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House Training

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Annika

Lazy Butt		 
 
Barked: Mon Nov 29, '10 4:25am PST 
Why are small dogs so hard to house train? My mother has two Chihuahuas and neither are housetrained. I know someone who has a Pug and a Yorkie and neither of them are housetrained either. And these dogs are 2-9 years of age! It seems like small dogs can't be housetrained. That is my main reason for having medium to large dogs. wink
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Sasha

Miss Diva to- you!!		 
 
Barked: Mon Nov 29, '10 8:56am PST 
I don't really agree with this generalization, I have 2 shih tzus who are housetrained to perfection. They NEVER have accidents in the house and Sasha is only 2 and Gizmo is about 15 months old. Also my Sister in law has a yorkie and a chi who are housetrained, my mother in law has 2 chis and a small poodle who are all housetrained, so as you can see its not a small dog thing. Housetraining a dog takes lots and lots of repetition and structure when they are first learning and honestly most people don't put in the work with them big grin Shihs are supposed to be notoriously hard to housetrain and I had no problems with my two, in fact we are adding another small dog to the mix in about 4 weeks big grin
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Jewel, PCD

8.6lbs of fury- in a bow!		 
 
Barked: Mon Nov 29, '10 10:21am PST 
My Jewel came housetrained. She's only 8.6 pounds and I had heard that small dogs were harder to house train too. But maybe it's more that people with large dogs are used to them and they can hold it longer? Or that a small dog's bladder takes longer to reach it's adult size and therefore takes them longer to get to the point where they can hold it? Or that in when you compair them a large-breed puppy's bladder is bigger at 18 weeks than a small-breed puppy so it can hold it a bit longer? I'm going to stop thinking out loud now. laugh out loud
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Lulu

I might be small- but i have big- idea's		 
 
Barked: Mon Nov 29, '10 10:37am PST 
Lulu took 7 months before she was fully houstrained persistance is the answer when they are puppies now i can leave her inside all day and she won't go inside.She lets me know when she wants to go out by looking at me and walking to the door.
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Gus

did someone say- 'cheese'??
 
 
Barked: Fri Dec 3, '10 10:27am PST 
When I got Gus that was something I read all the time: Little dogs are near impossible / the hardest to house train.

Maybe I got lucky. Gus was a breeze.

My personal opinion is that people are maybe not as consistent with little dogs as with bigger dogs. Little dogs (esp puppies) are "SO CUTE" and so they get away with more, IMO.

I house trained Gus just like my previous dogs. Taking him out every 1-2 hours in the beginning. I used a bell on the door to train him and lots of positive reinforcement. I made sure he was never in a room by himself and kept his food and water up so I could keep better track of when he ate/drank. By 16 weeks he was house trained.
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Kitsune

Divide and- cuddle!!		 
 
Barked: Sat Dec 4, '10 4:50pm PST 
shrug

Kit's 2 and he's house trained. He was kind of hard to house train when he was a pup, but he's great now.
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Princesse- Lily CGN

I am RoyalChi!		 
 
Barked: Sun Dec 5, '10 5:06am PST 
Princesse is litter trained due to our climate and hasn't had an accident in at least six monthssmile
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Beanster,- CD, RN, CGC

We don't - doodle!!!
 
 
Barked: Sun Dec 5, '10 5:18am PST 
I think there are lots of reasons...little dogs are, I believe, given way too much "house freedom" before bigger dogs since they are believed to get into less trouble. A house is HUGE to a small dog and it's easy for them to find a spot which they consider far enough away from where they actually live and sleep. People tend to baby small dogs and don't take them out if it's raining or cold or hot, etc. And, finally, there is a HUGE difference between a little brown tootsie roll left somewhere and a huge cow flop which soaks into the rug. And, about 3 tablespoons of urine vs. two cups or more.
I know that Beanie sometimes leaves a couple of tootsie rolls on the scatter rug in my bathroom. I just pick it up and flush. Were that one of my labs, it would be a major clean up! BTW... I also know when Beanie does that it's MY fault... mostly because I am just too lazy to get up and put him outside since it's only going to be a couple of tiny, hard pieces, very easy to clean up. Which is probably the major reason MY small dogs aren't terribly well housetrained!!!
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Milton

Im just a little- guy		 
 
Barked: Sun Dec 5, '10 7:58am PST 
Small dogs can be housetrained just like any other dog. I have housetrained 3 small breeds. The first 2 were family dogs. One was a pug and the other was a Pomeranian. They were not reliable in the house and it was not because they were small. They were poorly trained. When I was in elementary school I started reading dog books. I asked my mom to buy crates for them.

They were re-trained using crate training. They previously were not crate trained. Accidents went down to almost 0.

My current dog was adopted as an adult and he was not trained at first. He needed re-training. His worst habit was marking.

There are some factors that can make house training a small dog more difficult. Accidents can be hard to see because they are tiny. Dogs will return to the scene of the accident again if not cleaned. Some people use pads for small dogs. I think these confuse some dogs and add an additional step in the process. Also small dogs are smaller and the space in the house is bigger. House training is often based on den instincts. The small dog may have a harder time grasping all the space they have as a den.

Small dogs are easy to house break if your supervise and prevent accidents. This goes for any breed or size.
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Beanster,- CD, RN, CGC

We don't - doodle!!!
 
 
Barked: Sun Dec 5, '10 8:19am PST 
Beanie made me post this... he says that ALL my small dogs, while occasionally pooping in MY house, really ARE trained and NEVER go in someone else's house when we are visiting, they are just trained that they can do it in MY house. It's all MY fault for letting them do it!!!
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