We adopted an abandoned puppy about 6 - 7 weeks ago. He is about 12 - 13 weeks old now. Generally well behaved and in good health. He sleeps in a crate at night and has been crated during the day while we were at work, but we have just gotten baby gates and plan to pen him in the kitchen during the day from now on. We have another dog in the house that is about 3 years old and is the best behaved dog I've ever encountered. He makes a great role model for his "little brother".

The puppy will go outside and pee and poop. Sometimes he comes in and, within minutes, will piddle a little bit. It isn't enough to cause us to think he really needed to go outside again. At first, it looked like he was marking territory, but now we just don't know. We try to pay attention and at the first sign of needing to go (usually him sniffing out a spot), we take him to the door and put him out to do his business. We watch from the window and let him back in when he is done, praising him and giving a treat to reinforce the behavior. But, sometimes he'll go out, pee and come back in and still piddle!!

If he would just stop piddling, we'd leave him out to roam the house while we are gone during the day.

Suggestions?

Sometimes there are too many exciting distractions outside to take time to empty its bladder completely. The trick is to stay out there with it, encouraging it to move around and stimulate it to finish. If you are too quick to bring it in, it may catch on and put off going because it means the end of its outside adventure.

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