Is it even possible to housetrain a chihuahua?

[pinkspore]

I don't even think he's really a dog.

It's really hard to tell when he has peed on something, there's never a wet spot so it's down to either smelling it or finding a stain. For a while I thought for sure he was housetrained and reliable, then I started finding spots. We went back to crating and tethering, cleaned everything thoroughly, thought he had the idea, turned him loose, started finding spots.

We have all hard floors and almost no rugs, partly because rugs are a pain in the butt to clean and partly because I don't want to tempt the little rodent. We don't really leave soft things on the floor either, because the cats sometimes get creative about their litterbox use.

He's quite insistent about being let out when I'm home, so I was very surprised to see him doing potty circles in one of the crates for the real dogs. When I started smelling bedding I discovered that he had already peed in BOTH crates in the living room. He can often be found curled up in a little ball inside those crates, I thought they were safe.

So I washed all the dog bedding a zillion times, and scrubbed everything with Nature's Miracle and then sprayed an extra coating on to air dry just in case, and went back to crating him whenever I left the house. I usually leave him in bed with my husband in the morning, but no more.

I also stopped leaving bedding in the crates he has access to. I toss a bed or a quilt in there before I send Brisbane or Ulysses in, out otherwise there is nothing soft to tempt the tiny weasel. Last night I picked up a quilt to toss inside and found that it had already been peed on. There were seriously maybe two opportunities he had to pee on it, each less then five minutes, when someone was in the bathroom or otherwise not staring directly at the chihuahua.

So we're back to nonstop crating and tethering, and I am beginning to wonder if this is just the way things are going to have to be forever. If Ru sleeps in the damned crates all the time, and still considers them potential toilets, I can't imagine how to teach him not to pee on anything soft.

 

[*blackrose]

Is he neutered?

We had Cooper, a 6 pound Yorkie, for just over a year. He had a bad habit of marking and it didn't lesson at all until we had him neutered. And by that point, he had marked so many little spots all over the apartment that I wasn't aware of that he kept remarking certain areas and I'd find a pee spot days later.

It wasn't until after his neuter AND moving to a completely clean environment (my Grandmother's, who I don't think has ever had a dog urinate in the house EVER the entire time she's had the house) did his marking stop completely. Since he wasn't smelling his urine (or any dogs' urine) in the house, he didn't feel the need to mark, and it stopped the cycle of behavior.

I'm sure it is possible to break the habit, but it will require a lot of hard work and dedication. PWCorgi just did a LOT of work with Siri and her housebreaking issues, so maybe you can search for her thread about it?

 

[Laurelin]

Mia was pad trained prior to me getting her. It meant that she thought she could pee on anything on the floor- rug or laundry or whatever. I ended up having to fully clean the carpets an tie her to me 24/7 until it stopped.

 

[pinkspore]

He was neutered at six months and has never marked, he is peeing to empty his bladder. He has never been pad trained and had never been inside a house when we got him. He doesn't have any symptoms of an infection and pees a normal amount at normal intervals. We did spend a year living with roommates who had a dog that marked absolutely everywhere on everything, which is how we got used to not having rugs or ever leaving anything on the floor. Three years ago we moved to a totally clean house and I had him tied to me for a good long time.

Nothing seems to help though, he just pees wherever is convenient. Back at our previous house I thought he was pretty solid on peeing outside when I watched him pee in the same spot on our bed where he had just been sleeping. He doesn't pee in his own little bed or crate, but he'll pee anywhere else if it's convenient.

 

[pinkspore]

Seriously, I feel like normal dogs have bathroom-finding criteria like "smells like pee" while Ru's only criteria is "absorbent". He will pee on absolutely anything anywhere on the floor, regardless of whether or not anything has ever peed there before. I have no idea how many months/years of severe restriction it would take to break him of this.

I really need to start keeping him on a leash when he's not crated. I can't physically tie him to me though, I either step on him or trip over the leash continuously until one or both of us gets hurt. I have no idea how other people manage this, and assume they are more coordinated than myself.

 

[Sekah]

You let me know if you figure it out.

I thought I had it all figured out. Then I moved to a larger house with more rooms that we don't use very often and whelp.

Mega came to me at 6ish years old. She'd been given free rein to pee & poo in her previous house. I did some hardcore crating and restriction. What also seemed to help was spending more time in the rooms we didn't use very often helped her understand that the spare bedroom wasn't a convenient substitute for the yard.

Then we moved to an apartment and life was good. I think she had one accident as she was going into heat, and one when she was sick. For a little over a year she was pretty much spot-on. She was walked 1-2 times a day, plus another 3-4 leashed bathroom breaks each day.

