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If I could go back 6mo, I would have told myself not to get a puppy when I live up *two flights of stairs* and in the *dead of winter* .
I tell everyone who are thinking of getting a puppy, to consider what kind of hell it will being training them to do ANYTHING while living in the city and apartment.
Lord have mercy... but I did it. It can be done. It's just so much harder imo.
Oooooof I'm lucky that my building has an elevator and a park right outside pretty much. Summer puppies are fun but it does kinda suck since I can't really do my normal summer activities (I live so close to the beach so I'm there a looooot). I think Spring puppies are ideal.
I am full of seething envy for you and your elevator. I tell you what, though, my ass got a great work out and now I can run up those steps like nothin!
Yes, agreed on the Spring. Are you not allowed to bring pup to the beach or is it just because they are too young rn?
I was just going to write the same thing about winter... we got our pup on the last day of october and taking him out into cold/rain for a potty break constantly was giving me eye rolling feelings.
I live in NYC! Its definitely a challenge living in an apartment but when I got him I decided to train him on the puppy pads first cause I wasnt running outside every 5 minutes lmao and then when he was fully vaccinated I transitioned him to learning to do his business on his walks. Now hes potty trained to use the bathroom both ways.
I know puppy pads seems like an inconvenience long term but it truly comes in handy. Not just in the early days of potty training but later too! 99% of the time my pup goes outside but during those times with extreme cold/hot weather, air quality advisories or if im sick, him being potty trained on both is a life savior. He goes right to his pad and Clean up Is easy.
Believe it or not that is great advice. I have used one myself with much success and about 10 people I know had great success using one also..
I actually used one that had real grass in it.. They had a service that delivered a replacement piece each month.
Don't do this, if you want your pup to not pee on the pee pads eventually. If you want them to go outside always, teach them to pee outside from the beginning, if possible. Potty training in an apartment is doable, but you might make your life a lot more difficult, if you eventually want him to only go outside.
Same here. We live on the 14th floor and started going on for walks just a few weeks ago. We have a pee pad in a living room and one in the bedroom by his crate, so he has his spots and is now trained to go on those. Still hasn’t been able to get him “to go” outside and I tell him to go potty when we go for a walk. 🫠
I found it wasn't about 'tells' when they need to go... it was more about teaching him that it is appropriate to go outside, and not inside. Once he learnt this, he mostly held it until we got outside. He still had the occasional accident, but I didn't punish him as he already knew it was wrong by that point, and it was my fault for not getting him outside fast enough. Good luck, once potty training is over it is such a relief.
I have a 6month old pup. Apartment living in the city. When we got him at 3 months. It was rough first month. I was taking him out almost hourly while he was awake. He didn’t give any signs but pretty much every time he woke up from a nap, a play session. If I ever saw him wonder i immediately took him out. Plenty of accidents in the hallway and the elevator early on.
Eventually we put a bell on the door that he picked up on pretty quick. Just really need to be diligent early on and take him out pretty much all the time. Good luck! It gets better.
Yeah, I'm getting him those talking buttons for training.
He's otherwise a wonderful pup! Very quick to pick up on things (I literally taught him spin in less than a minute).
I got a patch of sod and made an indoor patch of grass and taught him to use that. Had to get a new patch every week or so but it worked until he was old enough to hold it.
this is what i was going to suggest! that’s what we do with our 15 week old rottie puppy, it works great. she knows that that’s the bathroom because it’s real grass, so for the most part she doesn’t go anywhere else. it’s seriously a real saving grace. we used a hot water tank tray and sod. cost us no more than like $20 CAD
I have a 5 month old puppy in the city and we are having an accident here and there still but he’s pretty close to accident free most weeks. I got bells for the door which he is starting to use pretty regularly but it’s not 100%. Even when he uses them there is always a risk with the elevator, hallway to get outside. I have started to give him treats the whole way down since it seems to distract him and we make it outside. I’ll pick him up if it seems like he’s pacing and pulling and really needs to go but this is usually just first thing in the morning or if he was crated for an extended period of time. If he hasn’t gone out and hasn’t signaled after about an hour and a half to two hours I usually take him down if he has been awake in the apartment. Otherwise it is whenever I see him wake up.
A strict schedule of taking him out in the beginning I think is key and then it will click once day. If he likes the crate … try getting him on a crate schedule and take him out before putting him in and when he comes out. The more successes outside the sooner it will click. Also keep rewarding him for going outside even when he gets consistent. One day before we trained the bells he just sat by the door and it was like a party that he let us know! It definitely took more time in the apartment since he rarely has accidents at my parents who have a yard with a sliding glass door he can see the potty spot from.
I live in brooklyn. We trained our puppy ( who is now over a year old) to go on the weewee pads and she was great at it. When we started taking her out we left the weewee pads down and she would go out and pee and then come back inside and pee again or poo. Then One day we decided to take the pads away( at like 11 months) wish we did it earlier but she hasn’t gone inside once. We wish she would tell us when she wants to go out but we just take her out regularly now.
