A Tale of Two Kittens and One Puppy » A good housetraining day

Yesterday was a record: Chester only had to go outside 6 times (7 if you count the time he went to the back door, but didn’t actually have to go).

That might sound like a lot for a 5 month old puppy, but consider that when we first got him, I was taking him out 12 times a day and he was still having accidents.

I’d never [tag]housetrained a puppy before, and it was driving me crazy. It didn’t help that my husband went on a business trip a week after we got Chester.

There are many different housetraining “systems”. Many people with toy breeds prefer to paper train, use puppy pads, or use a litter box.

When we got Chester, he was using puppy pads. They put a puppy pad in his crate at night, so I continued to do that. But he never used the pad. I had to take him out at 4 am, but he was able to hold it until then. Some puppies do have to go out in the middle of the night; if you have one of those, make sure you don’t play with them after you take them out — if you do, they probably won’t go back to sleep (and neither will you).

It’s now 2 months later, and I don’t take him out until 7 am.

The supposed problem with both paper training and puppy pads is that it tells the puppy that it’s ok to go in the house. Not to mention the fact that you’ve got the wet pads or paper to deal with, and the cost.

I’ve been told that Chihuahuas are notoriously difficult to housetrain. We’re doing pretty well; there are very few accidents, although there still are a few.

Here are a few of the things that helped me:

Keep a diary. If you know how long your puppy can hold it, and you know when you last took him out, you’ll have a pretty good idea of when to take him out next.
Take your puppy out first thing in the morning, after meals, after naps, and last thing at night.
If you do see them getting ready to go inside — clap your hands and say “no!”. You want to startle them into stopping, then take them out so that they can finish up outside. If they’ve already had an accident, don’t punish them; they won’t associate your punishment with the accident, and worse, they might try to start hiding accidents from you.
If there is an accident (and there will be), clean up with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle.

There is a rule of thumb that puppies can hold it for their age + 1. In other words, if they’re 2 months old, they should be able to hold it for 3 hours.

Since Chester is so small, it seems like it’s more like age -1, or less. According to the “rule”, he ought to be able to hold it for almost 6 hours now. Ain’t gonna happen, except at night. Last night he did hold it for a bit over 5 hours, only having to go out after dinner and before bed — and that was a real breakthrough. I don’t expect it to happen again tonight.

He can hold it 3-4 hours, but it’s less in the morning and depending on when he last ate or his activity level.

He has begun to sometimes let us know when he needs to go out by going to the back door (if he has access to it). My husband tends to be overly cautious about accidents. He’ll take him out much earlier than I will sometimes, and I do think that’s part of why he’s not holding it as long as he could. Or I could be completely wrong.

Still, 6 times a day is a far cry from the 12 times a day I was taking him out just 2 months ago. Although 8 times a day is still normal for him.

Just another reason cats are so much easier.

I actually haven’t given up on the litterbox idea, but I’d like him to be truly housetrained before I even attempt that. It’s appealing to me because I’m already used to litterboxes — I scoop them several times a day already — and I’d sure rather be inside than out when it’s really cold or really pouring. Luckily, it generally doesn’t ge that cold here, and it’s the rare day that it rains all day.

Some say you can’t litterbox train them if they’re already used to going outside, but others say you can. There was even a trainer who had a free potty training seminar here not that long ago, and they were supposed to talk about it. Hopefully they’ll run that seminar again in the future.

Still, some people just assume that you can’t housetrain toy breeds. I could definitely see it being very difficult if you lived in an apartment and had to get down 3 flights of stairs before reaching outdoors, but Chester seems to be doing quite well. It may take him time, but he’ll get there.

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