My dog pees and poops inside every single day, without fail

Seeking help
1

My 8-month-old Chihuahua pees and poops inside every single day, without fail. I’ve been trying to potty train her for about 3 months, but it’s not working at all. I’ve taken her to the vet, and there’s nothing wrong with her. She poops inside the house multiple times a day.

I walk her every two hours. Sometimes she holds it, which is why I extended the time from one hour to two hours. But other times, she just doesn’t bother. If it happened occasionally, it would be one thing, but it happens every single day, multiple times a day. Every time she goes outside, she gets good treats and praise. She understands that going outside is good, but she can’t seem to understand that going inside is bad. I used to spray the spots with enzyme cleaner, but it made no difference. She would just continue to poop in the same spot.

She doesn’t seem to have any presence of mind and doesn’t alert me when she wants to go outside. My previous dog would whine, try to get me to follow her, or scratch the door when she wanted to go outside. This dog doesn’t communicate with me at all. She never looks guilty like my previous dog did and doesn’t seem to understand that some actions are bad. She seems to act without thinking. She loves me, and I love her, but it makes things so hard. Sorry, I just had to vent a little.

She enjoys the good treats but doesn’t seem motivated enough to change her behavior. She doesn’t seem to understand the concept of holding her waste, except when she’s in her crate or sleeping in my bed. Generally, she doesn’t pee in the crate or my bed, but she constantly goes on the floor.

I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and her favorite place to go is behind the couch, where I can’t see her from my computer. I can’t tether her to me because she’s often sleeping, and I have to get up to go to the bathroom or kitchen. Waking her up every single time seems cruel, don’t you think?

I don’t understand how I can watch her 24/7. How can I live my life if I do that? There are many places she can hide. Am I supposed to stare at her and follow her around all the time? How do people do that? How can you get anything done? How can you abandon your life for even two weeks just to watch the dog? It’s not that I don’t want to or that I don’t love my dog, but I don’t understand how I could lead my life if I just watched her all the time for even a week. I’m so confused about this.

Please help me. I’m so frustrated. It’s not getting any better.

2

Prevention is key. Waking her up every time you go to the bathroom isn’t a big deal—they’re dogs, they don’t mind. My dog wakes up every time I get up to follow me.

You can either tether her to you with a leash, use the crate, or keep her in a pen. She shouldn’t have any freedom until you can trust her not to go indoors. Gradually make the pen larger or use a longer tether as you progress through training. Take her out as often as possible at first, then slowly increase the intervals.

Dogs are creatures of habit. If you prevent mistakes and consistently reward good behavior, it will become a habit. The key is prevention. Simply rewarding good behavior without preventing bad behavior won’t get you anywhere.

3

Also, keep cleaning the spots with an enzyme cleaner and try to temporarily block the area behind the couch to help break the habit.

Additionally, pays attention to what she’s doing before she has an accident. How long after eating does it happen? Did she drink a lot of water half an hour before? Was she playing intensely and then suddenly had to go? If you walk her right after a meal, does she wait until you’re back to go? Use this information to develop a routine to help with prevention. For example, feed her, play with toys for half an hour, take her out, then have her rest in a pen or somewhere she can’t sneak off for a couple of hours before taking her out again.

You’re on the right track! It takes time for puppies to develop good bladder control, and it takes longer for smaller dogs. My dog was pretty good by 6 months but not fully reliable until around 9 months.

4

Tethering is revolutionary.

5

Invest in a play pen and provide her with a small space that you can keep an eye on. Additionally, little dogs need to go potty more frequently due to their small bladders, so try to return to going every hour. Your dog will tell you when they need to go potty through body language if you pay close attention to them. She may need to go potty if she does anything like sniff about, try to hide, circle around, or glance at the entrance. Occasionally, it’s a subdued signal.

6

What are you using to clean it?

How is she doing when she’s contained between outings? You don’t need to tether her to you; you can use an x-pen and take her out every 90 minutes or so. Smaller breeds often take longer to develop full bladder control and need to go out more frequently than larger breeds. If it helps, I did everything correctly, and my dog was fully trained by one year.

Stop scolding her completely and block off the area she’s using with an x-pen or something similar. Accidents don’t just happen; they occur because the pup needs to go. If the pup can’t get outside every time she needs to go, she’ll go inside.

7

Thank you for your reply. I’m cleaning it with enzyme cleaner.

As far as full bladder control mostly she does not pee in bed with me. She sleeps the whole night without peeing no problem. Same with when she’s in the crate. The vast majority of the time she doesn’t pee in there. So she does have some bladder control. It’s only when she’s free that she can’t hold it.

And if it took you a year to get yours trained, then that makes me feel a little bit better.

9

Dogs are forced to retain it longer because sleep causes the creation of hormones.

There is no hormone when one is awake, thus going out more often is required.

As a general rule, never let a loaded dog go free. The puppy is probably loaded and should go outdoors first if it has been 45 minutes since the last accident or break. This is crucial so the dog understands that the outside is the only place to go.

10

We began toilet training our puppy as soon as we got her, and it took her until she was 9 months old to finally pick it up. Until then, though, she would do it every day. Thus, persevere.