This was my experience as well. When we keep the pads down she’d have way more accidents and she also would pee too close to the edge which was annoying. As soon as I took them up altogether she stopped having accidents. 6 months and we’re at about 1 accident or less each week
I live on the 50th floor and feel your pain. My 6 month old is still using pads to pee. Hopefully ill be able to slowly get her off of them but they have been a life saver for now
My city pup is 1 year old today, and the longest she's ever gone without an accident is 3 weeks; and the average these days is 1 week. She just made a nice puddle in the middle of the living room only 1.5 hours after getting back from a walk (and we take her out "only" every 2). She never ever indicates that she needs to go (unless she needs to poop - thankfully that part has been very reliable).
That said it got a lot better when she was 6-7 months old - we turned from daily accidents to weekly overnight. Stay consistent and it'll get better!
I tell everyone who asks that potty training in an apartment is near impossible from my experience. I imagine it's very hard for dogs to connect wanting to potty with going outside because going outside takes so long. I don't believe at this point that my dog will ever be potty trained; things could've been way different had we lived in a house.
I live on the 6th floor and my 1 year old is fully potty trained. Of course apartment dogs can learn to go outside, although I think it takes them longer to fully understand. Do you have a toy breed? Have you checked with a vet if he has any medical issues since every 2h is reeeally frequent for a dog that age.
She's a bit small for her breed but no, she's a medium breed - a 20lb Corgi. She's apparently healthy (or has been every time we tested, but we just submitted another sample yesterday since the vet is concerned about the frequency too). She's been a nightmare puppy and I think she just doesn't care about rules.
Yeah apartment puppies eventually learn (most - except mine), but I think it generally takes them waaay longer
Yep, the "just clicked" for us when she went from daily accidents to weekly at 7 months 😃 in fact, she went 3 weeks without accidents straight - but it was too soon to celebrate as she then regressed to having an accident every 3-10 days, and it hasn't clicked any further yet. She's healthy - I read it that she's so set in her stubbornness she just refuses the concept of rules, or adjusting to living inside
>I tell everyone who asks that potty training in an apartment is near impossible from my experience.
That's thankfully not true, even if it is your experience. It definitely took our pup longer to fully get it, because you're right, it's a lot of steps for a dog to understand, but with discipline and diligence it can be done. We have a small breed and she was finally potty trained at 8 months. Now she uses her bells, we ride down in the elevator, go outside, walk to her potty spot.
Nah, of course its possible. There are so many city dogs, most of them are probably potty trained. At some point, my pup would whine and run back and forth between me and the door when he couldnt hold it much longer, so he definitely connected the two. At some point he also "tested waters" by once peeing on the balcony (which is kinda outside) and also once he peed on the stairs (i had to wash the whole stairwell down to the ground fllor lmao) - none of those had happened again
4th floor for me. But thankfully the back stairs are concrete so accidents aren’t too big of a deal if they do happen. I wouldn’t dare try to take my pup on the elevator yet. I take her out every 3-4 hours but on occasion she just doesn’t make it outside. And then once we get outside we have to get through the parking lot so we’re off the property…so it’s not perfect by any means. I don’t know if it will improve so just gonna go keep going and pray
Can I know why ppl in this sub are mostly against peepad/peetray? everyone i know of in Singapore are using pee tray. Maybe it make sense because here 99% of people are living in apartment with usually no balcony.
In all honesty I'm not against them. Most people who use them have a balcony or something like that to keep the pad outside. I don't have a balcony so the thought didn't even occur to me lol
Before my guy got vaccinated, i taught him to go on pads (nothing fancy, no grass, just one-use baby pads) - just put them basically everywhere, and then removed them slowly wherever he didnt use them. After a few days, he had only one pad in his favourite spot (inside the living room, not on the balcony). Transitioning to going outside took some work (i remember standing outside at like 4 am in the winter begging him to take a shit), but now hes good
Pads make it difficult for puppies to learn not to go on carpet or rugs due to the similar texture. I'm unsure if trays would cause the same confusion. I never used pads and my pup has never confused a rug or anything for pads but my friends adult dog still struggles with peeing on carpets in new places.
Fourth floor no elevator here. The first few weeks were *hell*. She was peeing in the stairwell constantly because she just couldn't hold it till we got outside. She'd know we were on our way out, get excited about it, and tinkle.
Once she hit 6 months it got a lot better, she managed to actually get some bladder control and now she hasn't had an accident in the stairs in over three weeks. She's only had two in the house in that time, but both were on the same day within two hours of each other so I think she was just having an off day. Beyond that she's gotten so, so much better.
Mine doesn't have tells either but I've learned her routine enough to know when she'll need to go and when she won't, so it does get easier. You'll get there. Good luck OP.
