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I just bought an 8 week old, female Chihuahua and I need help with potty training. When I got the puppy, my mother and I bought an exercise pen for her to stay in when she is alone and put a bed and a training pad. For the first 2 days she was doing perfect when she needed to go to the bathroom and used the pad. But on the third day she would just go anywhere in her pen, when her pad was just inches away. What should I do, I need help because this is my first small dog.

>>I just bought an 8 week old, female Chihuahua and I need help with potty training. When I got the puppy, my mother and I bought an exercise pen for her to stay in when she is alone and put a bed and a training pad. For the first 2 days she was doing perfect when she needed to go to the bathroom and used the pad. But on the third day she would just go anywhere in her pen, when her pad was just inches away. What should I do, I need help because this is my first small dog.

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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series at www.veterinaryforum.com

Congrats on your new baby! I brought home a chi puppy not long ago myself. She is 10 weeks old now.

The potty training is going to take quite awhile. Could very well take a few months of patience and dedication. We also have a pen and a smaller crate. Until May at least, I work during the day so Angel is home alone in her pen. I have several pads in there for her. Doesn't necessarily help the training any but it saves me grief when I have to clean up the floor when I get home. When I am home, she has a pad next to her crate that we enforce. She does very well with it but she does still have accidents occasionally. She does seek the pad out though and will sometimes go into her pen to go as well.

I'm not an expert but the most important thing here is to be consistent. It is definitely a lot harder when you are gone during the day but not impossible. When you are home, take her to the pad every couple of hours, after waking from naps, shortly after eating/drinking and after playtimes. I'm sure it won't be long before she really gets the hang of it but it will take awhile before you stop seeing accidents. As I understand it, accidents are pretty common in general with small dogs.

If it gives you any hope though... Angel is playing with my daughter right now, ran to her pad to do her business all on her own and ran back to finish playing. Hang in there, it will happen!
Angel's Blog

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J

[url=http://perpetualsnit.com/angel]Angel's Blog/url]