Housebreaking...

[COPioneer]

I realize he's a baby, (12 weeks old tomorrow!) but it seems like every time we make good progress and take a step foward, we always end up taking a few steps back the next couple of days. He does pretty good about not messing in his crate, especially at night. I was worried because the breeder we got him from kept the puppies in crates with wire grating and newspaper so they went in there. Very dumb...

I just want to know...since Taylor's my very first Cairn, are Cairns the types of dogs that could possibly never be housebroken? Like those silly little Yorkies, lol. That's what really turned me away from those little guys. I know terriers are very stubborn, but I'm being persistent. He's never unsupervised in the house, and whenever he does his business outside he gets a little treat. This seems to be helping a LOT. I guess sometimes he just forgets and sqauts down right in the kitchen, and even his carrier. Very frustrating when it happens three times within thirty minutes...I'm also awondering if this could have anything to do with the fact that I was gone for a long time today and my mother was watching him. Could he have been acting up or something because I wasn't there? Because that's never happened to me (the peeing in the house and his crate three times in like half an hour) and it's happened to her twice now. Maybe it was just the timing...but so far I've been very lucky =)

Also, this is off topic, but at what age does a Cairn's adult coat typically come in? Or about when do they look full grown?

[Shazza]

12 weeks is still VERY young!

Just be persistent, praise praise and more praise when they do go outside. Our trainer use to call it the "jackpot" when you really wanted to praise them big time. Jackpot being many treats being scattered all at once onto the ground and saying "jackpot"!

I always used "go potty" when we were outside, no playing until they had done their job first.

If Taylor is going 3 times in 30 minutes in his carrier, you may want to rule out any urinary tract infections also.

Hang in there, it does and will get better, but Taylor is still a baby, so don't expect too much at that age

[kjwarnold]

Yep, 12 weeks is VERY young. We didn't get Kirby until he was 12 weeks and while he was crate trained (he could go about 5 hours overnight), he still had accidents. He's 20 weeks now and doing really well. We rarely have an accident and if we do, it's usually our fault because we didn't pay attention.

Take Taylor out immediately after coming out of the crate, regardless of how long he's been in there, take him out after playing, take him out if he's sniffing around, take him out shortly after he eats or drinks a lot, take him out often! Yes, we had some instances where Kirby peed in the house shortly after he'd just been out; it happens. If he's going 3 times in 30 minutes often, have the vet check him. But be assured that Taylor will learn and Cairns are not a breed that can't get housebroken.

We stripped Kirby's puppy coat at 12 weeks, but his sisters didn't get theirs stripped until about 14 weeks -- they weren't ready. You can tell if his coat is ready to be stripped by gently pulling at the long hairs. They'll come out easily if they're ready. If not, just keep checking. As to when they are full grown, I think it depends on their lines, what their parents did. Some are full grown around 6 months and some later. And I don't think they really fill out until later than that. There's been a discussion on that just recently, so you might search around here to find it.

Keep at it and you'll get through the puppyhood! Kirby is our third Cairn and we just love them for their great personalities and energy. They're smart and Taylor will learn the housebreaking stuff pretty quick. You'll be surprised at how fast it goes and then wonder where your cuddly little puppy went!

[SparkyJonesMom]

Yeah, we got Sparky at 12 weeks, and it took a solid month for him to learn that going to the bathroom inside was bad. I ruthlessly trained him with a bell on the door, and pretty soon he understood that ringing the bell meant he got to go outside, and going to the bathroom outside made Mommy happy and gave him lots of praise and some treats. So even though he still had accidents every once in a while, for the most part he understood to go outside. He's 6 months old now, and he hasn't had an accident in the house in about 6 weeks, or maybe even longer.

I also crate trained him, and I didn't want to have to come home at lunch every single day to let him out just so he wouldn't pee in his crate. This was impossible anyway, since at the time I was a commuter and I couldn't come home at lunch. After talking to some friends who crate-trained their dogs, I took the tough love approach. I'd leave him in his crate (after I had divided it so he didn't have the whole thing) while I was at work, and every single day I'd come home to find poop and pee in it. It got really hard, and I was emotionally spent after a while, but I just kept at it. This, in addition to the bell-training, made him realize that going to the bathroom in his crate wasn't a good idea. Exactly one month after we got him, I came home from work to find that his crate was clean and dry! it was like a lightbulb had gone off in his head, and from that point on, he didn't go to the bathroom in his crate at all (except for one time in the car when he was nervous). It seemed like a mean thing to do, to leave him in his crate for such a long period of time (9-10 hours straight), but it paid off in the end. Since we moved, he's not in his crate that long anymore, but we don't have to go home at lunch, and we don't have to worry about him having accidents. He can seriously hold it as long as he has to. He won't go until we tell him to. I know, what I did sounds mean, but I didn't have another choice, and I don't regret it.