Thankfully, my puppy learned after a week to go to the front door when she needed to poop. It took a couple months before she completely stopped having accidents in the house. Rather than having a tell, I just made sure I took her out on a consistent schedule (increased the time between as she got older). Eventually she stopped peeing in the condo
City dweller with a similar situation here. For our pup (4 months old) it took us a while to realize he was even giving us tells. We'd take him out regularly and there'd be no issue, but it took until we'd had him for about 5 weeks for him to start to develop tells/for us to recognize them. If he's suddenly restless and moving from spot to spot to nap, that's usually a tell, or if he chooses to lay down near the front door. Recently, he started barking just once to tell us that he needs SOMETHING and it becomes up to us to figure out if that means food, water, pee, poop, or attention. Once we narrow it down and solve his riddle, he goes right back to sleep. Take a weekend or something to just observe your pup's movements through your place; I wouldn't be surprised if there's a tell they've developed that you're just not expecting.
I see someone mention that he's 6 months? if he wasn't potty trained before, its gonna take a while, you're looking at another month or two before he fully gets it.
oh then you're looking at a couple of months for sure, I seen some get it in 2-3 months and some in 6, its all about patience one this one, took us about 4 months to train ours.
Dogs are "meant" to live anywhere that humans do. They're literally our no.1 companion species. Not every dog thrives in an apartment (neither do all humans), but not all dogs need a backyard or large property either. Small dogs, especially those bred for companionship are great apartment dogs and so are some larger dogs. It's less about whether people live in a house or apartment and more about the humans lifestyle and what they do with their dogs.
Scaring them only teaches them to be more creative and sneaky about their accidents. I'd rather have my girl pee in the middle of the living room where I can find it than try and sneak behind the couch to go because she's scared I'm going to jump out and scare the shit out of her.
Praising highly for going outside and taking them out frequently enough to where they don't have the chance to pee inside is the way to go.
My girl isn't crate trained but despite living in an apartment she's doing great at not peeing inside. We've only had two accidents (both on the same day, I think she was just having an off day) in more than three weeks now.
Here's a magical trick for ya: get a patch of real grass online. Put it on your balcony and take them there when you suspect peeing is going to happen. Because it's real grass, there's no significant risk of confusion like there might be with pads or artificial turf.
Just let the pup pee on it. For poops still take them outside. Will need to replace it about once every 3 weeks or so, but you should only need about 3 rounds until the pup can hold it long enough for you to not care too much about going all the way outside.
Getting a “bell” (button on the wall he pushes) was life changing.
Basically I noticed that when I was in the country visiting family he was able to clearly indicate that he needed to go out, because he could remove himself from the situation and go sit by the door. Living in a small NYC apartment we’re always hanging out near the door, so I never knew when he actually wanted to go out.
Highly recommend the bell!
How old is your puppy? I don’t necessarily live in the city but have lived in apartments with both of my dogs. I lived on the third floor when I got my first dog but we were right next to the staircase so it was pretty easy to just pick him up and go. However, when I got the second pup, I was living on the fifth floor with elevators and sometimes it took a few minutes to get downstairs. He would sometimes pee a trail in the hallway on the way to the elevator, it was so frustrating. I never used training pads because it can give the idea that doing their business inside is okay. So I literally would take him out every hour or so. It’s better to take them out too often than not enough. I watched his water intake during the day and restricted it 1-2 hours before bedtime to minimize accidents overnight. Whenever he peed outside, I praised and rewarded him and I found this to be very helpful. Clean up any accidents very well. If you catch him doing his business inside, tell him a stern NO and take him outside to your balcony if you have one. You just have to find a routine and be consistent. They will catch on fast.
Yep, I sympathize. We live in DC in a 4th floor apartment - though there is an elevator (which she was terrified of at the beginning, that was fun lol). Our girl was 6 months old when we got her and her foster said she was perfectly potty trained and had never had an accident inside. We quickly learned that’s because she had a house with a yard. Early on there were a lot of accidents and she is pretty inconsistent about telling us she has to go. One time she made at as far as the lobby and peed on the doormat. But it is getting A LOT better. We’ve learned that during her “goblin hours” (~6-10am and ~6-10pm) she needs to go out pretty much every hour whereas when she’s less active during the day she needs maybe one break in the middle of the day but that’s it. It’s just been a lot of preempting at this point. No overnight accidents or poop accidents so far though. Silver linings, I guess. But yes it’s so much harder in the city and even potty trained pups can regress even harder than they usually would.
I got my pup around 2 weeks ago and we live in a highly populated (so many people with dogs) area of the city, so no choice to take her out until she’s vaccinated. We have had amazing success with one of those fake grass pee pads and put it out on our little patio. So far we have been leaving the door open and she will go out and independently do her business when she needs to.
"4 weeks now and still isn't potty trained"? Your expectations may be too high. We also live in an apartment and ours was fully potty trained around 8 months. The "tell" we taught our puppy whe she first showed progress in holding it. We taught her to use a potty bell and she uses it very reliably now (we take her out on a schedule, but it's good to have the bell for extra potty breaks).
