We adopted a Golden Retriever puppy and everything went pretty smoothly. She’s currently almost 5 months old. The in-home potty training went very well and very fast, she always does her business in a diaper-like sheet (sorry, I don’t know the english term).

Now that she has her vaccines in order, she’s ready to go outside. We’ve been trying for 1 week for her to get used to doing her business outside but it has been a frustrating experience. She doesn’t feel comfortable doing her business outside and will only do it when she can’t hold anymore. Her ability to hold poop is not that high so we have had some (not much) success with pooping outside but… we discovered that she can hold her pee for at least 4 hours. We haven’t managed to get her to pee outside yet.

Things we tried:

  • We take 3 walks a day, after every meal; Shorter walk on lunch time, longer walk on dinner time.
  • Take the diaper sheets (both clean and dirty) outside, to create a sense of familiarity or smell. She ignores them completely
  • Long walks with leash on grass or open field
  • Long time in a doggy park, without leash and no other dogs and lots of water
  • Walks with other friendly dogs that pee/poop frequently
  • Praising other dogs when they pee/poop
  • Play time with other friendly dogs in the doggy park
  • Removing the diaper sheets inside, which causes to do her business on the floor without much of a thought
  • Do a picnic on the grass and have her on a long leash to walk “freely”

We praise and reward her heavily when she poops outside and have no reaction when she does her business inside. She is still excited to go outside, I feel like she loves it there! Just doesn’t enjoy doing her business there, I guess.

Any tips? Thanks a lot!

  • pathief@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    9·
    10 days ago

    Hmm when you say reward, are you giving her treats when she poops outside? That tends to help.

    Yes, we say “good girl” and hand out several of her favorite treats.

    Maybe the next time the puppy tries to go inside you could quickly grab them and take them outdoors to do their business?

    We have been somewhat doing this. We close the door to her usual go to place and check out when she’s circling around it, then we go outside. Works great for poop but unfortunately not for pee. She holds her pee for hours until we finally give up and let her go.

    • CHOPSTEEQ@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      10 days ago

      Good rule of thumb for puppy bladders is double their age in months is about how many hours they can hold it. But that’s typically used for knowing when you can stop waking up in the middle of the night to train your puppy to go outside.

      Very unfortunate about the misunderstanding from the vet.