Need house training tips for Pekingese puppy?
Question by RichsGirl: Need house training tips for Pekingese puppy?
I have a 4 1/2 month old female Peke puppy, that I am making absolutely no progress at all in housetraining. Please understand that I know she is a baby and I don’t expect perfection, just some signs of progress.
She sleeps in my large bathroom at night and no accidents, but the rest of the time no matter how many times/how often I take her out she comes right back in and “goes” in the house. I take her out at least every hour, if she doesn’t go I take her back out in 30 minutes. Even if she does go outside she comes right back in and goes in the house.
I have been using the bathroom as sort of a large “crate”, I let her stay in there for long periods of time thru the day..no accidents.
Our home is pretty active (3 kids 11,7,5) could all the activity be distracting her or could my other dogs who are outside at the same time be distracting her?
I have heard Pekes are hard to train, does anyone know if this is true? SERIOUS ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE.
Best answer:
Answer by alpacalady72
Serious answer….. We have one now (two in my history). Age 10, female. She was the hardest dog we ever had to potty train. Seemed to take forever! One thing about them though is that they are very stubborn and will do bad things out of spite (or to show you that they are upset). If we left her alone for long periods of time or seperated her from the family, she would DELIBERATLY make messes to show us how upset she was or to get attention (even if it was bad attention). After she outgrew the messing on the floor thing , it turned to digging open the trash or ripping up the kid’s toys, chewing the carpet etc. We were told that they often suffer from seperation anxiety and will do anything to show their displeasure. They need a lot of personal attention. It might be that the dog is just very insecure and acting out. Time and attention are the only things I can suggest. Just hang in there, cause it will eventually work out, but in some cases it takes a LONG time. Our current peek is now a good dog and no trouble (but again she is now 10) the other we had was a terror until the day he died.Remember that this breed is also a feces eater and could also take to that gross habit if left out and about.
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Wow, I feel for you–you have really been making an effort, and you even know about crate training.
Pekes are terribly hard to housebreak–it’s almost genetic, actually. For centuries they were only royal palace dogs, and allowed to go anywhere they wanted–they had servants who diligently followed them and instantly cleaned up every mess they made on the spot (in contrast labradors in British aristocratic homes were expected to be perfectly housebroken. And to this day, lab puppies usually housebreak faster than any other dogs).
I don’t think your kids could be a major factor, but the outside dogs might. She might interpret this as she is not “one of those beasts”, a very typical Peke attitude, and will therefore not pee in the grass like “those beasts”…
When she does come back into the house and goes, do raise cain and make a very dramatic stink, telling her NO! I’m not happy with this! And then take her right back outside and show her, explaining this is where you go to the bathroom.
The root of the problem is that she has learned to go inside, and seems to actually prefer it (and Pekes are stubborn about changing “their” preferences). What you need to do is to make it perfectly clear that this will not do. When you are bonded to a dog, a really dramatic scene, with very intense staring eye contact, the EVIL EYE, usually does the trick. I meet a lot of people who barely whisper their upset with their dogs–which is completely ineffectual as dogs speak a very simple and very dramatic language. When you’re upset, you need to wave arms and shoulders, and shout loudly and stare her in the eye with great emotion and glare.
If she is indeed very stubborn, you want her to react by cowering in a slightly submissive posture. When you start to see this you can back off on the dramatics a little–she’s getting the point…
Contrast this with absolute adoration and love and praise whenever she goes outside–stare into her eyes with big mooey love cow eyes, and with soft reassuring tones tell her how much this pleases you and what a good girl she is for doing so.
Another option is to get a “doggie litter box” and train her to use that inside (it is what I have done with my 3lb. Chihuahua). It works well, although realize that she is actually learning to go inside with this method, and therefore will, if you are visiting friends or family, feel perfectly right about going in the house. Personally, litter box training has worked well here, and I do recommend it as long as you realize that it does have limitations.
The most important thing is patience! You need to be patient and diligent. The big secret for traditonal housebreaking is to never allow the animal to go in the house, and if she does, to raise cain and let the whole block know you are not happy…!
You’ve at least been trying and it sounds like you love your pup quite a lot. I was in your shoes some time back and I got help from two places. I have listed the resource below. Here’s a hint – when you get to the site which has a guide for training puppies, there’s a link at the top of the page which takes you to a whole host of puppy and dog answers & good tips. I ended up getting the guide later on because I reached a stage of wanting to know more.
Hope this helps.