[msmistyeyz]

About 3 weeks ago I got a beautiful smart little pit bull puppy. She is about 9 to 10 weeks old and will not poop outside. She will actually hold it until she gets inside and go then. What do I do?

[Wondergirl]

I'm a cat person, but have been here long enough that I would swear by the advice from these two dog experts, labman and RubyPitBull. Your dog is a very small baby and needs lots of patience and understanding. Here's what those two experts said to someone else in a similar situation --

Labman: You may have to go out with her and walk her around a bit. At that age, they still don't have a lot of warning or control of bowel movements. Walking or other exercise, fetch will do fine too, stimulates the body leading to bowel movements. When it happens, praise her. For more on knowing when to take her out, see https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/d...tml#post251809

RubyPitBull: It sounds like the dog is confused about where it needs to do his business. For some reason your dog is not making the connection that he needs to do his business outside. So, you need to think about how you are approaching it and change the way you are handling it. Watch your dog's signals. If she starts sniffing around and/or circling she is looking for a place to poop. Labman stated it, but I think it needs to be restated, you must be with your dog outside. Exercise her, and watch her carefully. Praise her every time she does her business outside. Follow the rest of the info provided on labman's link for housebreaking. It is just a matter of being patient and ensuring your puppy makes the connection between pottying inside and outside, before you can just "leave her outside for hours at a time". Dogs just don't automatically pick up that urinating and defecating are to be done outside only. They need us to teach them that.