[rooney]

I have an 18 week old dachshund/chihuahua mix that I've been working on housetraining. I know that there are so many threads on housetraining, but I wanted to ask about this:

After the first couple of weeks, he started asking to go out--not always reliably to pee, but usually to poop he was pretty good about it. But this past week, instead of asking to go out to poop, he'll just run off to a corner of the room and go there if I don't take him out in time. Why would he stop asking now? And, I'm worried about this causing setbacks in his housetraining--what should I do about this? How can I train him to ask instead of just going in the house? Should I stop relying on him to ask and just take him out at regular intervals?

 

[Gally]

It's not uncommon for puppies to make progress and then regress again in their house training. If you want him to ask to go out you need to make it rewarding for him, praise and treat when he asks and praise and treat again after he goes outside in the appropriate place. The more rewarding the experience is for him the more likely he will be to try to get outside to go by asking rather than going inside which will get him no reward.

You should be taking a 18 week out on a schedule regardless if he asks sometimes. You need to set him up for success. Take him out at regular intervals and watch him like a hawk while he is out in the house. There should be no way for him to sneak off to a corner to go to the bathroom. You can use gates to keep him in the same room as you, tether him to you with a leash or put him in a crate when you can't supervise him.

ETA: Make sure you are cleaning the spot in the corner very well with enzymatic cleaner so it doesn't smell like a potty spot to him.

 

[rooney]

It's not uncommon for puppies to make progress and then regress again in their house training. If you want him to ask to go out you need to make it rewarding for him, praise and treat when he asks and praise and treat again after he goes outside in the appropriate place. The more rewarding the experience is for him the more likely he will be to try to get outside to go by asking rather than going inside which will get him no reward.

You should be taking a 18 week out on a schedule regardless if he asks sometimes. You need to set him up for success. Take him out at regular intervals and watch him like a hawk while he is out in the house. There should be no way for him to sneak off to a corner to go to the bathroom. You can use gates to keep him in the same room as you, tether him to you with a leash or put him in a crate when you can't supervise him.

I usually do watch him, or he's in his crate if I can't. The problem is, I have other family members helping me out as well, for the times I can't watch him, but they're not as reliable. I'm worried that their inattention when watching the puppy is going to cause even more setbacks, and then he'll never be house trained. Can too many accidents lead to this, or will he eventually be house trained even with the occasional accident?

 

[Gally]

He will eventually be house trained even with the occasional accident at this age. He's still really young so it's not surprising if he has an accident here or there. It will happen a lot faster though if you can get everyone to be consistent with him. If they're not the most attentive people then ask them to use the tethering method so he is never out of their sight. Maybe get everyone together and run through the proper protocol for puppy training, ie. what schedule you are going to keep him on for going out, keeping him with you at all times, watching for spinning/sniffing, rushing him out and praising/treating when he goes outside, no scolding if he does go inside, how to clean the mess if he makes one inside with the proper cleaner etc.