Dachshunds are not the easiest dog in the world to housetrain but not
the most difficult either. They are a little under average in difficulty I
would guestimate. The reason so many people have trouble housetraining
them though is they are not consistent LONG enough to make sure the
message is THOROUGHLY understood because dachshunds have minds
of their own. They can be successfully housetrained to an excellent
level; all of mine are. I can trust them in my house when I am home or
when I am not home without having to crate them and even more
importantly I can trust them in other people's houses and in motels
when we travel for shows.
When I housetrain I watch my puppy for at least a year as a rule of
thumb and this can vary. I have had some that are perfect by a year
and I have had others that still need a little more follow-up but as a
rule they are well trained by a year of age IF the trainer is consistent
and vigilant.
This does not mean that for all intents and purposes the puppy is not
trained sooner but this way you are around and still watching if you
have one backslide and they all will backslide a couple of times after
you "think" they are housetrained. They usually backslide somewhere
around six to 9 months just a couple of times and if you are not
watching so you can catch them and take care of the problem by
going back to strict rules for a few weeks, you can be in serious
trouble and I find this happening to many of the people that come to
me for help. As a rule of thumb, after your puppy is about six months
old, if you get a mistake after that, you should put them back on strict
young puppy housetraining rules for a minimum of one month for each
mistake.
There is a wide disparity of philosophy on crating in this country. A
crate does have its puposes I would be the first to say. I feel they are
necessary to pop a puppy into when you can not watch them closely
so they won't make housetraining errors or to keep a puppy from
danger when you can't watch it or to contain a destructive dog
(although in my opinion most dogs are destructive because they aren't
getting enough attention) Crates make travelling in a car safer for dogs
and of course one needs them for shows also.
However, that said, "my" philosophy on crating is that far too many
people crate their dogs for far too long and then I think a crate
becomes a convenience for the human and inhumane for the animal so
use your crate especially for housetraining purposes but use it wisely
and humanely. It is a useful tool especially when housetraining but dogs
were not meant to live in crates. This means that I would not crate a
dog regularly for 8 to l0 hours all day, five days a week while I worked
and neither would I probably crate it all night for life. If you housetrain
your dog properly and teach him house manners this just simply is not
necessary. Animals are animals and they need and want to move
around. That said, you will often have to crate puppies at night at least
that first year so they can't have accidents in the middle of the night
or roam the house and get into mischief. I usually take my puppies into
bed with me because I am a light sleeper and if they wiggle (when they
are very young I will wake up and put them out-I have never had a
puppy have an accident in our bed. However, if you do this, keep in
mind your dog will want to sleep with you for the rest of its life on a
regular basis. I avoid many problems by taking my new puppies into my
bed right when I bring them into the house and then they usually sleep
from about ll:00 at night to 6:00 in the morning, even at l0 and l2
weeks........... If you don't want to do this you SHOULD crate your new
puppy at night. Just stick the crate by your bed so if it gets lonely and
scared at first you can talk to it. The first six months any time I stick
a puppy into its crate, I give it a little treat; you want it to like its
crate and not think of it as punishment or anything like that.
I never advocate papertraining or using wee pads unless one would be
working all day and then the young puppy must have a place to potty
because it is cruel to expect a very young puppy to hold it for 8 or 9
hours.
Why do I say only use newspaper or wee pads if necessary? Because
it just adds another step(and issue) to the housetraining, that is, first
you are having it potty in the house and then later on, you are telling
it it that it can not. Some puppies take this transfer step just fine,
others have a lot of trouble with it. If you have a choice, I would just
start out housetraining your puppy to go outside right from the getgo
and eliminate any confusion as it just clouds the issue a little bit. Below
are two types of housetraining, one, for those who work all day and
one for those who do not:
Housetraining when there is someone home almost all of the time:
a) Take the puppy out first thing in the morning and last thing at
night (First thing in the morning means before coffee and even before
dressing, Scoop that puppy up and GET IT OUTSIDE AND FAST!!)
b) Take the puppy out after every eating or drinking sesion and after
every vigorous play session.
c) ALWAYS take your puppy out on leash even when you have a fenced
yard. WHY? Because you want your puppy to tend to business AND
you want to know that your puppy has pottied and the only way you
will know this is if you are out there WITH it!!!! If you are lazy and just
throw it out in the yard, half the time it will start playing or hunting or
whatever and forget what it is out there for. Puppies do this and it is
normal and this will make the housetraining much more difficult. There
are NO shortcuts to good housetraining so go out WITH your puppy
and have it on leash so you can direct it. After it is has pottied and
done what you wanted, then you can turn it loose in your FENCED
yard if you wish and go back into the house and tend to other things.
d) l2 weeks to six months- Give your puppy a free hour loose in the
house after it has pottied. Free means not crated or not on a lap but
does NOT mean that you are not watching it every second!!!
