Housebreaking blues

How long does it take to housebreak a puppy? I am doing everything right- taking her outside when she starts to act "suspicious", etc. However, she'll play around outside, so I bring her in, then she goes in the house. It's so frustrating! I've had her for 2 weeks now. Does it get better??

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Permalink Reply by Erin on June 13, 2008 at 9:16am

She will be 8 weeks on Tuesday. I figured it was because she's so young yet. I am praising her whenever she goes outside (and she gets a treat). Now she starts going to the door just to get a treat though. It's not flying with me, though! :)

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Permalink Reply by Sam on June 13, 2008 at 9:23am

I certainly would give her a treat when she goes to the door and then proceed to take her right outside. You are rewarding a marked behavior of going to the door. If she goes out and potties you may reward again. Much training has to be broken down in to much smaller steps, especially with the very young ones. If she is less then 8 weeks old this is really wonderful! Lots of routine, patience and time. It is a rare corgi that is truly "solid" until they are at least a year of age. Yes, the frequency is less. Pups are going to have accidents...have your good cleaning supplies ready.

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Permalink Reply by Erin on June 13, 2008 at 11:57am

Thanks for the advice. Glad to hear that this is normal behavior, I thought maybe I was doing something wrong that she wasn't trained yet!

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Permalink Reply by Bonny on June 13, 2008 at 10:02am

I learned how important it was to take the my puppy out every 30-45 min at first. If I got a little lazy and waited an hour....an accident was almost certain, even though she didn't go every single time I took her out. I'm about to go through this again as I'm getting another puppy in a week. I think I'm going to try using the pee-pee pads when I can't watch him that closely. But yes, it does get lots better. It wasn't long before Junebug was pretty reliable, and we bell-trained her as well. She still had accidents sometimes until she was a year old or so, but now she has none unless she is not feeling well or has the pukes. I still have to clean that up once in a while!!

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Permalink Reply by FuzzyButt on June 13, 2008 at 12:20pm

My breeder tells me that it can take from a few weeks to a month.

You are doing ok. While she is outside make sure to verbally encourage her to "go potty." While she is going praise her very softly, almost whispering things like "good girl," and "that's it." Once she is done whoop and holler like there is no tomorrow showing her how happy you are that she pottied outside.

A key thing to do is do not take her back in the house until she potties.