[chubby]

Hello Everyone!

As a loving parent to a spunky little Bichon, I thought I would start this thread to share experiences and gain some insights to this unique and wonderful breed.

If you would like, please post some pictures of your Bichon(s) and any funny, unique, or scary stories you have!

I also was hoping if, to start off, you can also share with me when you were able to housebreak your Bichon, and what worked for him/her!

Currently, my 1 year 3 months Butters will only hold pee for 3 hours, and was wondering if anyone shares the same experience as me

Thank you all!

 

[odiesmom]

I have a 4 year old bichon/poodle named Sophie. Out of the 3 dogs in my house including my 90 lb lab she is totally the alpha dog. I have never been able totally house break her partially due to where I live, gets a bit too cold for her here in Alaska. Her favorite things are food, dressing up and riding in the car. I don't have a pic on this computer of her but she looks JUST like your bichon in the pic. Bichons are definitly a stubborn breed and notoriously hard to house break. Last night the cat caught and killed a mouse and Sophie brought it to bed with her YIKES !! what a great thing to wake up to , a dead mouse on your bed ( and this wasn't the first time ) . Ther funniest thing she has done was stealing the peanut butter jar and getting her head stuck in it, sillly dog !

 

[chubby]

I have a 4 year old bichon/poodle named Sophie. Out of the 3 dogs in my house including my 90 lb lab she is totally the alpha dog. I have never been able totally house break her partially due to where I live, gets a bit too cold for her here in Alaska. Her favorite things are food, dressing up and riding in the car. I don't have a pic on this computer of her but she looks JUST like your bichon in the pic. Bichons are definitly a stubborn breed and notoriously hard to house break. Last night the cat caught and killed a mouse and Sophie brought it to bed with her YIKES !! what a great thing to wake up to , a dead mouse on your bed ( and this wasn't the first time ) . Ther funniest thing she has done was stealing the peanut butter jar and getting her head stuck in it, sillly dog !

She sounds adorable!!! Yikes! Alaska is cold! I'm in Ontario, and even down here it gets mighty cold at night. Certainly not helpful when you're trying to potty train them to go outside lol!

I almost opted for a poodle mix just because I was hoping that the poodle would make it easier to housebreak. Decided to go with Butters though, and trying to work through it slowly and patiently >.<

 

[Amaryllis]

Ohh, cute baby!

My mother had bichons. They are adorable, smart, active, loyal, affectionate and impossible to house train. It's not you. It took my mother 2 years to house train bichons and she was a really great trainer.

Otherwise, bichons need a lot of mental stimulation and physical exercise and respond best to positive training methods. If you're not already clicker training, Emily Larlham, kikopup on YouTube is amazing. You can train a bichon to do pretty much anything, they really are that smart, so you could have a lot of fun with that.

 

[chubby]

Ohh, cute baby!

My mother had bichons. They are adorable, smart, active, loyal, affectionate and impossible to house train. It's not you. It took my mother 2 years to house train bichons and she was a really great trainer.

Otherwise, bichons need a lot of mental stimulation and physical exercise and respond best to positive training methods. If you're not already clicker training, Emily Larlham, kikopup on YouTube is amazing. You can train a bichon to do pretty much anything, they really are that smart, so you could have a lot of fun with that.

Hi Amaryllis, thank you for your encouragement I love her so much, but I'm just always doubting myself wondering if I'm truly trying everything I possibly can. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something here

She's a year and 3 months now, so hopefully by 2 years she'll be golden and not one of the cases of 'never housebroken' at like age 15 lol

 

[Amaryllis]

The fact that you worry about it is a good sign. Bad owners don't care enough to worry.

Check out kikopup. Clicker training is surprisingly easy and it really opened kabota up to training. Before, he'd shut down, now he asks to be trained.

 

[Abbylynn]

I do not have Bichons ... but my Boys were always mistaken for one! Lol! I just wanted to say how cute your pup is!

