Alright Dachshund people....

I have no forum recommendations.  I don't frequent doxie boards.

We have two doxies, Shooter & Schatzi.  They are both completely housetrained, & always reliable indoors.  IMO, crate training is the only way to go.  Both of our doxies were crated while they were being housetrained.  It took us about 6 months for them to be reliable in the house.  They were closer to a year old when they earned full house privileges.  As puppies, If I didn't pay enough attnetion, while they were out, then they would pee on the floor.  That's not a doxie thing.  It's a puppy thing.

You can train doxies, imo, rather easily.  They are not motivated to do things just because you said so, but given the right motivator, *cough food cough* you can teach them as much or as little as you wish.  Shooter loves to learn new things.  He's happy to work for food or a play session with his flirt pole or soccer ball.  Schatzi, otoh, is more mellow.  She will happily work through training sessions, but she's never going to come back to me & start throwing behaviors, in hopes of another training session.

Socialize, socialize, socialize!!!  The more your puppy is exposed to now, the easier life will be later.  Any puppy that comes in our house is heavily socialized.  I expose them to something new every day for the first 6 months of their lives with me.  I like being able to take my dogs out with us, & having a dog who has seen/experienced many things as a puppy, sets them up to be less likely to react negatively. 

Doxies do tend to have a reputation of being nasty.  I am more frequently asked if one of our doxies bites, than I am to be asked the same question about our dobes.  They, generally, don't deal well with rough handling.  Most of them will lash out if they feel that a punishment has been unfair.  Positive training methods work best for them.  They also tend to be pushy dogs.  Our guys live & thrive in a NILF household.  If we ease off of NILF, then it is always a doxie who pushes our limits.

Health wise, they are prone to disc disease.  We keep our dogs lean, & they aren't allowed to jump on & off of things.  Does it help?  I;m not sure, but it is something that you can do to try to prevent it.  They also tend to have horrible mouths.  Teaching them to accept having their teeth brushed on a regular basis will go a long way in helping with dental issues.  Even with routine brushing, I would plan on having dentals done throughout their lives.

I love our doxies, & will likely always have a doxie in the house to keep the dobes humble.  They are fantastic snugglers, & just all around sweeties.

Thanks for all the tips and help!! At least now I'm a little more encouraged that it won't be impossible to raise a well adjusted, trainable puppy!!

BEVOLASVEGAS

Doxies do tend to have a reputation of being nasty.  I am more frequently asked if one of our doxies bites, than I am to be asked the same question about our dobes.  They, generally, don't deal well with rough handling.  Most of them will lash out if they feel that a punishment has been unfair.  Positive training methods work best for them.  They also tend to be pushy dogs.  Our guys live & thrive in a NILF household.  If we ease off of NILF, then it is always a doxie who pushes our limits.

  I don't own the breed but this has certainly been my experience with them. I have seen a lot of poorly socialized Doxies who are reactive to strangers but have met some really nice ones too. I like them, they are a small breed that I'd consider having at some point.

 A lot of small breeds can be harder to housetrain but it can certainly be done with consistency. A lot of small dog owners have very low expectations for their dog's behavior, then blame problems on the breed.

AgileGSD

A lot of small breeds can be harder to housetrain but it can certainly be done with consistency. A lot of small dog owners have very low expectations for their dog's behavior, then blame problems on the breed.

Absolutely! Some of the more independant breeds may take more time to train, but there is absolutely no reason you can't teach your Dachshund anything that you can teach your Lab or your Poodle.

Bean, the hairless Crested (they're KNOWN for being impossible to housebreak, and very difficult to train), is completely housetrained. She goes out in rain, ice, wind, hot, cold, and does her business outside, where it belongs. All I did was watch her, and be consistent. It took time, but once she got it, she had it.

We are 24 hours accident free!! I've been keeping an eye on him like a hawk!

He gets a "cookie" (a mini liver flavored training treat) when he does his business outside.

And he slept in his crate for the first time last night.... he did okay. Whined and barked and cried for the first hour then settled down. He's doing great! Yay!!

That's awesome!!!! Keep up the good work, Fonzie. Also, tell your mom to post some more pics of your adorable self

BEVOLASVEGAS

I have no forum recommendations.  I don't frequent doxie boards.

We have two doxies, Shooter & Schatzi.  They are both completely housetrained, & always reliable indoors.  IMO, crate training is the only way to go.  Both of our doxies were crated while they were being housetrained.  It took us about 6 months for them to be reliable in the house.  They were closer to a year old when they earned full house privileges.  As puppies, If I didn't pay enough attnetion, while they were out, then they would pee on the floor.  That's not a doxie thing.  It's a puppy thing.

You can train doxies, imo, rather easily.  They are not motivated to do things just because you said so, but given the right motivator, *cough food cough* you can teach them as much or as little as you wish.  Shooter loves to learn new things.  He's happy to work for food or a play session with his flirt pole or soccer ball.  Schatzi, otoh, is more mellow.  She will happily work through training sessions, but she's never going to come back to me & start throwing behaviors, in hopes of another training session.

