Help! Puppy toilet training!

Well, we have adopted a beautiful little puppy. She is a maltese ****zu cross. Her name is "Gloria" after the lady who owned her. She is now about 16 weeks. She is just absolutely gorgeous and we love her to bits.

We use those little white poo sheets that are impregnated with something that makes them do their business on them. Most of the time she goes on these sheets - so that's good. It's jsut that she goes downstairs and ten comes up to go to the loo... :wall:
If there is something left on the floor she does it on that... :wall:

Now, I am a clean freak... So, I have gone through copious amounts of cleaning products, eucalyptus oil and incesne... I have taken up all the rugs so she doesn't go to the loo on them... (It's cold its' winter! :rolleyes:).

What can I do????

White Vinegar on the spots she has gone should mask the smell and discourage her from going there again...

Um, otherwise can you place the "poop sheets" in various places round the house?

But I think you will have to be vigilant and watch for the pooping signs (sniffing etc) and use the lead to take her to the sheet and wait with her till she goes and then give the big praise and encouragement. After food is a good time, and if you watch her you will pick up on her rhythms, and know the times to lead her to water (so to to speak)... The book we used with our puppies was The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey. It was a great resource.

If you catch her about to go a quick sharp clap and NO should stop it, and you can quickly lead her to the mat and encourage her to go there and then praise again...

Good luck. TT a puppy is not easy, but worth perservering...

can you train her to go to the toilet outside?? So that when she needs to go she will go to the door and wait for you?? That way she will associate going with the toilet with outside, IYKWIM? Rather than something on the floor inside- which is what she is doing at the moment.

Any reaction at all (unless you catch her in the act) isn't going to help, she won't understand at all.

There are 2 training ways I'll describe below and then if they don't work, you can try others.

1) Praising. This means you take her outside every 45 minutes. You stay with her outside and wait. Close the door to go inside and wait. When she has done her business (this can take around 5-10 minutes to get close to it) you give her heaps and heaps of praise, and a little treat and lots of attention. Then go inside, if she does something inside and you catch her you say "uh uh" and clean it up without giving her any attention. You can withdrawal attention throughout the day and only give her heaps of praise and attention outside where you want her to do her business. I would leave the mat inside only when you aren't able to do the 45 minute toilet timing.

Her bladder is around the size of a golf ball right now, and it takes around 20-30 minutes to fill up She is only now beginning to get control over the muscle fully, so it shouldn't take too long now!

Training technique #2) Crate training.

You pop her in a crate with some food & water and leave her in there for that 45 minutes, take her outside to the loo and give her all the praise once she does her business. Then play with her and cuddle her and pop her back in the crate for 45 minutes with something to chew on. You only need to do this for 1-2 full days to see improvement.

most of all remember she won't want to go outside without someone with her, its cold there too and if something distracts her from inside, she may stop halfway... and toddle inside to see whats going on and then bust the rest out when she gets excited.... so its important that whatever technique you use, you make sure going to the toilet is the most exciting thing for a few days.