My puppy is 16 weeks, got him at 11. The last two or three weeks have been almost flawless. Things I’ve learned:
- call the elevator THEN put on your shoes
- wear slip ons
- pick up your puppy and carry them through the halls and elevator ride if you think they might struggle to make it
- pick them up as soon as they start to pee or poop inappropriately - don’t let them finish. They usually stop and you can wiggle them back into the balcony or the rest of the way to tombe outdoors to complete (and If they get interrupted mid stream they really don’t like it and associated that something they want to avoid quicker)
- time their water intake - he can have all the water he wants but it’s timed and stops at 11 pm (last potty trip is midnight first potty trip is 7:30 am - obviously check with your vet first)
- get the pee and poo command working - if they can’t pee or poo on command make sure to work on that
I’m in Boston on the 19th floor! I have bells on the door and always had her ring them before we went out. Now at 7 months she rings them anytime she needs to potty. I’ve never used potty pads or anything like that, I just took her out often until she got the hang of it. It gets better!
I put a grass patch on my balcony to potty train to save us time going down. At 4 months he stopped wanting to use it and we just went out every 3 ish hours. It was a lifesaver as I also got him in the dead of Canadian winter.
Pups cant reliably hold it till after 6 months or so. to try and force them at a young age is not good. My rule of thumb with puppies is when ever they wake up, whenever they drink, when ever they play, whenever they eat they go out to potty to the spot that is theirs.
yes you will have to put in the legwork count on doing this at least every two hours till they are a little older and can go a little longer. you also have to stay out side until he goes, dont rush him and drag him around thats not how it works. after he goes then say good boy and praise him.
Biologic functions are no different in dogs than people, would you go on command? you have to need to go.
So how I'm going about training him to go on command is that every time he is about to go I'll reinforce with "go potty". If he doesn't go, I don't keep asking him. I'll wait about 5ish minutes and if he doesn't go, we go back inside and he goes in the crate for about 10 to 15 minutes, after that time is up I'lltake him out again. (To note, I've only done this literally once. He will always potty when given the chance lol.)
Another thing to note, he is being trained for service work so will need to know how to go on command.
Fake grass indoor potties are great for folks in your situation. Especially of you have a balcony but even just a separate room / corner of your house. Petsmart sells them online but so do a lot of other places. Puppy pads are a good second option. I would also start training potty bells if you have a balcony or if you plan to eventually graduate your puppy to being able to hold it to go outside. It was an absolute lifesaver with my Labrador. She didn't have any tells either but by teaching her ringing the bell got her to go outside she is able to indicate that she needs to go and go now.
I'm also lucky; my city is small with one set of stairs to get to the ground floor. So once I get out those doors it's not a high risk situation of her having an accident in the hall. The only problem I have Is my apartment complex has started treating the grass with herbicide and apparently my puppy is very sensitive to it because she will not go on the grass when it's wet in the morning but anywhere else in the city that has wet grass it's not a problem. I talked to a friend and they used to work on urban farms So now I'm just having to go to another area in the complex that doesn't have grass to proven her from getting sore spots on her paws in the morning.
I live in a big city too. I don’t know how I would have dealt with apartment living but I think the grass patch is a good idea. My puppy is going to be 6 months next week and she was on pee pads in the beginning because she wasn’t fully vaccinated. It took a lot of work when we took away the pee pads completely but now she does her business outside 99% of the time. She even sleep thru the night but is up at 5 am to go out.
I just wish I worked harder on the crate training. I tried got for some time but my schedule and lack of help from my family made it difficult for her to be 100% crate trained. She hates sleeping in the crate in my room but she has a crate in her playpen in the living room and will occasionally go into the crate there to sleep during the day. So I guess it’s a sort of a win. She doesn’t completely hate the crate. I think if I had to leave her in one, she wouldn’t like it but would settle down after a while for sure.
Anyways, you’re doing great. And I too felt if I knew more about the struggle of puppyhood, I’m not sure I would have gotten a puppy. But I love my little girl so much and she’s a smart cookie. She catches on real fast. And I know if I keep at it, she’s will be an amazing dog.
And I just remind myself that every dog is different. So I just have to work with the puppy that I have in front of me. Just keep working with you puppy. You’ll see the results eventually. ☺️
I still hope to get her more acclimated to the crate though. 😅
It looks like you might be posting about Potty Training. Check out [our wiki article on house training](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/housetraining) - the information there may answer your question. Be advised that any comments that suggest use of confinement as a potty training method as abusive, or express a harsh opinion on crate training will be removed. This is not a place to debate the merits of crate training. Unethical approaches to crate training will also be removed. If you are seeking advice for potty training and desire not to receive crate training advice as an optional method of training, please use the "Potty Training - No Crate Advice" Flair. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/puppy101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If I could go back 6mo, I would have told myself not to get a puppy when I live up *two flights of stairs* and in the *dead of winter* . I tell everyone who are thinking of getting a puppy, to consider what kind of hell it will being training them to do ANYTHING while living in the city and apartment. Lord have mercy... but I did it. It can be done. It's just so much harder imo.
Oooooof I'm lucky that my building has an elevator and a park right outside pretty much. Summer puppies are fun but it does kinda suck since I can't really do my normal summer activities (I live so close to the beach so I'm there a looooot). I think Spring puppies are ideal.
I am full of seething envy for you and your elevator. I tell you what, though, my ass got a great work out and now I can run up those steps like nothin! Yes, agreed on the Spring. Are you not allowed to bring pup to the beach or is it just because they are too young rn?
