teaching little dogs

I have a question... anyone here with a little dog... have you been successful in teaching them to go potty outside, everytime. My ex-mother-in-law had a toy poodle who couldn't be trained, and my parnts have had a number of different small dogs who can't seem to be trained. A vet told my ex;'s mom that little dogs hardly ever become house broken like that. So my question was, did you do it 100%, and what was your secret?

 

My niece has two French bulldogs, and they are on the small sizes. She has them trained to go potty outside and she lives in an apartment, plus work full time outside the home. She crates them right off the start at first, and comes home to take them out at her lunch time. They are now trained to go outdoors. I think crate the dog is the best way to go. Capone too, was crated!

 

Homer does his business outside. He's very intelligent. My mom tought him everything, she was great with dogs.

My aunt's dog couldn't be trained. I think he didn't understand us Furniture and walls in my aunt's home were always wet

 

I had a dog once with which the crating method didn't work, it was a white miniature schnauzer. I have no idea what went there, lol, she made a mess! She was nothing like my frida! I had to give her away, it was too much for me to handle in that moment. I don't regret it, she found a good home and I found my Frida (who learnt very fast to go potty outside. Some dogs are almost impossible to train, I tried everything I could with that other dog, EVERYTHING. If I placed newspaper, she'd find the tiniest space where there was no newspaper and poo there! I had to cover the whole place with newspaper, and she still managed to find a tiny empty space that wasn't covered in newspaper and do her thing.

 

@Trellum come to think of it, my nephew has an English bulldog that is very hard to train to, but it has to do with having a wrong crate. I had a small one for Capone, and after Capone outgrown it, he traded with me. We swapped crates, bigger one for Capone and smaller one for Buggie. It worked out like a charm for Buggie. He never soiled the small crate after that

 

@IcyBC How small was that crate in comparison to the dog? Because I thought that crate was big enough D: But it's interesting to hear this theory. Maybe that was the case, but I really thought the crate was good sized.

 

They never tried to crate them. All my dogs are kennel trained. Thats taught to them right off the bat. Its a priority with this any big dogs.

 

The kennel or crate that my nephew had for his dog was way too big and too tall, so Buggie just go to the end of the kennel to do his business. The one I had for Capone and swapped with him was just a bit longer than the dog, and a little bit taller than the dog. Thus he only got enough room to move around and lie down but not enough room that he can poo in it.

 

Uhm, I see, so maybe the kennel was a little too big? The dog had some extra space, but not enough to do her business in the corner and just lie down D: Or maybe she had? If she lied down horizontally. It was such a horrible mess I never felt like ever trying that with a dog.

 

My nephew was going crazy with this business, cleaning up the poop kennel and giving the dog a bath every day after work. Buggie, his dog, just did his business in the kennel no matter what.

After we swapped kennels, my nephew said Buggie stops his deed right away. I believe it has to do with right kennel/crate it would make a big different.

I also agree strongly with @LilAnn that as soon as you bring the dog home, you have to crate/kennel him/her right away to teach them right off the bat.

 

Some of my dogs pooped in the kennel when they were puppies. I think Bri did this annoying little act of rebellion as a protest against "the man oppressing her and her sisters, and locking them in cages". . And you can't leave a mess like that once you know about it. No matter how badly they deserve it. She was a VERY smart dog. But a puppy will be a puppy. I can't tell you how many pillows and couch cushions she ate.

 

Man, that sounds awful for your nephew Gotta suck to come back to work to that... I had the hardest time cleaning that mess! But it's good to know the size does matter, so the smaller the better? A space where they can just lie down and nothing more? I still have the crate, I was checking it the other day and I guess it might have been a little too big.

 

Well some might know my story about my latest small dog. I have no idea what breed she is but she is a handful when it comes to training. My two other small dogs will have an accident on the odd occasion but once we are in the same space and it's not raining 'cats and dogs' they will let me know they want to go out.

Not Ginger and if she has done it a few times she is not consistent. I am been here in the forum crying ( not literally) having let her outside to do her business and when you think everything is good she comes right back in and does something in the house. Still I will say she is improving but I have to whisper. Whenever I say she is improving out loud like here in the forum she 'drops me something on the floor'. Back in the day I tried the crate thing but found myself feeling really sad having them locked up. These days I think I should try it with Ginger but God knows she will cry forever and break my heart.

 

One of my big dogs will come inside and make a mess. He is also one of those dogs that pisses on the floor when he gets in trouble. He never gets worse than a lecture and a smack on the nose, if that. But you raise your voice... and its a flood.

 

Seriously? My Remy who used to be a 'scardey cat' would pee in fear if you tried to grab her or play rough like my son likes to do sometimes. Nothing upsets me more than when I let Ginger out to do her business and she comes back inside and immediately pees on the floor. It's very upsetting but she is a charmer and those eyes always get to me with all of them.

 

I adopted 4 orphaned puppies, recently (which I figured, based on milestones and teeth, to be about 5 weeks old.). I have been trying to potty train them to use the puppy pads. And they want to potty everywhere BUT the puppy pads. I was even on my hands and knees scrubbing the carpet, yesterday. Can you guess what they were doing during all that? Biting me. All over. But when I look at them I can't get mad.

 

I honestly like the feel of carpet underneath my feet but thank God I got rid of the carpet years ago. After tiling most of the house we decided to leave one flight of stairs carpeted. I used to like to walk there and sometimes sit there even. By the time the dogs came along they had other ideas so eventually we got rid of that as well. Ginger is inconsistent but I still feel like she has made some progress. Ever so often Zola with her special self likes to hide and go do her business in the basement. I guess it's her way of telling me the grass needs cutting.

 

So, the crate method did work with Ginger? I can totally understand how you feel about it though, I was thinking the other day how desperate and scared I'd feel if I suddenly found myself locked in a tiny space for hours to no end. But then again I suffer from anxiety, I bet some dogs can feel the same way though... I only used the crate method when I was too desperate and I needed to sleep.

 

No Ginger never had the crate. She would cry like crazy and eat away at my heart and while I would probably entertain the idea with her, I think it would be sort of unfair to lock her up and leave the others free. Would it? I had tried the crate thing very briefly when Zola was born but I could not take it. I think word is going to get out that you can use my dogs to take advantage of me. Who ever thought???

 

@Winterybella I know the feeling! I tend to humanize animals a lot as well, based on my own feelings of how I'd feel if I suddenly ended up locked in a small crate... for me it would be impossible to crate a dog now... I'd be too afraid the dog would think I'm just being mean torturing it Hehehe, I think it's normal and kinda healthy our pets take a bit of advantage of us They are our loves after all