I saw a thread on here last night about potty training, but by the time I registered and came back today I couldn’t find it, so I am going to make a new one. I hope that’s okay.

Sorry this post is going to be a bit of a novella, because I want to let you know what all I have tried so that someone may point out something that I haven’t. It’s also so long because my dog’s potty training excursion has been a long one!

I brought home Elliot in December of 2008 from a breeder at 2 months old. She is a little chocolate deer head Chihuahua and quite possibly my best buddy! She is now a year and a half old, and a very well behaved dog. I didn’t give any heed to the warnings and stigma about the breed when they told me they are snappy, yappy, and impossible to potty train. Since I had many pets (many of them dogs) growing up I knew that the stigmas attached to most breeds are false, and with a lot of work and patience they all have great potential to be good animals. Well, the potty training has been a stickler for little Elliot and I.

Being as I brought her home in December, and I lived in the heart of Colorado, it is not an exaggeration to say that on most given days the snow was up to my knees. Every morning I would dutifully shovel out a large patch of grass outside my apartment, dress her up in the best fleece lined puppy jacket I could find, and take her out to go potty. It was a miserable affair for both of us, and more often than not she would sit between my feet and cry to go back inside. So I would relent and take her in only to have her go on my floor 2 minutes later.

I was lucky enough to be able to bring her to work with me for the first 3 months of her puppy-hood where she would stay in an appropriate sized crate (you know, the usual… where she can stand up, turn around, and lie down) under my desk. As long as I was right by her side, she had no qualms about lying peacefully in her crate, and going to the bathroom during my designated work breaks outside. It was when I left that job and went through my first semester of college that we had issues.

The first time I left her at home, with the TV on (I couldn’t bear to leave her alone in the quiet) and in her crate I came home to a bit of a predicament. She had torn up her paws trying to dig her way out of the crate, and her nose was raw and bleeding. I felt so terrible about it, that this was the last she saw of the crate. I tried having my mother baby sit her during the days, but soon that failed as my mom went back to work herself.

So, the puppy pad was introduced. When I was home, implementing the puppy pad went remarkably fast. I would dutifully place her on the pad every 45 minutes to an hour, and praise her intensely when she would go on her pad. In just weekend I could let her have leave of the house (while I was home) and not walk in to the next room to find any accidents. I felt confident when I went back to school the next week, but I was in for yet another problem when I came home. She had destroyed my blinds. There was a small, Chiki (I call her a Chikihua) sized portion of my blinds that were missing, and scattered around the house. Not to mention several piles of excrement in various places across the house. This continued for the rest of the week, I would come home and see the incriminating evidence of an angry dog… chewed cabinet doors, a pee soaked shirt in the corner, my favorite pink pumps. When the weekend rolled around it was as if none of it ever happened, and she would happily use her pad for me again.

This is where Perry comes in. Perry was mangy stray cat of just under a year old that chose my apartment as his home and really, just never went away. He loved Elliot and they would romp all over my house at all hours of the night, and when I started leaving him home with her, the number of casualties around the house dropped significantly as did her “accidents”.
Then we moved to IL where I anticipated some trouble with her adjusting to the change. Remarkably, she didn’t really have many problems in her potty training until Perry was unfortunately killed after being hit by a car, and I went back to work full time within the span of a few weeks. It took several months to turn this around (much to the disgruntlement of my roommates), but she finally was more or less going on her pad regularly.

Then, very recently, we have moved once again. She has done relatively well in using her pad for peeing, but still feels it is appropriate to defecate wherever she feels like. It’s slowly turning around, but then again I haven’t gone back to work quite yet, and there is about to be another monkey wrench thrown in to the equation.

I will be adopting a 9mo old Chihuahua female who was neglected by her previous owners and has contracted Parvo. While she is mending at the vet clinic I temp for occasionally, I am left with the quandary of what to do about potty training TWO Chihuahuas! I don’t feel that I can pad train them both, as it is so hit and miss (and half the time my dog feels that “close enough” is okay) and I don’t think my pooch is going to appreciate the encroachment of another dog in her house. It will take some time for her to warm up to the new little one, and no doubt I will find many angry turds in my room during that adjustment period. I’m afraid that where Elliot leads, the new little one will follow… and I truly don’t know what the next step will be in effectively training my dogs.
I will be moving one more time, up to Michigan (again, more snow) where I will be in school and working once more, so I need to be able to train them for indoors.

