Anonymous
Post 03/08/2025 10:06     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is not so hard OP. Puppy pads are your friend. Dog sleeps with you in floor crate surrounded by those wire gates. Make it a small area. Do not take the dog out when you are asleep. I never did. Dog may pee but will not poop or will do so rarely. Dog will learn we do not go outside late at night. During day puppy needs to go out and if you are at work you either go to daycare or have someone in. Take a long term look and yes get rid of carpets. My dog was fully trained 4 months but it seemed long at the time. Dog has been the best thing for our family. Keeps everyone out walking when we want to be couch potato’s and when your teen is a brat no one loves you like your dog.


Sleeping on the floor in a pen, relying on puppy pads, having to get rid of all your carpets, and house training taking 4 months does sound hard and it does seem like a long time. This "method" sounds awful and drawn out. I've always done what the PPs using crates have done and my dogs have taken like a week/2 weeks to get it mostly and maybe a month period of time where there is a pee accident or two.


Exactly. This is a mess, literally and figuratively. Not to mention that puppies can't hold their bladder for an 8-hour night. They're just not physiologically ready for it yet. "Take the age of your puppy in months and add one, and that is the maximum number of hours that your puppy should be able to comfortably hold it between potty breaks." (source: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/potty-training-your-puppy-timeline-and-tips/) That's the MAX; puppies who are actively awake, eating, drinking and playing should go out much more often.

If you're not ready to wake in the night to take pup out, don't get a puppy. If you can't monitor the puppy and are unwilling to crate the puppy, don't get a puppy. If you're not going to be home to take 16 potty walks every day for several months, don't get a puppy.
Anonymous
Post 03/08/2025 09:08     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
Anonymous wrote:This is not so hard OP. Puppy pads are your friend. Dog sleeps with you in floor crate surrounded by those wire gates. Make it a small area. Do not take the dog out when you are asleep. I never did. Dog may pee but will not poop or will do so rarely. Dog will learn we do not go outside late at night. During day puppy needs to go out and if you are at work you either go to daycare or have someone in. Take a long term look and yes get rid of carpets. My dog was fully trained 4 months but it seemed long at the time. Dog has been the best thing for our family. Keeps everyone out walking when we want to be couch potato’s and when your teen is a brat no one loves you like your dog.


Sleeping on the floor in a pen, relying on puppy pads, having to get rid of all your carpets, and house training taking 4 months does sound hard and it does seem like a long time. This "method" sounds awful and drawn out. I've always done what the PPs using crates have done and my dogs have taken like a week/2 weeks to get it mostly and maybe a month period of time where there is a pee accident or two.
Anonymous
Post 03/08/2025 07:59     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
This is not so hard OP. Puppy pads are your friend. Dog sleeps with you in floor crate surrounded by those wire gates. Make it a small area. Do not take the dog out when you are asleep. I never did. Dog may pee but will not poop or will do so rarely. Dog will learn we do not go outside late at night. During day puppy needs to go out and if you are at work you either go to daycare or have someone in. Take a long term look and yes get rid of carpets. My dog was fully trained 4 months but it seemed long at the time. Dog has been the best thing for our family. Keeps everyone out walking when we want to be couch potato’s and when your teen is a brat no one loves you like your dog.
Anonymous
Post 03/08/2025 00:31     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How do some of you have time to do this? I’m not being snarky, but how does anyone who works deal with a puppy? I don’t think most people have all day to be playing games with the dog, putting them in and out of the crate, etc.


It really depends on the dog, but many get the hang of it within days, not weeks or months, and then it's just a matter of having a routine and keeping a sharp eye out until they get bigger and have a mature bladder. Our current dog was fully house trained within a few days (using the method pp outlined above). I then taught him to ring a string of bells hanging on the door when he needed to go out. The only problem was that my DH and children were out of town while I house trained him, so for a while he thought he could only poop for me. If they tried to take him out, he would literally hold it and then come find me to take him out. On the other hand, I had one dog that lived to be 15 that I never fully trusted alone in the house. IME, it's the smaller dogs that are harder to house train. I loved our little guy, but I don't think I'll ever have another little dog.


I agree with the bolded. Cumulatively, small dogs make the bigger mess.

I think they do understand the idea of it in a few days, especially if you're consistent, but they aren't "potty trained" for months. And the more "oopsies" they have, the longer it takes.

Also, what you said about bonding to one person... This is why, as I said upthread, the reality of sending your dog off for doggy day care or boarding for training isn't likely to be the result you're seeking. The dog will do great for someone whose whole job is this; we're really good at noticing the cues that they need to go, and a good trainer/boarding facility will pay close attention to your dog. But if you don't keep up that same level of effort/energy and awareness once the dog gets home, it will revert to whatever it's used to doing with you. And yes, if you have multiple people helping with the dog, you all have to be on the same level with your training.


I think a lot of novice dog owners get small dogs thinking they’ll be less trouble, and it’s a mistake. I’d had large dogs all my life and never had an issue house training a dog until I got one that weighed ten pounds. The dog never learned to “ask” to go out. He would just look agitated. I always said that my ten pound dog was at least twice as much trouble as my 60 pound dog. I researched this, and experts say that small dogs have a smaller sense of their territory or “den,” so it is harder to impress on them that the bathroom at the other end of the house isn’t outside their “den.” Never again.
Anonymous
Post 03/07/2025 20:55     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
Sorry, OP. Puppies are incredibly hard. We got a pandemic puppy and I am here to tell you that I absolutely would not have kept that pup if we had not been home for a year. I cried every day for weeks, and we had a trainer. IT WAS SO HARD. DH was going to work every day and I was home working and the kids were doing remote school, so I get it.

That said, she's a bump on a log five year old now.

Return the dog.
Anonymous
Post 03/07/2025 17:43     Subject: I was an idiot to get a puppy.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Puppies are not that hard. I think a lot of your issues them from wanting the crate train that dog and that dog wanting to be with you. That’s why it’s always crying and making you miserable. The dog is lonely, they are social pack animals. Maybe yours is extra social and wants to be with you physically.



I'm the OP and I don't care about crate training. I just needed her to be house trained.


And if you don't care about crate training then have fun picking crap and pee off your floors for the next 1.5 years or more.


Right? Like, it's not even a guarantee that your pee-pad pup isn't going to revert because you never really gave it formal training on how to hold it, or taught it cues to go outside. You'll be a the whims of your dog's bladder for life!