How long to house train

[hammie 0]

Hi, is it me or are Shih Tzu hard to house train. I have had Ollie for over 5 weeks now and he still has no idea where to toilet. He goes where ever he likes. I pick him up and put him on the puppy nappies but as soon as my back is turned he goes again where ever.

He will go outside when i take him and my other dog who is a german shepard. I have never had a dog that does have no idea after all these weeks. He knows he is doing wrong as he runs away after he has done it.

Any advice would be a great help.

[Seastar 44]

He needs to be crate trained. You can't turn your back on him unless he's in his crate. Yes, they are challenging to potty train, but any dog needs consistency. Don't fuss at him when he makes mistakes--shih tzu have tender feelings. Use a product such as Nature's Miracle to eliminate any odors on your floors. That is crucial! Reward him with a delicious treat when he does the right thing.

Read up on crate training. How old is he now?

[mr.coffee 364]

Although I didn't consider Harley ~difficult~ to train, it did take some time. Early on, we'd go out frequently, like say 15 minutes to half an hour when he was little. Always on leash, and with "Let's go potty!" commands. If he didn't go, we'd come inside, but go back out sooner, like 5 to 10 minutes, until he did go. Potty training was one of the critical times for the clicker for me, because I could click ~as he was going~ and treat immediately after. Of course much verbal praise comes along with it - "Oh, that's so good, good potty, Harley!" Of course the neighbors surely thought I was nuts, but that's fine with me, it's better than what I think of them...the command has stuck, too, before a car ride he will pee on command.

We never chastised or fussed if he had an accident in the house. Positive reinforcement is key!

-m

[tzuhouse 4]

If he goes when you take him outside, then I would revert to outside training totally....using a crate/kennel also. I tried the potty pads and realized it wasn't working, so we went outside and never looked back. I didn't really want them going inside anyway, EVEN on a pad....but that is my choice, so it all worked well. Good luck, don't give up, you just have to have more patience than they.

[Sally 1]

I don't crate train, but if I am not watching a puppy closely, I use puppy gates for the kitchen.

Just like a human baby, it takes time for the puppy bladder to mature. We have to be patient and train carefully. It will come in time. They are just pups.

[GizmoHappyKitty 1]

It depends on the pup, but you can NEVER turn your back or leave the pup unattended UNTIL they are FULLY potty trained.

My first tzu, Gizmo, had no idea what puppy pads were for and would not use them. We would take him out every 15 min or so and he would still pee on the carpet sometimes after coming back in (and he would go outside as well). When I wasn't watching him he was gated in the kitchen on the tile. When the weather got warmer I would leave the back door open and he would go in and out on his own to pee while I was home. Finally, when he turned 6 mo. old it clicked that he was ONLY to potty outside, and I never had any problems with him after that.

My female, Miss Kitty was potty trained to a litter box at about 3 months old (this is what she was used to from her breeder). As she got older we slowly got rid of the box by moving it closer to the patio door, then out on the patio and then removing it completely.

My little guy, Lucky, (who is now 10 mo. old) was completely trained to his puppy pads almost from the time we got him at 9 1/2 weeks. I still did not let him have free run around the apt. though unless I could keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn't going to go anywhere else other than his pad. I would keep him in a puppy pen when I wasn't home or busy and couldn't watch him. When he was 5 mo. old I took the pads away completely because he was no longer using them. He quickly learned that the other dogs were not peeing on pads, so he would pee outside when I took them out and he started letting me know if he had to go out before our next scheduled outing. He was the easiest of my tzu to potty train. He also was used to a crate from his breeder, so he would sleep in a crate at night in the bedroom and would let me know when he had to go out in the middle of the night.

Patience and consistency - it all pays off in the end.

Michele and the pups

P.S. Also, if I didn't see the pups actually pee on the floor I just ignored it and moved them to another area while I cleaned up the mess. If I did see them pee on the floor I would say NO while they were in the act and quickly take them outside. When they finished peeing outside I would praise them. Also praise each and every time he goes outside when you take him out. He will quickly learn what is acceptable and what isn't.

[fidoprincess 0]

I, too, had trouble with my little boy. He came pee pad trained to us at 10 weeks and I swear it was the pee pad that caused the troubles. He never peed on the hardwood floors but as soon as he hit the carpet in the bedrooms, he must have thought it was one giant pee pad. All I could think of was whatever we do now will influence the next 15 or so years so I tried as hard as I could to get it right!

Here's what worked for me=I put the pee pad outside and every 30 minutes I took him out to pee. The whole secret is to give him a treat right after he goes and praise him a lot. The treats are the key. I give him just a tiny piece of a treat. I also hung bells on the doors and every time we went out, I would take his little paw and swat the bells. In the early days, as soon as he came in from doing his business outside, he would go inside on the carpet=ugh! The other posters are right, you can not leave them alone for one minute. I would turn my head and he would pee. I finally tied the leash to myself and had him with me all the time when I had to move about the house. Michelle is right too when she says you can only correct him when you catch him actually going or they will get confused. We also had all the carpets cleaned once he was consistently going outside and kept a bottle of Narure's Miracle on hand to use every single time. We also got some gates once he "seemed" closer to trained so I could let him have a bit of freedom and sure enough, he started ringing the bells to go out. The first time he rang the bell, I was so thrilled! Once he consistently went outside, we got rid of the pads and never looked back. If I go out, he gets put in the crate with a treat and has never gone potty in the crate.

He is just over 4 months now and I would say he is potty trained but I am still keeping the gates up because I read somewhere that the dog has to go a full month without an accident so we are just counting the days. I took him out shopping and put him in the grass at the shopping center, showed him the treat and said go potty and he did!

Again, I believe the trick is the TREAT. I was waiting outside a long time for him to poop and finally figured out that if I have a better treat, something different and a bit bigger of a piece, he will go much faster. My family laughs now because there are some times that he rings the bell to go out and then pees 4 times trying to get more treats but I am fine with that because he is going outside. He is a little treat hustler though-lol!

Monday we are taking him to the snow so we'll really put him to the true test of potty training but you can be sure I will be packing the crate, the bells and the treats. Wish us luck and good luck to you!

Now if I can just get him to stop biting! That is really worrying me because I would think that at almost 5 months, he would not be biting us when playing. He bit my little girl right on the nose! People just say "oh he's still a puppy" but I never had a dog that bit us and it hurts!