Then... we moved to a house. And the first night in the house Cohen had liqui-shits all over the basement. I thought Mega was doing well until I noticed a spot in the basement which had clearly been used as a toilet periodically. She's pooped down there a few times too. I would crate/gate her but the issue was that the pee was so infrequent that she'd have success for a few weeks then have an 'accident' again. Then she was diagnosed with a UTI and bladder stones, which explained some of the issue. Which brings me to today. She had her surgery to remove both stones and uterus last week. I'm hoping that that fixes things.

In my experience, we had the most success when she was walked on leash daily and wasn't allowed to go back home until she'd performed the morning Megatron hat-trick (2 pees and 1 poo). I was intimately familiar with her patterns and cold/wet weather was no excuse for her. Since I've gotten a yard I've become more lazy. Take him out constantly. Put peeing on a cue and provide big rewards for it.

I'm not too sure what to do about the bedding soiling that you're experiencing. Do your best to keep it clean. Use cheapass second-hand towels that you can throw away if necessary. Watch him like a hawk. Use tether stations around your place so you can manage him without having him tied to you.

And obviously make sure he's healthy.

****ing chihuahuas, man.

 

[pinkspore]

Yeah, it's the infrequent convenience peeing that I can't seem to fix. He looooooves going outside and knows that he gets cookies for peeing out there, but a good strong peeing outside habit does nothing for his tendency to pee wherever is convenient indoors on occasion.

The bedding just has me baffled. I keep throwing out beds and buying new ones because they eventually fall apart from the constant washing. He can be snuggled adorably on a bed one minute, and peeing in that exact spot the next. Dogs don't pee where they sleep, therefore he is not a dog.

 

[Stingr69]

I don't know if this will help or not - We also are struggling with our little girl and crate training. I am considering removing the bedding from the crate bottom and leaving her on the plastic tray in an effort to improve the effectiveness of the crate training. If she WILL be getting wet from pee, maybe she will extend her bladder control in an effort to avoid the soak? Have not done this yet, just thinking about it. It probably only matters at night for us. Only a temporary thing while she is still learning.

-Mark.

 

[pinkspore]

Yeek, I have no idea what I would do if Ru was peeing in his own crate. He's fine being crated, but he goes into the bigger dogs' crates and pees on their beds. Sometimes he also goes into the big crates to sleep on those same beds before he pees on them, which irritates me to no end.

I have already thrown out all the other dog beds we used to have around the house because cleaning them was such a hassle, and Brisbane is visibly uncomfortable without soft places to rest. I keep buying new beds and hoping that the lack of pee smell will deter Ru, but his decision about where to pee does not appear to be based at all on smell.

I am sick of buying cheap beds and reducing the quality of life for my other dogs so that the little rat can have his freedom. I also hate confining and tethering him all the time since it basically removes any possible good points to owning a lapdog. I love him to pieces, but I can't find any solution for this that doesn't make at least one of us miserable.

 

[noludoru]

1. OMG I am so sorry for you two. Sekah, I always wondered about your tone when talking about Megatron and now I totally get it.

2. After reading this thread, I will never consider a Chihuahua. Ever. Even though the bf loves them.

3. One thing that MIGHT help is grabbing Ru after every nap (or interrupting then if it's been a while) and doing a forced potty break. I have to pee after every nap, too, so if that is the majority of the time it's happening, that might prevent some of it.

Otherwise, I've never dealt with an issue this pervasive. Middie has his issues, but they've been very location-based. In most places we've lived he's 100% house trained, but he had VERY consistent issues when we first moved to CO that stopped abruptly when we moved out of that apartment. Lately we've been having the "I sleep too deeply to wake up for bathroom whines" and "roommate or neighbors feeds him tons of junk food."

 

[Maxy24]

Belly band! Obviously it won't actually fix him, but if all else fails it will at least keep your house dry. Or he'll just rip it off.

 

[pinkspore]

I've used belly bands for fosters who marked, but putting one on my own stupid dog feels like admitting defeat. He's a grown-ass adult dog, he is not yet old enough to be incontinent, he doesn't have a spinal injury. He's just too dumb to not to pee in his favorite snooze spots.

Right now we're on Day 2 of total lockdown, and I'm trying to accept the fact that this is probably going to be his life from now on. He is never again going to lounge adorably on the couch in a pile of blankets, he's either going to be dragged around the house on a leash, or in his crate for the foreseeable future. When he cries and shivers because I've cruelly forced him to stand on the cold linoleum for ten minutes while I wash dishes, I will remind him that he's done this to himself.

 

[Stingr69]

Yeek, I have no idea what I would do if Ru was peeing in his own crate. He's fine being crated, but he goes into the bigger dogs' crates and pees on their beds. Sometimes he also goes into the big crates to sleep on those same beds before he pees on them, which irritates me to no end.

