Any Ideas On How To Potty Train And Retrain My 5 Month Old Cockapoo Puppy To “come”?
September 16, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
How do I ween my puppy off of puppy pads to want to go outside instead? We have used puppy pads since she was a 7 weeks old and I don’t know the best way to change her routine. We are also not home 2 days a week for 8 hours, so on those days, do I train her to wait till I come home to go out and do her business. Or should I let her continue to use the puppy pads on those days?
Also, she stopped following the “Come” command. She was very good at the command and we followed up with treats but were trying to wean her off treats to reward her with praise and she did well with it for awhile but she’s now not responding to the come command. I don’t know if its because she’s trying to assert her independence or if she forgets but any ideas on what to do? Should I go back to using treats again to re-train the come command?
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If she is still using the puppy pads when you aren’t home, then you will want to keep them in the house. You can slowly start moving them from where they are to where the door to go outside is. Eventually you move them outside, then let her out without them. One way to make sure she doesn’t mess in the house when you aren’t home is to crate train her. This is a great way to give your dog their own safe space, and it keeps her out of trouble and potentially dangerous situations.
The come command should definitely be something that you are confident your dog will listen to. If you were ever in an emergency and you needed your dog to come in any situation, you would need them to respond immediately and quickly. Go back to using treats. Make sure when she comes you give her lots of praise. If there isn’t a treat available at the time that you call her, say yes and go find a treat. Yes will mark the behaviour that she gave you until the reward is available. To not ruin my dog’s come when he was a puppy, I only used it when I knew he would do it, and when I had treats available. If I now were to call him and I didn’t have a treat, I would say yes, and find a treat for him soon after. I also use a here command rather than come for when I want him inside or near me, but I don’t need the sprint towards me and sit at my feet that I expect when I say come.
Going to obedience classes will help you to strengthen your come as you will be in a controlled and safe environment with distractions.
Good luck!
I’m not sure what you’re asking about the pee pads. If the pup is otherwise housebroken and able to hold ot for the 8 hours your not home then throw the pads out. Your goal isn’t using pee pads, it’s using the outdoors. If the puppy is still having accidents, still I’d throw the pads out because the goal hasn’t changed! If she can’t hold it for the 8 hours maybe you could pop in on your lunch to let her out, or have a neighbor or friend/relative walk her?
As for recall, it’s one of the harder commands to get a puppy/dog to consistently follow. Don’t rush it! I’d go back to the treats, you don’t want her to go back to square one. One thing you could try to wean her off treats is find another thing she loves and ‘reward’ her with that and trade off on the food treats. Remember a treat can be anything, even praise as long as it’s something she loves. IME recall is best approached in a playful manner rather than ‘do it’ sort of training, and don’t rush it! Go slow! I’d think it a miracle if my 5 month old puppy did this consistently every time. Don’t forget to work her on short lead and work up to lots of distractions, then start over with a long lead. My long lead is 50ft which you can start out using half and work up to the full 50ft. Hope this helps