house training an 11 week old puppy...help!!


ashley_magan

New Member
I have a new little puppy that I brought home from work 2 weeks ago. I work at a vet clinic and a breeder brought in a double dapple female dachshund that has microopthalmia (probably totally spelled it wrong, basically a congenital defect-a smaller eye and partially blind) and wanted to euthanize it if we couldn't find her a home. well, since I already had a 9 year old at home I took her with me. she is super cute, but I'm having a harder time training her than I remember with Tia(my older girl). it could just be I don't remember the puppy days, but Petunia(the pup) is a bit more difficult to housetrain. I thought that having another dog that was housebroken might help since there would already be doggy smells outside, but when I first brought her home she barely left my side. she finally started wondering, and she does okay with peeing outside, but even on days I think we've done awesome (days I'm off and can be home all day) I'll still find a puddle in the floor. I keep her confined to the kitchen and we're working on crate training. I praise her like mad and give her treats when she goes outside and treats that she only gets when she goes potty. she's pretty good about not pooping in the house, she had 3 accidents with that and no more, but it's easy to tell when she's going to poop. she'll start running in circles and I can catch her in time. with peeing she will just squat and she's done before I even see her. I tried taking her to work with me since I work at a clinic, but she would still pee in the cage and seemed too afraid to leave me to go pee. when she would get home it was like it set her back a little. so now she's just crated when I'm at work. I'm worried because I will be leaving for vacation and boarding her with Tia in 2.5 weeks, so I'll probably have to start fresh, but if anyone has any tips or advice on the housetraining, I would be ever so thankful.
 

DeafDogs

Alberta Region Moderator
Dachshunds can be notoriously hard to housetrain :) I have 2 Double Dachshunds, who're both deaf and sight impaired, though one sees better than the other.

Mouse, my little girl wasn't fully housetrained until she was 9 months old (I adopted her at 5.5 months old), though she's perfect now. Boo I adopted at 6.5 years old, and isn't truly housetrained. Though I think he was seriously spoiled.

I'd LOVE to see pics of your little one!!! I bet she's ADORABLE!!!

I cant understand what kind of breeder would kill a dog that they intentionally caused with bad breeding practices!!! That's AWFUL! It's not like she's even disabled, as she's only bad in one eye. Though Small Eye Syndrome (Microphthalmia) doesn't look that nice.

Here are my 2:

Mouse is totally deaf and almost blind:


Boo is deaf, but he seems to hear some noises. He's also nearsighted.


And Mouse using Boo as a flutterboard LOL (Cuz this is my fav. pic LOL)
 

Ilovemylily

New Member
Sorry to butt in but sarah my little 4 month old just started to recoperate from parvo but the vet sais she is becoming blind and seems to also be deaf!! Its weird she seemed perfectly healthy but anyways i dont really know how to deal with this do i have to treat her diferently than before? She doesnt bump into walls so im guessing she can partially see! Most ppl tell me to put her down but shes my baby and she fought hard to beat parvo! So i think we can do this too!
 

DeafDogs

Alberta Region Moderator
Deaf is no issue... really it's not!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNexJY1Q8OE]Give us a Chance! - YouTube[/ame]

You'll need to teach her to follow hand signals and body language. Use positive training and lots of treats.

This video is 2 weeks after I adopted Mouse.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nASHMtttFc]Mouse and Oliver working for their breakfast - YouTube[/ame]

This is about a month later
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28TTxKwzjhg]Mouse Tricks - YouTube[/ame]

Mouse can see well enough to catch big, moving hand signals, but she doesn't see slight differences, so signs have to be big and obvious.

I clicker train, and use a very bright LED keychain light for a clicker.

The only real difference between a deafie and a hearing dog, is you have to get off your butt to get the dog out of the garbage! LOL (or anything else they might be into LOL) I actually prefer deaf dogs, and my next dog will be deaf and blind (I REALLY want to give one a chance!)
 
