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Pup cannot follow the course

Q: Hello again, we have been working on the shunning now for a few weeks. Like I mentioned earlier I think she was doing pretty good when I was taking her out very frequently but when I go more than an hour she is peeing on the floor. Tonight I found a puddle, took her to it told her in a loud, mad voice NO, and that she is naughty. I have been putting her out in our small bathroom rather than tying her to the kitchen table to see if that might have a better effect on her. She definitely does not like it and barks and cries the whole time. I leave her there for 15-20 minutes then let her out. Tonight when I let her out I didn’t take her outside because I figured shortly before she had peed on the floor and guess what she wasn’t out of her punishment for 30 minutes and had peed on the floor again. She doesn’t have a clue! Yet she holds it during the day while I’m at work. Frustrating. She will occasionally use her puppy pad in her pen when we are gone. Do you think I would mess her up more if I start back from step one with leaving her in the palace/playpen whenever she is not right by me and making her use the puppy pad. Stop taking her outside all together. Maybe this would mess her up more but if she can’t seem to understand that she needs to hold it in the house maybe I could teach her to just use the pad. I’m sure I’m way off base. I just don’t know what to do anymore. Do you think if I just stay the course with taking her outside and punishing her every time she messes up eventually she would get it? I have been consistent with taking her out since the day I got her and aside from having a puppy pad available to her when we are gone have not strayed from expecting her to go outside. She always goes when I take her outside and seems to understand that is what I want her to do when we go outside. She will be 8 months old on the 19th!! I think I need to go back to treating her like she is 12 weeks old and start completely over, not allowing her any freedom outside of my site. Thanks for listening to my frustrated rant.

A: Whenever a puppy doesn’t seem to get the potty training plan two things need to happen. First, the goal needs to be simple and repeated over and over (sounds like Phase 1 needs to be implemented again) and second the reprimand and correction steps need to be increased. Just the fact that she is already 8 months without understanding the plan will make the need for patience, repetition and consistency mandatory.