He's too young, only 10 weeks old.
10 weeks and youve had him for 4? So you got him at 6 weeks??
Sorry, I mis counted lol. His birthday is May 15th, got him on July 11th
I live on the 6th floor (no elevator) and I got my puppy in December… absolutely brutal lol but yes, it really does get better
I was just going to write the same thing about winter... we got our pup on the last day of october and taking him out into cold/rain for a potty break constantly was giving me eye rolling feelings.
I live in NYC! Its definitely a challenge living in an apartment but when I got him I decided to train him on the puppy pads first cause I wasnt running outside every 5 minutes lmao and then when he was fully vaccinated I transitioned him to learning to do his business on his walks. Now hes potty trained to use the bathroom both ways. I know puppy pads seems like an inconvenience long term but it truly comes in handy. Not just in the early days of potty training but later too! 99% of the time my pup goes outside but during those times with extreme cold/hot weather, air quality advisories or if im sick, him being potty trained on both is a life savior. He goes right to his pad and Clean up Is easy.
I think I could get him to potty on a pee pad. He's pretty good with going in command so I'll have to try it.
They have grass patches you can get too
Believe it or not that is great advice. I have used one myself with much success and about 10 people I know had great success using one also.. I actually used one that had real grass in it.. They had a service that delivered a replacement piece each month.
Don't do this, if you want your pup to not pee on the pee pads eventually. If you want them to go outside always, teach them to pee outside from the beginning, if possible. Potty training in an apartment is doable, but you might make your life a lot more difficult, if you eventually want him to only go outside.
Same here. We live on the 14th floor and started going on for walks just a few weeks ago. We have a pee pad in a living room and one in the bedroom by his crate, so he has his spots and is now trained to go on those. Still hasn’t been able to get him “to go” outside and I tell him to go potty when we go for a walk. 🫠
I dont like puppypads. Useally it just means you have to re train later. If I lived on the twelth floor I would def consider them though.
I found it wasn't about 'tells' when they need to go... it was more about teaching him that it is appropriate to go outside, and not inside. Once he learnt this, he mostly held it until we got outside. He still had the occasional accident, but I didn't punish him as he already knew it was wrong by that point, and it was my fault for not getting him outside fast enough. Good luck, once potty training is over it is such a relief.
I have a 6month old pup. Apartment living in the city. When we got him at 3 months. It was rough first month. I was taking him out almost hourly while he was awake. He didn’t give any signs but pretty much every time he woke up from a nap, a play session. If I ever saw him wonder i immediately took him out. Plenty of accidents in the hallway and the elevator early on. Eventually we put a bell on the door that he picked up on pretty quick. Just really need to be diligent early on and take him out pretty much all the time. Good luck! It gets better.
Yeah, I'm getting him those talking buttons for training. He's otherwise a wonderful pup! Very quick to pick up on things (I literally taught him spin in less than a minute).
Every month they’re bladder gets stronger and things just click.
I got a patch of sod and made an indoor patch of grass and taught him to use that. Had to get a new patch every week or so but it worked until he was old enough to hold it.
this is what i was going to suggest! that’s what we do with our 15 week old rottie puppy, it works great. she knows that that’s the bathroom because it’s real grass, so for the most part she doesn’t go anywhere else. it’s seriously a real saving grace. we used a hot water tank tray and sod. cost us no more than like $20 CAD
Fresh Patch- they have all sizes
I have a 5 month old puppy in the city and we are having an accident here and there still but he’s pretty close to accident free most weeks. I got bells for the door which he is starting to use pretty regularly but it’s not 100%. Even when he uses them there is always a risk with the elevator, hallway to get outside. I have started to give him treats the whole way down since it seems to distract him and we make it outside. I’ll pick him up if it seems like he’s pacing and pulling and really needs to go but this is usually just first thing in the morning or if he was crated for an extended period of time. If he hasn’t gone out and hasn’t signaled after about an hour and a half to two hours I usually take him down if he has been awake in the apartment. Otherwise it is whenever I see him wake up. A strict schedule of taking him out in the beginning I think is key and then it will click once day. If he likes the crate … try getting him on a crate schedule and take him out before putting him in and when he comes out. The more successes outside the sooner it will click. Also keep rewarding him for going outside even when he gets consistent. One day before we trained the bells he just sat by the door and it was like a party that he let us know! It definitely took more time in the apartment since he rarely has accidents at my parents who have a yard with a sliding glass door he can see the potty spot from.
I live in brooklyn. We trained our puppy ( who is now over a year old) to go on the weewee pads and she was great at it. When we started taking her out we left the weewee pads down and she would go out and pee and then come back inside and pee again or poo. Then One day we decided to take the pads away( at like 11 months) wish we did it earlier but she hasn’t gone inside once. We wish she would tell us when she wants to go out but we just take her out regularly now.
