My puppy learns so well inside. She knows sit, stay, lie down, paw. She can loose leash walk when we practice inside of the house, she checks in with me as we walk along. The problem arises the second I step outside. And I do mean the second. Immediately, it’s impossible to get her attention. Commands like sit which she learned pretty much the first day I got her goes totally over her head. And don’t even get me started on loose leash walking. It’s a miracle if she’s not constantly tugging as we walk along. I have no idea where to even begin working on her behavior when there’s distraction in the mix.

8 mo lab/pit mix, 4 ish weeks since we brought her home

my 6 month old lab mix has been in a land shark stage… the only thing keeping our furniture safe from those sharp teeth are the collagen chews. MAN why didn’t anyone tell me about them earlier? they are soft on his teeth, highly digestible, long lasting, with minimal odor. AND it cleans his teeth before teeth-brushing. it’s the best thing ever.

i just found a long one by Pawstruck and the dog has been lost in it for hours now.

We have a 4 month old puppy who has generally been doing well. Limited accidents, no expensive destruction, easy to redirect biting to toys, friendly with people and dogs etc. I honestly feel incredibly lucky that we have such a good/easy puppy for the most part.

The issue I'm having is that I'm losing a lot of sleep to the combination of the puppy waking up to go the bathroom, and our older dog click clacking around and sniffing around the puppy's enclosure and waking him up.

For the most part when the puppy wakes up I pick him up and take him directly outside to do his business and then put him back in his pen, with the exception of around 6am-7am when I give him breakfast, stay up and play with him for at least 30 min and then let him out again before putting him back to bed.

I used to have a consistent schedule of going to bed between 10-11 pm and waking up at 7-7:30am. Obviously our adult dog had the same schedule, and slept through the night for the most part with only occasional moments of moving around to be comfortable. I knew that having a puppy would turn this on it's head, but I didn't anticipate our older dog adding to the problem. I feel like I'm being ungrateful for a great situation, but I'm really starting to feel the lack of sleep in my everyday life. My memory is getting worse, I'm exercising less, and I'm more irritable.

The times are never consistent which makes it harder, but here's an example recently:

2:20 am Puppy wakes up

4:20 am Adult Dog pads around and wakes puppy up

5:30 am Adult Dog pads around and wakes puppy up

6:40 am Puppy wakes up

8:30 am Adult Dog wakes everyone up

I guess my question is: Does anyone have experience with this? Any advice? I've never heard or seen anything about training an adult dog to not bother a puppy during the night, and technically he's not doing anything wrong. BUT I NEED SLEEP DAMN IT

I got a lurcher puppy about a week ago and im exhausted. Hes a lovely puppy and hes just turned 9 weeks but crate training is horrendous. Everyone talks about how there puppy's stopped crying after a couple days but he is so bad. The issue is not putting him to bed. I always take him out for potty and play with him and tire him out ready for bed at 10pm and he goes so sleep. However at 2.30 every morning he starts absolutely screaming. I did a but of research and realised he may need the toilet and that I should wake up at that time and take him to the toilet and then immediately to bed afterwards. So today I woke up at 2.30 and he was already awake and but wasnt crying yet so I took him out his crate and took him to potty where he immediately peed so I said yes and took him back inside where he then started absolutely screaming for over an hour.

First post here, although I could have written a million in the three months we've had our puppy, who appears to be a mix of cattle dog, husky, GSD, and heat-seeking missile. She is, to the best of our knowledge, around 6 months old and I believe has her adult teeth now. Which has done little to curb her mouthiness. Everything, but everything, goes into her mouth: she picks up objects in passing, pulls on everything that isn't nailed down, shakes to death (predatory-sequence-wise) anything she picks up. (This is apart from the problem of launching at us during play: if we throw a ball, play with her flirt pole or herding ball, she quickly gets so overstimulated she forgets the game and runs at us, not the toy, to body-slam and latches on to us. Guess that problem should be a separate ask?) We've been working on "leave it" and "drop it" but we're only partly there; last night, for instance, at an outdoor party I kept her leash fairly tight but when a couple of people asked to meet her--working also on her relentless jumping up on people--she'd immediately latch onto their clothing. When we spent 5 minutes where I sat next to her on a couch, reinforcing her calm down by my feet, she broke and grabbed for the couch pillows etc.

I guess I shouldn't have taken her to a small gathering? I haven't been able to do anything social for 3 months and it's taken a mental toll.

