So my toy poodle pup Winry is almost 5 months old, we have had her since she was 6 weeks old. She took to crate training quickly and learned to hold it until we brought her outside. However, she deems ANYTHING outside of her crate as "outside" and will go around the house if grass is not readily available at the instant she needs to go, despite constantly being told no and shown the proper place. Probably normal I suppose, but still is not great because I don't want to just leave her in her crate 24/7.
So I had the fabulous idea (ha ha) to get one of those litter boxes with the grass on top that allows pee to seep down into the litter basin so that she could easily have a place to go inside when we could not take her out. I paid a pretty penny for a setup that had good reviews, sides to keep mishaps in, and pretty realistic grass. She has a little playpen that she stays in during the day when we're not at home and it has a door that we can leave open when we're here so she can go back in her pen when she needs/wants to. I put her little potty grass inside there when I first got it. She pretty much just used it for a second bed and place where she took all her treats to snack on. So I altered things and created a setup to where she could either lay on her bed or pee on the patch. She would just hold it forever and cry like crazy. I thought maybe she didn't like the idea of pottying in a closed-off location that seemed like a crate. So next I put her open-doored crate on one side of a doggie door with her litter pan on the other side on our small porch so that she could use it in the great outdoors, making it more like real grass. She will just potty all around it, never in it. I've tried the potty sprays to no avail, I've tried bringing her to it and telling her "go potty" (a command she recognizes elsewhere) ready with treats in case she actually does what she should, and it just doesn't work.
She is a VERY hyper little dog and has troubles sitting still for anything. She does know the commands "sit" and "lay" but can only hold them about 10 seconds, about the max amount of time she'll stay on the litter grass when I tell her to. I'm sooo frustrated with it! We've been trying everything we can think of for about two months now. I've considered switching to one of those wee wee pad holders instead of the grass setup, but I am hesitant because she is a major shredder of any papers. Any advice? I hate keeping her cooped up so much, but I just can't trust her. Our schedules are crazy so we can't always be here to take her out. I would LOVE for her to be able to take care of her business by herself.
As a side note, we got a second puppy (a 7 week old Shih tzu) 3 days ago. I had previously bought a spare grass patch that I decided to use for her. I set her on it the first day, she used it, and has been going to it regularly for potty ever since. Are Shih tzus easier to train than poodles? Or did I just get lucky with her? Poodles are supposed to be the smartest dogs, so I don't get why Winry hasn't figured it out.
So I had the fabulous idea (ha ha) to get one of those litter boxes with the grass on top that allows pee to seep down into the litter basin so that she could easily have a place to go inside when we could not take her out. I paid a pretty penny for a setup that had good reviews, sides to keep mishaps in, and pretty realistic grass. She has a little playpen that she stays in during the day when we're not at home and it has a door that we can leave open when we're here so she can go back in her pen when she needs/wants to. I put her little potty grass inside there when I first got it. She pretty much just used it for a second bed and place where she took all her treats to snack on. So I altered things and created a setup to where she could either lay on her bed or pee on the patch. She would just hold it forever and cry like crazy. I thought maybe she didn't like the idea of pottying in a closed-off location that seemed like a crate. So next I put her open-doored crate on one side of a doggie door with her litter pan on the other side on our small porch so that she could use it in the great outdoors, making it more like real grass. She will just potty all around it, never in it. I've tried the potty sprays to no avail, I've tried bringing her to it and telling her "go potty" (a command she recognizes elsewhere) ready with treats in case she actually does what she should, and it just doesn't work.
She is a VERY hyper little dog and has troubles sitting still for anything. She does know the commands "sit" and "lay" but can only hold them about 10 seconds, about the max amount of time she'll stay on the litter grass when I tell her to. I'm sooo frustrated with it! We've been trying everything we can think of for about two months now. I've considered switching to one of those wee wee pad holders instead of the grass setup, but I am hesitant because she is a major shredder of any papers. Any advice? I hate keeping her cooped up so much, but I just can't trust her. Our schedules are crazy so we can't always be here to take her out. I would LOVE for her to be able to take care of her business by herself.
As a side note, we got a second puppy (a 7 week old Shih tzu) 3 days ago. I had previously bought a spare grass patch that I decided to use for her. I set her on it the first day, she used it, and has been going to it regularly for potty ever since. Are Shih tzus easier to train than poodles? Or did I just get lucky with her? Poodles are supposed to be the smartest dogs, so I don't get why Winry hasn't figured it out.