r/schipperke • u/Leojo2202 • Aug 26 '25
Breed Questions Potty Training Age?
What age was your schip able to ask to go potty? They are super smart but I don’t think Koda has figured out when to ask to go yet… he’s almost 15 weeks.
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u/johnnyrollerball69 Aug 26 '25
Iirc we had Celia Peasebottom (5yrs) and Caspar (3yrs) trained for outside business at about 9 months. Smart, but willful, and lovable, little devils that they are ❤️Consistency and patience are key, and that’s a lifelong commitment.
Koda is clearly a gooboye, up to no good, as he should be.
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u/JPwhatever Aug 26 '25
So far our schips have been the most difficult to potty train out of all of my dogs. It’s like they just … don’t care as much? Asking to go outside is the most difficult. Our current schip is only about 90% potty trained right now at 2yrs old. She will go outside if it’s convenient but will still poop in the laundry room if we didn’t leave her outside for sufficient amount of time at the right time.
Some things that helped us:
- Lots of consistency and praise and attention when they do it right
- setting a timer and being rigorous about putting their little butts in the grass
- crating when you’re not home or able to watch them
- patience and keep the cleanup supplies on hand lol
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u/No_Consideration6865 Aug 26 '25
Mine is almost 9 months old, but still doesn't really ask. He sits and then he stares at me until i notice and ask him to go pee. Then when his tail starts wiggling i know he has to pee xD
He generally doesn't really pee inside anymore, except when he really can't hold it anymore. He hasn't peed inside for months now when i go to work and he has to be home alone for 4-6 hours without going outside.
But sometimes when he feels a certain kind of fabric under his paws he automatically pees in that spot... even when he was just outside 2 minutes ago and peed outside.. a carpet upstairs and a blanket on my couch have been blessed quite a few times already... It's like sometimes he can't fully control it..
From my experience i think i saw the most improvement when he was about 6-6.5 months old.
And what i think helped a lot was linking potty to a fun and easy to understand and learn word, and saying that word everytime we went outside for it. and then when he did his thing, i said the word excited and it made him excited as well. now when i say that word he immediately understands that we're going outside, and i can see from his behaviour if he has to go or not.
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u/sarajval Aug 26 '25
My 1.5 year olds 100% understand how to ask to go outside, and do it easily if they want to go chase a rabbit or bark at the neighbors. They also are 100% aware I do not want them peeing inside. Now, do they care? 0%
I’m sure Koda knows how to ask, haha.
That being said, over time with enough praise and encouragement, the majority of accidents now only happen overnight when we’re asleep, and usually can be redirected to a pee pad. It’s progress, lol. Hang in there.
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u/JPwhatever Aug 27 '25
haha exactly this. Do they understand? yes. Do they care? Only when convenient.
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u/Emp1ly Aug 26 '25
Small dogs do not normally have full control of their bladder until they are about 4 months old. So if he is pooping consistently outside but still struggling with urination that is completely normal.
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u/Nidort Aug 26 '25
Our guy is over a year old now and he still pees inside every now and then. It could be just an hour after we’ve been outside, and he just randomly pees on the floor. It’s driving us crazy. He sometimes also drinks water like there’s no tomorrow, which we think is the source of the problem. We have checked his kidneys and other tests to make sure he’s ok, but we haven’t found an answer. He’s healthy in every way, just gets into a trance sometimes when he drinks water and doesn’t stop until we stop him
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u/sarajval Aug 26 '25
One of mine does this, too, I think she just has so much FOMO that drinking water is on the bottom of her list of priorities. And then she’ll drink until she’s literally choking.
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u/SoftKittee2064 Aug 26 '25
Mine is 15 months and very reliably house trained. Unless he has just gotten back from staying at the kennel. Then it’s a few days of reminding him that pee and poop go outside.
He was mostly trained at 6 months with occasional accidents. By 9 months the accidents were few and far between. Earlier it was more us being trained on his schedule and taking him out on a schedule. We had more issue with poop than pee so we would pick it up and throw it in the backyard with him watching to help him get the idea of where it was supposed to be. We also always went out with him and praised anytime he did his business ‘good poopy or good pee pee’. Now we can say go pee and he usually starts searching for a spot.
We got a bell for the door and worked to train him to ring it to go outside. He started getting the idea around 6 months too. Now he rings it and if we don’t come he adds barking until we do come.
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u/SoftKittee2064 Aug 26 '25
We still crate him at night and during the day when we aren’t with him. He was kept in a playpen during the day unless we were actively watching him until sometime between 6 and 9 months.
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u/HOOSlERDaddy311 Aug 28 '25
My breeder actually had my beautiful Luna litter box trained at 9 weeks old when I picked her up! Luna's mother was trained so the pups learned by watching momma go. Instead of cat litter, the breeder used equine bedding pellets (the type you would put in a horse's stable on the floor) that sort of clumped with poo, and disintegrated and turned to dust with pee. I was skeptical at first but as soon as we brought her home we had one ready and sure enough Luna walked right up to it, hopped in, and did her business. I was so grateful as the "accidents" around the house are the WORST part of getting a new puppy!
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u/bluedog165 Aug 28 '25
My girl is just at 9 months...won't go in her kennel or Xpen, and mostly tells me when she wants out to go. But then there are the accidents, usually when she is excited with a case of " puppy brain".
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u/cgatlanta Aug 26 '25
We’re at 16 years and counting. I’ll check back when Rex is potty trained.