Dog Training Question: Peeing in the House

Question:

So CJ... how do you make a 4 yr old Chihuahua stop peeing in the house? If you put something on the floor... he will pee on it every time. Its gross! I say get rid of him.. he bites anyways.. but mom wont get rid of him.. we have tried lots of things but nothing works!

Answer:

A few questions I have first

1) is the dog neutered?

2) does he receive the proper exercise?

3) Does he have free range to water?

As many knows, an unfixed dog would want to mark its territory and claim his possessions. Since the dog is 4yrs old, it is going to be tougher to get him to break this habit. Once thing to do is to PRAISE the dog that it went to the potty outside at a certain area. If he is food driven then praise him with a delicious morsel of something really good that you do not give him on a regular basis. Remember, this is going to take sometime and will not happen over night. Another thing to do is to limit its drinking habits. Its good to have water there for a dog, but when the dog has too much water he would need to let it go.

What i did for my old lady here, which she was 7yo when i got her and not trained! was limit her consumptions of water. At a certain time at night, I cut off her drinking privileges just because she would just soil everything at night And i also made a schedule her to go potty. A simple schedule is this: Right when you wake up let the dog out, bring them in to feed, and let them out again to let them go potty. When going to work, I crate trained the dogs, the dogs have a better chance of not going anywhere in the house since there is no supervision.  When I arrive home for lunch or for work, then let the dog out again and make sure it went potty.

If he is still making accidents in the house and you do not know what to do:

 DO NOT GET MAD or show aggression towards the dog. That is not healthy and can cause the dog to be more aggressive. You will need to catch him right before the act of doing it and make a noise or something to distract him. If he didnt go, carry him outside and see if he goes potty then reward that he did a "good potty"

Quick recap tips:

• Choose a designated spot for it to go potty, either its a potty pad or some spot outside.

• Praise the dog for going potty in that certain spot, reward him with a good treat each time he goes there.

• If the dog is outside using the potty then teach him that he is not allowed in the house until he goes potty, please make sure he does so that he can make the connection of "Must go potty before entering"

• Its all about timing, once you know he about to do something, take him out right away so that he can receive his treat for going potty outside.

I cant guarantee that will work, but these are just a few tips that can help you out! But again, there are male dog diapers now! lol