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house training an 8 year old rescue Chihuahua

19 16:36:22

Question
I adopted a lovely Chihuahua mix dog from the SPCA the end of August.  They estimated her age to be between 7 and 10 years old.  She has a few accidents in the house when I first got her but I thought it was a transition phase.  She will not go outside(do her business) or very rarely when it is raining and cold out.  I hate to think of winter coming and the snow!  I kennel her when I am not home but as soon as I get home I bring her out and NO way will she stay outside.  I go out with her, even put her on a leash.  She shrinks to the ground and fights the leash.  I speak to her with an excited happy voice but she doesn't want to be out there.  I have another dog that does all his business outside.  So I am really at a loss on what the right thing is to do here.  Any input would be appreciated.

Answer
Hi Carol....

First of all, I want to say how much I admire you for adopting a Chihuahua from the SPCA that is between 7 and 10 years old!  People like you are few and far between and give dogs a chance that often prove themselves to be such valuable members of your household.

Carol, the first thing I want to advise you to do, if you haven't already done it and IF the SPCA didn't do it, is run a complete blood count on your Chihuahua (CBC) and make sure that they check her T4 and anything that would point to Hypothyroidism or Cushings's Disease.  I have a 10 year old Chihuahua that was recently diagnosed with Hypothyroidism and after he was put on medication, the question came up as to whether or not he may have Cushing's disease.  It's always best to rule out any medical conditions before you consider that your dog's "potty behavior" as potentially being due to a behavioral problem.

Having said that, I will tell you that it is NOT uncommon at all for Chihuahuas to NOT want to do their business outside, especially if it's COLD.  I live in California and I researched this breed years ago and saw that they often are extremely difficult to house break and I decided to train my dogs to use a "doggie box" which has turned out really well for us.  As my eldest Chi is getting older, it makes it much easier to determine if he's urinating too much, etc.  Aside from that, we can leave the house and feel comfortable that our dogs can relieve themselves and not "hold it" until...they are too uncomfortable or perhaps it's causing physical damage for them to do so.

When I read what you wrote about how she fights the leash and shrinks to the ground, it makes me think that she possibly was kept as an outdoor dog in a prior home (or one of her prior homes).  If this is true, this is understandable on her part, but makes for a problem that isn't clear when someone like you adopts an older dog like this with no understanding of her past.  She may be reacting out of plain ole' fear of being kept outdoors in the cold again and you don't understand WHY because you don't have more information on her background.

What do you mean when you say you "kennel" her?  And how long are you usually away from the house while she is "kenneled"?  What breed is your other dog, how old is it and how long have you had it?

Get back to me with the above questions and let's see if we can work on this more...

Jo Ann