Hard time Housebreaking Pugs!?

Question

I have 2 pugs. One male and one female. The female is 1 year old and the male is 4 months.

For some reason, and I have been doing everything the books tell me to do including the cage, the female refuses to become housebroken! Any tips?

Answer 1

First off, take her to the vet and have her checked out for health problems. If her health check comes back normal, then this is what I'd do.


How I Housebroke my dog

Supplies:
Patience
Nature’s Miracle (or similar)
6 foot leash
Timer (I used the one on the microwave in the kitchen)

Prerequisites:
Do not let the puppy out of your sight. You can do this by following him around or by tethering him to your belt loop using the 6 foot leash. When you are not home, confine him to a safe area such as a crate, puppy proofed room, or xpen.

Process:
1. Set the timer for 20 minutes.
2. When the timer beeps, say “Time to go potty!” (or your chosen phrase) and take the dog out to potty.
3A. If the dog does not go outside, bring him back in and repeat steps 1 and 2.
3B. If the dog has an accident before the timer beeps, try to interrupt the dog by clapping or saying a sharp “NO”, then immediately take the dog outside so he can continue his potty break outside. When you come back in, reset the timer for a shorter amount of time (10 minutes-ish) and repeat steps 1 and 2. Finally, clean up the mess with Nature’s Miracle or another similar enzymatic cleaner designed for cleaning up pet urine.
3C. If the dog goes outside, give him a treat, praise him, jump up and down, throw a party. Do whatever you have to do to show your dog that he is WONDERFUL for going potty outside.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you are certain the dog can hold it for 20 minutes. Then set the timer for 25 or 30 minutes and repeat steps 1 and 2. Keep increasing the time until you are at your desired interval. Eventually, the dog will learn that you are the keeper of the door and potty privileges, and he will come ask you to take him out when he has to go. Good luck!

Remember that a puppy can't "hold it" for as long as an adult (or even a child) human can. Your puppy may need to go out as often as every 20-30 minutes or as seldom as every 2-3 hours at 8 weeks. It depends on the dog, his activity level, and his access to food and water. I'd also recommend putting your puppy on a feeding schedule (meals at the same time every day). If you control what goes in and when it goes in, you are also controlling what comes out and when it comes out.

Also keep in mind that potty training is a process. It is impossible to housebreak a puppy in a day or a week, and difficult to accomplish to 100% reliability in a month. A more realistic estimate is 2-3 months for a completely reliably housebroken dog. Dogs are also terrible with generalizing. For example, a dog may learn that he cannot pee on the carpet in the living room, but that doesn't mean that he knows he isn't supposed to pee on the carpet in the bedroom or on the carpet at your friend's house. For each new area you introduce, you will basically have to start over with housebreaking and pay close attention to your dog.

Answer 2

Pugs tend to have a stubborn streak, but they are intelligent dogs and should be house trained. Most of mine are trained at 4-5 months, but I had one go a year.

Consistency is the key. When you are not home, keep her in a crate. When you get home, carry her outside and wait for her to go potty. When she does, use a higher voice and sound very happy and tell her what a good girl she is for going potty outside.

Then, bring her in and have playtime for an hour, then put her back in her crate. After 2 hours, repeat the whole process. Yes, she will be crated a lot and you will have to go outside a lot with her. But if you are very strict you should have success in a couple weeks.
You can also offer a small treat outside for a reward if you want to.
When she has an accident in the house, bring her to the spot and show her. Do not put her nose in it, but show her so she remembers and give a firm "No" in a deeper voice. Then escort her right back to her kennel for a 2 hour quiet time.

As she starts doing the right thing you can start stretching out the times of indoor free times before going to the kennel again.
If she does well but starts to backslide then start this over again.

One thing you should know is that at this age it is common for dogs, and pugs to backslide for about 3 months. It's a teenager rebellion thing. But they do get back on track with consistent training and praise.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Pugs do have a mind of their own, don't they?? With our Pugs, we had to get a doggie door. It made a world of difference. The doggie door with the key activation is really good as an intruder cannot break in easily. There are settings you can use to control the locks on it. And if you put the door in the bottom corner furthest away from the handle, this helps, too! We had a year worth of house training problems as well....this was our last resort. At first, they were afraid of the door, but do not force them. If you are on one side of the door, and they are on the other, try calling them through with a treat in your hand so they learn how to do it on their own. Repeat and praise, repeat and praise,repeat and praise!!!! Worked like a charm for us! We do have a fenced yard as well, hope you do too!

Answer 4

Hard to advise without knowing any details of what you're doing. I do know that some pugs can be pretty stubborn about housetraining. Do you keep her in the same room you're in when you're home so you can watch her? Do you go out with her and tell her 'go pee'? Do you give her lots and lots of praise when she does and then come right back in? Dogs learn well by positive reinforcement rather than punishment - if you don't give her the chance to make a mistake and use lots of praise for doing it right, she should learn.

Answer 5

Females have mind of their own ,don't you know.

Be patient and gentle and stock up on wee wee pads. Thay are attracted to them when they feel the urge. Once you can choose the site she will use, you can move that site to where you want her to go. When you finally get the wee wee pad outside where you want her to go, keep using it for a few days and then slowly take it away, refreshing it only every two or three days. She will not want to use a soiled wee wee pad and will start using the lawn or area nearby.

It's a process that will tax your patience endlessly and then, one day, it won't be an issue anymore.

I had no problem housebreaking my male bichon, he was outside trained at ten weeks. They are all different. Good luck.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Hi,
If you haven't attended a good dog traning course you shouldn't complain. You have to learn to understand better your dog, the causes of its bad behaviours and some good techniques to use to get rid of any issue you have with your furry friend.

A good site with a good dog training course is http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=572. I think it's the best dog training course available on the net.

Answer 8

i have min. pug and when i got it i was adviced to get those puppy pads. when you see that they have to go hurry and put them on the pad .eventually u need to keep moving the pad toward the door unti they are moved outside then after there outside remove the pasd they will know that they have to go outside to find that pad. the pads are only like $5 for 10. good luck.

Answer 9

just a tip DO NOT use puppy pads they are very confusing to a dog they think thats its ok to go inside a house and on the floor and when you move you have to teach them the process all over again! thats why teach them to go outside! then they will go outside all the time and you will never have to train them again!