housebreak my puppy

Wow, this took so much longer than a couple of weeks! But, the rules have finally “clicked”. For the past few days, she has been “potty-ing” outside. She still has accidents when she is excited, but we just take care of that by taking her outside before we let company inside. Yay! Housebroken puppy!

She now knows that outside is the place to pee, however I still can’t make her understand that poo does not belong inside the house. Yesterday she made a mess, and instead of tracking it around the room, she stepped back several feet, and sat facing towards the mess, waiting for me to notice.

I looked at her, and she caught my eye, staired in the direction of her mess, back at me, and repeated these glances a couple of times, as if to say, “This is the part where you clean it up, right? See, I’m out of the way, because I am a good puppy.”

The vet said not to fuss at her unless I catch her in the process, which hardly ever happens. I just can’t keep my eyes glued to her twenty-four hours a day. Grrr!

She tried to poop on the back of the couch! Where I put my head!

Obviously, training is not going so well…

but he’s doing pretty damn good for less than a week of training. And he’s so damn cute, I don’t even get that mad when he pees on the floor.
What can I say, I’m weak. At least he only goes poo outside. Yeah for THAT!

So, as I’ve mentioned in a couple of places, I just got my wisdom teeth out. I’m all drugged up, and tired, and all I want to do is go to sleep. Well, little Buttercup was asleep in my lap, and I figured it would be okay to take her to bed with me.

Bad move! She peed in my bed. TWICE.

For the most part, we’ve been doing okay with potty training, but she’s very confused, because in bad weather we still have her go on the mats. She also has no problem with wetting her own bed and sleeping in filth.

Of course, this is my fault for being an inconsistant human. Finally, March is here, and the weather should warm up enough that she will be more willing to go outside. And I’ll be more willing to wait for her to find the perfect spot.

It’s cold outside, and she just won’t go! My boyfriend doesn’t seem to have this problem, but when I take her out, she keeps her tail between her legs, and just won’t do #2. I’ve even caught her in the act of circling around a spot inside, and picked her up and put her outside, and even then she won’t do it. Then I take her inside, and she waits about fifteen minutes before pooping on the floor. It’s driving me crazy!

_{note: I do correct her if I catch her in time, and I give her plenty of time when I take her out.}

Step 1: paper train puppy by giving her treats when she goes on the paper. (She’s very good at this, although she sometimes forgets when she’s doing #2)

Step 2: Make sure she is completely paper trained, and stop giving her treats when she goes on the paper.

Step 3: Take her outside and give her treats when she goes, until she learns that outside is the place to go.

I think this will work, if I am very consistant with treats and praise.

Today I went with my plan to get her a jacket for going outside, so maybe she will not have such a hard time staying out long enough (I feel so sorry for her when she’s shivering and looking at me like, “Why are we out here again?”). Unfortunately, the XXS jacket is too small, and she just walked right out of it. Getting really serious about housebreaking might just have to wait until warmer weather.

In the past, I have had two dogs – both of them already full grown and completely housebroken when I met them, so this is an entirely new experience to me.

Right now the weather is really cold, and chihuahuas get cold easily as it is, so I’m having a very hard time getting her to do anything but cower at my feet when I take her out. She’s almost paper trained, except for a few accidents here and there. She seems to understand that outside is a fine place to go, but not necessarily the only place to go.

Today I am ordering her a little doggy parka to see if maybe she will be more willing to go outside if she has something to keep her warm. I would like her to associate going to the bathroom entirely with being outside.

I wonder how long I can expect her potty training to last.

I have a 1 year old that forgets to use the papers occasionally, and also has going on the bed at night, What can I do?

Done and done!