Hello! I'm posting about my new baby, Takun. She's a female Chihuahua (my second Chi) 10 weeks old this weekend. We've been having some washroom problems with her and I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions.
When I got Takun, I was told she had been trained to use a pee pad which was placed onto carpeted floor, but even when I was visiting her before taking her home I noticed she did everything in her power to avoid peeing on the pee pad, so I've been taking her outside to go on the grass or on the balcony on a grass textured mat, which she generally seems to understand is a good place to go potty.
When I brought Takun home, it was to a new apartment that I had recently moved into with friends, who used to have a dog. This dog was older and had many accidents (that likely weren't properly cleaned up after). I didn't know that these doggy accidents had occurred in the apartment until a week after Takun was already living with us (and having a lot of accidents indoors herself). So I went out and got some special doggy potty disenfectant/deoderant spray, doused all the carpets, let it sit for an hour and vacuumed it up.
I'm worried that this wasn't effective, or perhaps the week that Takun was in the apartment with the potty smell has made her think that it's ok to go to the washroom inside, or maybe it's another problem all together :(
She doesn't seem to have a pattern to where/when she's going. She'll go pee and poo on the tiles in the hall or pick a seemingly random spot in the livingroom on the carpet, I can usually tell when she needs to go because she starts sniffing obsessively at the ground so I take her out and she'll go outside, but she doesn't ask to go. I've taken her out everytime she cries for any reason to try to teach her that whining gets her put out to go potty, but the only time she does actually whine to go out is when she's in bed with me and she has to go early in the morning and can't get off the bed. If she does work up the courage to jump off the bed she'll pee/poo by the door rather than making a peep, then come back and whine to get back up on the bed (at which point I'll wake up and take her outside - too late)
Her bathroom is out on the balcony, I've used a grass textured mat. She goes on it when I put her out there in the morning, both pee and poo, but often tries to get off the mat and go on the concrete part of the balcony. She also goes to the bathroom outside when she comes with me to work, but once again she tries to go onto the concrete slabs out there rather than on the grass. She
also tends to go out to pee on the mat outside, then she'll whine to come in and immediately find a spot on the carpet to poo. But once again she only goes out there on the mat at all if I preemptively put her out there, she won't ask to go.
I've thought of tying a bell to the door to get Takun to associate the washroom with the bell, but her best buddy that lives with us is a cat, and I know the kitty will not rest until the bell is destroyed.
I'm hoping there's some way to teach her that the indoors is not a washroom, and get her to tell me when she needs to go potty.
Thanks for your help!
~Takun's Mom