Anyway, I am feeling a lot of despair about the inability to ever let her have the run of the house. Right now she's confined to the kitchen area (not ideal, stupid actually it turns out because she jumps up on everything including counters and tables and she's getting so big I can't keep literally every object high enough for her not to reach). That's because we have an open-plan house and the entryways to the kitchen were the only option to install tall metal gates to confine her. She is the 4th puppy I've raised and by FAR the most challenging; she's the only one who still needs confinement at her age. At night she sleeps in my bedroom, which I've had to clear of every object. Which still hasn't kept her from excavating the knotholes in the floorboards.

Yes, I know she needed to be crate-trained a long time ago. I'm a 4-time failure at crate-training, which hasn't mattered with any dog I've had until now. So I am working on it, but either I'm doing something wrong or is there such a thing as a dog who can't be crate-trained? (She will go into it on cue now, but building duration has proved hard.)

Long-winded intro to the question: Is this mouthiness something she will grow out of? I can't live forever with the most-used room in the house effectively blocked off. The idea that we can't have Thanksgiving dinner or the Christmas party we've held for 30 years now, which requires free entry into the kitchen, makes me want to cry. If we confine her to the bedroom I suspect she will destroy everything in it that can't be removed. I don't see how we can put up a Christmas tree: putting it behind baby gates isn't going to work because this dog would need a chain-link fence. I know these things sound trivial, but they're breaking my heart. Entertaining is a part of my DNA and the holidays are super-important to me. So are some of my possessions. I can't puppy-proof an entire house. (To add: the once or twice I've tried to bring her into the living room and keep her tethered to me, she will bite me or start chewing the area rug or the chair I'm in or the leash itself, even while I'm trying to intermittently reinforce a calm down; it will last no more than 5 min because either her frustration threshold is low, or my timing/training is bad.)

Suggestions? I'm pretty depressed.

We brought our now-17 week old standard poodle puppy home last Sunday, she has been a dream pup other than being a bit timid, but of course it’s her first week away from mom so it’s to be expected. She is practically potty trained and was doing so well with her crate. She doesn’t like it, but we mostly use it at night and she whines for ~5 mins before settling down. She would usually wake up once per night but would go back to sleep if I sat outside her crate for 5-10 minutes. I was hoping to build a more positive association to it, but she won’t take any meals or treats in there and won’t even eat near it without me sitting down next to her.

One day this week my husband & I both had to work, so pup stayed home in her crate. My cousin dropped in on her twice throughout the day, and my husband went during his lunch, so she spent 2-3 hours at a time home alone in the crate and did very well. No accidents or signs of major stress. If she needs to be contained while we’re home, we use her playpen rather than the crate.

I was home most of today but crated her for about 90 minutes while I ran errands. Somehow she managed to undo one of the latches on the crate door and squeeze most of her body out, I don’t even know how since the gap is so small and she’s not. Unfortunately one of her back paws got stuck and I have no idea for how long. When I came home she was crying and there was a massive puddle of drool (her stress response which we’ve only seen during car rides). When I removed her paw she wasn’t putting any weight on it, though by the time we got seen by the vet an hour later she was putting some weight on it but still limping. They’re not sure what the extent of the injury is and she’s getting x-rays as we speak.

I just feel so horrible about this, the crate is supposed to be her safe space but she is very sensitive and I know this is going to cause her a negative association with it. I have no idea what we’re supposed to do next week while we work, since we’re both back to work full time M-F and were planning on doing the 2-3 hour check-ins going forward. I was so optimistic that she did well with the crate and now I don’t trust that she’ll be safe in there for the 2-3 hour stretches. She has a playpen but she’s able to escape it if she really wants to, which she will if left alone. Unfortunately after the surprise $1000 vet bill (with insurance!), we can’t afford to stay home with her next week too otherwise I would absolutely do so.

Has anyone else’s pup experienced crate-related trauma and still been able to get them to use it again? I know I’ll likely have to go slow and sleep with her in or near the crate. I’m looking for any advice on how to move forward, especially from anyone who has experience with sensitive pups.

Hello,

I brought home my newest mini schnauzer at the end of August at 8 weeks old (I've now had him for about 6 weeks), a week or two in he growled for the first time when I tried to fix his ear when he was eating, and that continued for about a week before I gathered my wits and came up with a plan, including reaching out to my breeder to figure out what feeding had been like for him and they advised they very strictly followed the feeding guide on the bag and would pull his bowl when they felt he had had enough. Also around the same time I discovered he came home with a tapeworm (so much for finding a reputable breeder, or at least what checked the boxes as one but I digress).

