need some puppy help

[brutie bum]

Hi
We have an almost 11 week old black lab. He is in a crate during the day and he constanty does his business in there. I put him out numerous times in the morning and sometimes at lunch but he still does it. Also its like he does not get that outside is for the bathroom. We bring him out and he walks and sniffs but most of the time he just doesnt go to the bathroom. He will go on the floor when we bring him back in. so anyone have any tips or tricks to help me.
thanks

[TeriM]

You need to keep taking him out and stay out until he goes. He will get used to going outside. Also, try feeding him in his crate, dogs don't like to soil the area the eat in.

[brutie bum]

good idea. i never thought of feeding him in his crate.

[Goldens4Ever]

Here is the best idea that we have come across to prevent that. If the crate is much larger than your puppy, you need to get a cardboard box and place it in the BACK of the crate, so that your puppy has just enough room to sleep in the front of it. Dogs generally will not poop where they sleep, so to prevent the puppy from having the room to poop and sleep, only provide enough space to sleep. As the puppy gets bigger, keep cutting the box back smaller and smaller, but still so it just provides enough space to sleep-NOT sleep & poop. This has worked with both of our golden retrievers when they were puppies because they didn't want to lay in their mess. THIS WORKS!!!

As TeriM stated, you will learn when the puppy needs to go. When you are home, take the pup out EVERY 30 minutes and wait until the pup goes. Keep saying, "go POTTY, go Potty." When he does goes, praise him by saying, "good boy, you POTTY OUTSIDE, good boy, you POTTY OUTSIDE." We repeated these phrases millions of times when we were training them and they now will pee/poop on command because they know what we are telling them to do. This way you are putting a name to the behavior and he will eventually associate EXACTLY what potty and outside mean.

You could also work on training him to sit at the door and bark when he needs to go outside or to ring a bell or something. That takes a lot of consistent work, but it is awesome. That is the way our girls communicate with us. When they want outside, want their toy box opened, want to get in side a room that has a closed door, want their dinner, etc. they just whine or bark to tell us. But, again, it is critical that when you take him outside every 30 minutes, wait until he goes! Then praise, praise, praise, "Good boy, POTTY OUTSIDE, good boy, POTTY OUTSIDE." if you do this CONSISTENTLY, he will get it, and you both will be so happy

[rainbow]

I agree with both the other posters. I just wanted to add, "welcome to the forum and we'd love to see pics of your little boy".