Does it seem to anyone else that Petunia is doing OK for her young and tender age? Milo moved in with us at 7 months and was not very reliable but once he got the idea he became very solid in his potty training. At a year he can "hold it" for longer periods of time.
I like the advice on this forum to take the pup out on a leash; less distraction for the dog and then you know what happened and when. Be prepared for frequent trips outside. I never did get to enjoy the cold and rain and dark in the middle of the night, but I wanted to give Milo the "benefit of the doubt" if he was awake and complaining. We kept a kind of mental log (and still do to some extent) of the timing of when he might need to go again. I would like to have a dog door, but that would involve a whole new door to replace mostly glass and a contractor.
 

ashley_magan

New Member
I had forgotten about posting on here, but thank you for the advice. :) It is quite interesting to learn how to train a partially blind dog, she is so much fun. She was starting to pick it up pretty well before I went on vacation, I think we may be set back a little bit, but we'll be okay. As far as the breeder, she is just a very irresponsible breeder, unfortunately.
This is Petunia the first day that I brought her home, she stands on Tia like that quite often :)

Not the best pic of Tia, her eyes do not look like that, it was the flash, but it's a cute one of Petunia's face.

And lastly, this is how Petunia fell asleep on Tia the other day, I loved it so I had to take a pic.


I appreciate all the help with the potty training advice. :) I know they are quite stubborn :) part of the reason I love them so much!
 

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Doxmom

Member
Petunia is sooo adorable, Ashley. How kind of you to adopt her and give her a good home and lots of love..
 

Steph

New Member
Gorgeous babies!

Ashley, don't worry about Tia's eye shine (the green glow) that actually tells you that the reflective layer at the back of her eye is there. Now, with dapples, that's a whole other story. The merle/ dapple gene makes their reflective layer a little different than other dogs and it always reflects back red. It's also a good trick to use when you aren't sure if a dog is a dapple or not (hidden or cryptic merle) If the eyes shine red in a picture, they are dapples :D
 

DeafDogs

Alberta Region Moderator
Gorgeous babies!

Ashley, don't worry about Tia's eye shine (the green glow) that actually tells you that the reflective layer at the back of her eye is there. Now, with dapples, that's a whole other story. The merle/ dapple gene makes their reflective layer a little different than other dogs and it always reflects back red. It's also a good trick to use when you aren't sure if a dog is a dapple or not (hidden or cryptic merle) If the eyes shine red in a picture, they are dapples :D
I was told that all blue eyes in dogs glow red?
 

Steph

New Member
I'm not sure about all blue eyed dogs, but I did attend a genetics seminar and one of the things we discussed was the merle/ dapple gene. Even if a dapple has two brown eyes, you can take a picture and they should reflect back red - if at all, sometimes the flash doesn't always hit the right way for them to reflect back. It has something to do with the way the gene changes the reflective layer at the back of the eye. It is more common to see the blue eyed or bi-coloured eyes reflect red. The trick that I mentioned, not everyone knows about it, I learned it from a breeder that had cryptic merles in one of her litters.
 

PrettyPenny

New Member
The problem with house training smaller dogs is they don't often respond well to correction. So it's easy to teach them to go potty outside, but not so easy to teach them NOT to potty inside.

The biggest NO-NO a lot of people make when house training a dog is the old "rub his face in it" method. You probably aren't doing this, but it needs to be said anyways that this does not work in teaching a dog not to defecate inside. It only teaches them to HIDE where they potty inside, making your job harder. The only way that you can teach a dog not to potty inside is if you catch them in the act...that way they directly associate the correction with the action of peeing inside the house, and not just the pee itself. My suggestion would be to keep a leash on her while she is inside with you. (Will help with leash training as well.) That way you can catch her in the act of doing it. Don't spank her, but a loud, firm "Ah-ah" should do the trick. Scoop her up and immediately take her outside. When she goes, praise, praise, praise. This usually works.

As far as her crate, make sure it is not too big. A dog will not defecate in their crate unless they can go to the bathroom in the corner of it and then get away from it. Her crate shouldn't be big enough for her to do that. It should be JUST big enough for her to lay down, turn around, and stand..but that's it. Also a puppy of that age should be taken out AT LEAST every 4 hours. Ideally less than 4 hours is optimal.

Hope I helped. Good luck.
 
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