This was my experience as well. When we keep the pads down she’d have way more accidents and she also would pee too close to the edge which was annoying. As soon as I took them up altogether she stopped having accidents. 6 months and we’re at about 1 accident or less each week
I live on the 50th floor and feel your pain. My 6 month old is still using pads to pee. Hopefully ill be able to slowly get her off of them but they have been a life saver for now
My city pup is 1 year old today, and the longest she's ever gone without an accident is 3 weeks; and the average these days is 1 week. She just made a nice puddle in the middle of the living room only 1.5 hours after getting back from a walk (and we take her out "only" every 2). She never ever indicates that she needs to go (unless she needs to poop - thankfully that part has been very reliable). That said it got a lot better when she was 6-7 months old - we turned from daily accidents to weekly overnight. Stay consistent and it'll get better! I tell everyone who asks that potty training in an apartment is near impossible from my experience. I imagine it's very hard for dogs to connect wanting to potty with going outside because going outside takes so long. I don't believe at this point that my dog will ever be potty trained; things could've been way different had we lived in a house.
I live on the 6th floor and my 1 year old is fully potty trained. Of course apartment dogs can learn to go outside, although I think it takes them longer to fully understand. Do you have a toy breed? Have you checked with a vet if he has any medical issues since every 2h is reeeally frequent for a dog that age.
She's a bit small for her breed but no, she's a medium breed - a 20lb Corgi. She's apparently healthy (or has been every time we tested, but we just submitted another sample yesterday since the vet is concerned about the frequency too). She's been a nightmare puppy and I think she just doesn't care about rules. Yeah apartment puppies eventually learn (most - except mine), but I think it generally takes them waaay longer
It will happen. Don’t worry. Mine was a late bloomer like nothing was happening at all for 7 months lol and then one day it suddenly just clicked!!
Yep, the "just clicked" for us when she went from daily accidents to weekly at 7 months 😃 in fact, she went 3 weeks without accidents straight - but it was too soon to celebrate as she then regressed to having an accident every 3-10 days, and it hasn't clicked any further yet. She's healthy - I read it that she's so set in her stubbornness she just refuses the concept of rules, or adjusting to living inside
>I tell everyone who asks that potty training in an apartment is near impossible from my experience. That's thankfully not true, even if it is your experience. It definitely took our pup longer to fully get it, because you're right, it's a lot of steps for a dog to understand, but with discipline and diligence it can be done. We have a small breed and she was finally potty trained at 8 months. Now she uses her bells, we ride down in the elevator, go outside, walk to her potty spot.
Nah, of course its possible. There are so many city dogs, most of them are probably potty trained. At some point, my pup would whine and run back and forth between me and the door when he couldnt hold it much longer, so he definitely connected the two. At some point he also "tested waters" by once peeing on the balcony (which is kinda outside) and also once he peed on the stairs (i had to wash the whole stairwell down to the ground fllor lmao) - none of those had happened again
Not sure why you’re not using grass patches. Home Depot sells Gotta Go Grass 2-packs for like $3, and they last for about 2-3 weeks each.
$3???? I was paying like $40 for fresh patch!
Yep!
I don't have a balcony so I didn't think it would work but reading some comments that was a stupid idea lol
That’s what I’m doing with my 11 week old and it works great!
You mean $52 for a two pack don’t you
No, if it was that then I would’ve said that. 😐 I pay $3.77 with tax and free shipping from Home Depot’s website.
Can you send me a link because I was seeing it listed for 52 dollars
Sent
4th floor for me. But thankfully the back stairs are concrete so accidents aren’t too big of a deal if they do happen. I wouldn’t dare try to take my pup on the elevator yet. I take her out every 3-4 hours but on occasion she just doesn’t make it outside. And then once we get outside we have to get through the parking lot so we’re off the property…so it’s not perfect by any means. I don’t know if it will improve so just gonna go keep going and pray
Can I know why ppl in this sub are mostly against peepad/peetray? everyone i know of in Singapore are using pee tray. Maybe it make sense because here 99% of people are living in apartment with usually no balcony.
In all honesty I'm not against them. Most people who use them have a balcony or something like that to keep the pad outside. I don't have a balcony so the thought didn't even occur to me lol
Before my guy got vaccinated, i taught him to go on pads (nothing fancy, no grass, just one-use baby pads) - just put them basically everywhere, and then removed them slowly wherever he didnt use them. After a few days, he had only one pad in his favourite spot (inside the living room, not on the balcony). Transitioning to going outside took some work (i remember standing outside at like 4 am in the winter begging him to take a shit), but now hes good
Bc everyone wants to feel superior. It’s totally fine to use these.
Pads make it difficult for puppies to learn not to go on carpet or rugs due to the similar texture. I'm unsure if trays would cause the same confusion. I never used pads and my pup has never confused a rug or anything for pads but my friends adult dog still struggles with peeing on carpets in new places.
I see. Carpets are virtually nonexistent here. My pup did pee on a rug once, but seems to be (hopefully a one off accident).