Socialize, socialize, socialize!!!  The more your puppy is exposed to now, the easier life will be later.  Any puppy that comes in our house is heavily socialized.  I expose them to something new every day for the first 6 months of their lives with me.  I like being able to take my dogs out with us, & having a dog who has seen/experienced many things as a puppy, sets them up to be less likely to react negatively. 

Doxies do tend to have a reputation of being nasty.  I am more frequently asked if one of our doxies bites, than I am to be asked the same question about our dobes.  They, generally, don't deal well with rough handling.  Most of them will lash out if they feel that a punishment has been unfair.  Positive training methods work best for them.  They also tend to be pushy dogs.  Our guys live & thrive in a NILF household.  If we ease off of NILF, then it is always a doxie who pushes our limits.

Health wise, they are prone to disc disease.  We keep our dogs lean, & they aren't allowed to jump on & off of things.  Does it help?  I;m not sure, but it is something that you can do to try to prevent it.  They also tend to have horrible mouths.  Teaching them to accept having their teeth brushed on a regular basis will go a long way in helping with dental issues.  Even with routine brushing, I would plan on having dentals done throughout their lives.

I love our doxies, & will likely always have a doxie in the house to keep the dobes humble.  They are fantastic snugglers, & just all around sweeties.

I agree with all of this 100%.  Took a while to housetrain mine but she is now completely reliable.  No problems training when food rewards are used.  I did agility with her for about a year and she was always at the top of her class.  And yes, my Zoe has a horrible mouth, she needs a professional dental cleaning every 6 months, probably would be less often if I kept up with brushing.  They are really wonderful dogs, so full of personality.

We adopted our dachshund at 7 years old from a small county shelter.  He's our first dachshund, and we've learned a lot from him!

 First of all, he honestly really needs a NILF policy at home or else he will get pushy and misbehave.  He wasn't very housebroken when we got him (at 7!) but we crate trained him and for the most part he does really well.  We have learned that he didn't do well in a large crate (we had one that was several sizes too big).  He would pee on his blankets and such no matter how often he went out.

 We switched him to a smaller crate that is appropriate for him.  Since we've done that he's only peed in there a couple of times. 

Something interesting about him is that he will let you know when he's mad at you.  The day we brought him home we put him in a crate in the car (it was an hour and a half long trip).  We had the crate fastened in the back of the car with the door facing the front.  He cried and whined and complained the whole way home.  We ignored him and eventually he gave up, turned his butt to us, faced the back of the crate, and stayed like that until we got home. 

Since then when he starts whining or crying in his crate we've learned that just by turning it around so that it's facing the wall (it's a plastic crate, so it has air-holes along the sides) he figures out that he's misbehaving and he shuts right up.

He's not a very vocal dachshund, really the only times he barks are when somebody is at the door or he wants out of his crate.  He's VERY good with our two cats and two other dogs.  In fact him and our cat Spunky cuddle under the blankets on the couch almost every day.

He is a FANTASTIC suggler, and is hilarious and fun to be around.  He LOVES squeeky toys and will happily pick one out at the pets store and carry it around with him.  He destroys squeeky toys fast though, even cuz balls.  We don't let him on the couch unless he's invited (and we pick him up) and we try to be careful with him jumping off of it (although sometimes he doesn't wait for us and will launch himself to the floor).  We don't know anything about his history, but he did have to have 9 teeth pulled when we adopted him because his mouth was so bad.  We give him a lot of chewy things and brush his teeth regularly now.

I think that dachshunds are a great breed, and because of our Oscar I hope to always have one in the house.  I wasn't a fan of small dogs before but I've fallen in love with the breed, have fun with yours!

 One of my first dogs was a Dachshund.  He was an intact male, house trained, never marked indoors (in those days, few dogs were neutered - almost 50 years ago...).  He was an exceptionally smart dog, very well socialized, and did all kinds of cute tricks.  Doxies are like most hounds - independent.  That does NOT equate to stupid, stubborn, or hard to train.  You are on the right track, and I would be willing to bet you will be very successful.  They are food motivated (my mom trained with cookies before it was fashionable), and love attention. 

Thanks guys!

I must say.. housetraining... well, it's been a challenge. He's so sneaky, the little booger. But we're working on it and I've no doubt he's not going to get the hang of it.

As for his other training... crate, well, he still barks and whines at bed time. So I moved him upstairs and that's where his crate is for bed time. He does not pee in his crate, if there is not a blanket in it... put a blanket in it and he pees on it.   He's picked up on sit, just from watching the other dogs. Mom says 'sit', you plop your hiney on the floor and you get a cookie... sounds good to me!  That's about all we're doing right now... but soon I will start some basic obedience and see where that leads us.

Oh,and the vet checked the thin laces of hair on his head and says it's nothing to worry with, it should thicken up as he gets a little older. It's not really a pattern that concerned him, and there is an even, although, thin covering of hair, so it's not like he's scratching it off. Scrape came back negative, so we're just keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get worse.

If he's sneaking off to potty, I'd just attach him to myself. Hard to sneak off when you're stuck to mommy by a 6' lead!