Toilet Training

[fluffs]

Hi, I have 3 furbabies and I love them to bits, however my Shih Tzu girl is just doing my head in. I know how to toilet train, I have done my fair share of fluffs over the years, but I am having issues with my little girl.

She is 20mths old and has been toilet trained to go outside and has been really good since she was about 6-7mths old. However if we leave an old towel down on the floor downstairs for the kids to wipe their feet on she would pee on it instead of walking out the back door , so I stopped leaving the towel down, that went well, she started going back outside for a while, then she just started peeing upstairs on the bath mat so I got rid of the bath mat, I just threw it out, again things went back to normal for a good while. Then she decided instead of walking downstairs and outside she would just pee in her beds , I washed them in vinegar but she kept going back and doing it, so I threw ALL the upstairs beds out. Again things went back to normal and she started going back outside, but now she is just peeing where ever she wants. She peed on my lounge, she peed on the spare matress my son was laying while watching a movie, and she did it right in front of all of us. I yelled " Cassy NO" and clapped my hands and took her straight outside but she wouldn't go, so I put her in her crate.

I have taken her to the vets and she has no medical reason for her behaviour, my vet thinks she is just lazy, she doesn't want to walk downstairs leaving the others incase she misses out on something, I am starting to think she maybe right. I am getting so frustrated because I know she knows to go outside and when she does we make a big fuss and give her lots of treats.

I have even started the crate training. I take her out to the toilet every 3hrs and if she doesn't go I put her in her crate, if she does go she is allowed to stay out and play with the others, today she refused to go and I had her in her crate for 5hrs and I was taking her out every 30-40min but she wouldn't go.

My hubby loves her to bits but has said " if we can't get this sorted she will have to go " , he won't live in a house that smells of pee, he won't have a dog use his home as a toilet. I can relate but we both just love her so so so much and neither of us want it to come to that, I know he is saying this out of frustration. Other than the crate idea I am trying now does anyone else have anything to offer.

This situation really confuses me.

Thankyou all so much in advance... Bek

[chepet]

Bek ,sorry I have no solution for you , I just want to say I have similar problem though not as bad as yours !!,

My baby just turned 3 & has been ' trained 'for ages , he's fine of a day time ( we have a dog door which he uses ) but if it's raining of a night time or sometimes not , he will pee in our family room - where he sleeps

though we went out on Sunday & couldn't take him & he punished us by peeing all over the floor in the family room

hard to retrain as he does it when we are not around !!!! HELP !!!!!!!

[puppymum]

Have you tried focusing on dominance issues - general training, making obey commands etc? She seems about the right age to perhaps be challenging for top dog, in which case it may be more marking behaviour than actual toilet training.

I had a friend whose dog was doing similar things (in that case peeing on the kid's bed - she had one of the kids back in nappies overnight for about a week before realizing it was the dog ) and she focussed on getting the kids to do training exercises with the dog, enforcing rules like not being on the couch etc. The problem disappeared in a couple of days.

[hotdoggy]

Bek when one of my dogs was doing puppy training, the vet suggested spraying Citronella Oil (watered down in a spray bottle) all over the house on the carpets, mats (matress) etc, apparently dogs really don't like this and won't wee on it. I did try it, but don't be daft like me and buy citronella oil from the supermarket in the bbq section because it is of course kerosene for lamps - I'm just lucky I didn't have any smokers in my house. You can buy it in a bottle from some pharmacies. Citronella is also not citrus oil as my husband thought.

Maybe have a lead handy and have the kids drag her out often, some little dogs don't like to go outside because they also feel a bit defensless out there. But I completely see your hubby's point and if she didn't fix the problem she would become an outdoor dog at my place.

[Aussienot]

I think it will be a combination of setting rules and boundaries - letting her know that you are in charge; and the crate training. Give her no opportunity to choose where to pee. She needs to understand that is your house, your territory and your rules.

[Silver Deer]

fluffs, did you ever resolve this issue?

Sorry to revisit an old thread, I thought it'd be better to than start a new one, since I'm having the exact same problems. I don't think my situation is a dominance issue or a territory marking thing... I suspect it's because we only catch her in the act 50% of the time. It seems almost like you vet said, like she's just too lazy to go outside and down the stairs into the garden...