House training

[Roz 0]

Lucy is nearly 11 weeks old now. I've had her three weeks and am a bit crazy with the constant urinating. The friend who gave her to me said to cover my entire apartment (one bedroom) with newspaper and gradually reduce the paper. I've done that but she still just goes anywhere on the carpet or the newspaper and sometimes goes three times in five minutes! I take her out to the courtyard about every fifteen minutes to half an hour and she's learning to wee on command sometimes but often as soon as she comes inside she wees again. I clean it up only to find that she's done another one somewhere else. I confine her to the kitchenette at night where she has a cardboard carton to sleep in which she likes. She wees on paper in the kitchen but also on the floor.

Will she understand more about weeing outside as she gets older? I've thought of confining her to the kitchen (can't bear the thought of the crying) but what good will that do in teaching her to go outside? Should I take her every half hour? And then back to the kitchen. She just wants to be with me and cries when she can't. I suppose she'd get used to being away from me, and it might be good for not setting up separation anxiety.

I'm not good at catching her in the act as I'm quite disabled with rheumatoid arthritis and am fairly slow moving because of it.

When you confine your dogs do you just live your life away from them in their crate? I'd like to be able to interact with Lucy but is this only possible when she's older and house trained?

[Little Molly 0]

Hello Roz and welcome!

I think each one of us has our own way of training our babies. Mine was SOOO stubborn. She didn't start "getting it" until she was about 6-7 months old! And that was probably because I didn't find the right method for her!

It is very important to "catch" them in the act. Even it that means waiting outside with them until the finally go pee. When they do, you need to praise them and let them KNOW they did a good thing. When they do it inside, you say "NO", and then take them outside and say "go pee-pee" or whatever you use for her going to the bathroom. Use the same command each time.

Molly (my pup) didn't like newspapers. All she did with them was tear them up! Also, she would pee all over the house. I finally got the nerve to confine her to one room at a time, because I just could NOT run after her each time she left my sight. I was going crazy!

Anyway, I couldn't get Molly to quit using my floors as her toilet, so I bought a urine repellant and used that. It didn't smell to good, but it did keep her from wanting to urinate in those areas. Then I took her outside on my balcony (no yard) and put an old rug down for her to pee on. When she went on the balcony without the rug, she would get all wet. At first she didn't understand and would go pee right next to it. I would then get the rug and put it in her urine, so it would have the odor. The next time she went, she got a little bit closer, and again, I would move the rug over the urine, and take her and put her on the rug and say good girl! We kept at it for about a week. That's all it took! Only a week to get it right. But like I said, you need to find the right method for YOUR tzu! They love praise!

Now Molly even poops on the rug, which I wish she didn't! lol That can be a mess. But I do not dare tell her no, after all the progress we've made.

I am sorry about your RA. My husband suffers from it too, so I know what you are going through. But don't let this keep you from enjoying your little love.

Try using the rug, or something else that she will understand that it's "her place" to go. She's probably confused.

Pam

[Carolina Girl 2]

The one thing that I've learned with mine is that you have to confine them if you can't watch them like a hawk. My baby, who is 25 weeks now, has only ever had about 4 accidents in the house. He still doesn't let me know when he needs to go out. But he only comes out of his crate when he can be watched. If he starts circling or sniffing around, I take him immediately outside. He also pees about 4-5 times when he goes. Confining them doesn't exactly teach them to do it outside. However, they won't pee or poop in a small space. My puppy holds it for 7 hours during the day while I'm at work. That is only because he's in a crate. If I were to leave him out during that 7 hours, he would pee and poop all over the house. And the one thing that I've learned: puppies love to pee on carpet. I rolled up all my area rugs and put them away. I just have the wood floor now. When he gets better with the potty training, I'll try to put them back down. You also have to make sure that you are cleaning up the urine good enough. I use Nature's Miracle. Even if you can't smell it, she may be able to. If she smells even a trace, she'll keep peeing there.

You could maybe gate her into your kitchenette if you didn't want to use a crate. I hope this helps a little! Good Luck!

[MisterMom 11]

Find a special training treat for her & praise when she goes outside & immediately give her a treat. Say NO, bad girl when she goes inside and no treat.

Tzu are very stubborn BUT are also very food centric.

Good Luck

ps - it takes about a year for complete training, unless you get lucky.