VirginPoodleMom

Okay, here goes. We have an 11 week old Standard that we purchased from a dealer here in Ontario. We have never owned a poodle before but we love dogs and want our kids to grow with one. Our son has a raft of health issues and as a result a hypoallergenic dog is a must. After our research, the poodle seemed like the best option for us.

We have had her with us for close to three weeks now. We take her out very regularly, at least once an hour, but usually twice. She will pee every time we take her out, which we reward. The problem is that when she comes back in if we turn our backs she pees on the floor, sometimes not ten minutes after she has peed outside. We are crate training her and she has peed on her bed in her crate after only an hour. She also defecates on the floor fairly often as well.

She came to us with Giardia. We only learned that after a call to the breeder about explosive diarrhea. We then took her to the vet and are treating her for that. What's bizarre is that through the night she does not pee in her crate and she rarely wakes us to go out in the middle of the night (except when she had the diarrhea which exploded out of her a couple of times). She can hold her urine from approx 1100 pm to 0600 am.

We are trying to train her on the bell method but at the very least she always goes out the same patio door and we take her to the same spot in the yard to do her business.

Should I be worried about her lack of progress in training and messing in her crate or am I expecting too much too soon? She can sit and stay and is definitely motivated by treats.

The other question I have is we bought her as a black but her snout is very grey and I can see a bit of silver if I look at the roots of her coat. Is this normal? I'm wondering if we will have an adult black or if she will be grey.

Any advice at all is welcomed. When I talked with the breeder about our concerns she offered to exchange her right away with another pup. We are all so attached to her and for a young pup she is quite calm. She gets adequate sleep and although she mouths a bit with the kids she has not bitten anyone and does not seem the least bit aggresive. We would be really devastated for her to go but if this is a lifelong issue I am concerned about my son's health.

cindyreef

I can tell you about what happened to me over Christmas. My son was home and brought his 9 month old retreiver. My spoo is 8 month old. Both dogs have been trained since 3 -4 months old. No problems. My son left his dog with me for two days while they visited and partied with friends and family. The dogs were very excited and played hard for hours and hours. They both made mistakes on the floor. I was shocked. It seemed that when they were excited and most importantly very active they needed to pee more. I had to take them outside every 2 hrs or else they would be walking and piddling at the same time. At night they stayed on their beds on seperate sides of my bedroom and held it for the 9 hrs I slept.
I wonder if the excitement of interaction with you and the family makes him a little anxious and he needs to go more. If it is then as he settles down he will control himself more.
Also when my spoo came (12 wks old) he had worm issues from Florida that is fairly rare here in New Brunswick. Once that was found and fixed his bowel movements were allot less often and much more controlled.


BTW 11 weeks is still very young

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Please God...... everyday, help me be the person my dog thinks I am.

Specman

Not a total expert on this because I have not had a puppy but I think she will come around. It sound like you need to get the health issues cleared up first.

Three weeks is not that long. At this time, you cannot turn your back on her! She needs to be supervised or in her crate at this time. She can maybe be trusted after she has recently relived herself. When she pees, correct her and immediately take her outside. For poo it is better to let it happen. She is too little to control that and it is better to have the mess in one place.

My guy was 6 months old and house trained when we got him and we still had accidents at first and wondered if he would ever be trained! He is now a great dog as I believe yours will be too.

Puppies play with their mouths and you will need to train her and your kids proper play. You can search the forum for how to do that.

Hang in there!

caroline429

Hi and welcome from another poodle owner in Ontario. I have a mini and she is my first poodle as well though I've had other dogs of different breeds. She is also named Cali.

I found my mini really difficult to housebreak and I, too, despaired of her ever really "getting it". I would say it took a good six weeks to where I felt she was even starting to figure it out. She was by no means the first dog I've housebroken and I couldn't figure out how such a smart little dog could be having such a hard time with this. I'm glad to say she is now 14 months old and rock solid with her housebreaking, so I'm pretty sure this won't be a life-long problem for your pup.

I have a suspicion you may be allowing your puppy too much freedom. I didn't crate Cali during the day, just at night, but I had an xpen set up in my kitchen. It had a small bed, some toys and a very thick layer of newspaper in it to catch accidents. If I couldn't watch her every second, she was in the xpen. I also had my kitchen and den gated off so she couldn't get to the rest of the house when I had her out of the xpen. The floor is tiled in both these rooms so any accidents that did occur were easily cleaned up and she wasn't soaking urine scent into the carpeting in the other rooms.

I'm not sure if you're a first-time dog owner or not, so if I tell you something you already know, I apologize. Certain activities tend to trigger the urge to pee so you should take them outside:

-after they wake up from a nap
-after they eat
-during and after active play
-after chewing on anything for a length of time

Because she has giardia, she may still be pooping a bit more frequently than normal. Puppies do pick up giardia very easily so it's not necessarily a reflection on the breeder. Cali came to me with giardia also. She didn't have any symptoms, it was found on a routine fecal I had done after I got her. Her health records indicated she'd been wormed on a proper schedule but all a pup has to do is drink a bit of water from an infected puddle on the ground to pick it up.

