# Puppy forgot his housetraining?



## vwdarling (Oct 21, 2010)

Our 13 week old border collie did really well with holding his bladder in the early stages but now I feel like he's regressing. We've worked up to peeing every 2 hours while someone's home and leaving him alone for 3-4 hours and not having any accidents. I thought great, so I started working on having him pee every 3 hours instead. It was going well and then lately he has been peeing before the scheduled time. Yesterday he pretty much had an accident before every time we were supposed to take him out. Today, I compensated, woke up earlier and took him out, and decided to take him out 3 or 4 times today instead of 2 (before I had to leave for work at 1:30). At one point he pee'd inside after I took him out 20 min earlier!

Is this normal? Do puppies forget? How do we stop this from happening? The way we housetrained him is Dr. Ian Dunbar's method.


----------



## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

It's not so much that they forget, but housetraining is a long process. 
A lot of people have success early on, and think the job is done, but, it really is an ongoing process. As a puppy's body develops they go through physical changes, they also go through behavior changes, and so, the housetraining process has to continue. In fact, puppies don't have full PHYSICAL control of their bladder and bowels until about 6 months of age, give or take. That means, their bodies are still developing and they aren't to blame for accidents.

Very young puppies don't even get signals from their bodies telling them it's time to potty. So, they may be going along just fine, then, BOOM! They have to go NOW. As they develop, they'll start getting those signals, and develop more control.

Basically, I think you're expecting too much to have your puppy potty trained by 13 weeks. It can take lots longer, and you can usually expect set backs until age 8 months or so. And, your puppy is telling you that you're moving too fast, by needing to go before you take him out.....
Slow down, and ease into it.


----------



## Labmom4 (Feb 1, 2011)

I agree with doxiemommy.
You're really not out of the woods until at least 6 months of age. I've made the mistake before of thinking all was good, then having a 4 or 5 month old puppy squat right in front of me. At 13 weeks, I'd be taking him out a lot more often than every few hours. The more you take him out, the faster he learns what is expected of him.


----------



## jasper21 (May 26, 2011)

Hi, our nearly 12 week old puppy pees every 40-60 minutes when he's not sleeping (sometimes even less than that). I think we are doing good if he can hold it for 75 mins . LOL.


----------

