Newbie with Questions

[LilMissLucy]

I have just purchased a 8 week old miniature dachshund. I really am a researcher but for some insane reason didn't do the research on dachshunds. My daughter's riding coach has 4 and she also fosters dachshunds. My experience with them have been favorable and they are so sweet. I fell in love and decided to get one. My concern is all the bad stories on house breaking. Any good advice for a newbie and what to expect?

 

[MikeGT79]

We had very little trouble training our dachshund.
For the first few days we took him outside every few hours. Gave him a treat if he went. He learned pretty quick that that's what he was supposed to do to go potty. Since our back door is out of sight we eventually put a bell on the door for him to ring. To train him for that all we did was ring the bell and say "outside" every time we took him out. He was trained with the bell by the time he was 6 months old. He's pretty smart and he learned if he rang the bell and went outside to go potty he'd get a treat, so he started to ring the bell and go out and pee. Then a few minutes after he came in, he'd ring it again to go out and poop. That way he got 2 treats lol. He's now 11 months old and knows exactly what to do when he wants outside.
You just have to be patient, there will be accidents. Positive reinforcement worked great for us.

 

[Nell]

Hi and welcome to the forum from the UK!

Consistency is the key, you need to be on top of things from day one. The more accidents your pup has in doors the harder it is to break the habit. VERY regular visits outside from day one will start the habit of going outside.

If you can arrange to pick the puppy up when you have a couple of days clear to devote to him, start with going outside every time he eats and at least every hour. Make sure he can get off his bed (but not wander too far) to pee at night as a habit of wetting the bed is not one you want to start. If you have a large crate where you can make half of it the bed and put puppy pads in the other half that would be great.

My dachshund was clean within 5 days at eight weeks old with only one trip outside during the night. By twelve weeks she was going all night!

Good luck with your new baby, they are such a joy and I hope you have years of fun to come.

 

[jarredfeet]

Hello and welcome to the board, glad you decided to take a very loving dachshund home. Most owners I know who have a doxie pup never had major problem with training them as they can learn fast but definitely you need to boosts consistency on early stage. Our Jarred had few incidents inside on his first few weeks here but soon learn it is fun to go outside for having treats and playtime.