Hello. My grandfather had a 4 yr old chihuahua that he had since it was a puppy. She was house trained and had been very good for him. He passed away last spring and me and my wife volunteered to take her in. We have another dog and have always been really good with being able to train a dog. Ever since we have taken her she has had issues with going in the house. She will not even make us aware that she has to go, she will just go on the floor. We attempted to crate train her but she will go in the crate, which is very odd for an adult dog. I love her and know that my grandfather would want us to keep her but I'm at the end of my rope here. She has ruined all of our carpet and we are about to get it replaced and do not want her to ruin it. I am very patient but I am out of ideas. Hopefully someone more familiar with the breed can help me out.

Garry from Ohio

Hi Garry,

The dog may be very sad and expressing this stress, plus the stress of moving to a new environment.

I would go back to the basics of puppy training - crate, lots and lots of trips outside, constant supervision, finding what the dog likes and using that for rewards for good behavior, etc.

Also, in addition to the small crate, you might consider a little indoor wire fenced in area that has room for a pee pad on one side and a bed on the other side. For awhile, consider this the dog's home unless it is directly being supervised and played with. I think the dog is just feeling lost, so needs to got back to security by having a small comfortable home where it can learn to trust the new humans, just as you need to build trust with the dog to learn and follow house rules.

Good luck, and I'm sorry for your loss.

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Here are pictures of Barney: Flickr: Crochet Bouquet's Photostream

I just trained my 3 month old puppy by putting his crate inside a pen with pads on the floor. Also I found a treat he really went crazy for and would reward him every time he went in the right place. Lots of praise and treats. If needed use the crate or buy a pen.

I've also had good results wth house training using a small pen with peepads on one side and a bed on the other.

Was the dog originally trained to go outside or to use paper inside?