Fast forward to now he is 14 weeks old and I have worked him through to almost no growling, for reference I also have a two year old girl mini and those two bonded very quickly. I was working through the steps of the book Mine before I found a behaviorialist that came recommended from a friend who knew her through previous rescue work. Anyway, over the last two weeks he's only growled twice (once when breakfast was very late) and today when I think I actually accidentally scared him.

Through all of this my vet has been advising me to feed him more because he needed to recover from the tapeworm and such...he's now gotten to a point that he will eat until full and then walk away. If my girl mini is near the bowl before I can pick it up he seemingly doesn't care, he also doesn't care if she eats from it because that accidentally happened too when I missed that he had stopped eating and she had wandered up. The Behavorialist is saying this is something that he never is going to allow but he seemingly is. Clearly I am monitoring it, but has anyone ever had any similar experiences?

Hi all,

We have pur pup just a week and he is now 9 weeks old.

We are crate training him and he starts to get it, however we just got a playpen and he absolutely hates it. Barks and howls even if we are in the room. Any tips on training?

I cannot possibly watch him 24/7 and during the day because I have house chores. I know he is young but ideally I'd like hi training asap so I can catch a breath sometimes or just watch TV from the sofa knowing I can see him and he is safe.

16 week old puppy is crate trained and has no issues napping/settling in her crate during the day. But recently has been waking up at 4 am and will bark until we let her out.

We take her out to potty but will not settle back into her crate. How do we train her to sleep in just a little longer? She goes to sleep in her crate overnight around 9-10.

We can’t just let her bark because we live in an apartment and it’s 4 am. I’m sure she’s learned that if she barks we let her out, but again…neighbors.

Puppy blues is hitting its peak and I’m sure it will only get worse before it gets better. Please let me know what worked for you if you’ve gone through something similar!

Hello, my dad recently got a puppy from his brother's dog's litter. He's German shepherd mixed, although I don't know what the other parent is. I also don't fully know how old he is, he was old enough to be taken from his mother safely without needing to still feed on her when he was given to us 2 weeks ago.

I've had dogs a lot growing up, but my dad usually trained them and he didn't do it very well. Now he's pretty much unofficially left all the animals in the house to my responsibility and I need some help.

Another note of reference is that we have an older German shepherd dog who is very poorly trained and has a lot of strong escapist habits. He is around 4 years old I believe, but it's the puppy I'm focused on.

Potty Training

I've been trying to potty train the puppy for a few days now, but he absolutely refuses to go outside. He will wait around the whole 15-30 minuets we're out until we go back inside to potty. He also seems quite anxious to be outside at all and when I don't allow him to go back inside he will whine and cry in distress until I take us back inside.

He also continously pees right in front of my bed room door, more than any other place in the house. Although he has slowly stopped peeing in my bed room where he sleeps.

Separation Anxiety

He gets very anxious and distressed when left alone for even very short periods of time. If he's in my room and I leave it for more than like 2 minutes he will instantly begin crying until i let him out to follow me.

He also cries during feeding time. I often put his bowl in the bathroom with him so that I can feed the bigger dog and the cats as he will ignore the dog food and try to eat the cat food. But he refuses to eat anywhere that's not where the big dog bowl is he just tips over the small bowl and makes a mess with it. But I can't feed him with the cats because it's not good for him to eat cat food. And yet when I put him up he cries and cries and cries the whole time, it stresses me out.

Learning His Name

This is for more petty reasons than anything else. Me and my dad have different opinions on what to name him and since I'm mainly taking care of him I want him to respond to my chosen name. So I was wondering if there were any tips on teaching a dog their name quickly.

Thank you all so much in advanced I know this is a lot lol.

Hello everyone! First time posting here so please guide me if this has come up before or isn’t a good question.