 

[chubby]

I do not have Bichons ... but my Boys were always mistaken for one! Lol! I just wanted to say how cute your pup is!

Hehe thanks Abbylynn! I think my Butters gets confused a lot with poodle too, because Bichons are descendants of Poodle and Barbet or something?

Anyhoo I love all dogs and if I can get a house one day I'm definitely going to adopt a big dog too! Hehe

 

[KBLover]

No Bichons, but Wally's a "cousin" in the Bichon Family. Also took one in for a day when some kids brought him to me because they thought it was Wally and he had gotten lost.

He was an awesome little dog. Had him sitting on cue in 3 minutes, would have had a lot of fun training him.

Wally gets confused for a "big Maltese" (there's no such thing...). I can see why Bichons get confused for mini poodles, especially if they have really curly hair!

I do not have Bichons ... but my Boys were always mistaken for one! Lol! I just wanted to say how cute your pup is!

Hahaha your boys fooled me, too. They have that distinctive "Bichon face" and triangle ears!

 

[Amaryllis]

I do not have Bichons ... but my Boys were always mistaken for one! Lol! I just wanted to say how cute your pup is!

Those aren't bichons? :redface:

 

[Abbylynn]

Those aren't bichons? :redface:

Lol! No .... Schnauzer/Poodles! If ever I invest in an all white dog again ... that is what I probably would prefer to have ... just for a change .... a Bichon.

 

[Amaryllis]

Lol! No .... Schnauzer/Poodles! If ever I invest in an all white dog again ... that is what I probably would prefer to have ... just for a change .... a Bichon.

I just thought it was the grooming. They are super cute. You can't go wrong with a bichon, you just have to have patience with the housetraining. I wish I could talk my husband into one, but 45lbs was quite a compromise on his part. He wanted a cane corso!

 

[flipgirl]

I have a Shih-Tzu x Bichon mix. Kiri is 5 and a half years old. I originally wanted a.bigger dog but I live in a one bedroom apartment so it wouldn't have been fair for.a.bigger dog. Anyways, I didn't want a Bichon either because I thought they were prissy. Well, she is far from prissy. She is definitrpy more Bichon in personality; lively, happy, wanting to go everywhere, impossible to housetrain, stubborn...I just love her friendliness and her energy. Sometimes she is too much but she keeps life interesting. She has ruined my carpet and many of my underwear, but she is cute. She used to play a trick with me. I'd be eating my dinner on the sofa and she would sit at the patio door as if she needed to go out. So I'd go to grab the tether and she'd run to my dinner. At first I thought it was a.fluke but she did it over and over again. Little bugger. She's smart but not easily bribed. She loves everyone and thinks everyone loves her. I love that people think she's the type of dog I dress up and walk in a stole but when she can keep up with 5 border collies they are shocked. Such sturdy little doggies those Bichon are. The only thing is she is a barker. And she can bark!

Butters is adorable. Love the name! Try tethering him to you with a 6 foot leash tied around your waist so he goes everywhere you go. Once you see the signs that he needs to go, take him outside for 15 minutes. If he goes treat him and go crazy with pride. If he has an accident, bring him outside and tell him that is where he goes potty. When he goes potty tell him 'good potty!' So he learns the word potty. Kiri knows to try and go potty when I say 'Kiri go potty'. Of he doesn't go, go inside keeping him tethered to you. Just keep watching him for sniffing, pacing back and forth, circling...Also teach him how to tell you he has to go. What I did was hang her favourite dolly onthe other side of the patio door. My mom had given Kiri a toy tambourine so I Hung it from the doorknob on the inside. She wanted her dolly but I waited until she hit.the tambourine then I pet her have the dolly. Took her two times and she had it down pat.

Have fun with Butters! Good luck!

 

[Deaf Dogs]

I have a Lhasa Apso x Bichon, who looks like a dirty bichon with less curly fur She was a puppy mill breeder dog though, so I cant use her as an example for anything other than major fear and paranoia, poor baby.

