untrained chihuahua,advise please?

meisha

my chi girl goes through stages of being house trained but was never great with it especially during the night, she always seems to have a few wees and poos ready and waiting :P its driving me crazy she is well walked and was paper trained but lately she wont even use the paper, she is not a puppy she is almost 4 and we have her since 10 weeks,we also have a male dog who is totally house trained he took to it as a 7 month old when we rescued him, there is human company here all day so thats not the problem, even when the back door is open she will still go indoors.My husband is really not happy but ive told him I wont be parting with her, is it cruel to have her out the back?the other dog would only suffer and hes never done anything wrong, all advise appriecated.
thanks

DBB

Hi Meisha,
If you look at this really coldly, do you think your Chi understands that she needs to move from inside the house, to outside the house, to toilet? Leaving the door open is not housetraining, and the fact that she isn't using this opportunity to go outside suggests that she simply doesn't understand the difference!
I'm assuming that she has a clean bill of health, and there is no question of a UTI, or other infection which may be causing a problem she has no control over.
Have you considered crate training? For me, paper training is just too watery (pardon the pun) way of housetraining, because no matter what way you look at it, you are teaching your dog that it's okay to go inside the house. There is simply no better way to train than to go for the jugular, and train them to go outside from the word go.
Crate training seriously helps this process, because the crate puts you in charge of her bowel and bladder
I'd go back to basics if I were you, as if she's a pup. Get a crate, or a puppy playpen, and use it as her bedroom. It doesn't have to be a prison, she's safe to have wandering about as normal once you know her bladder/bowel to be empty. The crate/playpen are used when you are not in a position to go outside with her, say if she's sleeping and you need to go out for an hour or two, or at night, or if visitors arrive at a time when you feel she may have an accident.
The idea is that she won't (I hope?) dirty her bed in the crate. You open the crate and bring her straight outside at times you think she needs to go (after sleeping, after eating, and a few more times in between), and when she performs outside, reward her handsomely with food treats and warm praise.
The whole process of opening the crate and bringing her outside (do NOT carry her.. let her walk!) sets up a habit that she goes straight to the door when she feels the need to go, which is what you're looking for. The crate seriously minimises the chances of her making mistakes: when you're trying to undo bad behaviour and replace it with good behaviour, the less the dog rehearses the old stuff and the more she practices the new, the more quickly this will happen.
Your male will probably help all of this to happen more quickly too, as once she's getting into the habit, she'll realise he does it too! So, a bit of work ahead, but I actually find it easier to housetrain adults than pups because they're more mobile and cognisant.
Good luck with it!:)

Bizzum

meisha wrote: »

my chi girl goes through stages..............

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chi%20Girl

The mind boggles!:D

Millem

meisha wrote: »

my chi girl goes through stages of being house trained but was never great with it especially during the night, she always seems to have a few wees and poos ready and waiting :P its driving me crazy she is well walked and was paper trained but lately she wont even use the paper, she is not a puppy she is almost 4 and we have her since 10 weeks,we also have a male dog who is totally house trained he took to it as a 7 month old when we rescued him, there is human company here all day so thats not the problem, even when the back door is open she will still go indoors.My husband is really not happy but ive told him I wont be parting with her, is it cruel to have her out the back?the other dog would only suffer and hes never done anything wrong, all advise appriecated.
thanks

Agree with DBB check to see if she is unwell. I am so bad at crate training as you have to close the door (which I never do)!! I have used Victoria Stillwell's timetable for any foster. First thing to do is clean clean clean anywhere she has had accidents, I use bio detergent first then Milton diluted.
This is the timetable (obviously you can adjust times)

6.30am wake up and straight outside to go pee (they always need to go when they wake up)
7.30am breakfast and go out again (they prob will poo) if she hasn't pooed do not leave her unsupervised and watch out for her twirling signs and bring her out again. When she has pooed I would get myself ready!
10ish bring out to loo
1ish bring to loo
4pm give dinner bring to loo (she should pee and poo)
6pm bring to loo
9pm bring to loo before bedtime. Victoria also recommends to limit water at this stage unless it is hot.

You can cut down on the number of times you take her out, she reckons adults only eliminate 4times a day. I would also teach her the go pee command while doing this schedule (eact time she is in the middle of it say "go pee" and give her a treat and loads of praise). Remember don't punish her if she has accidents in the house and you don't see her in the act. Watch out for her twirling signals (when she needs to go) and bring her straight out. If she does do it inside in front of you I would say her name loudly (hopefully she gets a shock and stops mid flow and bring her out to finish it outside and give her loads of praise)

meisha

you see she goes ALOT which makes me a little worried maybe a trip to the vet would be best,shes also in heat but its been like this before the heat started,im deffo going to invest in a good crate and shes being spayed next month I wonder if that would help,thanks for all the advise