Housetraining -

Hi I have joined this forum today as a make or break relationship between me and my pup Alfie. He is a year and a half and continues to pee in certain spots of my house. He does do his business outside after looking at the door handle but when left alone (even for as little as a minute), he lifts his leg and hey presto, a watery smelly mess that I am left to clean up. I have tried many things but none have seemed to work. I'm looking advice or to rehome him. Help!!

Welcome Josiejo I am so sorry you are having problems with Alfie. I think you have to go back to basics with him, in other words every few minutes take hinm out and wait till he does something and reward him when he does and praise him well. Take him out when he wakes up and after he has eaten. Hopefully the penny will drop. I am sure someone else will be a long lhere later to give you some advice. We are a very fiendly lot so don't be afraid to ask if there is anything you want to know. Oh and we do like pictures of your furry friend.

Hi Josiejo and welcome to Whispers. As Carol has said the best thing to do is go back to basics, and treat Alfie as if he is a new puppy. It is not unusual for Shih Tzu to take a while to get the hang of housetraining sometimes, but with a lot of hard work Alfie will get there in the end.

By the sounds of things he has certain spots he goes in, and you need to break the cycle. First of all get hold of one of the sprays you can use to get rid of the smells of dog pee from Pets at Home. Then just start again from scratch, taking him out after food, sleep, or play. Make sure you stay out with him and as soon as he has done a pee give him plenty of reward. It shouldn't take long for him to get the idea. Whatever you do though, don't scold him because this will make him worse and he will go and hide in order to do it which is the last thing you want.

Any questions just ask and someone will be along to give you a hand.

This sounds to me like marking -is he an entire male or has he been castrated? you need to remove the smells as Sue has suggested and I would suggest that whenever you leave him however short a time you cage him for the time being as he will NOT soil his bed and so this will eventually break the cycle. You need to practice the being left part as well as it may well be a part of separation anxiety. A cage or pen is the solution and makes practising leaving him and returning so much easier.

We have a playpen for Dolly. It's a hexagon shape soft sided one with a mesh top that can be zipped over. Reading on here, it looks like I have been making the mistake of including a puppy pad because on occasion she has poo'd on it and of course in true Dolly style snaffles it up if I'm not on the case. I try to monitor her toilet movements and we go outside into the garden at least two million times a day but sometimes she just does her business in her playpen Is that because of my silliness in leaving a pad in there? obviously I have stopped that now - the floor is a canvas one which is velcro'ed to the sides so there are gaps if she does have an accident. So today we have lined it with newspaper. She has a nice bed and fluffy blankets and lots of toys to occupy her. It's just this soiling in there thats got me.. I wouldn't mind but unless she is asleep we only leave in her there an hour tops.

Dollysmum wrote:We have a playpen for Dolly. It's a hexagon shape soft sided one with a mesh top that can be zipped over. Reading on here, it looks like I have been making the mistake of including a puppy pad because on occasion she has poo'd on it and of course in true Dolly style snaffles it up if I'm not on the case. I try to monitor her toilet movements and we go outside into the garden at least two million times a day but sometimes she just does her business in her playpen Is that because of my silliness in leaving a pad in there? obviously I have stopped that now - the floor is a canvas one which is velcro'ed to the sides so there are gaps if she does have an accident. So today we have lined it with newspaper. She has a nice bed and fluffy blankets and lots of toys to occupy her. It's just this soiling in there thats got me.. I wouldn't mind but unless she is asleep we only leave in her there an hour tops.

I think it's the pee smell that tends to linger, although I do spray the carpet if Daisy does a poo indoors. The puppy pads are impregnated with a pee smell to encourage puppies to pee on them, but long term if you want them to pee outside it seems to make more sense to just keep putting them outside. Obviously though it's hard to have eyes in the back of your head and watch them every second. My problem right now with the weather being colder is that I am closing the door to the garden and would like it if she would bark or do something to let me know she wants to go outside, but guess she is still too young.

Lyn

Dollysmum wrote:We have a playpen for Dolly. It's a hexagon shape soft sided one with a mesh top that can be zipped over. Reading on here, it looks like I have been making the mistake of including a puppy pad because on occasion she has poo'd on it and of course in true Dolly style snaffles it up if I'm not on the case. I try to monitor her toilet movements and we go outside into the garden at least two million times a day but sometimes she just does her business in her playpen Is that because of my silliness in leaving a pad in there? obviously I have stopped that now - the floor is a canvas one which is velcro'ed to the sides so there are gaps if she does have an accident. So today we have lined it with newspaper. She has a nice bed and fluffy blankets and lots of toys to occupy her. It's just this soiling in there thats got me.. I wouldn't mind but unless she is asleep we only leave in her there an hour tops.

She is just a puppy so as yet the penny has not dropped regarding toileting - thats all

You may want to reconsider the newspaper - had to use it years ago when there was nothing else BUT black puppies all the time as the newsprint comes off

at mo i am puppy pad training til daisy is allowed outside once shes had her 2nd vacc,,, luckily we only have the odd accident put we do tell her off and rush her to pad as quickly as possible . each time she does it on pad we fuss he n give her a treat, she also sleeps on our bed at night accident free.

Aww, Daisy looks so cute in your avatar.

Daisy is still a tiny baby, so don't tell her off when she doesn't go on her puppy pads. Just clean it up quietly and carry on. You are doing exactly the right thing by rewarding her every time she goes on the pad, and it will get much easier once she can go outside. She is doing very well to sleep on your bed and be accident free at night so well done.

no telling off whatever you do or she will start to find somewhere other than the floor She is just a baby and she is doing very well already... have a look at my houstraining section to make sure you are getting in right and before you know it she will have it mastered - I will go and bump the thread up now x

Hi, Caleb started marking our landing carpet a vet friend suggested using washing powder to clean which we did and have not had it happen since ! I scubbed with a hot water mix of our biological tabs then went over with the carpet cleaner a few times with just hot water. hope this helps.