I feel like a failure?

[Anonymous]

I have a 3 almost 4 month old labradoodle, and he's brought life to my elderly dog and I. But I get impatient with potty training. It's been cold out and don't get me wrong he does go and I reward him but sometimes he gets distracted and doesn't go then when I let him in or put him in his crate, he goes. His crate is bigger than him, and logically, he doesn't see a reason to get a smaller one if he's going to grow into it.

He's had 3 accidents today but has gone mostly when I took him out except for a few exceptions.

Is he going to get this eventually? I know he's still a baby, but does this get easier with consistency? He gets distracted by leaves, snow, sticks, etc. I tried a leash, but he just chews on it.

For example, he went this morning in his pen because I didn't wake up on time. I feel bad. He only pooped once and peed. After I feed him, he's immediately going out again.

Updates

+1 y

I've had him since January 25th and he's almost 4 months. Its been cold outside in February as well so that kind of delayed this. It seems like he's getting the hang of it?

[PrettyPriya]

You are not a failure. That is part of training a puppy. I have never had one but our neighbors do and I have been around it enough to know that it takes time and discipline on your part. We also occasionally watch the dog when they go out of town. So, I’m familiar enough with dogs.

You are going to have setbacks. You need to just accept that and not get so down on yourself. I know from our neighbors that the really important thing was setting a schedule and getting the dog in a routine.

For them, it was feed the dog and straight outside. You have to be patient and just be outside until the dog does his/her business. They will get distracted but keep averting their attention when they do. The other reason why our neighbors dog is so well behave is they did not train with treats or food.

Incentivizing behaviours with food is easy to do but the number one mistake from what they said. Hope any of this helps since I can only base this on our friends dog and not my own experience.

[Guy13]

Oh well, “Woman-Up” 💪and get the job done.

[Iron_Man]

Yes keep working with the dog

[KrakenAttackin]

Check out the book "The Art of Raising a Puppy".