On average, most dogs poop once for every meal they eat. They usually have a bit of a schedule for it and if you can figure that out, it'll go a long way to helping you predict when she may have to poop. Also watch for sniffing the floor, frantically running back and forth or circling, those are signs a pup needs to poop as well.

If your pup is peeing in the crate, your crate may be too big. It really only should be large enough so she can stand, circle and lay down comfortably. If you've got an adult size crate for her, you'll need to block off part of it to make it smaller. Some manufacturers sell inserts for their crates for this.

I can't give you an answer about the color. My Cali is black and didn't have any grey or silver hair as a puppy. Now she's gone through the coat change, I notice she has a few silver hairs sprinkled here and there on her back but they're so deep in that you only see them when you groom her. I don't think a black dog should be showing a lot of grey as a puppy if they're going to stay black. I've heard others say that if you look at the pup's pedigree and see the colors in her background, that can give you a clue as to what color she'll turn out. Maybe she'll be silver, that's a really pretty color.

Puppies are a lot of work and can be as frustrating as they are cute. The good news is that, with patience and persistence, they grow up to be wonderful dogs.

outwest

11 week old puppies are rarely housetrained. It usually takes until 4 months for them to be consistent and longer to be 100% reliable. They don't have full control. of their bladders and don't always empty them completely, which is why she piddles soon after going. There is a chance she has a bladder infection, which is common in female puppies because their vulva is usually recessed (keep her very clean there). She probably doesn't have a bladder infection. Her potty habits sound very typical for a young puppy. On top of that she has had giardia and can't feel well, so housetraining while she is ill is very difficult. 11 week old puppies should never be given free rein of the house. You're asking for accidents that way. She should only be out of her pen (you have a pen?) when someone is watching her every move. She should be taken out side at least every 2 hours, after every meal, after every nap and after play.

If you see any gray or silver or lighter hair then she is not a black. Blacks are pitch black to the roots and stay that way. Her shaved face will give away what her color really is. She could be a blue, a silver or a 'bad black', but usually bad blacks don't grey to a salt and pepper until they are older. Can you post a picture of your girl? We can tell you what color she is then.

Hang in there. Raising a puppy is a whole lot of work and why many people prefer to not get a puppy. Raising a puppy is so worth all the work, though! Wait and see...and give her some time. I am sorry she has been sick. :(

3dogs

Outwest is right. Puppies don't have the muscle control until about 4 months of age. Do youhave some piddle pads down. This can help as you gransition to total outdoors. Keep working on it.

VirginPoodleMom

Thanks so much for all of the great info. Keep it coming. We are not first time puppy owners but it has been a long time and the last pup I had was over 10 years ago. He was a lab and was very easy to train. Definitely a difference from Callie but I agree, she hasn't been feeling top shelf because of the Giardia so no doubt it will just take more time.


She truly is a lovely dog and the colour isn't a worry of ours because we do love her personality, it would just be nice to know what she will be when she gets her adult coat. I also don't want to give the impression that we aren't happy with the breeder. I have never bought a purebred registered dog before but from what I can tell this breeder makes certain that the blood lines are pure. She did not hesitate to offer an exchange.

It's interesting to hear that they shouldn't have the run of the house. We generally have her closed in to the kitchen area, which is larger but perhaps if I create a den-like enviro in the kitchen that I can put her in when not watching her she will do a little better. I have been hesitant to go to pads at the door as I have heard that she will just look for the pads but I think she may have had pads at the breeder's home so they may help us with transitioning.

Again, I really appreciate everyone taking their time to respond to my questions. I know that they are probably redundant to what's been asked several times on this forum but it is so helpful to us.

Has anyone noticed that when their pup sits their front legs quiver? Callie's will quiver when she's in a sit. She definitely isn't in pain and someone told me that it's probably because her front legs are longer than her back but I have no idea if there is any merit to that suggestion.

Coleen

My black girl has silver on her ears as her mother was silver. She is still mostly black but does have silver hairs in her coat. She is papered, but I knew she was "pet" quality and I love her, so I don't care that she is not pure black. I don't know if this is something the breeder could have avoided by knowing the history of genetics in the family. I was hoping she would turn one color or the other, but like I said, i love her and it's not like I'm breeding her or showing her, so she is perfect to me.

outwest

I don't see a picture? Did you try to post one?

VirginPoodleMom

Weird, I have tried to post a pic several times but the error message always says the website is under construction.

Another relatively quiet night, Callie didn't make a peep before proceeding to pee all over her bed in her crate. the only reason I knew is because I thought I smelled it and I could hear her licking.

Most people are shocked when I say she's peeing on her bed in her crate. Is this something that dogs rarely do? Has anyone had a dog who has peed in her crate on her bed?

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