We had the same problem with Penny for like the first 4 or 5 months! I could be outside with her for an hour and she’d do nothing, soon as she was inside and off her leash she’d whiz on the carpet.

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I saw your tweet on Twitter, had to respond. Take the dog out after a meal, and every 3-4 hrs. When he messes inside clean up with paper towel, bring it with you and the dog and put it where you want him to go pee, leave it there. Puppies have to pee very frequently until their bladders mature as they grow. Keep your eye on your pup and when it starts to pace take it outside immediately to the same place with the soiled paper towels. Eventually they pick it up. But frequent walks and being taken outside will avoid the mess inside your home. Hope this helps, Teriss

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We had the exact same problem with Bubba until he was almost a year old. He refused to go outside, and I stopped buying puppy pads because he always went beside them. He’d even pee in his kennel and sleep on it. He didn’t care one bit.

Our vet kept telling us it was his normal bulldog stubborn side kicking in, but he’d eventually get it. I bought all kind of stay off sprays, enzyme cleaners, and the stuff you spray on the grass to attract them to pee in that spot. None of it worked.

One of the vet techs suggested picking up his water bowl at night, giving him a few ice cubes to lick on, and then letting him have the water bowl in the morning. By regulating exactly when he had his food & water in the mornings I was able to narrow down when he’d start sniffing. I’d pop my head in about 15 min after he ate and find him sniffing, jerk him up and run him outside just in time to pee on the grass. Worked like a charm! Of course, I was home all day and able to watch his every move.

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The puppy pads really are great for training because of their scent. So great that out dog caught on the first day and wouldn’t go outside after that.

What finally broke him was taking him out on a short leash and giving him a treat immediately after he peed. If you wait to give him a treat until you come inside, he thinks you gave him the treat because he came inside.

Now Ollie goes on the puppy pads while we’re at work and outside otherwise. Unless it’s raining…there had to be a catch.

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My sisters have had this problem with there dogs for a few years now. They still have to buy puppies pads for the occasional time they go inside, but eventually they got the hang of it and usually go outside. It does take some time with these dogs for some unknown reason.

Julie, It has been a long time since I have trained a pup, but this seems to cover all the bases of doing it. Hope this helps.. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1548&articleid=157 Pappy

First - wrong breed for potty-training! Ugh! Chi’s are so hard to train - also Yorkies. I love Teriss’s idea of taking the soiled p.towels outside, though - that is a great idea!!

You could look on Cesar’s site for ‘chihuahua’ and ‘potty training’ - or even google the two of them together in one search, to see what other Chi people have done.

Good luck!!!

Terris - thanks for the great suggestions! I’m going to try taking his stuff outside, I hope that works!

Jenn - thanks for the great suggestions! I will be keeping an eye on his sniffing patterns from now on.

Corrin - thanks for the great suggestions! I will be taking the treats outside with me from now on.

Holly, I figured he would eventually just do it, maybe I’m just being to impatient.

Pappy, thanks for the link!

Lisa, my mom actually sent me links to a few different sites this morning all about the chihuahua. It seems to be worse in the males also!

BUTTTTTT!!! When I took him outside this morning, he did both #1 and #2. I brought him inside and gave him a Snausage, but now I know I need to take those treats OUTSIDE with me.

Way to go, little doggy! Keep it up!

Chihuahuas are extremely difficult to housebreak. Mine is almost a year old and we’re still struggling with it. She knows when we take her outside that it’s time to take care of business, but if she has to go in between trips she won’t even bother to try to get outside… she just goes off somewhere out of sight and does it. It took a long time with our last Chihuahua, too… I want to say a couple of years before she really got it. But then she was perfect, would hold it all day and would not go inside unless she just couldn’t hold it anymore. She would let us know she needed to go by chasing her tail. Keep trying, it will happen eventually… it just takes a LOOOOONG time with these guys.

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HelloKit - So the key is patience? Thanks for the information!

I agree that Chi’s are hard to train - in fact, our 12 year old Chihuahua still pees in the house once in a while. And…he really does get out a lot. Had to clean up poo too the other morning. Nothing like dog poo first thing in the morning to bring on the dry heaves!

Good luck!!!

Oh sweetie, I can relate. I’ve had to banish the kittens to the bathroom at night now. They have decided that it’s best to sleep on my bed with me. That’s cool and all, but the little ones decided just to trot down to the bottom of the bed to do their business in the middle of the night and as much as I love snuggling with the tiny ones, I’m not so much in love with having poo-poos on my feet. I think they’re afraid to jump off the bed in the dark.

cchiovitti - oh THAT is not good at all! ugh

Irish Gifts - I hear ya on the dry heaves! I’ve almost lost it a couple times since starting this adventure.

We have a cairnterrier puppy aged 13 weeks and she just won’t pee outside - after hard work, she has done it outside just a couple of times (#2 is no problem though). Those times I’ve given her treats and praised her and taken her back inside.
But she just won’t get it - peeing outside is the option only if she’s about to explode. She just waits to get back home to have a pee.

Everytime I notice her doing that pre-potty pattern, I take her outside to the same place where she’s peed a couple of times. This morning we spent first 55 min outside, then after 15 min inside she was about to pee, so I took her out. 30 min, no pee - back inside. Inside I watched her paperspot, so I could take her back outside, when she’d try it again. So what happened - she peed on my backbag!

This is just killing me. Hours and hours every day with no success.