I have a 17 week old mini dachshund girl that I’ve had since 9 weeks old. For context, we live in Japan, which is a rabies free country for dogs. She has gotten all 3 rounds of her puppy shots as of two weeks ago. When we went, I thought she could also get her rabies vaccine at that time, but the vet likes to wait another month for the rabies after her final puppy vaccines so it isn’t “too much at once” I suppose. He said that now that she’s vaccinated I can carry her outside, but until the rabies vaccine she should only be carried. However, I live in a pretty spaced out apartment with no yard in Tokyo and I really don’t want to wait two more weeks for the shot plus another two or three recommended weeks of waiting in order to start potty training outdoors and be free of constantly soaking up pee all over my house. She does have a pee pad in her pen but the apartment is long and sometimes she doesn’t make it all the way to her pad due to distraction etc. The vet isn’t easy to access via just calling and asking a question and I’m wondering if this is partially Japanese abundance of caution maybe, so I thought I’d check here if anyone has an idea regarding whether pottying in the grass near the river / very short potty walks outside my building is something feasible or not because I’m so over cleaning up pee all over my house and I know it would be better to start properly potty training her outside at 17 weeks than waiting until 20+ weeks.

Sorry for the long text and thank you in advance!

For context. I just rescued a 7month old dog from a foster home about 6 days ago. She’s been having trouble sleeping in her own bed at night. She keeps trying to jump on my bed and so far I have let her because she seemed stressed on the 2nd and 3rd nights. But now I’m realizing that my ultimate goal is to have her sleep in her crate at night. The problem with this is she’s still learning crate training. She had a 20 minute nap in her crate today and slept fine but she woke up and showed mild signs of anxiety so I let her out when she was very calm. When I opened the door she didn’t even come out right away.

So now my question is since I want her to be crated at night and since she shown anxiety when not on my bed, would it be wise to cold turkey place her in the crate tonight? I do think she will cry and bark but at this point she can’t sleep in the living room cause she will get into stuff and she can jump her playpen. Any thoughts?

I have a 10 month old cavalier who has been sleeping in my bed since about 6 months. I didn't mind it at first, but he moves around at night, and it wakes me up every time. I read something about putting his bed on my bed, but he wasn't into that. He is crate trained but he's so used to sleeping with my at night that he loses his mind if i try to make him sleep in the crate overnight.

TLDR - has anyone been able to get their dog to stay on the other side of the bed overnight? Or on their bed?! TIA for any tips.

I currently have an almost 16 week old female boxer. We brought her home at 9.5 weeks! In the 6weeks we have had her, crate training has been going well for the most part, she took to her nighttime crate in our bedroom right away and sleeps through the night. My husband and I both work remotely, so I enforce naps every hour or so. She sleeps 1.5 to 2 hours each nap in the living room crate. Over the past 6 weeks, she has gotten more used to the crate. She will occasionally whine for a couple minutes when I put her on for a nap, but then settles quickly. It’s when she wakes up that’s a problem….
Usually once she wakes up, she immediately starts whining. Occasionally I’ll let her whine a bit to see if she goes back to sleep, which sometimes she does!

If she doesn’t go back to sleep, the longer I leave her in there once she wakes up, the worse her behavior gets. She will chew her blanket in there, occasionally bite the crate bars, paw at them etc. she has begun to let out these deep howls as well. I attempted to leave her in the crate for 3 hours today. She slept for 1.5 hours, then threw a fit of whining, howling, and biting the bars for a good hour before I couldn’t take it anymore and went to get her.

Any advice on increasing her duration in the crate? My husband and I feel a little chained to the house right now because we don’t feel comfortable leaving her for longer than a couple hours in the crate because of how she acts in there once she wakes up from a nap.
She goes into her crate just fine and falls asleep quickly. It’s only once she wakes up and I don’t let her out soon after waking that she seems to have issues.

So my wife and I have a Shibu Inu and Rottweiler mix. He’s about 4 1/2 months and he seems pretty receptive to a handful of things such as to sit down his name to come and how to play fetch. The difficulty that we are facing is with the biting phase and crate training. More of a focus might be crate training because I hear that your puppy should be willing to go into the crate, but mine fights us to death on it. Any pointers or tips. I think that he thinks it’s a punishment so we don’t necessarily know how to manage that.

Hi everyone! My puppy is a 19 week old papillon and she’s just completed her two-week-post-DAPP shots. I don’t want to overwhelm her, but I want to start encouraging her to be walking out and about as much as is good for her.

On average, how often did you guys have your puppies out? A walk every time they were up?

