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I am curious how easy/hard it is to potty train a poodle puppy. I'd like to own a poodle in the near future and it is a quite important issue for me (especially if I get a puppy from a breeder) as I had to give up a puppy (not a poodle, though) due to the potty issue when I was young.

Can anyone share personal experience? Thanks.

Fluffyspoos

Vegas was house trained in 2 weeks with 2 accidents inside (both pees) I had bells on the door and would take hims face across it saying 'outside!' and take him out, then do a potty party when he went.

Cairo I've had for 3 weeks, he was paper trained when I got him (yuck) and so far we've had 3 accidents. I take them out often as puppies, every couple hours.

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Ladywolfe

I am sure that some may disagree with me. I think it is going to vary per dog. I had a toy poodle that I trained to go in a litter box. The training was completed in three days, and he never had an accident. Of course, eventually, he only had to go outside with my other big dogs, and he decided he wanted to pee outside, like they did. But, he was so unbelievably easy, and that began at 8wks old!

My current toy poodle took months! And, my pom-poodle mix took absolutely forever. (okay, let's be brutally honest...........he had two accidents last week, and he is two years old!!!)

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outwest

You can't expect miracles, but most poodles are easy to housetrain. Before 4 months old they really can't hold it long. When they have to go they might rush for the door, but if the door is shut you have piddle on the floor. I found leaving the door open was the easiest for me, but I live in a nice weather area and she was a pup in the Spring.

It usually takes a couple weeks for them to get the idea well, but they must be taken out in the morning, after breakfast. immediately upon waking from a nap, every few hours otherwise and right before bed. That goes on for a while, but if you do those things you should have very few house accidents.

Read up on housetraining before you get a puppy so you are prepared for the effort needed to make it successful as quickly as possible.

Mine took about 2 weeks of diligent effort to be semireliable, but there were accidents occasionally for a few weeks after that, usually right next to the back door.

Indiana

Just like kids, they almost all learn eventually! Indy was practically born housebroken; I cannot remember even one accident she had. Her littermate sister Maddy however has had lots of accidents. She is just so much more easily distracted, but she learned too. The advantage we all have is, they WANT to be clean. So all we have to do is help them to see where the appropriate place to go is.

fjm

Things about housetraining I wish I had done differently:

Teaching the pup to use a particular spot in the garden is good; choosing a spot a long way from the house is not, especially when it is raining. A gravel/grass patch near the door would be ideal.

Use puppy gates - especially if you have cats that can open doors you thought you had shut.

Don't try to combine puppy watching with any other activity - including playing on the computer, reading a book, watching a film ...

Have a really good alarm, and set it for appropriate intervals - even at night. Otherwise it is so very tempting to go back to sleep at 3am, and sort any mess out in the morning - especially if you have a toy puppy and tiny puddles!

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To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,
where doing nothing was not boring- it was peace.

~ Milan Kundera

wickednag

Hazel was three months old when we brought her home. She has had very few accidents in the house...knock on wood!...EVERY TIME I say I think she is house trained, I end up with an accident. But they are few and far between. Hazel is 5 months old.

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lavillerose

Every puppy I've ever raised, even though they get it quickly, has had potty training setbacks, which I think maybe directly related to the notion that once the puppy "gets it", I've gotten sloppy and let my guard down. You get your puppy, spend 2 weeks or so working diligently at your potty schedule, the puppy starts understanding "You need to got out?" and then you start to think "great! she gets it!". That's when you start slacking and/or trying to stretch out the periods between potties so soon, and uh oh! there's a puddle.

In Albi's case, she did well right at the beginning with crate training and pee pads in her X pen as the breeder had gotten the litter accustomed to that immediately after weaning. But after the first few weeks at home, she started confusing peeing on the pad with it's okay to pee anywhere in the house, and I had to nix the pee pads entirely. After that she did well on a very regular "out" schedule, although there were still occasional accidents both at my apartment, and at my parents' there is a doggy door, all the way up to seven months old. She had to learn that at home she has to ask to go out, and at my mom's she has to take herself out!

So don't get lazy when things seem to be going great right off the bat. No matter what method you use, they're still babies, and it does take quite awhile for them to pin down bladder control, especially during the day when they're active. Just stick to a very regular schedule for a couple of months before you start to expect them to hold it longer.

all that jazz

Both my poodles became potty trained at 16 weeks.

tokipoke

Leroy picked up bell training quickly at 12 weeks. For potty training, although a dog can pick it up quickly, it's the constant reinforcement that matters. I didn't confidently say Leroy was fully potty-trained until I went a whole MONTH with zero accidents. I always feared he might regress or "forget." Now at over a year old, when I take him to a new place, I watch for signs of marking... so you will be doing some kind of "potty training" for the life of the dog lol. Just different context. Of course as an adult, you aren't shuffling them outside every hour. Leroy is 15 mo. but before I crate him, after I let him out of the crate, before bed, and after waking up in the morning, I insist he potty outside. Other than that, I let my guard down and count on Leroy to alert me when he has to use the bathroom. I always show him where the door is to go outside any place we happen to be. Typically this is the first thing we do at any new place, so he knows where to go. A friend of ours has a dog that is around 2, and another one maybe 5 (both not poodles) and they STILL have accidents! I really don't get it. The 2 year old dog visited my house, after the dog left, I found a big poop near my dining room. Maybe I missed his signs to "go outside" - I'm used to Leroy because he gives very clear signals to eliminate.

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