Housebreaking a 1yr. chihuahua (rescue, female)

[leorah]

I foster poodles and one thing that works for me is to tether the dog to my waist on a four foot lead. They go where I go, and they have no chance to sneak away and pee. When I can't do the umbilical tether, they are in the crate. I take them outside often and praise every time they go. You have to watch the body language and at the first sign of restlessness, get them outside. Most dogs will give you a cue. It's also a good idea to associate a ritual, like ringing a bell tied to the door, every time they go out. Eventually they'll learn to ring the bell to signal you. As said above, NO alone time until you have a reliably trained dog. It may take weeks, but it will work if you are consistent and alert.

Piddle pads can work for some dogs, but a dog that has developed a habit of going in the house isn't a good candidate in my experience. If the pad is wet, or not convenient, the dog will substitute a throw rug, or an article of clothing or something similar for the pad.

Basically, you have to start all over. It's a hassle until they "get" it, but it's worth the effort. And, you might want to try a belly band to keep the pee off your carpets. Too much residual pee smell is a trigger for accidents. Enzyme clearners don't always get all of the smell that has soaked into the carpet pad.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by deegers

Gubben, you are right on the money. No indoor freedom unless he has earned your trust about the potty work. I know it's sounds like overkill, but it sometimes is necessary with certain dogs. My best friend's little dog took her a year to get potty trained because of this very case. She would supervise consistantly but then her workschedule was long so she wasn't around enough to do runs to home for outside pottys. She wee pads but also did the outside pottys and then wouldn't always supervise. The puppy didn't know what was clear her potty spot so it was whereever and my girlfriend was so frustrated. Each dog and each owner is different.

riveree has a great point that actually correlates to your own. No freedom, but as trust builds and you feel more and more confident you allow more and more room available.

But one accident, unfortunetely you have to go all the way back to the beginning. That's why I stress to anyone start with a good pattern and stick with it. Those accidents set you back so far and it's becomes time-consuming.

It's never even occurred to me to offer a dog free run of the house when they are first introduced to the home. Whether they come in to my home as a puppy, an adolescent or an adult, free run of the house comes much, much later when I know they understand all the house rules.

[Maxx2008]

My Chihuahua is 2yrs. old. We have had him since he was a puppy. He was house trained and used training pads when we had to be gone for the day. With in the last 3 months he has begun having "accidents" in the house on a regular basis. There has been no major event changes in our day to day schedule. I am at at lose to figure out what is going on with him. I hate to go back to confinement training. Any ideas to help get my little guy back on track?

[Viralmd]

You need to first make sure he doesn't have a urinary tract infection!!!!! And the only way to do that is with a vet visit. You also have to clean EVERY SINGLE accident THOROUGHLY with Nature's Miracle. Invest in an ultraviolet light to see these, because you might not know where each an every one is: they glow under UV light in the dark.

Then start from scratch: the following method WORKS, but follow it to the letter (and so must everyone in the household!):
Housetraining your dog (puppy or adult!)

The first thing you need to do is to remember that you’re trying to reinforce a new behavior. That means that the rewards for this behavior must be WONDERFUL. NOT crap from the store. Wonderful treats are poached chicken breast/turkey breast, cheese and steak. And you don’t have to use big pieces. Tiny pieces (about 3mm cubes) are just fine! I poach a whole turkey breast every few weeks, cut it into hunks when it’s cool enough to handle, wrap them well and store them in the freezer. When I need some, I’ll thaw a hunk overnight and cut off pieces and dice finely, storing them in a plastic bag in the fridge. One hunk will last about five days. Cheese is also popular, so variety is fine.

I carry these plastic bags in my jacket pockets in the winter and in a fanny pack in warmer weather. You HAVE to have these with you, or this method won’t work, because you need to reward as soon as the dog finishes pooping or peeing. It’s not going to work if the rewards are in the house.

Remember that you’re trying to change a very ingrained behavior. Some dogs like to feel certain things under their feet when they eliminate, like fabric, or newspaper. This is called a ‘substrate preference.’ What you’re trying to do is change this substrate preference, and to do that you have to make the treats SO wonderful that the dog will change this very well-entrenched behavior. Thus the chicken, cheese, steak.

I love clicker training, but this can be done without clickers. You just need a way to ‘mark’ the behavior you want to reinforce. Use the word ‘YESSSSS!!!!’ very enthusiastically – that works for some.

You’re going to need to GO OUTSIDE WITH your dog and the dog needs to be on a leash. Yes, even in winter. If you don’t reward IMMEDIATELY after the event (when dog immediately finishes pooping or peeing) and wait inside, the dog is going to be reinforced for coming inside, not for doing its business. So, leash up your dog. STAND IN ONE PLACE. Be boring. Bring a book or magazine for yourself.

Eventually, the dog will do what you’re waiting for. The NANOSECOND that the dog is finished, HAVE A PARTY – lots of loud, high-pitched praise, treats and running around. You want to make this memorable for your dog! You’ll find that once the first event is achieved, the others will come more quickly. Keep on treating (you don’t have to throw a party except for milestones – a milestone = if he only pooped outside but now peed, too, or something equivalent to that) until he’s good and used to peeing/pooping outside. Before you know it, you have a trained dog.

