need help!

Question
Hi, I have this dog I bought on august 1, he's almost 12 weeks old, and when he's about to poop I take him outside but he won't do it, so as soon as I take him inside he poops on my carpet(second time)-My question is how do I prevent it to stop pooping and/or peeing on my carpet, oh and another question, how do I train it to go poop or pee where it's suppose to?????

Answer

Hi Lily,

When you bring your puppy back to your home, you know he still needs to go to the bathroom (even though he didn't do it during the walk). For that reason, you should put your puppy into his crate or containment area, and take him outside again in about 15 minutes for another try.  Be sure to praise your puppy the moment he's finished eliminating outside. With your consistent praise he'll learn what's expected of him.  Do not yell at, or punish your puppy for accidents inside your home. That teaches a puppy nothing but fear. Clean up messes without any yelling, use an enzymatic cleaner such as Nature's Miracle or Simple Solution so your puppy won't be attracted back to the spot to mess again.

If you haven't already done so, establish a regular schedule of outside walks and feedings. This helps you to control the times your puppy has to go out and prevent accidents in the house. Preventing accidents from ever occurring in your home is the objective here, and that takes a fair amount of diligence and energy on your part. Puppies usually have a bowel movement after each meal so give him time to accomplish it. Don't give your puppy the free run of your home, use baby gates or close doors to keep him out of rooms he shouldn't go in. Puppies are notorious for finding out of the way corners to have accidents in, and the accidents can happen amazingly quick!  Keep your puppy in an area where you can watch him, any time you can't watch him he should be in his dog crate.  If you give him too much freedom before he's house trained, he'll have accidents in your home. After playtime, take him outside again then tuck him into his crate for a nap. When he wakes up from naps, your puppy needs to go outside.

If you aren't using a the correct sized dog crate to contain your puppy, you need to have another method of containing your puppy, otherwise he will be having accidents anywhere he pleases. A word about containment areas:  If your pup has too much room, he will have room to mess in his cage, and that's counter productive to house training.  It is also best for the pup to learn right off the bat that he shouldn't go potty until he's let out of the crate (take  him outside immediately).  Using a small room or an indoor dog pen to contain your puppy will make him feel as though it's okay to mess within your home, which is counter productive and will make the house breaking process longer. You can read more about house training, and using a dog crate during the house training process here:

http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html

Best of luck,

Patti