Potty Training a Miniature Long-haired Dachsund

Question
We just purchased a pet store dachsund and are having a terrible time potty training her.  We have been very successful in the recent past training two golden retrievers - without such frustration.

She was already spayed when we bought her - she is 12 weeks old.  She only pees in the kennel, no matter how small we make the section in the kennel.  She poops in the kennel and on the floor.  SHE HAS NEVER GONE POTTY OUTSIDE, ONCE ON THE CONCRETE - but not because we took her out to go potty, just because we were out there.  She is on puppy food from Petland and appears healthy otherwise.

We need some immediate advice.  We take our Golden outside with her in hopes she will take his advice.  They get along fine - so she does not seem to be in any distress other than the ususal "new home"  she gets lots of hugs and kisses - after her many baths.

Not used to this - please HELP!

Answer
Hi again Toni.
I usually don't read my ratings page, but I was looking for the total amount I have answered, and saw your rating there.
Good thing I did or I would not have seen your followup question.
Right, it takes some powerful stuff to get them sweet smelling after they get that all over them.
I think the pads would be a good idea.
I think if she had more room to sleep in, she would not roll in it.
Maybe if she could get away from it, she would.
I wouod make her sleeping space bigger, and deffinately try the pads.
If you have aniother question, I think there is a button at the bottom for asking a followup.
LOL, I don't know, I have never asked a question in here.LOL
Charlotte


Hi Toni;
This is the problem with dogs and cats bought at pet stores.
ALL these animals come from puppy mills and kitty mills.
Backyard breeders are a mini example of these puppy and kitty mills.
NO responsible breeder would sell their puppies or kitties to a pet store.
They want to know what kind of home their little ones are going to.
I have had so many letters from people who worked at pet stores confirming this fact. They tell me they are appalled at the condition these little animals arrive in. They are kept out of the public view until they can recover from the ill treatment and starvation they suffer in these places.
Then they are put on display at a higher price than you can buy at from a reputable breeder who is selective in their breeding practices nd take excellent care of their animals.
This is why no Petco and Petsmart stores sell dogs and cats.
These are not registered animals, and you cannot be sure they are not inbred to a point of harming the bloodline and passing on illnesses and deformaties.
they are fed the bare minimum that will keep them alive, and the females are bred as fast as they can be, and whan they can breed no more are put to seath in very inhumane ways.
I refuse to even enter a petstore that sells dogs and cats.
These puppies from the mills most of them come from, are kept in cages, sometimes stacked on top of each other, with no solid material on the bottom of the cages, so that feces and urine can fall on the animals in the lower cages.
Please don't ever buy from a pet store again. When you buy one, you save that one, but you make room for another one, and that is what keeps these despicable people in business.
Your puppy probably never was put anywhere to go potty except the cage it was in. It is pretty old to retrain with little effort.
Thank God caring people have this little one now, but please don't buy another one from a pet store.
I have never heard of the food you named, so I don't know what is in it, or if it is a well balanced diet for your puppy.
I would suggest you switch to Iams, Science Diet, or Eucanauba.
These brands have better research and developement and quality control than the companies that make food for humans have.
If you do switch, start out with 1 part new brand of food and 1 part food you are now using, for one week. then second week, go to 2 parts new food and 1 part old food,for a week, then 3 parts new food to 1 part old food, then all new food the fourth week.
This allows the puppy;s system to adjust to the new food.
Switching foods too suddenly can cause severe diarreah.
After the puppy eats, take it out to where you want it to go potty, stay with it until it goes, and then heap on the praise and petting. "What a GOOD doggy you are" what a good baby etc.
Just like it is the greatest and smartest thing a puppy has ever done. Right now she has no idea what is expected of her. Praise when she does something right, stern voiced scolding when she does something wrong.
The tone of voice is very important, and she will react to the praise of the doing it right and stern voice of the scolding. That will tell her what you want of her, and she will see she gets praise when she goes where you want her to, and scolded when she doesn't.She will learn to do what gets her the praise.
Be patient, because she will take a little longer to learn this than a puppy who comes into a family at 6 or 8 weeks old and is taught by this method from the get go.
Also, she is a baby, and her organs have not fully developed yet so that she has complete control, so there will be some accidents.
They will need to empty their bladder immediately when they wake, so take her out right away so she can go, then praise.
After she eats, she will have to have a bowel movement. Some will take 5 minutes before they have to go, some will take a half hour or so, and it can of course, fall anywhere in between. Watch her for how long it takes her to be ready to go, so you will not have to stay out with her so long, and can better guage how soon you have to get her outside.
When you see her squat , take her immediately outside, because she is going to go.
The more consistent you are, the sooner she will learn what is expected of her.
With time and patience, and lots of praise when she does right, will get her on the right track very soon.
It is just like when you take a child that has been raised in an abusive and filthy situation for most of their life, it will take longer for that child to adjust and learn what is the right way to do things.
I am assuming she gets many baths because of having dirtied herself in her kennel, but too frequent bathing can cause a lot of other problems for you.
Frequent bathing dries out the natural oils in their coat, and will cause some serious skin problems.
A daily brushing ( when there is no feces on her) will keep her clean. A dog should not have more than one bath a month, and really that is too frequent for a good healthy coat.
Some dogs have coats that naturally shed dirt better than others.
My little Lhasa has a very dryish coat, and when he gets mud on him, it dries on his coat and stays, so when he gets muddy ( which he does every chance he gets) we have to rinse him with just water, and no shampoo, to get it off. Our other three dogs have coats that we can let the mud dry on their coat and brush, and it all comes right off. They like to play in water, and will wet themselves in their outdoor water dish, and get in dirt to get muddy, especially the Lhasa. He seems to think he is cute when he gets filthy.LOl
He lays his chin in the water dish, and runs to the veggie garden and digs a bit of dirt to loosen it and rubs his chin in that to get muddy, then comes to show us how cute he looks. LOl
I hope you don't feel I was chewing you out for getting her at a pet store.
I did not mean it that way at all.
People naturally think a pet store is a good place to get an animal, because they take such good care of them and are so careful where they come from.
The pet stores do take good care of them, at least most do, but they are looking at the bottom line, and they are concerned with the dollar amount they can get. They buy them cheap and sell them high.
Also, they can not buy from good breeders, because these breeders will only sell to people they themselves approve.
So many of the purebreds we get in the rescue groups I work with are abandoned because they were bought at a pet shop and did not measure up to the standards they were expecting.
The pet stores give a registration cirtificate, but they are not AKC registerations. The bloodlines are not watched.
Very often in these puppy mills, littermates are bred, and that can lead to some pretty awful health situations. There is also no guarantee there is not a little bit of another breed in the line.
You are much better off to get a dog through the pet rescue groups or Humane society, which the rescue groups also belong to.
There are rescue groups that take any and every breed or mix, but some confine their efforts to one breed only, so you can get a mixed breed or you can find a rescue group for the breed you want.
Lots of luck with this little girl.
I know you have the patience and love to help this little one learn and live a very good life.
She may not like her feet on the ground, and may always go on the concrete.
I once had a friend who's Dachshund would not allow her feet to touch dirt or wet grass. she would go to the end of the walk in the back yard, and hang her little bottom off and do her business on the grass, but her feet did not touch wet grass or dirt.LOl
She would walk on grass only when it was dry, and she wouldn't dig. She liked to bury her toys and dog treats, but she would put it down, and bring rocks and sticks and pile them up on op of it, dab it with her noase to hide it, and walk away.LOl
She was so cute in her finicky ways.
Write any time you feel I can help.
Charlotte