Farley Mowat recounted in his book, "Never Cry Wolf" that when he "marked" the territory around his tent, the male wolf in the area respected his marking, but the wolf also marked the same places from the other side, not intruding on his space. So that method could backfire if the dog decided he had to reciprocate. Reminds me of a cartoon where a man catches his dog lifting his leg on the couch, takes him outside and demonstrates how to pee on a tree, whereupon the dog, back inside, stands on his hind legs and pees on the couch. Funny! 🙂
Marking?
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Why are you using puppy pads? I would throw those away and house-train him. You need to make sure the puppy is in your sight at all times. Close the bedroom door and put up baby gates. Keep an eye on him so you can look for signs that he has to relieve himself. Most puppies will have one bowel movement for every meal they eat but urination is considerably more frequent. An 8 week old puppy may have to urinate every 15-30 minutes if he has been playing hard so be ready. Always praise him for relieving himself outside, during the actual act so he knows precisely what the praise is for. And yes, be patient. It can take weeks or even months for a puppy to be 100% house-trained.
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Why are you using puppy pads? I would throw those away and house-train him. You need to make sure the puppy is in your sight at all times. Close the bedroom door and put up baby gates. Keep an eye on him so you can look for sighs that he has to relieve himself. Most puppies will have one bowel movement for every meal they eat but urination is considerably more frequent. An 8 week old puppy may have to urinate every 15-30 minutes if he has been playing hard so be ready. Always praise him for relieving himself outside, during the actual act so he knows precisely what the praise is for. And yes, be patient. It can take weeks or even months for a puppy to be 100% house-trained.
I take him outside after every meal and after he wakes or after we play. The puppy pads are for when I'm out, they're in his playpen. When I'm home the playpen is left open because he still likes it in there. I do keep him in my sight but without warning he will run to this room and quickly go on the floor as if it's a race. He doesn't circle or anything. And its difficult for me to put up baby gates because I have an older dog that has access to the whole house. I do usually keep my bedroom door closed when we're in there but otherwise its hard to control his movements when he runs like that.
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This is what I told my (now grownup) children when they were in charge of an unhousetrained puppy: if you can't do it while riding a bicycle, you can't do it while on puppy duty. It's a full-time activity. You can't read just this one article or talk on your phone. It's an ACTIVE duty, not a passive duty.
They grumbled at me, but it really is true.
Now is the time when the crate will save you, though. Use it when you have to take your hands off the handlebars, so to speak. This is not just theory. I have trained several puppies with ZERO accidents. Zero.
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Then you are not taking him out often enough. The mantra of puppy owners is "if in doubt take them out". It isn't a couple of times a day when training a puppy it is more like every 20 minutes when they are awake and active. Also, he shouldn't have access to more than a room or so when he is out. You can use baby gates, ex-pens, or closing doors to restrict access to other parts of the house but he should not be able to run very from from you while you are house training.
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I understand you need the pads when you aren't home for a long period. But when you are home, I have to utterly agree… "accidents" are not accidents, they are failings on your part. The dog is either on a leash, in a crate, tied to you, outside or ACTIVELY being watched. Every time the dog goes where it shouldn't, you increase the process. It isn't fun but you really need to stick to it.
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So I took your advice. I feel like I spent the entire weekend outside with the puppy if he wasn't sleeping. It worked! We had ZERO accidents in the house and I didn't use any puppy pads
Thank you! -
So I took your advice. I feel like I spent the entire weekend outside with the puppy if he wasn't sleeping. It worked! We had ZERO accidents in the house and I didn't use any puppy pads
Thank you!Great work! Well done! So happy to hear about the success! Just make sure to be consistent with this part of your basenji's training.
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Great work! Well done! So happy to hear about the success! Just make sure to be consistent with this part of your basenji's training.
I'll make sure to be. I think it was partly because I expected to have accidents with the new puppy so I was a little lax on the idea. But now that I know they can be prevented… I'll be more diligent.
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I'll make sure to be. I think it was partly because I expected to have accidents with the new puppy so I was a little lax on the idea. But now that I know they can be prevented… I'll be more diligent.
There is a saying…. if your puppy has an accident in the house, roll up a newspaper and smack yourself 10 times over the head.... and repeat.. "I must not forget, I must not forget"... because it is your error that led to the accident... not the pup
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There is a saying…. if your puppy has an accident in the house, roll up a newspaper and smack yourself 10 times over the head.... and repeat.. "I must not forget, I must not forget"... because it is your error that led to the accident... not the pup
Haha, that's great
