When should you start noticing progress in housebreaking?

I have a 2 month old lab puppy my husband just got me about a week ago (a week and a few days). I was wondering when you should start noticing definete progress in housebreaking. I don't really expect much from her now (if she goes outside when we take her out I'm THRILLED). It just seems that she will go potty every five minutes, in or out of her crate. I don't like keeping her crated all the time so when I give her time out in the kitchen to run and play she just goes to the bathroom all the time. Even if I put her in her crate she will still go potty. She is in a cat carrier right now, it's just a tiny bit to big for her (but she's growing into it). It's not big enough where she can get away from her potty though. I was just wondering about when do pups show improvement in housebreaking. It's different for every dog, I'm sure though.

It is different for every dog, but generally they start to gain real control of the muscles involved between about 3 and 6 months. Although I had a Doxy that peed on the floor every day for 16 years. (This was before I had any clue about training, I'd like to think that I could talk her into going outside now that I know what I know.)

It is different for every dog. It took mav forever but we weren't that faithful. I think you should notice things within a few weeks but it will probably take months before she really gets it.

A couple things you could try is to keep a journal and log when anything goes in or out of her. And try tying a leash around your waste to keep her with you all the time so she doesn't mess while she's out. That will help you learn her signals like sniffing the ground before she goes.

My experience and from what i've read , a puppy should be able to hold it in for an hour per month of age, or so. Twice that at night. So a 2 month old needs official potty break every 2 hours during the day, and 4-5 hours at night.

That's just a guideline, ofcourse. She'll have to go after eating, playing, drinking, napping...as well, and at 2 months, all those happen ALOT.


If she's going in the crate, you might have to try a new texture/confinement that she isn't used to soiling. If you have a closed-in carrier, try an open cage style crate. Make sure to build her for success when using the new crate.

When you can't supervise that diligently, leave her in a place that she can soil. Such as a small play area in the kitchen or such, with a 'potty' area ,Newspaper/sandbox/grassbox. You don't want to teach her it's ok to soil the crate, but no matter how much she'd like to cooperate, she'll have to go eventually . A puppy who gets used to being in it's own mess is very hard to housebreak, so clean up ASAP when she does have accidents.

I'd keep her off carpetting and any other absorbant texture except for 'safe' times. Puppies prefer to go in absorbant textures, so they love carpeting. If you keep the choices down to 'newspaper/tile/outside grass' until your schedule matches the puppies bladder, you'll atleast help avoid bad potty habits. Hopefully she'll pick paper/grass over tile.

A puppy that age will learn super fast. If you can afford the time to be super vigilante and keep a super strict schedule, they'll learn in no time. If not , just try to avoid her learning 'bad' potty habits until she has better bladder control that is more forgiving, and she'll learn then .

The problem isn't so much that they can or can't hold, it's that they don't know that they have to. I find it amusing when you just got a puppy that has no clue that he has to pee outside and people say 'take him out every two hours, he can't hold longer', because the dog will not wait two hours anyway if he doesn't know he should.

Hopefully the cat carrier will work. I really admire people who manage to housebreak a dog while working to be honest. For me it was easy because I don't work, so I was just taking him out all the time, mostly after naps, playing, eating, and praising him a lot when he peed outside (treats made the trick). He was in the room with me all the time. After 3 weeks, he was just sitting next to the baby gate when he had to go, which made it pretty easy to let him out. After 2 months, I let him in the house all the time, letting him go outside for 5-15 minutes every 2 hours or so. He's now 5 months and a half and there hasn't been an accident for over 4 weeks (I got him at 10 weeks). I haven't had to actually go outside with him for about as long.

Just stick to your routine, eventually he will get it.

Yeah I work so housebreaking is sort of hard. I try to keep her to a strict schedule while my husband is more lenient and just lets her run around the kitchen doing whatever. Funny thing is HE was the one that brought her home and PROMISED to take care of her and train her (hahaha that's funny).

