# Chihuahua , hard to housetrain?



## manfred (Dec 21, 2005)

My wife just got another chihuahua . Is is just us or they unusually hard to house train? We have never had trouble with our other dogs but she has one over a year old and not trained and a lady gave her this one, 9 months old and she had not been able to house train it.
Advice?


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

They are very easy to house train. Which is the problem. Because they learn so quickly and physically mature so quickly, if they are allowed to have an accident indoors, they are trained to go indoors. You have to be very diligent as a puppy. 

You need to be sure and clean up the new dog's messes and use an enzyme product to erase the smell. What surface is she going on? Try to keep her off that surface, even if it means covering the carpet in her area with a vinyl tarp. Feed her on a strict schedule and crate her until after she goes outside. Treat and praise for going outside, which means you will have to go outside with her to make sure she goes, and to reward.


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## BarbadosSheep (Jun 27, 2011)

One of mine was really easy to train, the other one was 8 months old before she was reliable. We moved to a new house and suddenly "got it". I think she got in the habit of peeing indoors in the old house and when we moved, her routine was disrupted so she started going outside.


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## Pamela (May 10, 2002)

Ours house trained very early, about 10 weeks he was reliable.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

I have a herd of chihuahuas. All the girls are trained, and go out well every four hours. The boy on the other hand is a nightmare. He has wee-wee issues, and tries to lift his leg just to show off that he can.


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2011)

Of all the breeds and mutts I've had, the ONLY breed I've had trouble housetraining has been chihuahuas.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Toy breeds in general are more difficult to housetrain. It makes perfect sense when you realize that your average room in your house is to your toy breed about the size your average yard would be to a large puppy! Also, they have small bladders and leave small pee spots. They can do their deed quickly and the owner not notice. It's easy to let them get bad habits. It's also less trouble for the owner when they have an accident, so owners are more inclined to let it go and not be as diligent. 

You must be diligent generally to get your toy dog house trained. I have a 15 year old Silky that just never cared and never really learned. If I get her out often enough, she will usually wait until she goes out. I do just deal with it as best I can, we raised her when we were actively showing dogs and had several of them. She's very good in her crate, where she sleeps at night. Mostly I managed my Silkys over the years, rather than house training them. Of course I only have two now, but they are old and I don't expect to change them at this time. They are happy.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

ladycat said:


> Of all the breeds and mutts I've had, the ONLY breed I've had trouble housetraining has been chihuahuas.


Pekes are the worst in my opinion.


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## tailwagging (Jan 6, 2005)

GrannyCarol said:


> Toy breeds in general are more difficult to housetrain. It makes perfect sense when you realize that your average room in your house is to your toy breed about the size your average yard would be to a large puppy! Also, they have small bladders and leave small pee spots. They can do their deed quickly and the owner not notice. It's easy to let them get bad habits. It's also less trouble for the owner when they have an accident, so owners are more inclined to let it go and not be as diligent.
> 
> .


I agree ( a chihuahua breeder)


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## SilverFlame819 (Aug 24, 2010)

I think tiny toy dogs are harder to train simply because when a large dog goes to squat, it's VERY noticeable, but not so much with tiny dogs. You have to be VERY diligent. Sometimes using something like bells on the door helps. They will walk to the door, you don't see it, and they pee on the floor instead. If you ring the bells before walking out every time, the dog learns that the cue for the door opening is the bells ringing, and will ring them to go outside. Gives you a little bit of a higher success rate anyway, if you aren't as on the ball at noticing the 1-lb puppy staring at the door, or you are in another room when he realizes he needs to go...


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## Guest (Nov 23, 2011)

mekasmom said:


> Pekes are the worst in my opinion.


We had one Peke, and he was perfectly housebroken when we got him. He NEVER had an accident in the house.

But since I never housebroke one myself, I can't judge how hard they are.


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## SageLady (Jun 10, 2008)

We took in a 5 month old neutered male chihuahua that had not ever even been outside, much less housebroke. I had that dog housebroke successfully in a week with thanks to my 2 female shelties who helped the process along. He thought it was so great to go outside every couple hours with his new "mommy dogs". I smile at the memory. He is almost 9 years old now. He has always lifted his leg and marked his territory outside, but has NEVER done it inside my house or anywhere else he shouldn't. He is a good boy and very smart. We are tightly bonded and I would take in another chihuahua without question. I think they are wonderful dogs!


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

For those of you who have small to medium dogs who are unreliable in the house despite your best efforts, these are awesome 

http://www.peekeeper.com/


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