We are currently trying to toilet train Ripley, our 12 week old Border Collie.

The training is going fairly well and he doesn't have too many accidents.

When we take him out into the garden, we tell him to "be quick" when he toilets and give him loads of praise when he is done.

He is very intelligent and in fact if we go outside and give him the "be quick" command he will pee straight away 9 times out of 10.

However, I'm concerned that we are also using "be quick" when he poos and perhaps he is getting confused as to what the command means.

For example, if he starts to squat for a poo inside and we manage to stop him by distracting him, we then take him outside, encourage him with "be quick" and quite often he will pee rather than doing the poo he was actually needing to do.

So, what does everyone else do? Use one command for pees and poos or two different commands?

Thanks.

Bob.

To be honest I have just only ever used one, Wees for both, it seems to have worked for two pups. So I wouldnt worry too much about using the one command. It might just confuse him anyhow if you now start to use another as well.

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For our bichon we always used "toilet" and it seemed to work for both things! He'll probably catch on soon enough. Maybe next time he goes to do a poo, take him outside and don't say "be quick" until he starts doing his poo. Then he might make the connection.

I think two would be bad to be honest...I am just assuming here but I doubt many humans can go for a number two whenever they decide to, so maybe dogs can only go when they need to as well? Pees are different I think, I just say go toilet and he does etc.

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Thanks for the comments everyone. We'll stick with the single command and keep trying - I'm sure we'll get there.

To be honest, he is doing much better than we expected so we can't complain too much!

Bob.