Anyway, give Taylor a little more time. I remember getting so frustrated that I just wanted to throw something, but it will all work out in the end. In the meantime, enjoy the baby puppy stage!

[COPioneer]

Thanks for all of your support guys! I'm glad to hear that Cairns aren't one of those breeds that are impossible to housebreak lol. I think for 12 weeks, Taylor's doing remarkably well. I'm constantly letting him out to get it in his head that outside is good, inside is bad. Yesterday when we were in the kitchen he put his little front paws up on the gate and looked back at me sadly and something told me he had to go out, so I let him out and he peed and pooped for me right away! I really need to start doing the bell training. Only problem is that he can't get downstairs all by himself, lol. He's nearly mastered upstairs now that he's grown a little, but down is still scary.

I think the crate problem is only accidents. I hope he doesn't think it's just okay to pee in there whenever he needs to. Something tells me he doesn't though because he always goes after I let him out, not when he's in there. He makes it pretty long through the night. He goes to bed around nine, just so I can actually get some stuff done before bed, and I set my alarm for 12 AM and we go out again then. Then he lasts until 6 AM when I get up again. =) So I'm very optimistic that he will learn quickly.

Thanks again everyone! I definitely will need some help later on with the whole stripping thing. Is that something I have to do myself or can a groomer do it? Because I'm lost on the subject...

[SparkyJonesMom]

I also thought for a while that Sparky was starting to believe that the crate was where he was supposed to go. But it sounds like Taylor is doing doing, especially at night. As for the stripping thing, I did it myself, and it's really not too bad at all. There are a lot of topics around here that will help you, if you want to do it yourself. You really just roll the skin a little, and pull your Cairn's hair. The hair that is ready to come out will do so easily. Taylor won't even mind it at all. I gave Sparky a Kong full of frozen fat-free cream cheese, and he'd let me strip him for quite a while at a time. It took about a week until it was completely finished. Of course, if you have a grooming table, you can do it all at once if you want to. I don't have one, so I had to trust Sparky to stay still and in the same spot for long enough for me to strip him.

[cairnsby3]

Maybe your mother isn't as in tuned to watching him and knowing his signs.

[Hagar]

I got Renny at 8 weeks and started taking him out anytime he started sniffing around for a spot to go. At the time I had an 18 year old Siamese cat who had gotten very lax about using the litter box, which didn't help with training a puppy. The cat finally had to be put down when Renny was about 4 months old.

I kept after Renny about the "Potty outside good, potty inside bad", and he gradually got it pretty well figured out. But we still had an occasional accident in the house. At one point I got overconfident and gave him more freedom in running around the house, and we had some setbacks. So I went back to basics for awhile. Then one day at about 5 months, he seemed to get the idea "out of the blue" and to my knowledge he hasn't had an accident in the house since.

We had a real test on Halloween this year. He had apparently grabbed something that disagreed with him on a walk, and ended up with a case of very runny diarrhea. The first time it hit it wasn't too bad and he wanted to press on with our walk. About half a block farther along, it hit him again and he literally screamed from it. I took him straight home and ended up making a panic call to the vet at 3:45 on a Friday afternoon and took him right in to be checked out. He had a slight fever and a very sore butt. The vet put him on a med for a few days and we went home.

Usually he will go through the night without having to go out. That night he woke me to go out at 1:30, 3:30, and 6:00am to go out. So, even being sick, he knew to take it outside. He got back to normal within about a day.

These guys can definitely be housebroken. It may take awhile and be frustrating, but once they figure it out, it stays with them.

[Highlander]

We got Winston at 12 weeks and it took three and half days to housebreak him. We rescued him from a couple who did not understand Cairns.They didn't even let him do much outside as she had African daisies planted outside and did not want him to get around them! They kept him in a cardboard box as long as he was inside the house. We declined the offer of the cardboard box when we left with him and let him have his run of the place, supervised in the first year and a half or so, in the backyard when we were gone. All I do is talk to them, telling them that it is bad to do it in the house, wagging my finger no. With a little help, they get the picture. Some take longer than others. I leave him the entire run of the place all day long these days totally un-supervised.