Regarding accidents in the house: NO SCOLDING. Just clean them up. If you scold you’ll get the dog to think it’s bad to pee or poop and he’ll do it in places you won’t see. Until you step in it. Invest in a big bottle of Nature’s Miracle or Simple Solution and use it liberally on accidents.

With young puppies, remember they have little control of the muscle that holds the bladder closed. This is something they grow into. Just as it’s not expected that a human baby is toilet trained at six months, don’t expect much from a puppy. Patience, patience, patience!!!! The nervous system in a puppy has to mature, and it won’t have much control over the sphincter (closing muscle) at the neck of the bladder until six or seven months. The same goes for the anal sphincter. Until control is achieved, both of these muscles operate on reflex: there are stretch receptors in the bladder wall. When the bladder is full, it sends impulses to the spinal cord and these, in turn, send signals to the sphincter to open and the dog pees.

In the stomach wall, there are also stretch receptors. So when the dog eats and the stomach is stretched, the impulses again go to the spinal cord, but this time the reflex, outgoing, nerve signals are sent to the anal sphincter, so the dog defecates. This operates in people, too – which is why some people rush to the ‘reading room’ after a meal – especially breakfast.
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[jimboburnsy]

Originally Posted by maggiekate

small dogs, are hard, guess they are small and have a tiny bladder. Bichons are hard also
terriers. If I were you, since the dog is small-why not try the piddle pads they sell?

When I worked, and had a puppy-it was a life safer. petsmart etc-dr foster has them.
anyway-in the north, with snow, and rain it is a fight to get any dog out.

The only thing about paper training or wee-wee pads is that they are like crack. Once you get the dog on them you will have enormous difficulty getting the dog to do anything else.

Chi's are difficult. Good luck. Sometimes I wish an owl would just carry my mother's chihuahua away and solve that problem for us all.

[Viralmd]

[quote=jimboburnsy;9642355]The only thing about paper training or wee-wee pads is that they are like crack. Once you get the dog on them you will have enormous difficulty getting the dog to do anything else.

QUOTE]

I disagree completely - my pug uses both the pads and outside. If I don't get home in time, it's not a problem: he uses the available pads.

[LookinForMayberry]

I support most of the posters comments. My experience bears out their suggestions: When I trained my Lhasa, at 12 weeks, we went outside every 15 minutes when he was outside of his crate, and every success was a rewarded event. After several days of that schedule, I stretched it to 20, then 30, etc, until we were going out every couple of hours. Even then, whenever I wasn't actively watching him, he was in his playpen (with the pads), or in his crate with a toy. Until he fell victim to bladder cancer at ten, he had only two accidents in his life.

[jimboburnsy]

[quote=Viralmd;9642892]

Originally Posted by jimboburnsy

The only thing about paper training or wee-wee pads is that they are like crack. Once you get the dog on them you will have enormous difficulty getting the dog to do anything else.

QUOTE]

I disagree completely - my pug uses both the pads and outside. If I don't get home in time, it's not a problem: he uses the available pads.

At first I thought you were disagreeing that an owl could carry the chihuahua away.

I do not exactly have a wealth of experience with toy breeds, but I have perceived a pattern with small dogs and wee-wee pads. The pattern may actually be evidencing a relationship between co-dependent humans, their toy breeds and wee-wee pads, but I've seen more than a few dogs addicted to pads. I'll take your word for it, however.

[Cpak240]

Pee pads worked for us in training our puppy. I have limited experience with toy breeds. I have a Min Pin, a breed which is notoriously difficult to housebreak. When we first bought her home at 9 weeks, we used pee pads. When we're at work, we put her in the master bathroom with a pee pad. When she was younger, she used the pee pads every day. Now she holds her poo and sometimes she pees, but mostly we come home to a clean pee pad. She prefers to go outside, probably because she knows she'll get a treat when she does.

To housebreak her, we limited her access to just the kitchen and living room, and we watched her ALL the time. If we couldn't watch her, we put her in the bathroom with her pee pad. We took her to her pee pad (then outside, once the weather broke and snow was gone) after she woke up, after she ate, and every hour or if we saw her sniffing around or doing circles. We only offered her water every couple of hours, rather than leaving it down, while we were housebreaking her. She probably had about 5 or 6 accidents throughout her training period. When she did have an accident, it was usually on an area rug, probably because it reminded her of the pee pad. We caught her in the act, told her "UhUh" and took her outside to finish and praised/treated her when she did. We used Nature's Miracle to clean it up to make sure the smell was neutralized so she wasn't drawn to potty in the house again.

She is almost 8 months old now, and we still take her out every two or three hours, and praise and treat her when she goes outside. She doesn't potty in the house. She only uses her pee pads occassionally when we are at work. We took her to North Carolina with us and we stayed in two different hotels. We put a pee pad down, but she didn't use it, and she didn't have any accidents. She just prefers to go outside. I was a little apprehensive about getting a small dog because I was worried about housetraining, especially while we were at work. It worked out great for us though.

[Blondie621]

My chi has had accidents in the house but only due to me not letting him out frequently. A male dog will always lift his leg when out. The small females are stubborn.