Now, at 10 she is almost normal, but it took her a very long time to get there. She's stubborn, opinionated, bossy and is queen of the house, everyone bows to her every whim LOL but that's out fault, as anytime she showed the slightest interest in something, she was given it! (It took 2 years before she'd even take a treat out of our hands, so yes, we cater to her LOL) She's well mannered though, and never sets a paw out of line, or does anything that would be considered "common"

Here's the "princess" herself

 

[chubby]

I have a Lhasa Apso x Bichon, who looks like a dirty bichon with less curly fur She was a puppy mill breeder dog though, so I cant use her as an example for anything other than major fear and paranoia, poor baby.

Now, at 10 she is almost normal, but it took her a very long time to get there. She's stubborn, opinionated, bossy and is queen of the house, everyone bows to her every whim LOL but that's out fault, as anytime she showed the slightest interest in something, she was given it! (It took 2 years before she'd even take a treat out of our hands, so yes, we cater to her LOL) She's well mannered though, and never sets a paw out of line, or does anything that would be considered "common"

Here's the "princess" herself

hahah I love how in the third picture she has that adorable 'disapproving' look or something haha

She is so sweet

 

[chubby]

I have a Shih-Tzu x Bichon mix. Kiri is 5 and a half years old. I originally wanted a.bigger dog but I live in a one bedroom apartment so it wouldn't have been fair for.a.bigger dog. Anyways, I didn't want a Bichon either because I thought they were prissy. Well, she is far from prissy. She is definitrpy more Bichon in personality; lively, happy, wanting to go everywhere, impossible to housetrain, stubborn...I just love her friendliness and her energy. Sometimes she is too much but she keeps life interesting. She has ruined my carpet and many of my underwear, but she is cute. She used to play a trick with me. I'd be eating my dinner on the sofa and she would sit at the patio door as if she needed to go out. So I'd go to grab the tether and she'd run to my dinner. At first I thought it was a.fluke but she did it over and over again. Little bugger. She's smart but not easily bribed. She loves everyone and thinks everyone loves her. I love that people think she's the type of dog I dress up and walk in a stole but when she can keep up with 5 border collies they are shocked. Such sturdy little doggies those Bichon are. The only thing is she is a barker. And she can bark!

Butters is adorable. Love the name! Try tethering him to you with a 6 foot leash tied around your waist so he goes everywhere you go. Once you see the signs that he needs to go, take him outside for 15 minutes. If he goes treat him and go crazy with pride. If he has an accident, bring him outside and tell him that is where he goes potty. When he goes potty tell him 'good potty!' So he learns the word potty. Kiri knows to try and go potty when I say 'Kiri go potty'. Of he doesn't go, go inside keeping him tethered to you. Just keep watching him for sniffing, pacing back and forth, circling...Also teach him how to tell you he has to go. What I did was hang her favourite dolly onthe other side of the patio door. My mom had given Kiri a toy tambourine so I Hung it from the doorknob on the inside. She wanted her dolly but I waited until she hit.the tambourine then I pet her have the dolly. Took her two times and she had it down pat.

Have fun with Butters! Good luck!

That's the thing i love about Bichons! They just brighten up every room they're in...Butters is NOT prissy either! I don't think Bichons are the prissy type ^_^ She is so athletic, and loves to run and play with the big dogs, and is just so curious about everything She's still a puppy in a lot of ways like even if another dog snaps at her, she'll still try to make friends with him Of course I have to lead her away but I love that she's so easily trusting and sweet.

One time at the beach, I was cooking, and I realized butters wasn't begging for food anymore, so I looked around and I saw her following this old grandpa with a cane, and she was looking up at him tongue all rolling, so happily prancing next to him. I called to her and she came darting back, but I was so sad that she was willing to leave for a complete stranger!!! But then again, maybe she just wanted to make new friends