Archived Message

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by Jenn Keenan

I have a male maltese, he is a year and a half old. His name is Tango. When I first got him, I lived in a garage apartment, with hard wood floors, upstairs and we lived on an alley. So I paper trained him, Now my boyfriend and I moved to a new apartment with carpet , we take Tango out for walks all the time but at least once a week, if not more, he still goes on the carpet, and my boyfriend is getting tired of it and wants me to get rid of Tango, but I WILL NOT. Please let me know what I can do to re-train him so he will let us know when he has to go outside.

DISCUSSION:

There are two ways that I know of:

1. It helps if you dog has a friend who is trained to go outside. Walks together and watching the other dog "go outside" will let your maltese know that it is o.k. If that is not possible then try number 2.
2. You almost have to start over in potty training your dog. Only feed him/her twice a day for a fifteen minute period each time. Then take him/her outside until they go to the bathroom. Praise is extremely important when they go. You must keep an eye on them constantly when they are in the house. If it looks like they have to go out, (then so do you!).

Last, if this is only happening when you are away, then you may have a dog who is suffering from seperation anxiety and is looking for attention. See the excellent area on this board on how to deal with this problem.

Good luck! And remember, get rid of the boyfriend first!
-Chuck Norman

Jenn, There are lots of post on this problem--in the arrchives and also probably still on the main page. Two things: explore the possibility that another dog used the carpet for a bathroom; the scent could be calling your dog's name (use Nature's Miracle or something similar to get rid of it--a black light available at most pet stores will show up any indications of old urine). Second, if the dog is used to papers, it probably isn't clear that you want it now to go outside. So follow Tom's(??) instructions about re-training for outdoors (or those in archives and in the Housebreaking section of the home page) and in addition to lots of praise, give the baby a treat each time the proper place is used. Your part of this deal also is to keep an eye on your kiddo and if you even think potty time is on its way (she squats, etc) yell as loud as you can NO!, pick her up, and take her outside and don't let her finish up in the house. I also agree with Tom on another score--get rid of the boyfriend not the dog if push comes to shove. A guy that's a "keeper" would have a better attitude than blackmailing you about your loved one's potty habits.
-cathy brown

Cathy Brown, Good advice! I haven't thought about another dog using the same carpet. The more I visit this web site the more I learn.
-Chuck Norman