ANY TIME you can not watch your puppy, have someone in your family
hold it on their lap, leash it to your leg or pop it in its crate. This is
because at this age, someone always has to be watching it. It only
takes a second to get a mistake and the fewer mistakes a puppy
makes when being housetrained, the easier it housetrains.
e)Learn your puppies potty habits. Some puppies sniff and sniff and go
off into another area to potty (no, they aren't sneaking, they just
don't want to potty in your immediate living area because most puppies
are clean) Some turn around and around in a circle, some get funny
looks on their faces. Learn your particular puppies signs for having to go
potty. It doesn't take more than a couple of weeks before you should
be able to tell when it has to go and you can scoop it up and get it out
BEFORE it goes and this will cut way down on mistakes.
f) The less mistakes your puppy makes in the house, the easier it will be
to housetrain it. If and when your puppy makes a mistake, try to catch
it in the act, scoop it up and RUSH it outdoors, dribbling even and all
the whole way and saying EH EH or No NO and then after you get it
outside tell it to go potty out there or whatever your cue word is. Do
not strike your puppy with your hand or a newspaper or even scream at
it. A sharp No or Eh Eh will suffice and tell it to go OUT. Keep using the
word OUT and don't change the word and it will learn fast what OUT
means. ALWAYS clean up any mistakes with a COMMERCIAL Odor Out
preparation especially made to remove urine and feces odors. You might
think you have removed the odor with a regular cleaning agent but not
to your puppies nose.
g) Teach your puppy a word that means to eliminate. I, for example,
use GET BUSY. When you have your puppy out on leash, the minute
after it starts going say your cue word over and over and over again
(about 30 times or more like a mantra) EACH time the dog eliminates.
After a few weeks, it will try to eliminate when you start saying the
cue word BEFOREHAND and eventually you will have a dog trained to go
upon command. Since dachshunds are a little stubborn they won't
always go for you upon command but trust me, they get pretty good at
it. I have one dog so conditoined to this that if I say the cue word,
even if she doesn't have to go her spinchter muscles start clenching
and she tries anyway. : )))
Housetraining a puppy when you are working:
a) First thing in the morning and at night take your puppy out, same as
the rules above. Always give your puppy two chances to go before you
leave for work, once BEFORE it eats and drinks, first thing in the morning
and about l5 minutes or so after it eats and drinks. Don't go until you
have gotten that poop because they always poop after they eat. If you
can walk your puppy before going to work, it will help a lot to get things
going and also keep the puppy much happier during the day. When I
worked full time, I got up 45 minutes earlier and I walked my dogs for a
half hour each morning Monday through Friday. My dogs were much
happier to sleep in the house while I was gone and I never had any
damage.
b) Here is where I disagree with crating. Do NOT crate a young puppy
all day while you are at work. Instead I would throw out the following
1) Puppy proof a small area with a linoleum or tile floor such as a kitchen
or big bathroom or porch or sun room or decent basement room. In that
room, make sure there are no electrical cords or anything that it can
hurt itself on or can destroy. In one corner of the area only put your
newspaper or wee pads or a big container with kitty litter in it. At first,
you can scent it a little with a commercial scent like what is on your
wee wee pads if you don't use those in order to draw your puppy to
potty in that area. Leave it some water and some SAFE chew toys,
nothing that it can swallow or hurt itself on. Give it a bed. If you can
get home at noon or arrange for someone to come in at noon to watch
it and feed it (remember puppies eat three times a day for quite awhile),
you may not even have very many mistakes as most puppies can hold it
for four hours when they are around four months old.
2) Another option. Set up a doggie door from a tiled area into a small
kennel area where it can potty. You can buy a chain link kennel for as
little as a hundred to 300 hundred dollars depending on size at a
wholesale building store. Have your doggie door go into this kennel.
Make sure that there is something on the bottom so the puppy can't dig
out and a top so it can't climb out. I would also try it out for a few days
FIRST on a weekend to make sure that it is escapeproof. Put a padlock
on any exterior door of the kennel so someone can't come along and let
your puppy out or steal it. Then all you have to do is to teach your
puppy to go out the doggie door and while it is very young you can
even tie the doggie door up.
3) Some people arrange to pay a "trustworthy" neighbor a small amount
to come over and walk their puppy for five minutes to potty two or
three times a day wihle they are at work. The key word here is
trustworthy. They could also give your puppy its noon meal if you can't
get home. Young puppies need to be fed three times a day remember.
4) There are all kinds of varriations on the theme. I am just trying to
give you ideas above; where there is a will, there is a way.
When you are home from work, continue housetraining your puppy just
as you would if you didn't work all day by the first set of rules.
While you are at home, the housetraining is the same. WHILE you are at
home, do not accept the puppy going INSIDE the house on the
newspapers or wee wee pads, only when you are gone. In fact, I would
pick them up when you are at home and then it may not even try to go
to that area. This will help it to faster learn to go outside and to hold it
to go outside. You will have to watch it very closely as it may try to
potty where the pads or newspapers are or were.
THE FOUR STAGES OF HOUSETRAINING according to Andi : )))
l) The first step of housetraining is to teach your puppy the appropriate
2) The second step of housetraining is to teach your puppy to hold it until
you can get it to and out the door.
3) The third step of housetraining is to teach your puppy to indicate to you
by either barking whining, ringing a bell or buzzer or in some way, maybe
just by coming and staring into your eyes, that it has to go out.
4) The final step of housetraining is for your dog to hold it even when you
are not home to put it out.
Andi
