First, alittle back ground. I have a 10 lb. 17 month old female Red Min-Pin. We've had her since she was 3 months old. As others have noted, she was difficult to house break. But for the most part she good. She is crate trained and that's where she is when we're out or at night. Our other dog is a 10 lb. female mix (pekingese / jack russell). She is probably as good a dog as you'll ever find.

I'm not sure if the following are normal Min-Pin behavior or not:

There are 2 items related to her crate that I'd like to fix.

1a. I can't give her a blanket, pillow or towel. She always seams cold, but every time I put one of these things in, she pees on it in the corner. I hear about spray, but is that something that should be used on a blanket, etc?
1b. Even without a blanket, pillow or towel in her crate she will occationally pee in her crate (Usally not more than 1st a month). We make sure she pees before bedtime and we have even stopped giving them water about 3-4 hours before bedtime. Any ideas? I'd like to make her crate as comfortable as possible, but not for her to pee on.

2. She is allowed in any room downstairs, but not allowed upstairs. This is how it has always been. Occationally she will be caught upstairs and gets in a lot of trouble. She will keep doing it for a few times then stop. A few months later, she'll start again. Why would she keep doing this?

3. She is also nuts when it comes to food. She has to be put in her crate when we have company because she can't handle it. She will try to steal food from the kids hands and off the tables if nobody is watching. We have a handicapped daughter and if we're not looking she'll sneak in the room and eat it off her plate (on her lap). Our other dog will not do any of this.

4. She also seams to think she owns a spot of the couch. She will growl at my 6 year old if she trys to move her when she's in that spot. It is the spot that they both like. We have semi-resolved this by banning her from that spot by putting pillows so she can't sit there. So far this seams to have worked, but any additional ideas would be helpful.

Sorry for the long post, but she is driving us nuts. The above items may sound small, but they are what I could think of at this time. Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Craig

[Yogi]

you pretty much summed it up and based on what you are describing, she is definitely a Miniature Pinscher.

I have a couple that when blankets were placed in the crate peed also. Same thing, removed the blanket and only on rare occasion would they pee. To help I built a small frame to support a crate cover. The dog cannot get to it but at the same time it offers the dog insulation and privacy.

Eating issues are not uncommon as Miniature Pinschers can be like small vacuum's eating everything that they can get to. Overeating is a serious issue in the breed so training is a must to address this.

The breed can be very territorial, keep in mind these are in fact Terriers not Toy breed dogs therefore they do have a tendency to lay claim to some things as their own. The breed requires a stern dominant owner to make it very clear they are not in charge. This breed is prone to challenging you at every turn until they are convinced they will not win the battle which takes time. Be patient as this breed does require it.

Typical of Terriers, they like to investigate things and the more there is the more they are likely to want to check out. By placing the upstairs off limits they see as a challenge to their natural instincts to explore. Once they are satisfied of what they have discovered they can be content to see no useful purpose in investigating again until the time comes. This will be a repeated routine to have to go through and check every once in awhile to see if anything is different.

The breed in itself is naturally curious and cat like so this activity should be expected. If the dog is prone to destructive nature, it needs to expel energy. This is a naturally high energy breed. The more tired it is, the more inclined it is to be less of a destructive little animal on the house. A securely fenced yard is a requirement for the breed to ensure the exercise needed can be given. Daily walks are not sufficient for this breed

Good luck and just be patient. You have so far with the house training and it has worked. Considering on the whole, any Miniature Pinscher that reaches 85% house trained is considered "house trained".

Min pins are curious little creatures. Having two myself, I must say that whenever a door is opened to a room they arnt allowed in, they go CRAZY and try to get in there.

If she isnt allowed up stairs, you need to put a babygate up. She cant distinguish that upstairs is off grounds if there is nothing to keep her from going up there.

How big is her kennel? A kennel should be big enough for her to go in, turn around and stand up in. So a 10 pounder would need about the smallest kennel available. My girls have a bigger kennel but they also share one, its big enough for the two of them.

Is it possible that you could put a snug fitting sweatshirt on her? Snug as in she cant pull it off but its not too tight.

As far as the food and guarding the spot on the couch, that is a typical min pin behavior. They want to claim things as theres. Luna will steal ALL the toys in the house, put them in her bed, and then lay on top of them JUST so the other dogs cant have the toys.

As far as the going upstairs, she doesn't do this all the time. So she must be realizing that it's off-limits. When we catch her, her ears go back immediately, so she knows she's wrong. I really don't want to put a baby gate up. I just finally finished repairing the walls in my kitchen from using gates to house break (it took me about a year to get that done). Having 3 kids, the gates go up and down so much that they rip the dry wall. I guess I'll just keep informing her not to go upstairs and hope that works, but know that she may occationally go up. She does really good with the front door. In the beginning she would bolt out the front door as soon as it opened. Now I can stand with the door open and talk with somebody or go out and get something and she doesn't go out. So, based upon this I guess there's hope.

Her crate is the small one. When opened all the way up, she can lay down and have about 6". But I have had to keep shrinking it so the length is as long as her. Does anybody know why they go in their crate? I thought that dogs don't like to go where they sleep. When I don't have a towel, pillow or blanket in the crate and she pees, she goes so much that she's standing in it. Should I make her go twice before bed. By this I mean wake her up about 1 hour before bed and make her go out?

The stealing stuff makes sense, because she's always trying to steal our other dogs bones, etc. Unfortunetly, our other dog likes to slowly chew the bones, but if she gets to them Holly (our Min-Pin) will eat it up in minutes.

Thanks. Please feel free to post any other ideas, opinions or advise.

I really don't want to put up a gate again. We used one in the beginning to restrict what rooms she had access to while house breaking her. With the kids going bacl and forth, the walls got damaged. I recently repaired the walls in the kitchen, so I'd like to stay away from this unless it's my only option. She really only does this on occation. I was just wondering if something easy could prevent this.

As far as her crate goes, she has the small one. Maybe 12" x 24", something like that. Each dog has her own crate. I have since sprayed down the plastic tray with some urine-b-gone. Usually I just wipe it down with a dry paper towel. So, maybe if the scent is removed, she'll do better. Plus I've been trying to take her out 1 hour before bedtime and then again at bedtime, to make sure her bladder is empty.

At less I know it's in their nature and not just her being a nasty dog when she constantly steals our other dogs bones and crew toys.

There really isnt any other way to prevent her from going upstairs. We dont secure our babygate at the stairs, it just leans against them. The dogs dont mess with it because when they have, it crashes to the floor and makes a loud noise and they hate that, so they leave it alone.

Yes clean the crate out everytime with an enzyme cleaner. Im not sure if urine-b-gone is an enzyme cleaner or not, but make sure it is or at least get one.

Wiping it down with a paper towel isnt cleaning anything up, some sort of spray needs to be used, even if its just lysol or something.

That's how we had our baby gate in the kitchen, but our kids (6 & 9) kept moving it to go by and the wall got beat up, so I'm sure the same will happen. She hasn't gone upstairs since, but I'm sure she will again.

Urine-B-Gone is an enzyme cleaner, so I guess I did that right.

I recently learned about clicker training from reading other threads. She has repsonded really well, so we'll see how that goes.