potty training!! help!!

Question
hey charlotte lurken i hope you can help me with my chi.
her name is lulu and shs is 5 month  old. i have her since she has a month old n i just cant get her to peee on the newspaper. this is the only way because i dont have time to take her out n when i do take  her ut she doesnt go. i ve tried almost everything, pee pads, newspaper, spanking. please help me!!

Answer
Hi Stephanie,

Never EVER spank or hit your puppy! First of all, your puppy doesn't have a clue as to why she's being hit, and second, you're only setting her up to develop other behavioral and training problems!

If your puppy has an accident in your home, roll up a newspaper, and hit yourself! It's your fault for not monitoring your puppy close enough!
Clean up the mess without yelling or fanfare, and promise yourself that next time, you'll get your puppy outside in time!

Not having the time is not an excuse. This puppy is your responsibility. If you don't have the time for her, then you should consider giving her to somebody who will have the time for her. Just like a child, a puppy needs it's "parents".

Until your puppy is housetrained, you can't let her have the run of the house. When you can't monitor her, you need to crate her.

Paper training is confusing to a puppy. From her point of view, one minute you're wanting her to pee inside, the next minute she's being smacked for it. Your puppy is confused by where exactly you want her to pee. To her there's no difference between peeing on the pads, or peeing on the carpet. They're both in your home, after all.

Housetraining is work. There's no easy way around this. The longer it takes you to get with the program, the longer your dog will go untrained. Here's what you need to do:

1) Keep the puppy in a crate or a confine in a small room (with a child gate) area while unattended.
If the crate is too large, the puppy will have room to use one end as a bathroom. If you have a puppy that is going to get very large, buy a large crate and close off one end with a divider of some sort. If your puppy must be left alone while you're at work, then a larger crate is okay. Put a stack of newspapers at one end for him to use when you can't be home to let him out. A puppy or dog that is untrained and has free roam of the house will make messes in the house and will find something to get into. It is also a huge invitation to mark territory all over the house.

2) Do not use "pee pads".
Pee pads confuse the pup. He does not understand the difference between the outdoors and inside. If you encourage the pup to use pee pads, she starts to think he can go potty anywhere. If you want a dog that will potty outside, do not confuse it. Train the pup to go outside from the beginning.

3) Take the puppy to the same location outside every time.
Use a command to indicate it is time to potty not time to play. I like "hurry up". When the puppy goes potty, give lots of praise. Tell her what a good dog she is. Dogs like knowing they have pleased you.

4) Be persistent.
The pup must have ample opportunity to learn to go outside and to not have mistakes in the house. If you wait 8 hours to take your puppy out, expect a mistake. The pup cannot hold it that long. Both your puppy needs to be given the opportunity to eliminate every 3 hours. If you must be gone for longer periods, it is your mistake that the pup had to go in the house and the puppy should not be chastised.
Take the pup out after EVERY meal.
Take the pup out after EVERY play session.
Take the pup out after EVERY nap.
In short, take the pup out after every event in its life while it is learning.

The most important thing you can do to make house training happen as quickly as possible is to reward and praise your puppy every time she goes in the right place. The more times she is rewarded, the quicker she will learn. Therefore it's important that you spend as much time as possible with your pup and give her regular and frequent access to her toilet area.
Read more about housetraining here:

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/our_pets_for_life_program/dog_behavior_tip_she...

Consistence and Patience are called for right now. Small breed dogs can take up to a year to housetrain, and it sounds as though you're starting at square one, even though your puppy is 5 months old.

By the way, your puppy will get the most health benefits from being spayed, if it's done before her first heat cycle. So now is the age which you need to spay your puppy if wasn't yet done.

Best of luck,
Patti