Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,

I have a 3 year old Min Pin, Roxy... and she is potty trained for her pee pad that I keep in the kitchen... Problem...

I've acquired a new roommate (2 months ago) and Roxy now will not pee/poo on the pad when I am not home. She is friendly w/my roommate, he feeds her, plays w/her, and she will cuddle with him on the couch. Roxy now potties on the pad only when I'm home. I've been locking her in the kitchen/ laundry room (which has work in the past when she 'forgets' she's potty trained). But she now pees in the laundry room... (I have a steam cleaner I clean it up with every night so I don't think 'stink' is the problem). I've been taking her out for walks in the am before work and giving her attention when I can and that doesn't seems to be helping.

I'm getting really upset at the situation, I've been actively trying to alter her behavior for about 3 weeks now w/no avail. I realize she's probably 'mad' at me for having a new roommate and working a lot (I'm an accountant that works 12-13 hour days). But seeing how quiting my job and paying for the house on my own aren't really 'options'. I could use some advice.

...and I'm sorry I didn't realize where this had posted and I know it's in the wrong spot....

No big deal where this goes. Many of us check for new posts throughout the boards.

As for your problems with potty training, I'm inclined to think that your steam cleaner is actually not getting rid of the urine conpletely. It's probably helping, but unless you have an enzyme neutralizer in your cleaning solution, you are not getting all of the urine and that is causing much of the confustion for your pup.

Second, maybe you need to make it a bit more black-and-white where your dog needs to go. A piddle pad is soft, clean, nice and actually not a great substrate to keep a dog on for extended periods of time. They make dog litter boxes with special litter. Your dog may associate that better with what you want him to do. So, start over with potty training and use this litter box and maybe have multiple boxes around the house.

Also, get your roomate to help. Everyone has to be on board with supervision of this pup until he's proven to be 100% reliable. Any accident in an inappropriate place is a set back in training. Reward when he does well and crate your pup when there's potential for accidents due to lack of supervision. Hopefully that will help.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles