Please help! I have a two 2 year old shih-tzu dogs which I absolutely love!

My prolem is the one dog still pees and poos in the house. We started off the bat crate training but she will poop in her crate. I did get this one from a pet store so that may be the crate problem but is there no hope? She will go outside and we praise and reward her like crazy if she does. We use the same word when going potty outside. She has plenty of out times. She will not give any indication that she needs to go out and she never does it right in front of us so we can't catch her in the act. WE will take her out and walk her for 20 minutes and then she will come in and poop. HELP!!!

Also, she seems to have to poo during the night. How do I break her of that schedule. I have started pushing her dinner time earlier to see if that would help. Tonight she went out and pooped at 9:00 PM but then she just pooped in our room at 12:30 AM!. If I put her in the crate at night she will just poop in it. And she barks like crazy in it.

I have bought all sorts of products to clean the carpets and floors. She just has no clue that she is supposed to go outside. My husband is at his wits end. I just love this dog but don't know what to do.

I have an open kitchen famliy room area and she poops in the family room all the time. I'll be in the kitchen and when I'm not watching she does it.

she gets lots of attention and is only alone for about 3 hours out of the day.

Anyone have any suggestions? Is it possible to still train this dog or is she too old????

Im sorry to here that you are having such a hard time. I rescued a chihuahua a while ago that was older and had the same problem. I spoke with some animal experts and read tons of material and all i realized is that I have to retrain from the begining. I bought a puppy playpen thats open on top. This seem to help keep some control over the random marking in my house and seem to be not as frightening.(This can work for some dogs, when crate training fails) Also it is very important to steam clean all the urine and poop stains out and off everything it has been on. If the dog can smell it, it will continue to go there. But otherwise Patience, love, understanding, and REWARDS...And everytime you catch her say no sternly and take her outside right away and praise as soon as she touches the grass.. Sorry I couldnt be more help. Good Luck

that's the hard time on potty training.. you have to be patient..

I went to a couple of dog training classes and was trying to get my dog potty trained. Like your dog, my dog is a small breed and the trainer told me that smaller breeds are harder to train. This is because to a smaller breed everything is much bigger to them. So for example, if you caught them peeing in the kitchen and disciplined them there, they would know that was wrong for the kitchen only. And if they weren't disciplined in the family room it was okay to pee in the family room. To them each room is somewhere completely different than the other one. Make sure that your dog knows that the entire house is off limits.

Also have you tried using training pads? Sometimes dogs prefer to use these than on the carpet or tile and if you can get her to use those you can somehow move them gradually from indoors to outdoors.

Catching them in the act is the best thing you can do. Don't be too harsh on them if you didn't catch them doing it. They might not know what they did wrong are may be frightened of letting you know the next time they need to use the bathroom.

I hope this helps a little. Good Luck!

when taking a dog outside to do its thing. you got let it no that its serious time . dont give no attendion till after its done. its got no its not play time. and every sign it give that its got to go take it out side till it gets the hang of it. dogs only want to please there owners so every mistake let it no that thats a no no and it will begin to no that makes you very upset Good Luck

Your dog should never be allowed to be out of the cage unless someone is actively watching the dog, or on a leash, so they can see him going in the house.

He must be caught in the act every single time he goes in the house! And quickly taken outside to do his business or to go into time out as a consequence of his actions. Crate training is good, but crate training doesn't end when the dog is let out of the crate. There has to be a transition period during which the dog is observed to be sure he understands what you want. You dog has not proven himself to be reliable and shouldn't be given free access to the home until he had proven that he deserves it.

Also get some supplements and start giving your dog some appropriate table scraps or people food. Commonly dogs eat their own feces because they have nutritional needs that aren't being satisfied by their foods.

Finally keep the cage as clean as possible, remove waste as soon as you can.

Silly Paws

I am having the same problem w/ our 10 month old rescue dog. She continues to go potty/pooping in our house right in front of us. She continues to go in her crate as well. Any suggestions please send them my way.

All of the previous posters had some great advice and encouragement. This is good stuff to know, since I too am going to be bringing home a one year old rescue real soon. The adoption coordinator said the dog is not potty trained, since she has spent her whole life on the end of a chain outside. I plan to crate train her, and even though our yard is fenced, I plan to take her out on leash to do her thing at first-- especially since she has managed to escape her kennel at the shelter twice!

Now one more thing that the other posters forgot to mention about the crate training: If the crate is very roomy, the dog will use one section to potty, and lay in the clean side. You need to make sure the crate is just big enough for the dog to stand up and turn around, but no bigger. The crate is only his bed, not a whole suite with adjoining loo. So if you are using a crate that is too roomy, you ought to try down-sizing, and see if that helps to stop her eliminating in her bed.

Let's keep each other up to date on our progress, as I will be joining your ranks pretty soon! Good luck to us all!

unfortunely with a rescue dog they are use to sitting/lying in their own pee/poop. I have had plenty of puppies (8-10 week olds) and it was so easy to crate train. But with my 10 month old it is extremely difficult! She will go in her crate knowmatter what. Like I said...she is use to it. Good luck with yours! If you have any advise let me know...

Originally Posted by Mydogiscute

All of the previous posters had some great advice and encouragement. This is good stuff to know, since I too am going to be bringing home a one year old rescue real soon. The adoption coordinator said the dog is not potty trained, since she has spent her whole life on the end of a chain outside. I plan to crate train her, and even though our yard is fenced, I plan to take her out on leash to do her thing at first-- especially since she has managed to escape her kennel at the shelter twice!

Now one more thing that the other posters forgot to mention about the crate training: If the crate is very roomy, the dog will use one section to potty, and lay in the clean side. You need to make sure the crate is just big enough for the dog to stand up and turn around, but no bigger. The crate is only his bed, not a whole suite with adjoining loo. So if you are using a crate that is too roomy, you ought to try down-sizing, and see if that helps to stop her eliminating in her bed.

Let's keep each other up to date on our progress, as I will be joining your ranks pretty soon! Good luck to us all!

Thanks for rescuing! If I can help let me know- putting a bunch of heads together is great!

[sandyh]

I see this is an old thread does nobody ever use this site last check in was in 2009 of jan. well just in case:

I have just started this myself with my sons one year old pitbull that he did not train. Every hour on the hour I take her out for a 15 minute walk until night time. I make sure she at least pees every time she goes out even if it takes a little longer than 15 minutes.(If out at 8 and back in at 815 i then take her out again at 915. i have been doing this now for 2 weeks and so far it has been working. we are now switching to every two hours. at bedtime i have been kenneling her and setting my alarm for every three hours,we are about to go to every 4 hours next week. Her crate is only big enough for her to lie in and turn around. Put a blanket over the kennel so they have a feeling of security, if it is warm point a fan so it is just hitting the corner of the kennel so they dont get too cold but also so they have some. Make sure what ever room you are in they are also in so they are not left unattended. i feed hours one time in the am so that it has all day to work its way through their system. My dog poops at least 3 times a day. This is very time consumming but it should work. I just hope you only have one dog, I have two so it seems like i am always watching dogs go to the bathroom. Dogs need lots of walking and if ya cant walk them then train them to go on your treadmill.

Did you end up training your pitbull via "treadmill walking"? I would love to see a video of that ;-p.

[sandyh]

Actually r smith I am still working with the pit . she does walk sometimes as long as i keep food in front of her unfortunately i cant stay on my feet very long so it is a slow process for me.