New Puppy Training Confusion

[daledye]

My family just got a new miniture Schnauzer puppy last week. Tomorrow he will be 8 weeks old. The breeder had already started crate training him. It was beautiful. We didn't have a crate but would take him out every 2 hours or so and he would go "potty" outside just fine. No accidents no mistakes. He would sleep in the floor of our bedroom and wake us up when he needed to go outside.

During the day he has stayed in one of our bathrooms and we'd come home at lunch and after work to let him out. There were a couple of times the last week he either peed or pooped before we got home but that's it. It was great.

Yesterday he decided to start going in the house. He peed 3 times inside and pooped twice. It has continued today.

This morning my wife had him in the bed with her about 1 hour after he had gone outside. Then he politely urinated in our bed.

I took him out tonight and he urinated 2 or 3 times and pooped 3 times.

After that he was in a great mood running around the house playing with his toys and just stopped and urinated on the kitchen floor. It had only been maybe 10 minutes since he went outside. I put him in the bathroom.

What's going on. The first week went great now it's all falling apart. Are we doing something wrong?

UPDATE:
I just went up to take him outside and he had already urinated again! It's only been about and hour and a half or maybe two. This is going to drive me nuts.

[DeLaUK]

Congratulations on your new pup

First things first...have you taken him to the vet for a genral check up? A lot of puppies have worms, the breeders dont always deworm them and dont always give the right dewormer, I have red flags going up with this breeder already, the puppies should be with the mom and littermates until minimum 8 weeks old, 10 weeks is better and there are good reasons for this apart fom the fact that giving away or selling pups under 8 weeks old is illegal in some countries and now in some counties and citys in US.

Secondly puppies will go to the bathroom after eating, sleeping, playing, getting a little attention, drinking etc etc etc....basically anything can set them off.
At this age your pup doesnt have that much control over his bladder (he should be able to go about 2 hours between needing to pee but again any excitement etc can shorten this time), not the puppys fault its just that the muscles around the bladder have not developed adequately enough yet, theres nothing your pup can do about it. He only realizes he needs to pee...right as hes about to pee.
With the pooping, he should be getting fed about 4 or 5 times a day, small meals at regulat intervals and hell need to poop shortly after every meal.

I would go back to the crate training.....heres a good article that has some advice in it
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/crate2.html#Cry

There is also some housetraining info in there on one of the links.
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/hsetrain.html#Accident
You need to send clear messages to your pup where you want him to pee.

Keep in mind that your puppy is still going through a major imprinting stage, basically everything he learns up until around 12 weeks of age will stay with him for life so start as you mean to go on.

[Brattitude]

I recommend going back to the crate training as well. You can pick up a small crate for $40. Get a wire crate instead of a solid plastic one, that way the puppy will still be able to see around the house.

With your puppy so young, he has NO control over his bladder, so you need to be diligent in taking him out. If he is an excitable piffler, then I would take him out every hour until he gains more bladder control. Little puppies you can pretty much tech to pee on command. Take him out and tell him "go potty" or whatever term you will use over and over until he goes, when he finally does go, give himlots and lots of praise. Before long, he will go when you tell him to.


Be patient with him, he was taken away from his mom too young, and missed out on some of the lessons she would have taught him.

[gypsy]

This pup is REALLY young........you just lucked out on the first week. And in my experience, the wee dogs take longer to house train, might be that the bladder is just too small. Don't sweat it, after EVERY activity, take the little guy out. We have found that regardless of crate, or any other method, by the time they are 6 months old, they are leak proof. Little dogs just take longer. And it will really take longer, cuz yours is so very young. Trust me, he'll get it eventually if you are patient and consistent.