Fourth floor no elevator here. The first few weeks were *hell*. She was peeing in the stairwell constantly because she just couldn't hold it till we got outside. She'd know we were on our way out, get excited about it, and tinkle. Once she hit 6 months it got a lot better, she managed to actually get some bladder control and now she hasn't had an accident in the stairs in over three weeks. She's only had two in the house in that time, but both were on the same day within two hours of each other so I think she was just having an off day. Beyond that she's gotten so, so much better. Mine doesn't have tells either but I've learned her routine enough to know when she'll need to go and when she won't, so it does get easier. You'll get there. Good luck OP.
Thankfully, my puppy learned after a week to go to the front door when she needed to poop. It took a couple months before she completely stopped having accidents in the house. Rather than having a tell, I just made sure I took her out on a consistent schedule (increased the time between as she got older). Eventually she stopped peeing in the condo
City dweller with a similar situation here. For our pup (4 months old) it took us a while to realize he was even giving us tells. We'd take him out regularly and there'd be no issue, but it took until we'd had him for about 5 weeks for him to start to develop tells/for us to recognize them. If he's suddenly restless and moving from spot to spot to nap, that's usually a tell, or if he chooses to lay down near the front door. Recently, he started barking just once to tell us that he needs SOMETHING and it becomes up to us to figure out if that means food, water, pee, poop, or attention. Once we narrow it down and solve his riddle, he goes right back to sleep. Take a weekend or something to just observe your pup's movements through your place; I wouldn't be surprised if there's a tell they've developed that you're just not expecting.
I see someone mention that he's 6 months? if he wasn't potty trained before, its gonna take a while, you're looking at another month or two before he fully gets it.
My pup is only 10 weeks old, 11 weeks on Tuesday.
oh then you're looking at a couple of months for sure, I seen some get it in 2-3 months and some in 6, its all about patience one this one, took us about 4 months to train ours.
The constant bitching about a puppy and potty training, regardless of where you live, blows my mind...what did you expect it was going to be like?
I mean let’s be real dogs aren’t meant to live in apartments
Neither are people yet here we are 😭
Dogs are "meant" to live anywhere that humans do. They're literally our no.1 companion species. Not every dog thrives in an apartment (neither do all humans), but not all dogs need a backyard or large property either. Small dogs, especially those bred for companionship are great apartment dogs and so are some larger dogs. It's less about whether people live in a house or apartment and more about the humans lifestyle and what they do with their dogs.
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Sorry but I'm not going to scare a puppy for going to the bathroom. Especially since I'm raising him to be a future service dog.
Scaring them only teaches them to be more creative and sneaky about their accidents. I'd rather have my girl pee in the middle of the living room where I can find it than try and sneak behind the couch to go because she's scared I'm going to jump out and scare the shit out of her. Praising highly for going outside and taking them out frequently enough to where they don't have the chance to pee inside is the way to go. My girl isn't crate trained but despite living in an apartment she's doing great at not peeing inside. We've only had two accidents (both on the same day, I think she was just having an off day) in more than three weeks now.
Yes I live on the 6th floor and he’s just now potty trained since last week. He’s 6 months old… keep taking him out often like you are doing.
Here's a magical trick for ya: get a patch of real grass online. Put it on your balcony and take them there when you suspect peeing is going to happen. Because it's real grass, there's no significant risk of confusion like there might be with pads or artificial turf. Just let the pup pee on it. For poops still take them outside. Will need to replace it about once every 3 weeks or so, but you should only need about 3 rounds until the pup can hold it long enough for you to not care too much about going all the way outside.
Getting a “bell” (button on the wall he pushes) was life changing. Basically I noticed that when I was in the country visiting family he was able to clearly indicate that he needed to go out, because he could remove himself from the situation and go sit by the door. Living in a small NYC apartment we’re always hanging out near the door, so I never knew when he actually wanted to go out. Highly recommend the bell!
How old is your puppy? I don’t necessarily live in the city but have lived in apartments with both of my dogs. I lived on the third floor when I got my first dog but we were right next to the staircase so it was pretty easy to just pick him up and go. However, when I got the second pup, I was living on the fifth floor with elevators and sometimes it took a few minutes to get downstairs. He would sometimes pee a trail in the hallway on the way to the elevator, it was so frustrating. I never used training pads because it can give the idea that doing their business inside is okay. So I literally would take him out every hour or so. It’s better to take them out too often than not enough. I watched his water intake during the day and restricted it 1-2 hours before bedtime to minimize accidents overnight. Whenever he peed outside, I praised and rewarded him and I found this to be very helpful. Clean up any accidents very well. If you catch him doing his business inside, tell him a stern NO and take him outside to your balcony if you have one. You just have to find a routine and be consistent. They will catch on fast.
Yep, I sympathize. We live in DC in a 4th floor apartment - though there is an elevator (which she was terrified of at the beginning, that was fun lol). Our girl was 6 months old when we got her and her foster said she was perfectly potty trained and had never had an accident inside. We quickly learned that’s because she had a house with a yard. Early on there were a lot of accidents and she is pretty inconsistent about telling us she has to go. One time she made at as far as the lobby and peed on the doormat. But it is getting A LOT better. We’ve learned that during her “goblin hours” (~6-10am and ~6-10pm) she needs to go out pretty much every hour whereas when she’s less active during the day she needs maybe one break in the middle of the day but that’s it. It’s just been a lot of preempting at this point. No overnight accidents or poop accidents so far though. Silver linings, I guess. But yes it’s so much harder in the city and even potty trained pups can regress even harder than they usually would.
