[mickeys_master]

I have a 1.5 year old female Chihuahua mix. I adopted her from the MSPCA. This dog came from a house where a woman was hoarding animals. This woman had 16 dogs and 22 cats. All the animals were very well cared for. So, to my problem. Her name is Mickey. Mickey goes outside to take care of her business. When we take her for a quick walk she will usually do what she is suppose to do, and she is told, "good girl" and given a treat. The problem is she will sometimes go in the house, even if she just went outside. We try to keep an eye on her but sometimes, including she peed on the floor when my wife turned her head for no more than 30 seconds. So, Mickey knows she is suppose to go outside, but why does she continue this behavior? Its becoming quite annoying.

[Gates1026]

What do you do when you catch her going in the house? How about when you find the evidence of a past mistake?

Is your dog crate trained? What do you do with her during the day while you are away?

At a year and a half old, she should be able to hold it for a significant amount of time. It sounds like you need to go back to basics with house training until things become a little more consistent.

For the time being, I would watch her like a hawk to minimize mistakes. The more often she goes inside the longer it will take to rid yourself of the problem. When you catch her in the act, make a noise to startle her and taker her outside ASAP. There needs to be lots of treats and praise when she does go outside....make it sound like she just won an award. Regular trips in the beginning will probably be needed, every 2 hours or so for starters. You can lengthen this time as your results improve.

Also, ensure that you are cleaning up all accidents with an enzyme cleaner.

Good luck!

[LMH]

My friends dog used to do that. She would take her pee outside and then once she came back in the house she would go again. I would do what gates said and startle her and carry her back outside in mid pee. Then if she is sill peeing by the time you get outside praise her for going outside. And very important-don't let her see you clean up her mess when she goes inside. Dogs see that and they think it is like a game, or they get used to seeing you pick it up in the house and they feel comfortable going inside. Once We stopped cleaning up our dogs mess infront of him it became less and less of an occurance. And my dog took forever to get potty trained. Probably about a little over a year. Actually if you are over treating her she might be going inside cuz she wants to get another treat. Maybe just try praising.

[Captain]

I used a "stave" on Captain...and only used it once...and it broke him forever. It's a flexible stick and when you spank them...it stings...but doesn't harm them physically. It's just extremely uncomfortable.

I agree with the above two posts...WATCH HER LIKE CRAZY. My friend would put a leash on her dog and attatch in to the belt loop of her jeans. That way, her husky was constantly around her and when he peed in the house...she was there to correct it.

After she would correct, she would then take the pup outside and wait five minutes for the dog to finish its business. If it did...then she would praise the dog LIKE CRAZY. Praise that dog like it saved your life from a fire! Only wait five minutes, though...if you wait longer...the dog will take its sweet time in going to the bathroom later in its life.

That should do it. It worked for me!

[briteday]

First take the dog to a vet and be certain that she doesn't have a urinary infection, parasites, or tons of other things that could make her urinate more than normal. Tell the vet what's been going on so they can check everything necessary to rule out a physical problem.

Be sure you are feeding two scheduled meals per day, pick up the water bowl two hours before bed, and schedule regular exercise (also stimulates elimination).

When your dog is in the house it should be tethered to you with a leash so it can't wander out of sight. If that is not possible then the dog should be crated. Also crate the dog at night and anytime you are not home.

All messes need to be cleaned up with an enzyme cleaner from the pet store. After 1-1/2 years you may need to have the carpets professionally cleaned and mention that you need the animal enzyme cleaner. Urine attacts bacteria that a dog can smell so they will go back to the same spots repeatedly.

If you feed, exercise, and potty the dog on a regular schedule that should cover most of the bases. Keep eyes on the dog when she's indoors or crate her.

[mickeys_master]

Thanks everybody for the advice. I believe we are on the right track, we just need to be a little more vigilant about it. We do keep the dog in a pen when we are not home. We do have some rooms blocked off with gates. I do clean up messes with natures miracle. The hard part is keeping the CLOSE CLOSE eye on her every move. Mickey has an appointment with the vet in a few weeks, I will bring it up with him.

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by Captain

I used a "stave" on Captain...and only used it once...and it broke him forever. It's a flexible stick and when you spank them...it stings...but doesn't harm them physically. It's just extremely uncomfortable.

in other words it hurts.....

there is no reason to hit a dog to housebreak ......
again seven dogs in this house that have never been hit and are all housebroken.....
not to mention the fact that this is a chihuahua mix we are talking about

Originally Posted by mickeys_master

Thanks everybody for the advice. I believe we are on the right track, we just need to be a little more vigilant about it. We do keep the dog in a pen when we are not home. We do have some rooms blocked off with gates. I do clean up messes with natures miracle. The hard part is keeping the CLOSE CLOSE eye on her every move. Mickey has an appointment with the vet in a few weeks, I will bring it up with him.

