How long did it take you to potty train your Havanese? Did you have trouble getting them to signal?
Please tell me some Havanese take 12 months or longer to really figure out potty training.
Our Havanese boy is crate trained and sleeps through the night with no problem. But during the day, we still have accidents two to four times a week, and from about 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., it feels like a full-time job staying ahead of him.
When he was 2 months old, we were taking him out every 20 minutes, day and night. Now he can usually go anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours before barking in his crate to go out. When we take him, he does pee. Sometimes it seems urgent. Other times, I honestly think he just wants company.
The confusing part is that he can go 3.5 to 4 hours if we leave the house, probably because he naps and everything slows down. But when we’re home and he’s awake, the window is much shorter.
He also seems completely unbothered by getting pee on himself. Sometimes he doesn’t lift his leg, pees on his front leg, then just walks right through it or through any pee that got on the edge of the cement and the grass. Our 14-year-old Yorkie has always carefully avoided stepping in his own potty area, so this is very different for us.
His potty signal has also changed. He used to paw at the back door. Recently, he decided that instead of doing that, he would just sit there and look at me with loving eyes for about 30 seconds before peeing on the floor while still sitting down and getting it on his chest. I installed a potty bell today, but he’s scared of it.
So I guess I’m asking: is this normal for some Havanese? Do some of them just take a long time to mature with potty training, or does my dog simply not care where the potty area is as long as he gets to go?