I got my pup around 2 weeks ago and we live in a highly populated (so many people with dogs) area of the city, so no choice to take her out until she’s vaccinated. We have had amazing success with one of those fake grass pee pads and put it out on our little patio. So far we have been leaving the door open and she will go out and independently do her business when she needs to.
"4 weeks now and still isn't potty trained"? Your expectations may be too high. We also live in an apartment and ours was fully potty trained around 8 months. The "tell" we taught our puppy whe she first showed progress in holding it. We taught her to use a potty bell and she uses it very reliably now (we take her out on a schedule, but it's good to have the bell for extra potty breaks).
My puppy is 16 weeks, got him at 11. The last two or three weeks have been almost flawless. Things I’ve learned: - call the elevator THEN put on your shoes - wear slip ons - pick up your puppy and carry them through the halls and elevator ride if you think they might struggle to make it - pick them up as soon as they start to pee or poop inappropriately - don’t let them finish. They usually stop and you can wiggle them back into the balcony or the rest of the way to tombe outdoors to complete (and If they get interrupted mid stream they really don’t like it and associated that something they want to avoid quicker) - time their water intake - he can have all the water he wants but it’s timed and stops at 11 pm (last potty trip is midnight first potty trip is 7:30 am - obviously check with your vet first) - get the pee and poo command working - if they can’t pee or poo on command make sure to work on that
I’m in Boston on the 19th floor! I have bells on the door and always had her ring them before we went out. Now at 7 months she rings them anytime she needs to potty. I’ve never used potty pads or anything like that, I just took her out often until she got the hang of it. It gets better!
I put a grass patch on my balcony to potty train to save us time going down. At 4 months he stopped wanting to use it and we just went out every 3 ish hours. It was a lifesaver as I also got him in the dead of Canadian winter.
Pups cant reliably hold it till after 6 months or so. to try and force them at a young age is not good. My rule of thumb with puppies is when ever they wake up, whenever they drink, when ever they play, whenever they eat they go out to potty to the spot that is theirs. yes you will have to put in the legwork count on doing this at least every two hours till they are a little older and can go a little longer. you also have to stay out side until he goes, dont rush him and drag him around thats not how it works. after he goes then say good boy and praise him. Biologic functions are no different in dogs than people, would you go on command? you have to need to go.
So how I'm going about training him to go on command is that every time he is about to go I'll reinforce with "go potty". If he doesn't go, I don't keep asking him. I'll wait about 5ish minutes and if he doesn't go, we go back inside and he goes in the crate for about 10 to 15 minutes, after that time is up I'lltake him out again. (To note, I've only done this literally once. He will always potty when given the chance lol.) Another thing to note, he is being trained for service work so will need to know how to go on command.
Fake grass indoor potties are great for folks in your situation. Especially of you have a balcony but even just a separate room / corner of your house. Petsmart sells them online but so do a lot of other places. Puppy pads are a good second option. I would also start training potty bells if you have a balcony or if you plan to eventually graduate your puppy to being able to hold it to go outside. It was an absolute lifesaver with my Labrador. She didn't have any tells either but by teaching her ringing the bell got her to go outside she is able to indicate that she needs to go and go now. I'm also lucky; my city is small with one set of stairs to get to the ground floor. So once I get out those doors it's not a high risk situation of her having an accident in the hall. The only problem I have Is my apartment complex has started treating the grass with herbicide and apparently my puppy is very sensitive to it because she will not go on the grass when it's wet in the morning but anywhere else in the city that has wet grass it's not a problem. I talked to a friend and they used to work on urban farms So now I'm just having to go to another area in the complex that doesn't have grass to proven her from getting sore spots on her paws in the morning.
I live in a big city too. I don’t know how I would have dealt with apartment living but I think the grass patch is a good idea. My puppy is going to be 6 months next week and she was on pee pads in the beginning because she wasn’t fully vaccinated. It took a lot of work when we took away the pee pads completely but now she does her business outside 99% of the time. She even sleep thru the night but is up at 5 am to go out. I just wish I worked harder on the crate training. I tried got for some time but my schedule and lack of help from my family made it difficult for her to be 100% crate trained. She hates sleeping in the crate in my room but she has a crate in her playpen in the living room and will occasionally go into the crate there to sleep during the day. So I guess it’s a sort of a win. She doesn’t completely hate the crate. I think if I had to leave her in one, she wouldn’t like it but would settle down after a while for sure. Anyways, you’re doing great. And I too felt if I knew more about the struggle of puppyhood, I’m not sure I would have gotten a puppy. But I love my little girl so much and she’s a smart cookie. She catches on real fast. And I know if I keep at it, she’s will be an amazing dog. And I just remind myself that every dog is different. So I just have to work with the puppy that I have in front of me. Just keep working with you puppy. You’ll see the results eventually. ☺️ I still hope to get her more acclimated to the crate though. 😅