I actually have to keep the bigger boy's crate closed at all times or baby girl will get in there an pee for sure. It is a psychological warfare thing - sort of a sibling rivalry I guess. She is very jealous and competitive. He on the other hand is usually pretty chill and ignores most of her naughty antics. Why can't we all just get along?!?!?

-Mark.

 

[pinkspore]

I've already eliminated absolutely everything attractive to pee on in the house, except for the beds in the crates. My almost ten year old dog needs a soft place to lay down, so closing the crate doors is not an option.

We were almost at 3 days of no peeing in the house, and then my husband stayed home from work today and let Ru run loose all day long and here I am washing another damned dog bed.

I just broke down and put a belly band on Ru. We'll see if peeing on himself makes any sort of impact.

 

[pinkspore]

Came home today to find that Ru had weaseled out of his crate and then peed through his belly band and onto the same bed he peed on yesterday.

Duct tape is starting to look like a viable solution.

 

[noludoru]

Came home today to find that Ru had weaseled out of his crate and then peed through his belly band and onto the same bed he peed on yesterday.

Duct tape is starting to look like a viable solution.

So. Much. Sympathy.

 

[PWCorgi]

I so feel your pain!

My situation is somewhat similar, Siri would go pee outside whenever we went out, but if she had to go when inside, well...she just went.
She was also a sneaky pooper, turns out most of that was due to some chronic constipation, where she would just poop enough to relieve the pressure (you wanted to know that, right?) that we were able to fix with diet change (THANK THE GOOD LORD BABY JESUS!! ), and now she poops on a schedule 99% of the time.

What honestly made all the difference for her was about 6 weeks of complete lockdown. It sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, SUCKED! Then we progressed to "if you pee and poop when we are out, you earn yourself half an hour of freedom." Then gradually increased the time she had free. We also put a baby gate up so our apartment is separated into living room&kitchen or hallway&bedroom areas. She is a sneaky poop/pee monster, so if we are in the living room, she would prefer to sneak to the bedroom to go, and vice versa. The gate is a super simple way to prevent that.

She hasn't gone inside in quite some time now, enough that I would call her reliably schedule trained. I don't think she'll ever alert to needing to go out, but we are consistent in giving her enough opportunity, and she holds it from when Ryan gets home and takes her out (around 3-4pm) until I get home around 9:30-10pm. She also holds it overnight until we go out in the morning, even if we don't get out first thing. Which means she is ACTIVELY HOLDING IT :hail:

I am dreading winter, and have decided that after the first snow fall she will be tethered for at least a week, just to prevent any problems before they become problems.

I really hope you can figure it out. Siri is the reason I have a "no adopting dogs that aren't already housetrained" rule. NEVER AGAIN!

Obligatory sad tether puppy pictures...

Attempted escape:

Thank goodness those days are (mostly) over...

 

[pinkspore]

Welp, the belly band hasn't helped even a tiny bit. After three days of nonstop diapering he has still managed to wiggle it down enough, or slither out of it, or we just forgot to put it back on him for a couple of minutes. I thought we were watching him constantly and diapering him constantly. Nope. So far he has managed to pee on something every single day.

So now he's being crated, diapered, and tethered, and I am back to marveling at how incredibly, ridiculously stupid he is for peeing in his favorite nap spots.

He particularly likes to pee in the wire crate in the living room. When I decided to put him on total lockdown I went ahead and bought a couple of cheap new beds. They have all been peed on at least once and I am back to dragging his sorry ass around on a 4' leash and telling him this is all his fault. Stupid, stupid chihuahua.

This is what I have to deal with, try to imagine some extra-pathetic baby-puppy crying and some shivering along with it:

New rule: He must eat all of his meals directly off the bed in that crate. If he won't eat the kibble in there, he won't eat. Maybe that will give him the idea. Or maybe I'll get tired of the endless whining and actually kill him. I cannot believe how frustrating this dog is.

 

[meepitsmeagan]

Would a xpen work at all? May be more convenient than tether.

 

[pinkspore]

I don't think an xpen would be any more convenient than the crate, and I'm sort of running out of space for dog containers around here. Anyway, he would be just as pathetic in a xpen as on a tether since he would still be shivering on the bare floor. No beds or rugs for him because he might pee on them and defeat the entire purpose of torturing him like this.

I am laying on the couch right now, and Ru is curled into an adorable tiny ball in a blanket on the back of the couch. I have to pee, so I'm going to have to drag him from his snuggle spot and either tether him on the bare floor or stuff him in his crate again, either option is going to result in crying. I would find a way to tether him on the couch, where he wants to be anyway, if I he were smart enough to not pee on the couch.