Potty training question

Okay, so since I'm in an apartment at the moment, I'm using puppy pads to potty train. I have a couple around the house where she can get to them. She is only a couple days over six weeks old though, and they didn't do any potty training at the breeder so I'm doing it all on my own. Now with my first pup, it took us a while to get her fully potty trained and I'm sure we made quite a few mistakes. I'm being better at watching this one at all times, and taking her for potty breaks. Well she obviously is still making accidents, that is to be expected. But sometimes when I see her about to go, I pick her up and take her over to the pad... She seems to think this is a game. She doesn't want to go to the pad, so she'll start to squirm in my hands and when I put her down, she scrambles and runs away. Well I catch her and put her back on it. I keep doing it, and doing it, but she acts like it's play time. So I'm just wondering, am I making it seem like playtime for her? What can I do to not make it seem like playtime? And may I just say I had no idea a little six week old puppy could run so fast and be such a ball of energy XD haha.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Throneberry on April 3, 2012 at 12:15pm

You should try every hour just making her stand on the potty pad till she goes, and constantly say potty... she will learn to understand that going potty is what you do on this pad. But every hour should make it to where she does not pee in the house.... she will eventually get tired of standing on the pad and she will go. Another amazing invention that you can get at petco or pet stores or bed bath and beyond is potty patch... its around $40 and it looks like a patch of grass and a potty pad goes underneath it and catches the urine, you may have seen these on t.v. This gives them the feel of going on grass in your apartment or porch and you simply rinse it with water once a week, the cool thing about this is if you take her anywhere she will recognize the grass to go potty on because she has known the potty grass patch. It was very helpful for me when i was living in the apartment. But if you dont want to do this hold your puppy on the potty pad until it goes and say potty. Be very strong about it she will go eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on April 3, 2012 at 12:24pm

If at all possible I would totally skip the pads and just take her outside every hour. I know it's a huge pain in the butt, but it will probably make the potty training process so much easier. Otherwise I guess I would try putting the pad inside an xpen so she can't run away and go play until she's pottied. She is very young to be in a new home already so you're going to have to be especially patient with her.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on April 3, 2012 at 1:01pm

I always teach "go potty" at this time, just the minute she squats say the command (I use go potty) and she will eventually understand. Also, really be happy when she goes on the pad..a treat or great enthusiasm will do it. At her age, she is still such an infant that her attention span is about a split second so you will just have to confine her when you are not 100% watching. I used to block off the kitchen and put newspapers down when I needed to leave or do something besides watch. Eventually I would remove papers as the puppy got older and seemed to have a favorite spot. Outdoors is usually best but I know that apartment and condo living doesn't always make that possible. As she is only 6 weeks it will be a long time before she has enough bowel control to be trustworthy. The good news is she will learn faster than human babies do! Yes, puppies are very fast:)