Potty Training.

dawnyelmarie

So I have had my 8 week old ebt Luna for about a week now and need some advice on potty training. This is my first time doing this so just wanna make sure I am doing it correctly. I live in an apartment however I have decent size patio that I am using as her potty area. It is fully cement and has no grass. I make sure to take her out right after she wakes up, shortly after eating or drinking water. Since her second night home she has slept 6 hours straight in her crate before waking up to go potty, and honestly I am usually the one waking up her up she never cries to be let out. She has never had an accident in her crate. She also has a playpen attached to her crate which is where I keep her if I can't watch her like a hawk (ie. eating, cooking, cleaning, getting work done). If she is in there I do my best to take her out but sometimes I'm too late and she has already peed, so I put pee pads down just in case. She has now learned to go on them although she sometimes misses and has accident in her playpen. The main issue is when I let her free in the house. I make sure that I take her outside to pee before I let her loose, but she still seems to have accidents. During the day she seems to pee almost every 30 mins or less. Am I confusing her because of the pee pads in the playpen? I am a college student so there are times that she will be home alone for a couple hours so until she can hold I have no other choice. Also I am working on leash training with her right out front of my apartment. There is a patch of grass there and she will almost immediately go potty. Should I change the pee pads to the artificial grass one & also invest in artificial grass for the patio to make in easier for her ? Also should I try to let her cry and let me know when she has to go instead of taking her out myself? I have carpet so I wanna try to avoid accidents are much as possible since its harder to clean. Are the accidents just normal since she is still so young ?

BulliesofNC

Based on your schedule and the prolonged time in which your puppy is subjected to the crate you're going to have some difficulty potty training her especially living in an apartment and not having quick access to a yard out your back door.
She needs lots of potty breaks and truly needs a lot of exercise throughout the day. The crate time during the day while you are in school and during the night while you sleep will create behavior problems due to stress and anxiety. All that pent up energy needs to exerted through exercise and the more she is outside and on grass the more she will get used to the natural aspect of using the bathroom outside vice inside your apartment or her crate.

corey90260

My suggestion when you are at home take her out every 30 min . You don't have to make it all about going to the bathroom do some training while your outside ,have her sit a couple times or laydown if she does go potty PRAISE her ,let her know its a wonderful thing. I agree about the crate time ,we rescued ours and believe she was crated a lot prior to getting her .She definitely has anxiety and the more exercise she gets the happier she is .They are super smart dogs and have a ton of energy so you need to exercise both their minds and bodies.

the4thmonkey

I used a playpen too, and it was big enough that I could divide it into living and potty areas. For the division I used things like the crate (door removed) and an ice chest with bricks in it so she couldn't knock it over. The potty area was a small area with one small entrance. It worked well for us.