# Can anyone please help with dog potty training??



## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

We recently adopted a 5-ish year old chihuahua mix (we think she's a chiweenie?). We've had her for almost a month now. They thought she was housebroken, but definitely is not. So far no poops inside, but she pees. She doesn't seem to have had any previous training at all because she will pee anywhere in the house and not just by a door if she's not let out in time. 

Here's how I've been trying to train her:

Crate training. When we're asleep or out of the house, she goes in the crate. She has not peed in the crate yet so this seems to work well.

Immediately after I get up in the morning and right before I go to bed, she gets a short potty walk and she usually pees in the same spot every time (which is very good!). 

I take her on short potty walks every 2-4 hours when I'm home.

She normally likes to sit right next to me on the couch, but if she gets up I watch her VERY carefully. I don't let her out of my sight for a second and if she sniffs the ground at all, we go outside to potty walk.

I watch her super carefully, but sometimes it's just 2 seconds of sniffing and then suddenly she's squat. It can happen VERY quickly.

Every time she potties outside, I get very excited and happy and make happy noises and give her a treat immediately after she potties to let her know that what she's doing makes me happy. When she squats to pee I repeat "go potty" a few times so she will learn what I'm asking her to do.

She seems to know that going potty outside is GOOD. But she doesn't quite seem to realize that going potty inside is bad.

Whenever she does potty inside, as soon as she starts to squat, immediately we say "No, stop!" and then take her outside right away. If she gets a few drips of pee out on the floor before we can say "no!", we bring her over to the pee mark and make her look at it and say in a disapproving tone "no, this is bad. you do not go potty inside. No go potty, bad" but not mean or yelling. Just an unhappy tone. We do not force her nose down to the urine mark because that's ridiculous and mean and ineffective. We just make sure she knows where it is that we're pointing to and she knows it's the pee that we're unhappy about. And then immediately we go outside and she potties and I get very happy and give treats and she's happy and wags and dances.

My in-laws today watched her, and she had a potty accident inside and they saw her do it right when she was finishing squatting. They said they didn't say anything or yell at her, but they said she immediately ran away and hid by the front door away from them when she finished, even though normally she's the type of dog to happily be right next to you and she loves them. They think she knows that going potty inside makes us humans angry. But it seems like there's some other kind of missed connection that keeps her from learning to just NOT do it inside.

She is a little timid and loud noises or angry voices and quick movements scare her and she cowers or will run away as fast as she can. She is gaining confidence, but is still pretty spooky. Sometimes when we say "No!" if she squats, she runs away and cowers even if it's not very loud.

I'm not really sure what I can do to make her understand that YES we get upset when she potties inside. YES we get happy when she potties outside. YES you need to hold it until we let you out. and NO do not potty inside no matter what unless you've been abandoned or are sick or really really can't hold it in. I'm starting to train her to hopefully use doggy doorbells, but the jingling scares her. Hopefully she gets used to it. But at the same time, I'm not sure it will work because she doesn't seem to understand that she has to go outside to potty.

The most confusing thing for me is that she understands to go potty inside is bad, and to go potty outside is good. But she still will just pee whenever she feels like it inside so she cannot leave my sight for a second, and it's getting exhausting! I know that I cannot trust her at all yet. I would love to not crate her at night because she loves to cuddle. She'd be so much happier if she could sleep in the bedroom with us. Aside from the potty training and the timidness, she's very good with everything else. Very friendly, loves people and other animals, doesn't get upset when left alone..

Someone with more difficult doggy experience, please help!!


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

My border collie who is now 18 years old, I got when he was about 2 years old. It sounds exactly as he is, never would go to the door or show in some way he needs to pee. He would go in a room we weren't in instead. 

Once I had a dog door going into a fenced yard he was great. Outside he is not shy and will go pee in front of us, but for some reason in the house he would rather hide than tell us he needs to go potty. So he knows we don't like it. Any training seems to make it worse. I would advice to not make a big commotion over going in the house and continue to give treats and give praise when going outside, if she is anything like our Howard. I don't know why this is with him. Never had the issue with other dogs. However when I got him he was afraid of the world, anything new he would yelp and hide from. Sweeping the floor scared him, we changed a window and that scared the junk out of him, anything larger than say small skillet that he hadn't seen before scared him. We had to show him gently and convince him that whatever it was, was safe.

If no access to a dog door, the only thing to do is crate at night or if no one is home. If he looks like he is looking to go hide then out he has to go. We've been careful every since to make sure to have a house with access to a fenced yard for our own convenience. 

Good luck.


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

It sounds like shes just unsure of how to ask you what she wants to do. I think the Poochie Bells will be a good idea, maybe DIY one with smaller bells that arent scary to her? Every time you go outside, ring the bells, encourage her to nose or paw at them, and go right outside to her favorite spot to pee, especially if she pees in the same spot regularly. Bells -> Outside -> Pee spot. 

If you know you're going to be home for a long period of time, set an alarm for yourself to go off every half hour and take her outside. After she drinks water or eats a meal, go right outside. Find a treat she absolutely LOVES and goes nuts over (a personal fav of mine are freeze dried beef or lamb lung, any type of liver works as well, the organ meats are really appealing for dogs) and only give her that treat when she pees or poops outside. Give her a whole handful, make it rain treats! Dance around and get SUPER excited, like make sure your neighbors know your dog just peed outside lol! After a few days, maybe 3 or so without an accident inside (that wasn't her fault) try going out once an hour. And then etc until she can hold it. 

You can also try puppy pads, most of them have a pheromone that prompts the dog to pee on them. Once she's going on them and only them consistently or she learns her signal to go out, move on to trying again every few hours outside. 

The thing you have to remember that small dogs have a VERY small bladder. They need to go out a lot even if they're house trained! My friends have a chiweenie and he asks to go out just about once every 2-3 hours. He also holds it while in his crate but every once in a while has accidents if they dont get outside in time. 

Just be patient, she will learn as long as you're diligent about a routine!


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Chis are known for being slightly more difficult to potty train. But it looks like u need to go to step 1 of house training.

First never tell her no or scold her for going in the house. That will actually make housebreaking harder because she will only learn that u r mean or angry when she pees and not want her to pee in front of you.

Second buy a really good enzime cleaner for pets and really scrub every spot she has gone in. It needs to not smell like pee to her. Even if u can't smell it she might still be able to.

Then the basics of house training is to never give her a chance to potty indoors. She is either in her crate or tethered to u. You need to take her out ALOT at first. It could be every 30-60 mins. 

When she goes pee outside get excited! Cheer her on happily and you can reward her with treats. 

Here is an AMAZING forum for dogs, everyone is super helpful and nice if u wanna check it out.
http://www.dogforum.com/housetraining/house-training-how-tos-2135/


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