Really struggling with potty training

[Chihowhow]

We have a chihuahua, she is 13 weeks and really really good. However, I’m desperately struggling with toilet training.

We take her out on a schedule but she hardly ever wees or poos. She eats and drinks very little, so we are struggling to get her to do anything when she gets taken out. Because there are so few times that she goes (and they are tiny when she does) I am constantly stressing that I have missed an accident and the house will end up stinking of wee and I will be too nose blind to notice! I am so on edge all the time and am constantly worried about her toilet schedule, it is taking over my life. We absolutely love her but I am finding this soul crushingly hard!

Chis are notoriously tricky with their house training, and it's unfortunately never going to be easy! It sounds as though you're doing the right things at the moment.

House training does take over your life, to be fair. Until they get it, it’s virtually a full time job. We’ve recently house trained our miniature poodle and yes it’s stressful but perseverance is the key and they do get it in the end.

If I run through what we did, it might help.

1. We took her outside on the lead and made it very boring. No playing outside.
2. We took her after a sleep, after a game, after a drink and after food.
3. If she went we said izzy wizzy as she was going and then gave plenty of praise. Some people give treats but our dog isn’t really food driven.
4. If she didn’t go, we came back inside but then went out again ten minutes later. We did this until she actually went.
5. She’s now fully trained and will go on command.

You will get there, just be patient with her.

Thank you both so much. She is a very clean little thing-she has never had an accident in her crate, which is an absolute blessing. I’m trying to get her to go on a square of AstroTurf outside the house as we don’t have a fenced garden, which is making it even more tricky for her I think. I just wish I could get this right, I feel like it will never end. It has been over a month and the only thing we have down is the first thing in the morning wee, and even that didn’t happen this morning. I hope we crack it! Xxx

As PP said, chihuahuas are notoriously hard to toilet train so I'm afraid this will be your life for quite a while yet!

However, it looks like you're doing everything right so it's just a matter of persevering until she gets it. Good luck :)

Recommend you look at The Perfect Puppy book by Gwen Bailey if you’d like advice but sounds like you are doing the right things. Also please remember she is still a baby and she must be tiny so presumably a small bladder?!! I had one dog who literally never had an accident in the house, but my currently girlie was unfortunately still having the odd accident at 9 months. They are like kids with potty training. Some of them get it straight off the bat…some are still not quite there even in primary. So glad you love her though! Good luck she sounds very cute.