Potty Training Struggle - Please Help
This week I brought home an adorable little pom/aussie/shiba/potato/fox from the shelter. He's about 4.5 months old and hasn't been potty trained.
My only other experience with a dog was my old man who made it to 17 and died recently. Funnily enough, it seems I'm cleaning just as much pee and poo with a puppy as I did with him -- though hopefully this will be solved soon!
- Puppy Pads - 50% effective, Trying to phase out bc they seem counter-intuitive.
- He's peed outside twice, but only first thing in the morning and only on a soiled pad I brought outside. He was rewarded with praise and treats.
- Any other time of day, outside is treated like playtime and he'll hold it until we're back inside. I've tried waiting up to 45 minutes. He just wont pee.
- Poop has been consistently inside despite my best efforts. I bring the poo outside and let puppy sniff poo in the grass like "hey look, it goes here!" but yeah. No progress.
- "Pee here" spray does nothing.
- Artificial grass is treated like a bed. He wont pee or poop on it.
- He gets his meals in a properly sized crate but if I shut the door, after about 5 minutes you'd think I set him on fire. He's not a fan of crate.
- He sleeps in bed with me and sleeps through the night. No accidents in bed thankfully.
I work from home until the end of the month and really want to lock in the potty training but Im worried I'm doing something wrong or expecting too much too soon. He's a clever little booger and I'm constantly trying to keep him entertained while I work (I've gotten very little work done) and with the constant cleaning of potty mess, it feels like an uphill battle. I know he's just a baby and it's prob puppy blues, but I feel like I've made a mistake, like he should've been adopted with an expert or something. I just want to do right by him.
*NOTE
I've been taking him on neighborhood walks and he's had a few car rides/been left sequestered to the kitchen for about an hour at a time. Im hoping this week will be more consistent but he's got his first vet appt on Tuesday. Should I try to make his schedule more predictable? I was worried about the window for socialization.