Please help, boy puppy peeing in the flat!

[Valerie17]

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Hi,

I have 2 chihuahua puppies, a boy and a girl.

They are paper trained, at least I would love them to be.

The girl is absolutely fine, wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to the bathroom to pee and poo regularly, during the day too.

Problem is with the boy, he does go to the bathroom time to time but otherwise pees all over the place.

What I've noticed the girl needs to pee immediately after waking up but the boy seems to be holding it in and releases it when I don't expect. Or he pees when we go together to the bathroom, but then few minutes later he will pee again where I don't want him to pee.

I try to spend time with him to ensure he gets used to the bathroom being the place for him to pee but I cannot make it work.

He pees on anything that is left on the floor, let it be clothing, towel or bed as I have a low bed he can get on.

He even pees in his own little bed he shares with the other chihuahua. On the other hand he does go and poo in the bathroom, there is no problem with that.

They are 5 months old....still too small to go out and about. I will be moving to a house with a big garden so my only hope is that it will be a different environment for them and it will be easy to get them used to pee and poo in the garden.

Any suggestions what should I do?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read xx

 

[gypsysmum2]

At 5 months old they are not too small to go out and about. They should, really, have been going out and about from the day their vaccines took effect. Even before then they could have been carried out and about. Their socialisation is going to be very difficult now. As your question is about housetraining I will leave the subject of socialisation for another day.

It sounds as if your boy dog regards the whole of your flat as his toilet. How are you trying to teach him to use the paper in the bathroom? Are you taking him there, waiting for him to go and then rewarding him? If you are not rewarding him then he will see no reason to go there. The reward must be high value and not given for any other reason than peeing in the right place. With hold all other treats until he is trained. He must associate the reward with the action which means it must come immediately he stands up, not when he walks towards you.

Are you getting cross when he pees around the flat? If so he will try to avoid peeing when you are near him as he knows you don't like pee. He will not associate your displeasure with the place he is peeing just the act of peeing.

I must say that you are setting yourself up for a whole host of problems by teaching your dogs to pee indoors at all. This is a very formative time of life for your pups and they are learning to pee indoors. It will be incredibly difficult to change the behaviour later. One of your problems, when you do get a garden, is that the dogs will be scared of the outdoors. Dogs hate to pee or poo when they are anxious as they feel too vulnerable. It is a survival instinct.

Do you have a balcony or access to any outside space?

To address your immediate problem, and keep your flat clean, I would crate train your boy in a small crate. He just needs to be able to lie down comfortably and stand up and turn around, no more. Crates are wonderful tools and dogs love them if they are introduced like a wonderful new "den" with a fantastic soft bed. Just pop him in with his food, then with a chew toy, then with a treat until he accepts it as a lovely refuge. You can then confine him when you know he needs to wee but is not doing it in the bathroom. Just pop him back in his crate for a short while before taking him to the bathroom again until he, eventually goes. Reward him really well and let him go play. Keep an eye on him and pop him back in his den if you are going to be distracted for any reason.

Be warned that small breed male dogs can be very difficult to house train. They mature early and can start scent marking early. I remember a Jack Russell that even cocked his leg to pee through the bars of his crate. Another that would pee on his bed and lie on it which is totally against all their instincts. With the first dog we lined the crate with waterproof fabric so that the pee came back at him. This made him hold on until taken to the garden. The other dog had to be crated with no bedding in order to teach him to hold on until taken to the garden. They both learned, eventually, that peeing in the garden got them fantastic rewards and so chose to hold on until they got there. It was a long hard road though.

 

[Valerie17]

Thank you so much for your advice. It all makes sense and I started to take them out, I do have a balcony too.

I started with a crate and my girl puppy is very clean, she doesn't pee in her bed, however since the boy joined wherever I put them he always peed where he slept. He doesn't seem to mind at all. He pees on their little cushion they sleep on and decided to pee in their crate too so I stopped placing their bed in the crate. Anyways it has to change and I'm working on it already.

The girl is called Daisy and the boy is Cookie.

He is very outgoing and brave, not scared of anything which is fun. He is very tiny too.

Daisy has a different personality, she is scared of everything. When we brought her home she didn't move from my sight.

She took her time to get used to different environment and wasn't running around the flat at all. It took her more than a week to discover the kitchen area.

I tried to take her out but she wouldn't make a move and is shaking like crazy. Everything takes her a while but with baby steps we are making progress.

I already walk them on the leash inside the flat so they get used to and we are going out today as it is dry and sunny.

Cookie is crazy from day one was running around the entire flat. He goes to the balcony without a problem so he will be fine outdoors.

I didn't take them earlier as my vet advised me not to.

They are very lovely dogs and listen to my command, always try to please me so hopefully implementing your advice will help me change everything.

Thank you so much again.

Valerie

 

[Lion Dog Love]

Hi Valerie,

It looks like you've got some great advice from gypsysmum! We were toilet training our Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy a few months ago and we found that when he wee'd where we didn't want him to.... like in the house, we would make a noise to distract him (we clapped), he would usually get distracted and then we would put him where we wanted him to wee (outside). We would then have our key toileting word (wee wee - which the breeder had been using when he was a tiny tiny pup) and wait with him until he went. Finally, when he went, we reacted like it was the best thing him or any dog had ever done with lavish praise!

Casting my mind back, I remember when I was younger our first dog, Devon the beagle, was extremely hard to house train but we got there in the end!!

Good luck!!