tips for housetraining shih tzu

cleoh23

doe s anybody have any tips on how to house train a puppy shihtzu?? i have my puppy in a crate and he goes on the paper mostly when hes in it, but if he is outof it he does not go back to the paper! how will i gwt him to scratch on thedoor if he wants to goout??? did anybody have any methods that worked for their shih tzu??:rolleyes:

Toulouse

First of all you shouldn't be letting your puppy go in the crate (this is where you want him to be clean) or training him to go on the paper if what you really want is for him to go outside. Also you may need to get up during the night as puppies can't hold it.

You need to start as you mean to go on and be really consistent. Take him out often, when he wakes up, after food/drink, after playing, before bed and in between. You need to watch him like a hawk and he'll tell you when he needs to go, he might circle or sniff or whine, you'll pick up on it. Stay with him and when he goes give him loads and loads of praise and a little treat if you like. This tells him that outside is the place to go and he's a great lad for doing it. You can even start saying a little phrase with it. I say to my girl 'Want to pee?' and now when we go out and I say this she knows what she's expected to do.

Then continue to do this. If he goes inside you weren't watching closely enough so clean it up. Don't scold him as this will make him scared to go in front of you and he'll find a secret place to do it like behind the couch or tv. This won't happen overnight but you should be seeing a big improvement in the next couple of weeks and eventually he should go to the door and tell you that he wants to go out. I trained both of mine like this and one goes over to the door and whines and the other goes over to the door and then back to me and repeats until she's let out.

The main thing is to keep it up.