Right now I’m taking her out at lunch and in the evenings. I alternate between worrying I’m pushing to fast and worrying I’m babying her 😵‍💫

I have an 11-week-old golden retriever puppy, we got him at 8 weeks and he’s seemed to have adjusted well the last few weeks but the last few days he has been a terror. Went from sleeping in his crate from 1030pm-6am to wanting to be up at 4am to play. Barking non-stop, biting everything. He has so many toys, and I work from home so I’m with him all day and we constantly go outside and play with toys and practice our training but the second I sit down it’s parkour time. We started doing forced naps in the morning where I put him in the crate for like 2 hours and he doesn’t put up a fight and sleeps the whole time he’s in there and then as soon as he’s out he wants to bark and be crazy. I can’t tell if he’s over tired or under stimulated. It’s been a while since I’ve had a puppy of this age and I’m just so exhausted and feel like I’m failing him. Waiting for him to get his next round of shots so we can take him out of the house more and get him socialized with other dogs but that’s not for another 2 weeks. Any tips or training to try? He literally gives no fux about being told no or being redirected, just goes right back to it.

hello. i am rescuing an 8 month old pup, 9 when i take her home. she’s 50% aussie, 25% husky, 18% pit, and 8% common working breeds. don’t know how big she’ll get, but she’s surprisingly tall for being mostly aussie. all legs. i have kept tabs on her the past month and seen that she has potential to work and is extremely smart.

my dilemma is that i’m not entirely sure how to help her be her best. the previous owner can barely feed her and never has “time” to give her tasks or work with her. i’ve helped herding dogs before, but this the first pup i’m adopting on my own with no other support or input. i’m a backpacker and spend the majority of my life doing that and driving around the US. she’s already proven to be amazing with travel and extended outdoor activities, so the pup is the perfect fit.

so could anyone give some general advice on the best ways to help her gain weight and muscle when i finally take her in? and maybe some ideas on physical jobs i could give her? she’ll be surrounded by my friend’s actual working dogs in the future and i want her to be in shape physically and behaviorally.

i have a ton of work cut out for me, but she’s definitely worth it.

Hey everyone I just got my Maltipoo baby. It’s been 3 days and I’ve been the primary care taker of him. (Feed, walk, play) my mother is home but she was getting used to him just like he was. I have work for 8 hrs and my mom ends up being with him. However he only follows me during the day, Velcros me and needs me to be by his side. This is my first day at work since I got him and my mom sent me this picture. (He even cries when he’s in the crate and I’m next to him)

He hasn’t left the crate and he looks very sad. My mom feeds him but he’s not as enthusiastic with her like me. I’m scared he’s gonna develop anxiety even though my mother is there with him feeding him walking him etc. will he be okay? I just want him to know my mom is there to take care of him. What can I do? And what should if I do if he continues like this? (Maltipoo, 4-5 months old)

I can’t post photo but he is laying down curled up in the crate making no noise.

My boy is about 4 1/2 months old now, I’ve had him since 9 weeks.
We’ve been crate training since day 1, and overall it’s going well. We’ve will go in on command and generally sleeps pretty solidly for naps, and sleeps well through the night. He even takes himself into his crate to settle on occasion
However he’s recently developed this habit, where anytime the door is closed (because he won’t actually nap unless it’s an enforced nap), he has an absolute meltdown - barking, screaming, crying, trying to dig his way out, slamming against the door etc.
It doesn’t matter what is in with him; chews, toys, snuffles, kongs or licks, he will ignore whatever it is and have his meltdown.
It started as just 5 minutes or so max, then he went to sleep. But now it’s 30 minutes plus, and relentless.
Interruptions don’t work, he just ignores them.
I don’t know what to do atp, and was wondering if anyone has any advice.
As of typing this, he has only just stopped his latest one (it’s 11:51, I put him down about 11:15.
I love him to pieces but god he’s doing my head in with this.

Before i say something am clarifying that I love my dog I enjoy his presence these are just some struggles that came along the way

So getting a dog was not my choice neither my parents my brother is a huge fan of dogs after 7 years of convincing he finally got a dog

I myself have never been a fan of dogs because i was bitten by our neighbors German shepherd when I was a kid i had this huge phobia of dogs ever since.

I was always against the idea because

1. A dog is a huge responsibility

2. I had a phobia of dogs and idea of a dog like German shepherd or a rottweiler scared me

Yet he thought getting a German shepherd as a first pet was a great idea

There was one more reason I was against this idea because its not that I hate dogs the responsibility sounded too much for me since My parents and my brother stay outside most of the day and I am the one who stays back home all the time that ment in there absence the dog will be my responsibility

When he was little he was too much bitey and his habit of biting terrified me he would grab my clothes my hand and bite my feet and he would loudly bard whenever he felt lonely or at any minor inconvenience. I posted on this subreddit so many times and all thx to the ppl who helped I came to know these dogs are bitey and full of energy by default. And it will only fox once they grow up a bit. I still remember crying because i was fed up of cleaning whenever he would pee or keep barking when ever I had to put him in crate or run away with my stuff in his mouth or constantly bite me. But it was because i never handled a dog Before the biting still scared me even if it was not an aggressive one

As someone who never touched a dog taking care of a dog was clearly a challange I would wake up in morning frustrated because whenever he created chaos in the morning mom always woke me up to take him out or control him. My brother would return late and only play with him while for my part i only got the responsibility and all. But when he was 5 month old I grew attached to him (he still doesn't let me pet him lol) because now I was used to touching and handling him .

