[Ash82]

Hello. We've have a 10 week old female shih tzu puppy that we have had for 2 weeks. She has settled right in. However, she seems to be weeing a lot when she is outside her crate / playpen.

She happily wees outside but will often wee several times in the space of a few minutes. Not huge amounts. We praise her and give her treats but not every time. If she's in the house and out of her playpen she will wee on the carpet or rug, even when she's just done it outside. We tell her no and will either take her outside again or put her back in her playpen.

For the first few days she was kept in her crate but when we let her out she was constantly weeing on the carpet and it didn't feel right to keep putting her back in her crate. So now we have a playpen where she has more room to play. She wees in there sometimes but not as frequently. It seems she can hold it in when she wants to but for whatever reason she chooses not to when she's out her playpen.

She has only ever had a poo in the house twice on the first two days we had her and only does this outside now.

Any advice? Is this fairly normal? We don't have a great amount of experience with shih tzus so we are doing our best based on the research we've done online. She's at the vets this week for her second lot of jabs so we will be sure to mention it in case there is a problem.

 

[RonE]

'No' means absolutely nothing to a puppy. If delivered in a stern voice (I'm not assuming it is, but it's hard to say no in a happy voice) it will just teach her to pee in private where you will find it days or weeks later.

The key is to eliminate opportunities. Your pup is either outside with you, in her crate to tethered to you at all times. Yes, it's a gigantic PIA, but it won't be forever and, if you're consistent, it will be over before you know it.

At ten weeks, she'll need to go outside more often than you would have thought possible, and you'll need to go with her.

If she is peeing (inside and out) a truly excessive amount, you might have your vet check her for a urinary tract infection (UTI.) It's easily treatable but can become serious if untreated.

 

[Calmlittlebuddha]

Hi ash, my 21 week old puppy goes out every hour. Like your dog sometimes she will go a little and a few minutes later go a little more, I read this is because as puppies they are still learning how to empty their bladders fully. I was really worried when she was going so much the first few weeks but she has seen the vet three times and all of her X-rays and blood tests came back normal. I would take your puppy out every hour and make sure that after she goes once she doesn't have to go any more before taking her back inside. Hope that helps!

 

[DaySleepers]

It's also worth remembering that baby puppies are like toddlers, they have not physically or mentally developed far enough to have full control of their bladder. They often don't know they have to 'go' until they have to go RIGHT NOW. The general wisdom is that by six months most puppies have developed that control, but some are going to mature faster or slower than others. This is another reason not to scold or punish a puppy for potty accidents - because it's not something they have full control over.

Make sure you're right there with her whenever she pees in an appropriate place and make a fuss, every time (except nighttime potty breaks, you can keep those boring). Take her out after napping, sleeping, eating, drinking, and playing, and also at regular intervals when she's awake and hanging out (you can let her sleep as long as she wants, just rush her out the moment she's upright again). You may need to do every 15-30 minutes for a while. Puppies aren't born knowing that nice, soft, absorbent carpet isn't an appropriate potty place but nice, soft, absorbent grass and dirt is, so it takes a lot of consistency to teach them the distance.

Make sure you're cleaning up accidents well with an enzymatic cleaner designed for pet messes, by the way. They're designed to break down odors so even with her super sensitive nose she can't think "oh, this spot on the carpet smells like pee, it must be where I potty!"