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[ByFloSin]

Welcome Martin, Charlie and Ziva. I agree with Julie about the mandatory photographs of the dogs. We can't get enough of them here

So far as the toilet training is concerned: I assume that you have had Ziva for about 3 weeks, i.e. since she was about 8 weeks old and ready to leave her mother and litter mates?

All pups vary in their learning curves and capacities to store their waste products and the frequency with which they need to evacuate them. Please forgive me for saying this, but I really think you are expecting a little too much from a tiny pup and that you should persevere with training without comparing Ziva's progress with Charlie's. Time, patience and praise are the requirements here.

Pups need to relieve themselves on waking, after food and before sleeping, so puppy needs to be taken out to do the necessary and lavishly praised when they have done what is required. I always gave them a little treat or biscuit after they had performed. It's good practice to give puppy a word to tell her what you want her to do. Anything will do that she is able to associate with what you want. My girl Holly P is almost 7 years old and a Pets As Therapy dog who visits hospitals and care homes. There is no way that I want to risk accident in either of the hospitals, so after giving her food and water I take her out to a patch of grass she is accustomed to using and give the command to 'wee please', which is obeyed in a matter of seconds, giving me the confidence of knowing no accidents will occur on the wards.

I also wonder whether Ziva is likely to learn from example from the older girl Charlie when she sees her toileting? As I said, time to learn, patience when she makes mistakes and praise when she gets it right should get through to puppy before too long.

[martin]

Welcome Martin, Charlie and Ziva. I agree with Julie about the mandatory photographs of the dogs. We can't get enough of them here

So far as the toilet training is concerned: I assume that you have had Ziva for about 3 weeks, i.e. since she was about 8 weeks old and ready to leave her mother and litter mates?

I also wonder whether Ziva is likely to learn from example from the older girl Charlie when she sees her toileting?

Sorry - I just saw this reply now as I'm obviously confused by the way this whole Forum thing works and forgot to subscribe to the thread to get reply notifications

Anyway thanks for the advice and you got the timing about right with regard to the ages but Charlie is a boy and his toileting is very different from the little lady. Its interesting to watch now that we are able to take both of them out together - he does a lot of territorial scent marking - reads the "scentposts" everywhere and having read the headlines in dog scent, he will add his own footnote. She will trot along happily for the entire walk, investigating everything and anything that seems interesting - smells, sights, strange shapes etc. - but with the exception of the long "away for the afternoon" walks at the beach, she does not pee till she gets home. She is improving and now manages to go through the night without pooping on the puppy pad - letting us know with a wake up call if she can't hold on past 3:30am! Its the day time running around in the house that remains the problem but my dear wife says its just that I don't know what I'm doing and I have to be firmer about taking her, Ziva - not my wife - outside every time I see her nosing around. I guess its a man thing and I'm a slow learner!

With regard to photos - I have now figured out how to upload but I'm still working on displaying in a thread - you'll probably get about 3 postings with same images over the next couple of days as I work it out.

Thanks for the welcome advice.

Martin.