Need some advice re Maggie Mae

[Pingber]

Hi...Maggie is just shy of 10 weeks old and for the most part, she is paper trained. Here's my question....when and how should we make the teansition to outside? Is it too early to start? We are considering starting to "click-train" and dont want to overwhelm her either.

Sounds like an easy topic, but we know it really isnt. Any help would be appreciated.

Phil

[Idaho Cairns]

No, it is never too early for outside potty training. Keep taking her outside regularly, use the command "Potty!", and when she does go--make a really big deal out of it--tons of praise, much excitement, etc. It will not take her long to figure it out and dogs love to go where there is lots of potty smells on the ground so that works to your advantage as well.

If you watch her close enough, you will be able to tell when she needs to be taken out and pretty soon, you will have a housetrained puppy.

Your excitement about her success will just make it all easier and faster--just don't get so enthusiastic that you scare her.

[Lynn in TN]

i started Kelly as soon as I brought her home at 8 and a half weeks old. She did really well, but she wasn't paper trained. I did what Idaho said except I added the crate into it,

for the first few day I wrote down the time and pee or poo every time she did one even if it was in the house. Then anytime I took her out (going by the schedule I had made) I would give her 5 minutes to potty if she didn't then I put her in her crate for about 20 to 30 minutes and then take her out again if she went potty she got lots of praise and pats if she didn't potty in 5 min back in the crate. It sounds like a lot of work but it payed off because Kelly will potty quickly in less than 5 min. now. That comes in handy on cold days, and early in the morning when it is hectic. I tried treats and quickly regretted it because she figured out that when she went potty she got one and she started potting every 5 min. lol that is not a joke she would squeeze out a drop every 5 min. Good luck! I am sure she will catch on fast.

[Hawkeye]

Yes, this is the perfect time to start training her to go outside. One thing I will add is don't expect her to tell you when she has to go out, you will have to take her out often and try to predict when it is time. They really don't give a signal that they have to go at first until it's too late. At first I took mine out every 30 mins and then gave lots of praise when we had success. Also you may want to use the same area for potty and get her use to going there first then have some play time after. Good luck!

[finncaraid]

It'll be easier to teach her that outside is her powder room than to teach her to let you know when she has to go out or to get her back in the house when she's done. We followed a set schedule with Finn & he was completely trained by 12 weeks. We used praise as opposed to treats so we wouldn't have to remember to grab a treat on the way out the door. At 8 weeks, it was out every 30 mins. for a few days, 45 mins for a couple, etc.until it was up to 2 hours. We stayed at 2 hours until he was older. He ate 2x a day, went out 20 mins. later. When playing, we'd enjoy 20 mins., then go out. No kidding, he was totally trained in a month & has never had another accident in the house. The 2 hour schedule ended months ago- he can wait quite a long time now &, sometimes, I take him out even if he hasn't asked in 8 hours. Maggie Mae will send a signal when she has to go, you just have to pay attention. Finn at almost 17 months still does not bark to go out & only occasionally uses the bell hanging from the door handle to let us know. His current method is to follow you around, staring. If you ask him if he needs out, he'll run to the door.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~You have to make Maggie Mae's house breaking your #1 priority in life for awhile if you want her to be trained for outside. It needs to be more important right now than "no bite", no stealing, leave it & all the basic commands. Use a treat she likes if you want or a phrase she responds positively to: we always said "Good Boy Finny!!" in a happy tone 'cause it always made his tail wag. While it may be easy-peasy to train her, don't expect perfection until she's about 6 months. And whatever system you use, follow it each & every time-- absolute consistency with a Cairn puppy is the easiest way to success with everything. Some things are easier to achieve than others but, stay with it, no matter what.

[Pingber]

Hi all and thanks...question...while you were training your dogs to go outside, did you also keep the inside newspaper? If you bring your pup out every 1/2 hr, but pick up the inside newspaper, isnt that a problem? OR do you crate inside if the havent gone outside? I am confused.

[Idaho Cairns]

I left the pee pads down until it was pretty clear that they didn't want to use them anymore. We always kept the pads over by the slider anyway and at some point the pups will quit using the pads--preferring to go outside. It is good insurance to keep them down.

[jo_]

Eddie was pee pad trained. We adopted him at 7.5 months. We've had him about 6 weeks now and i'm happy to say he's almost trained. I wanted him off of the pee pads ASAP so I didn't buy any. We began by taking him outside on a leash almost every hour giving instructions to "go pee". If/when he did we gave lots of praise and a treat. For the first week or so there were lots of accidents (one bad day had 9!!!), but he quickly caught on. Within a few weeks he would do a couple of quick circles at the door. If we weren't there to see, or acted too slow he'd mess on the floor. We hung a bell from the door knob a couple of weeks ago and I'm happy to say he's started to nudge it when he needs to go out.

He hasn't yet learned to do "all" his business in one outing. Just this morning I took him out for a pee and he pulled to get back inside (he's not a fan of the rain). 10 minutes later I was busy on the phone with a client when I heard him racing around the leaving room, barking and making very loud strange noises. As it turns out he made a stinky mess on the floor, but I'm sure he was trying to get my attention.

I would definitely start right away. I thought Eddie may take longer to train because he was older with basically no training whatsoever. I'm amazed at how smart and how fast these creatures catch on.

[Ivy & Lucy's Mom]

Ivy was trained to go outside from the beginning. She is just one, so I was in your position last year. We just kept taking her out over and over. As each week progressed, we increased the time in between potty breaks. At 12 weeks, I would take her out about every 1/2 hour-even in a snowstorm. There would be sometimes that she would rather play than potty, so I would put her in her kennel for a little bit and then try to take her out again. This has worked for every dog that I have owned. I would praise her a lot when she pottied-no treat. She loved the praise. Each week, she should would less and less accidents. It really does take until 6 months to be completely trained basically because it takes that long for the bladder to fully develop. Sometimes, it may seem as is it will never happen but it really well. I will say I tried the fake grass and the pee pads-I felt it just confused her. I did leave the pee pad in her kennel towards the front of it for nightime. Hope this helps...

Also, going to the door and ringing a bell for her to go out somehow taught her to cry at the door whenever she needed to go out. She still does it today which is great

[finncaraid]

We never did the paper/pad training. Finn was only in the crate at bedtime or when he was alone in the house. We had a crate with an adjustable partition so it was small enough to prevent accidents but large enough for him to be comfortable. I was home all the time so it was easy to take him out on the schedule those first weeks. Can only remember 4-5 accidents in the house the whole time. Every one was our fault- we hadn't followed the schedule. I really don't think I've ever had an easier dog to train & I seriously doubt that this is typical. We've always felt that he intentionally was a good boy with house training because he was so tough with everything else. "No" took months & some days it's still questionable whether he'll pay attention to it. For some unknown reason, Finn has always grasped things quickly, able to figure things out in seconds. Don't know whether it's because we started training him the same day we brought him home or what. After he got the clicker significance, we did the name training, then sit, & then taught him to put his 2 front paws inside a box lid. Got this one from a book-- supposed to teach the dog to think by figuring out what you want. While it seemed like a pointless activity, it did make all other commands/tricks/training easy to teach. All, that is, but "no"

[Hawkeye]

We never used paper or pee pad training. From the time we got them we started training them to go outside. We used the crate and when they were free kept a very close eye on them. They didn't have run of the house until they could be trusted. I rolled up our familyroom carpet so not to get it mess (it was new at the time).