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Puppy Potty Training
Hey everyone! My name is Rachel and my husband and I just bought a house, our first, woohoo! Only thing I'm concerned about is our puppy, Maximus. He is a teacup chihuahua and he is not potty trained. And the ENTIRE house is carpeted... We both work full time and then some so it has been hard to find the time to train him. He has luckily followed the lead of our 1.5 year old dog, Nala, in many ways but not this one! We are running out of ideas! It is hard to discipline him because he is so physically tiny (2.4 lbs) so even a small two-fingered smack can be scary. Yelling at him just causes him to run and hide without understanding why he is being yelled at (we have even tried the sticking his nose close to it thing suggested by others). Aside from paying an expensive training school for pups, which we cannot afford (duh...just bought a house lol), does anyone have any ideas for potty training a 6 month old teacup chihuahua?
We don't want him to ruin our new carpets but I don't want to keep him crated 24-7!
(Our current place has hardwood floors... much easier to clean up after a puppy on... Hence the urgency to teach him to go outside!)
Any advice is appreciated!! Thanks!
Re: Puppy Potty Training
First of all, read the FAQs in the board header. You're going about potty training all wrong if you think punishing/disciplining him is the way to go. Positive reinforcement for performing desired behaviors works VASTLY better.
Sticking his nose in accidents doesn't tell him "Don't go in the house." It tells him "Don't go AT ALL!" This basically leads to pain, confusion, and misery on his part when he goes anywhere, because he thinks he's doing something bad. Likewise, physical punishment is NEVER a good thing!!
You need to take him out OFTEN and praise and reward him like he just cured cancer every single time he goes outside. Placing a command word with the action of going potty is helpful to get him down to business once he learns it (repeatedly saying "go potty" or "go pee" as he's going will help him learn the command).
You need to keep him crated if he's having accidents all over the house. Either that, or keep him babygated in a noncarpeted room (like the kitchen). Clean all accidents with an enzymatic cleaner (Got Pee or Nature's Miracle) to break down the enzymes in the pee/poop so your pup can no longer smell it.
If you're away from the house for more than 7 hours MAX, you NEED someone coming over to let him out to potty, more frequently if you don't crate him. A puppy can literally hold its bladder for as many hours as it is months old +1 (meaning a 4-month-old puppy can hold it for a max of 4-5 waking hours; a 6-month-old puppy can hold it a max of 6-7 hours). Obviously, they can hold it longer overnight when they're sleeping, just like people can. If you can't come home at lunchtime, you need to get someone to come over and let the dog out, simple as that.
My DH and I, sadly, would never have gotten our puppy 2 years ago if we'd known there was no way to let her out during the day when we were at work. Thankfully, my dad and a couple of friends rotated coming over TWICE every day to let her out when she was very young, and kept coming over once a day when she got a little older and could hold it longer. She was housebroken fast, because we crate-trained her.
You're probably going to have a harder time completely housebreaking him at this point if he's been going inside during the day all this time. He doesn't yet understand that outside = awesome.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
First of all, please don't smack your dogs, even with just two fingers. All that does is teach them fear and fear-based training is not conducive to a good, trusting relationship between you and your dog.
Also, running a dog's nose in a previous accident is confusing and most of the time does nothing that you want. They don't know what you're trying to tell them. If they have an accident and you catch them in the act, quickly grab them, say "no", and bring them outside or to whatever "potty place" you have designated. Then when they go outside, make sure to praise them and give them treats. They'll figure out that going where you want is awesome and yummy, going inside is not nearly as pleasant.
Positive training is, in my opinion, the best way to go. It's what we're doing with our puppy. There are going to be accidents. They're babies. It happens. Try not to get frustrated or angry. Make sure you're taking them out every couple of hours and give them lots of praise and treats when they go where you want them to. We keep our pup with us as much as possible when we're at home so we can catch her if she starts sniffing or circling or squatting. Then grab them and take them outside.If you can't watch them and they're still having accidents pretty regularly if left alone, I would keep them in a crate. But don't use the crate as punishment. It should be a fun place! We give her treats and peanut butter filled kongs while she's in there to keep her occupied.
When you do spot an accident, be sure to clean the spot well with a cleaner like Nature's Miracle. That gets rid of the scent, too, so they don't keep going back to that spot to mark. We have very light cream carpets and the Nature's Miracle gets rid of everything from dog poop and cat puke to the gross mystery substance I found on my husband's side of the den...
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Ditto what everyone else said.
One addition, have you considered getting potty pads or another inside potty spot for your little guy? Of course it's better to have someone come home and take him out but at least that would offer an alternative.
I'm personally not a big fan of potty pads - they often just confuse the dog and make him/her think it's ok to potty inside (whether on the pad or not) rather than creating a clear distinction between inside (not ok to potty) and outside (ok to potty). I've also noticed that pad-trained dogs seem to have trouble in new/different environments (other people's homes, pet-friendly hotels, etc.) because they don't know where to potty and end up having accidents. Just my $0.02 because it's ultimately a personal decision.
Ditto everything Caz said. Just make a 100% clear indication to always potty outside, never ever inside, pad or no.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
Every learning style is a little different from breed to breed so with your breed the best thing to do is research the his breeds learning style (i.e. steady and stern or patient and laid back).
Check out: http://animal.discovery.com/pets/how-to-potty-train-puppy.htm
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-articles/house-training-your-puppy
For our puppy it took almost a year with a bad work schedule to train him. We crate trained him so thats easy for when your gone, (make sure its roomy and he has things to do) if there is an accident its confined. We would change out the blanket and clean up as needed when there were accidents. If you dont want to leave him in a crate/kennel keep him in a non-carpet area, bathroom or laundry room with puppy training pads or a litter box - My brother had great success having a litter box for his 5 month old mini schnauzer and hes now 100% potty trained 3 months later, the litter box is still in his puppy area (Laundry room) for when my brother and his wife are gone but its more there as a just in case. Also I would recommend getting a spot cleaner for accidents, they are handy and clean up accidents quickly without staining. We use a Bissell SpotBot and its amazing for more then just puppy accidents.
Good luck, I hope you get your little guy potty trained, it takes time but he will get there!
First! Read Cesar Milan's book. Dogs are animals, not humans; so your kind of discipline is not going to work. They don't understand smacks, time-outs, or yelling.
What I did with my pup (She's 8lbs now, fully grown) is take her out every hour. I kept her tethered to me with her lead and everywhere in the house that I went, she went with me. After a few days to a week, I took her out every two hours. Then every three hours without being tethered to me. I set an alarm on the watch to go off every three hours so that I wouldn't miss it. (Even in the middle of the night) Now we take her out every four hours and she sleeps through the night. I come home during my lunch break to let her out, which isn't ideal but I can't stand to leave her crated for so long without a break. We did, however, get one of those HUGE crates that people use for great danes so that she would have more room to move around. If you can't get a break during the day and you have one of those huge crates, you can put a pee pad on one side of the crate and her bed on the other. Just be sure to test that out because when we tried it, but puppy had anxiety and tore the thing to shreds.
Welcome to pethood. It's not all rainbows and butterflies and no one ever tells you what it's really going to be like.
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6
B/w 1/8: betas 17,345, progesterone 25.6