the pad or outside... and then there is no more pad... wouldn't she realise that there would be no treat for going inside?


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

Yes, but if she has to go, she'll still go in the area if you're not paying attention, or somewhere else. My dog knows the sit command, and she'll do it if an adult tries. If my son does she won't, even though she knows she gets a treat if she does it.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

tskoffina said:


> Yes, but if she has to go, she'll still go in the area if you're not paying attention, or somewhere else. My dog knows the sit command, and she'll do it if an adult tries. If my son does she won't, even though she knows she gets a treat if she does it.


That's a good point. Would it help if we moved the pad to a new location each time, to help associate the treat with the pad opposed to the area?

Also, how long will it take until she could hold her bladder overnight? (usually about 6-7 hours)


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## tskoffina (Jul 23, 2010)

They say 6 mos old they can, but some seem to do it earlier. Our last dog went longer in her crate than out, and without water they go longer, so if you crate when you're gone and at night, there may be few or no accidents in the crate, but if you got 2 hours out of the crate, she might, so that's why they were saying earlier to take her out about every hour and a little after eating, drinking, waking from nap, or a lot of play... They're like human babies, just about everything makes them go at that age LOL.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Got it.... so I'll try to reward it when it uses the pad but also make sure to take her out every hour for the first 6 months


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

BruinsFan said:


> Got it.... so I'll try to reward it when it uses the pad but also make sure to take her out every hour for the first 6 months


If you are taking her out every hour, there will be no need for a pad. I really don't suggest using them, and one flight of stairs (that are your stairs, not shared) is really not much at all. Crate her at night and set an alarm for halfway through the night. Take her outside. She should be able to hold it half the night while sleeping, even at 10 weeks. Then follow the Potty Training 101 tips of out hourly during the day, after waking up, after eating/drinking etc. She will probably be able to hold it overnight between 5 and 6 months, assuming overnight isn't sleeping in till 10 am on a Saturday 

Another problem with using the pads, is that because they are easily available to her, she may not bother learning to signal you that she needs to pee (or rather, you learning what her signal looks like) making it especially hard when you start taking her to other people's houses and such and for when you take the pee pads away. Remember that even though you think of the pad as a designated area, to her, you are still rewarding for peeing inside the house. Just peeing inside the house on a funny papery thing.


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## Makayla (Jul 28, 2010)

Well, this is what I did with my dog.
My family bought a cage, It wasn't like a cage that a dog couldn't move around in, it was a big one so he could move around. On one side there were his toys and a cushion for him to sleep in, and then there was a wide space were he could move around. The cage was on tile, and we put pads on it encase of an accident. He stayed in the cage for most of the day, when we were away. When someone is home he is allowed to roam around the house. We trained our dog by taking him outside every 3 hours or so, and we took treats when we went outside with him. When he did his business we gave him a treat and said "Good boy!" and then he learned to not do his business in the house, but rarely he has accidents.
Hope I helped.


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Thanks for the comments... sounds like most of it will be playing it by ear at first... I'm getting excited


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## hachna (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi BF


I have been away for the weekend (car camping with dogs) and then work. I assume you get a lot of info from other members. Just to share my experiences.....

Your No 2 option-what do you mean by caught in action. (caught in doing no1 or no2?) how can you run to go downstairs? what you have to do is to prevent before happening. The sign that a puppy can display its urgency for toileting is short and very subtle. You really need to spend a bit of time with your puppy to know its signal. 