I agree with Brite, you need to keep a close eye on your puppy and its hard to do.... once you do the vet check then it will be important to watch your puppy every second..... you want to get your puppy outside before he/she has accidents or catch him in the act and a good loud NO is all you need.... the key is consistency....

its tiring to watch a puppy non stop.... its just tiring..... I had two litters this summer and we kept two puppies and I was exhausted just watching tehm.....
also remember that a puppies bladder is not fully developed until five months of age..... so you should see big differences in ability to hold it at about that age....

that having been said my 4.5 mos. old emmett had an accident today....

what I tell my puppy people is if your dog has an accident in the house..... take that "stave" or rolled up newspaper and smack yourself with it because you weren't watching your puppy well enough.
s

[Inga]

WOW! Shalva, I don't want to keep agreeing with you. I don't want you to get a big head. LOL I don't think you would hit a small child for having an accident in the house so believe it or not you don't have to hit a dog either. I have successfully house trained more dogs then I can remember and hitting them was not one of the ways I managed it.
Briteday you gave good advice.

[Captain]

I feel like I keep having to defend myself. I am only sharing what has worked for me. I am not FORCING ANYONE to use my advice.

My way of training has never failed for me...and I'm glad that your style has worked for you. People that ask for advice on here are smart enough to use what they want and discard what they don't.

The point of this forum is to share our EXPERIANCES and our OPINIONS on training, grooming etc... If you all don't agree with my training...that's fine. I just know that my dog is rock-solid in his training and that our bond is unbreakable.

I want to get to know you and your dogs...but it seems every single time I express my personal experience...I'm getting ridiculed. I GET IT Shalva, that you don't like my advice. But, it's from my personal experiance and it's advice to the original POSTER...not direct advice to you. The poster can choose whether or not he/she wants to use it.

I hope we can all be mature and understand that we all have different experiances and different opinions. Just because we don't agree with said experiances and opinons does not mean we have to ridicule another person Notice that I never once commented negatively on your type of training...even though I don't agree with it.

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by Captain

I feel like I keep having to defend myself. I am only sharing what has worked for me. I am not FORCING ANYONE to use my advice.

My way of training has never failed for me...and I'm glad that your style has worked for you. People that ask for advice on here are smart enough to use what they want and discard what they don't.

The point of this forum is to share our EXPERIANCES and our OPINIONS on training, grooming etc... If you all don't agree with my training...that's fine. I just know that my dog is rock-solid in his training and that our bond is unbreakable.

I want to get to know you and your dogs...but it seems every single time I express my personal experience...I'm getting ridiculed. I GET IT Shalva, that you don't like my advice. But, it's from my personal experiance and it's advice to the original POSTER...not direct advice to you. The poster can choose whether or not he/she wants to use it.

I hope we can all be mature and understand that we all have different experiances and different opinions. Just because we don't agree with said experiances and opinons does not mean we have to ridicule another person Notice that I never once commented negatively on your type of training...even though I don't agree with it.

I am not ridiculing you or your advice..... only that giving that kind of advice to someone whose dog you have not met, who you have not met, on a young puppy and a chihuahua at that can be dangerous..... what will happen if someone takes your advice and harms their dog because they have not had the training and supervision that you have had? What if they hit this chihuahua with a stick because it pee's in the house and breaks a teeny tiny chihuahua bone because they have not been properly taught appropriate pressure and force.... think about the ramifications of that....

that is my concern.....

you have learned your methods (regardless of whether I personally approve of them or not) under the supervision of a professional...... but giving someone advice to hit their chihuahua puppy with a stick because it has had an accident in the house just doesn't seem responsible.....especially considering that you don't know them and you don't know their dog....

you have to consider how people are going to view your advice and recognize that folks on an internet bulletin board may misinterpret what you are saying and recognize that they may not be as knowledgeable as you are. They may not understand the limits that you have been taught.....

Now there is no question that I don't approve of your methods but that is neither here nor there..... but if you are going to use those methods they need to be under the supervision and guidance of a professional.....

there are things that I do with my dogs that work for me.... but I am not going to recommend them to anyone because I don't know there dogs.... I dont know them.... do they work for me absolutely but I am cautious about recommending them because the ramifications can be serious if not done correctly and everyone is not as dog savvy as I am.....

Remember for every post you answer there are ten more people reading the advice and not commenting..... and are just going to go home and put that advice into action..... look at that Cesar Millan show on television.... another hot button issue here but even with a clear disclosure that says don't try this at home without professional supervision people still do stuff..... and still get bit and still end up making a mess of it.

you have to consider how your advice is being viewed and what the ramifications of that advice might be if someone doesn't do it properly.....its not just about sharing experiences its about pulling from your bag of tricks and being able to recognize that each situation is different.

This afternoon my dog emmett (5 mos. ) went to grab food out of my Cuinns dish..... Cuinn has epilepsy and takes anti convulsive meds in his food..... so I went over grabbed emmett by his scruff.... and gave him a good shake and yelled at him NO NO NO ..... and pushed him away...... now he most likely won't go back to Cuinns food...... we shall see what happens tomm. morning...... BUT the point is that if someone has a chihuahua or a papillon or another little teeny wee dog i would never recommend doing what I did..... those are teeny fragile dogs and what I was able to do with my 5 mos. old golden retriever could seriously harm a toy dog like the one discussed in this post......


just my opinion
s

[Dogstar]

Captain-

Shalva may not be willing to ridicule your advice, but I am!

HITTING A DOG? WITH A STICK? FOR HAVING AN ACCIDENT? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?

OP, pleae, please, please don't follow this advice.

I can stop a dog by barking by taping his mouth closed, but that doesn't make it a humane training method!