Roxy is just now to where she doesn't have to pee every 10 minutes. Literally. She wakes us up to take her out. When she has to go she will either stare at the door or just start nipping our fingers or running in circles until we take her. She is about 7months old now. Just be patient... It will happen. LOL

I know it will happen it's just frustrating now. I keep hitting myself in the head wondering what on earth possessed me to get yet another dog that still needs to be housebroken. I already have two that are on agian off agian housebroken. She sometimes does ok, but she has her good and bad days and these past two days have been HORRIBLE and I am VERY frustrated. She pees every five minutes whether she's in or out of her crate. I know that someday I will look back at all this havoc and laugh though so i really don't mind the frustration and messes right now.

I have an 8 1/2 week old puppy right now and out to the bathroom he goes every 30 minutes. You can't teach them to hold it at this age as they are not as physically capable as they will be in a few months, but you can keep reminding them to go outside...outside..outside. We do this by potty breaks every half hour and he goes!! Now he is starting to go to the door on his own, but not everytime. Puppies need constant reminders and repetition when it comes to housebreaking...consistency is the key

Yeah she will go by the backdoor as well. I try to get her out every half hour but with a baby sometimes I can't always be there. I'm very concerned about her going in her crate though. Right now her crate is only big enough for her to lay down in (it's a cat carrier). And if she goes to the bathroom she has no choice but to wait until I can get to her. If I am going to be gone for an extended period of time would it just be best to put her in a bigger kennel so she is not forced to be so close to her accidents? I know that if they get accustomed to being in with their accidents then it makes them very hard to housebreak.

I don't ever use crates for that purpose. In my opinion they just mask the problem instead of solving it. There's a thread here somewhere where we talked about teaching a dog to use a bell as a signal to let you know she needs out. I'll try to find it and post a link.

Well I also use the crate to keep her safe from our other two dogs. They like to play with her but they are like ten times her size so I am afraid that they will hurt her. They can get REALLY rough with her. I have a bell for Mack to use when he has to go out, but she hasn't gotten the hang of it yet (Plus she can't reach it either). There have only been a few times that she has actually went to the bathroom by the backdoor (where I take them outside) other than those few times she will just go wherever she is at.

Oh, then you already know. What do you do to encourage her when she potties where and when you want her to?

Well I take her outside (I try for every half hour) and I put her in the same spot every time she goes out. When I put her in the spot I say "Go potty" and then after she goes I get all excited and say "good potty! Good puppy!". Then I'll usually giver her love for a minute.

Oh Julie, I'm always praying my neighbors don't hear me when Kona goes outside. I'm say: "Go Pee" "Go Poop", then I say "Good Pee" "Good Poop"

Lol. When my 8wk puppy goes outside to pee or poo, I say "Go potty", then "Good potty, good potty!". Amazingly, my 8wk old is sort of house trained. He went in the house today because it was raining.. and he didn't want to get wet! What a puppy, lol. I never used the crating technique for training, so I don't know about that.

My 5 year old GSD, is house-trained. He's VERY good. He can hold it in for sooo long if he has too. Hasn't had an accident in years!

She is sort of housetrained as well. If she has to go she will go to the backdoor and sometimes she will scratch at it if she has to go really bad. I call her a genius because she is more housebroken than our other two dogs (9months and 2 years). I have no doubt she will be potty trained fairly easily (she's already doing so good) she only has a couple of accidents a day (like 2 on a bad day). Although thankfully she is now sleeping through the night. She will lay down with me and my hubby at like 2 a.m. and then sleep until 10 a.m. I don't quite trust her out of her kennel at night yet though, since she is a very light sleeper, I'm afraid if she gets up in the middle of the night she will not know what to do and just go.

Your 2month can sleep for that long straight? My 2month lab/husky usually fidgets alot in his sleep, which wakes me up because I'm a pretty light sleeper, and I get worried he'll have to go and go in my room. So I typically wake up at 3:30am and 6:30am everyday to let him out, only if I see him fidget around.

Yeah, she might wake up once or twice but I don't hear her. She's 3 months old now though. But she's been sleeping through the night for about a week and a half. Every day when I let her out of her crate it's always dry.