My mini schnauzer was toilet trained very quickly and has not had accident after 3 month (I was even surprised by this ). He whimpers when he needs to go to toilet or outside facing doors. He is now 2.5 years. I adopted my s/tzu at about 1 but he is also toilet trained. He did not have accident more than 1.5 years now. I live in a house. No doggy door. No water bowl inside house. 2 adults incl myself work full time (9-5) The followings are what I did for my dogs:
•	My dogs stays outside if we are not at home-this is why I feel you need to crate your dog if the dog can not freely go outside for toileting. If your dog is not crate trained or can not go outside/or no designated area for toileting, accidents will happen and toilet training will be difficult. I know some people train their dog to urinate on the papers in the bathroom. But I find this very messy.
•	I had two weeks off work to be with my dogs-you can use this time to mould your dog to suit your life style
•	water bowl outside only-personal reasons-old federation house with limited space and wooden floor-when dogs drink water they tend to urinate as well. So water bowl outside only and it suited us.
•	After intensive play/train, they tend to urinate. So go out with your dog and have a drink and then toilet. Use this for toilet training a lot. If you want your puppy to go to toilet, do intense activity first.
•	10 to 30 minutes after food, toileting-this will depend on breeds/size
•	Dog tend to urinate more during day time as they move and eat more. At night if your dog is not a good sleeper, you will also have to get up more often. I woke up a few times during night time for 2 weeks. At the end of two weeks I got up only once-both my dogs are very good sleepers and they sleep with me in their beds of course-You will find if your dog sleeps with you. It will have less accident as dogs don’t use their bedding area as toilet (should I say some dogs!!!)-this is a part of crate training based on-I also would not encourage using your bedroom as a play area either. By doing so your dog can establish what is sleeping area and what is toileting area more clearly, therefore less accident.
•	After last drink and toilet do not offer water unless you take your dogs outside or somewhere it can do toileting. When puppy drinks, expect toileting soon
•	My dogs tend to hold more than 12 hours overnight now. I also heard that dogs tend to this better than bitches.
•	It is better not give them wet food (i.e. tin food). My dogs eat raw meat only in the evening. When mini shi was puppy, I gave good quality kibbles and raw chicken necks and occasionally lamb off cuts 

I don’t think my way is the only way but it has worked. Just one more, when accident happens, just clean up (you already told me you do so). Do not even talk to your dog unless you catch it doing so. This is very important. If you discipline your dog, do not take more than 1-2 minutes they will forget about what they have done wrong therefore no point. Have a go!!! It must be very exciting time for you. Enjoy your time with puppy!!!


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## patriciap (Jul 30, 2010)

I just got a puppy about 2 and half weeks ago. She's was just over 10 weeks old. I'm kind of a neat freak, so the accidents on the rug were really wigging me out at first, but the trick is to pick them up in the act and get them to where you want them to go. If Lola is mid-poop, she usually stops because she's startled and then will try again a few minutes later (thus giving me time to get her where I want her to go). As far as the pee... it happens too fast. By the time I pick her up, she's already done her business. You just have to look for the warning signs of when she needs to pee. They usually start sniffing the ground and walking in circles, looking for a place. That's the hint to you.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Another voice from the peanut gallery - not an answer but may provide additional options.

Ian Dunbar has suggested buying about a square yard of turf and putting in a low container. Keeping it growing for a month or two during housetraining is fairly easy, and you can use it to teach the pup to go on the turf, on the balcony. Then it is fairly easy to generalize to going outside..... One more option....


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## Bart (Jul 15, 2010)

Crate train the dog. There are two main ways to train elimination habits: paper/pad training and crate training. I wouldn't use paper/pad training unless the dog could not go outside (40th floor yes, not 2nd). Even if you couldn't go outside, I'd still crate the dog. The crate teaches the dog to hold it (an 11 week old should be able to hold it for an hour or more). Pads teach the dog to eliminate in the house.

The crate is also benefitial long after training elimination habits. It's essential for most dogs to be left home alone for any period of time or during your sleep hours until they are fully housebroken which can take 1-2 years or more. It's essential for safe travel. It's one of the best places to feed a dog. It's a great "spot" for the dog to go to to rest (your household might not be as hectic as some).


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## BruinsFan (Jul 31, 2010)

Thanks for all of the replies... I will take all of it into account.


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