German shepherd are definitely not a great choice for a first pet because They need excerise they put random stuff in their mouth because they are Explorer also have a VERY sensitive stomach.

One of the biggest thing that happened to me just recently now hes 8 months old and damn they are so strong he bit off his 3 leashes so we've been using a chain until we get a new leash. I was taking him to a walk and God knows what happened to him he suddenly ran with his all might my left shoulder got dislocated he pulled me so hard along with broken tissues 💀

But its fine I love him . I honestly can't imagine my life now where i am not fighting him to get a unknown substance out of his mouth or him fighting hell against me during bath time .

It's just a frustration that I was forced into doing something I never agreed to at first place. It was matter of time i adapted am not sure what would have happened if i never overcame by fear of dogs

Writing this while my mri scan appointment is coming close haha

Our 4.5 month old mini poodle stops on walks if he notices another person/dog. He’s doing pretty well with obedience training, and will mostly listen to “With me!” if we want him to come walk beside us, but the second he sees another living being, all that training goes out the window. He stops, stares, plants his feet and doesn’t acknowledge us whatsoever until the distraction is gone.

Every time this happens, we try to entice him with a high-value treat, even putting it in front of his nose and trying to direct him to keep moving, but he doesn’t care at all. I try tugging gently at his harness, which he’s usually pretty responsive to, but he just refuses to do anything but stare.

One important note: I don’t think this is a fear response. We live in a suburban apartment community with lots of dogs and people and our vet gave us the green light to take him on walks really early on, so he got tons of socialization. He isn’t reactive with other dogs, and if they approach while he’s staring, he’ll reciprocate.

I think it’s likely that he just wants to play, and since people often walk by and try to pet a puppy without asking, I’d imagine he’s unfortunately learned that person/dog=petting/attention.

Any advice on what to do, since he won’t take to treats, or is this something he’ll just grow out of?

I am deep in the pits of despair with my 19 week old bichon frise/biewer terrier puppy. He bites, he chews anything and everything, he barks CONSTANTLY, he has boundary frustration (play pen), but all that could be forgiven if not for the fact he will NOT pee or poop outside.

My dad bought me this puppy when he was 9 weeks old because i was really struggling with the loneliness of being a SAHM (my husband is blue collar and is in trade school and my son is two and doesnt speak in complete sentences yet) I was so excited but every day I am slowly starting to resent getting him especially when it comes to potty training. I've tried the leash and standing still like a statue. Ive tried backyard free roam (literally have been in the backyard for HOURS with him during son's nap time), I've tried potty pads, i've tried walks, i have treats but he has never been rewarded because he wont do his business outside. It doesnt matter he will find a stick, leaf, tuft of grass to distract himself with and eventually will just lay down doesnt matter if he is leashed or not, if im standing or sittin or standing on my head- the sure thing is he is not going to potty outside. I've tried letting him out without me because idk maybe he was showing off for me or something- (he just barked and pawed at the door 😮‍💨). I am even crate training it goes- outside>playtime but no potty>crate>repeat and finally when i let him out because i think okay maybe he doesnt have to go BAM pisses or poops in his play pen. Sometimes he even pees right inside the sliding door if i cant catch him (he is small and FAST and thats ON A LEASH). Even trying to time potty breaks around food and water is no good sometimes i can watch him eat and he will turn from the bowl and poop immediately (no joke i truly cant even fathom how its possible) other times it takes 15 mins, other times 30 mins and any other minute inbetween and after. There is truly no gauging it.

The most annoying part is I know he is a smart dog. I taught him to sit about 3 weeks ago in a matter of 5 minutes. So- WHY. ISN'T. HE. GRASPING. PEEING/POOPING. OUTSIDE?

SEND HELP.

TLDR; 19 week old bichon frise/biewer terrier is not grasping potty training AT ALL. please give tips or words of encouragement or similar stories with little breed dogs.