I am considering litter box training them, but to be honest I don’t even know where to start at this point.
Have any of you had similar problems with your Chihuahuas?
What would you recommend for an apartment dweller who loves her pooch?

I don't have great advice for you, my boy uses the paper 80% of the time and his only accidents seem to be poop and he always does those in the same spot. I'm not sure about my girl yet.. she has not been here long enough to have a real assessment.
I'm going to follow your thread though because I would love to see other peoples advice!

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Thank you Jan for the lovely siggie!

I'm sorry i am of no use!!!

My newest Chi girl, who is now nearly 5 months, has been using her pee pads 85% of the time since she was 14 weeks.
She will pee and poop in my room for some reason, so we just keep the door closed until we get a doggy gate.

My other two consistently use the pads. My male I've had since he was 12 weeks, and was originally trained for outdoor pottying, and my other female we got at 9 months of age, so she was already pee pad trained. She only needed a week to adjust to her new environment.

Once we moved into a condo, my male was pretty easily transitioned to the pee pad because of our female. He just knew to pee there if she was!

I hope some others have better advise for you!! xx

Uh oh! I can see the little rascals are kind of on and off with their pads. That is how mine is too.

Let's hope someone has some different advice, as you guys have said!

I think it's a great idea that you are getting another chi because she seems to have separation anxiety and could definitely benefit from a friend, as she did when Perry was around. Have you considered trying to crate again? You can probably put their crates face to face so they know they are not alone and perhaps she will not try as desperately to get out and learn to enjoy the protection that the crate provides? Or maybe an exercise pen that is big enough for the both of them, that you can place either the pads or the little pan in as well?

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You need to get back to the basics of housetraining, as she's obvioulsy not housetrained at this point. I understand your hesitant to use a crate but you've got to confine her in the house. She hasn't earned the right to run free. Can you section off the bathroom or set up an exercise pen in the kitchen or some area like that? It's best to have an easy to clean floor with enough space to set up a bed with food/water on one side and her potty pad on the other. If you have enough room in your kitchen, two x-pens side by side would be ideal for when the new one comes home. That way they'd each have their own space but can see the other for safe companionship. If you feel she'd climb out, get a large metal crate. That will do the same thing for keeping her confined but has a top so she can't climb out.

Anyway, in her "space" is where she needs to be at all time when you are not holding her or have her in your line of sight. If for any reason you can not watch her, back in her pen. If she has any opportunity to go someplace off the potty pad, you are allowing her to break the trianing that are trying to desperately to institute. You have got to be consistent with this all day, every day. She's now used to getting her way and doing what she wants to. She also knows that if she makes enough racket or digs/noses the bars, you'll let her back out to do whatever she wants. In other words, she's training you. They are known for that. It will take some adjustment for her to get used to being confined but it can be done. If she makes her feet and nose sore, put some Neosporin on it and let it go. Don't baby her and make a big deal out of it. Keep a squirt bottle of water near by so that if you see her digging/scratching/nosing/barking/screaming, etc. you can give her an immediate correction.

I'd start this on a week-end so you can be there with her and make the corrections as needed for the first couple of days....since you live in an apartment with neighbors, this is especially important. Lots of praise and up up up tone of voice and treats when she uses the potty pad. You know the drill on that. Same thing when you leave for a few minutes and come back to nothing being destroyed in her space. If she destroys her bed or toys, take them out and let her sleep on the floor/crate tray. Give her a couple days, then reintroduce another toy or bed. If she doesn't mess with it, great. If she does, out it comes again. She's got to learn what's acceptable and what's not.

These same things are what you need to do with the new baby too. This is all basic housetraining 101...with some additional for attitude she's giving you when you leave her.

Remember, consistency and patience are the keys to housetraining. It's gonna be a bit tougher and take a little longer since she's been doing this for 2 years...but it can be done. I've housetraining much older and more hard headed Chis than this. Hang in there.

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