My dachshund is four months old, and I have been trying to housebreak her.

She does ask to go outside, but not consistently.

Are their any secret doxie tricks to the trade?

If so, I would appreciate it if someone would let me in on them.

:)


Thank you,

Kali.

I don't have any specialist knowledge about dachshunds but I do know that house training takes time with some puppies. Some get it really quickly and some take longer. In my experience, four months is young to expect any pup to be reliable. Basically, the rule is this: the more times in a day she toilets outside and is rewarded for it, the quicker the toilet training will sink in. If you want her to learn it really fast, you need to spend as much time as you can with her, not only taking her outside every hour or so in case she needs to go, but keeping an eye on her for signs such as circling or sniffing that can mean she needs to go. Please do not scold her for accidents - all this will teach her is to wait until you are out of the room before she does it. Reward heavily when she gets it right, with praise in an excited pleased tone of voice and a good treat like chicken or a little bit of cheese. Be patient and stick at it, you will get there I promise.

Kay, I've had dogs all my life and the one thing I can tell you, no two are the same. My lab was potty trained within days, he was 3 months old when we brought him home. My border collie was trained within 2 weeks, he was 4 months old when he came home. My beagle, he just caught on, he's 6 months now and we've had him since he was 10 weeks old.

Just be consistent, don't worry too much yet, at 4 months he's still pretty young, and like Sajjw said, he'll be unreliable.

You'll be shocked, one day it will click and all of a sudden he'll be housebroken.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by sajjw

I don't have any specialist knowledge about dachshunds but I do know that house training takes time with some puppies. Some get it really quickly and some take longer. In my experience, four months is young to expect any pup to be reliable. Basically, the rule is this: the more times in a day she toilets outside and is rewarded for it, the quicker the toilet training will sink in. If you want her to learn it really fast, you need to spend as much time as you can with her, not only taking her outside every hour or so in case she needs to go, but keeping an eye on her for signs such as circling or sniffing that can mean she needs to go. Please do not scold her for accidents - all this will teach her is to wait until you are out of the room before she does it. Reward heavily when she gets it right, with praise in an excited pleased tone of voice and a good treat like chicken or a little bit of cheese. Be patient and stick at it, you will get there I promise.

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I have always been advised not to train using food or treats - the dog behaves and is rewarded by praise, by wanting to be "favored" by the owner. Same with coming when they are called - my dogs come when I call them because it's expected, not because there's a cookie at the end of the trip.

When I rewarded one of my first dogs with a treat when she came into the house she began to ask to go out several times an hour. It was all about the cookie.

Thanks for all of the great advice. I just think I need to try and be more consistent. And also, I haven't had the heart to crate train her. I have a crate, and she stays in it when I am not home, but she hates it. She cries for up to an hour if I put her in it. I just don't know what I did wrong.

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Originally Posted by KayGates

Thanks for all of the great advice. I just think I need to try and be more consistent. And also, I haven't had the heart to crate train her. I have a crate, and she stays in it when I am not home, but she hates it. She cries for up to an hour if I put her in it. I just don't know what I did wrong.

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I don't think you've done anything wrong - they are babies and creatures of habit. My dog HATED her crate so I bought a puppy playpen, put the crate inside that and she could roam around inside the playpen OR go into the crate and was perfectly happy.

It was hard at first to put her in the pen and then walk away and not come back when she cried but every time I came back we had a joyous reunion and then the next time I tried to put her in the crate she was even more emotional.

I find - and I am alone with two very large dogs - that CONSISTENCY is what matters. They eat in the same order, go out, come in - everything older dog first, puppy following. It works for us. When they were younger and were crated, that's what we did - they got crated and I left. No exceptions (unless someone was bleeding).

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

I have always been advised not to train using food or treats - the dog behaves and is rewarded by praise, by wanting to be "favored" by the owner. Same with coming when they are called - my dogs come when I call them because it's expected, not because there's a cookie at the end of the trip.

When I rewarded one of my first dogs with a treat when she came into the house she began to ask to go out several times an hour. It was all about the cookie.

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I think the decision whether to treat or not should be made by assessing an individual dogs' personality. Some dogs have a very strong 'will to please' i.e. praise from you is sufficient reward to re-inforce the expected behaviour. Some dogs do not have this will to please at all and seem to be constantly asking"what's in it for me?" Some are far more motivated by toys than either treats or praise. There are many different approaches to training, I personally tend to follow the advice of my highly qualified and extremely experienced dog trainer who believes in using treats to train. Also, I have potty trained all of my puppies with treats and it has been very successful. That's not to say that other's methods are not just as valid. A lady at my agility class is not a great believer in using treats and her labrador has an extremely strong recall and is very well trained.

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Originally Posted by sajjw

I think the decision whether to treat or not should be made by assessing an individual dogs' personality. Some dogs have a very strong 'will to please' i.e. praise from you is sufficient reward to re-inforce the expected behaviour. Some dogs do not have this will to please at all and seem to be constantly asking"what's in it for me?" Some are far more motivated by toys than either treats or praise. There are many different approaches to training, I personally tend to follow the advice of my highly qualified and extremely experienced dog trainer who believes in using treats to train. Also, I have potty trained all of my puppies with treats and it has been very successful. Thats not to say that other's methods are not just as valid. A lady at my agility class is not a great believer in using treats and her labrador has an extremely strong recall and is very well trained.

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As long as there's an understanding that not one method works for every dog I'm okay with it. I've had (mostly) German Shepherds and Rotts, both hard headed breeds. Never used treats, never had to. My dogs come when they're called, stop what they're doing when told to, all the good stuff because that's what they're expected to do. If I added treats, maybe it would be the same (and I would weigh 200 pounds from sharing the treats).

Agreed - it depends on the dog and the breed and how much time the owner wants to spend. Sometimes - and I'm not saying all of the time - the treat is the faster, easier way.

I just think it's important to state that what works for one dog and one owner might not work for another pair.