Why are toy breeds harder to house break

anna84

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#1
One of my friends is thinking about getting a toy breed within the next couple of months. So she was asking me about different breeds that i knew of and just general information.

I think she'd make a really good owner and shes being responsible. The only thing I told her was that toy breeds are harder to potty train. The chi at home still isnt fully reliable in cold or wet weather. Most people seem to agree with the idea that smaller dogs are harder to housebreak.

Does this hold true in your guys experience? What i can't figure out is why it's so much harder, are there actually specific reasons?
 

Gempress

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#2
While there are exceptions to every rule, I think it does generally hold true. I think it has mostly to do with the size of the dog. Think of how huge the average home looks to a 5-pound dog. Teaching a tiny dog not to potty in a 3-bedroom house is like teaching a mastiff not to potty inside a Wal-Mart. That's a whoooole lot of "off-limits" area for the dog to learn.
 

Julie

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#3
In my opinion it holds true too....

So much room and so many places to hide.:eek:

My friend just got a pomeranian and I am trying to help her do the right things, but I feel they really are harder to housebreak than bigger dogs. Just my opinion though. She got her dog last week and the pup will pee outside, but she told me he has yet to poop outside.

I have had some experience with other toy dogs too, and it all seems about the same.
 

Swiftwind

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#4
It took quite a while for me to train my Chihuahua to be housebroken, but she is 100% now (and 5 years old..). She always goes outside to do her business. I also think with a smaller brain initially they don't always remember where they are not allowed to go, plus it's a long way for them to travel to get outside sometimes, so I guess they just can't hold it in for that long if they really have to go.
 

RD

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#6
Echoing what everyone else said about size and space. My larger dogs would never dream of going inside the house but it seems perfectly acceptable to my Pap because the house is so vast to him.
My dog will likely never be fully house trained, so we just have to make sure he's always "empty" when he is going to be roaming around the house. Otherwise he is confined to one room with an "okay" place to go to the bathroom. (in my room its a litterbox in the corner) I keep an acceptable place to go for him, because he does have a tiny bladder and since he refuses to tell me when he needs to go out, it gives him the chance to do something good and be praised instead of turn me into a grouch and confine him to his crate.
 

smkie

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#7
i think people do not repsond in the same way with little dogs as they do large. I mean a teeny tiny pom poop isn't near as "oderizing" and obnoxious as per say a labrador. It is my honest opinion that little dogs get away with everything that a big dog would not be even allowed to think about. It is my opinion that the difference is not in the dog size..it is in the dog owner.
 
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#8
Oh, now I disagree with that, smkie. I have a Lhasa Apso and a Husky mix and I'm not happy with either one of them if they go in the floor...

That being said, I agree that smaller breeds are harder to train. It took us forever to get Cassie housebroken, and she still has occasional regressions at 11 months old. I think part of her problem, though, was that as a puppy she was kept in a kennel and she just did her business right there. We got her at 12 weeks. People say Lhasas are hard headed. Love Cassie, but I just think she's not too bright :)

Roxie has been a breeze to housetrain. She was kept outside with her mama from the time she was born until we got her. She also generally seems to be a smarter dog.
 

Swiftwind

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#9
Smkie, I disagree. My little dog was not allowed to get away with going in the house! Definitely not!
 

Swiftwind

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#11
My Chihuahua is a normal size for her breed, she took about 2-3 years to be 100% potty trained. We were very persistant with her, but I do think they have such a weak bladder they do find it hard to do the right thing and go outside when they are younger (and probably most often forget where they aren't supposed to go!).
 

Swiftwind

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#13
Rottiegirl, that's really surprising! I would have thought it'd be the other way around. I used to have a rottie mix (with kelpie), and he was the easiest dog I've ever had to toilet train. He picked it up really quickly.
 

Ash47

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#14
Zoom said:
Tiny brains and tiny bladders. :)
LOL That sounds about right. It took Roxy about 6 or 7 months to be fully housetrained. Spud took around the same amount of time I think (he was w/my grandmother during that time.) Precious didn't take long at all. She still loses control a little bit when she gets really excited, but other than that, she is great.
 

TroyF

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#15
I think smokie has a point although, I don't know if it pertains to house training. Maybe not all small dog owners but lots of small dog owners let their little guys/gals get away with murder. Things that if larger breed owners did would result in lawsuits and destroyed animals.

I went to live with my dad in Moose Jaw back in my late teens and he had a little cinnamon toy poodle. It was 1.25yrs when I met it and it had been brought home just before the start of a Saskatchewan winter (-40C temps not unusual). It destroyed she destroyed his carpets. I thought it was part of the pattern when I first walked into his house. My first words to him when I figured it out were, "why don't you get a crate?". They couldn't bare it for more than a day or two then would say, "aww she's been so good lately...", and I'd wake up the next morning to poo between the toes. Top it all off, if she got out she wouldn't come back. I had a little brother who would get yelled at for leaving the door open and then there'd be this huge rucous while they all went outside and pleaded with it to come back. Finally I got tired of it and ran it down one day (it was just a toy for god sake- it's legs were four inches long), held it down and said no. Problem solved. Point is that most people have a really hard time being firm with toys. Most not all.
 

smkie

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#16
when i was housebreaking Scamper my little dog..stinky dink's daughter..i ws just a teenybopper. She was so little that i wasn't firm enough i guess..my mom had other ideas completley..and set things right immediently. I was given a couple days..she achieved in one lesson where i had failed. The dog was so tiny, i felt so mean, Gg on the other hand didn't. Scamper was housebroken that lesson once and for all and never in the next 18 years eliminated in the house.
 

anna84

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#17
I agree with the posters who say it has a lot to do with how large a house is to a toy dog. Another big issue is weather. In summer the chi we have is completely housebroken f it's very wet or cold then that slips a lot. I almost can't blame her where a bigger dog might dislike getting wet or being cold this little 6 pounder is shaking uncontrollably the moment she steps foot outside the house in bad weather
 

Miss Pugg

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#18
toy dogs

I have Pugs and most of them have been very hard to housetrain. Many years ago, Ihad Min. Schnauzers and I must say they were excellent to train, quick to learn and remember. One Pug I own was raised in a motorhome and she doesn't care if she does her duties in her crate overnight, it's all the same to her. Another Pug who owned me for 17 wonderful years never quite got on the correct page for housebreaking but she thought she was good (& I didn't tell her differently).
 

Madaline

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#19
Im not sure how true that is, I have had little poodles and a mailtipoo and they were very easy to housebreak. I think it is how consitant you are, I think maybe with little dogs people tend to be a little more leniant as they dont have such big puddles to clean up. I have never had a problem, Madeline has been pretty well housebroken since we had her at 8 weeks, when we bought her home I showed her the pee pads and she always went on that if she didnt make it outside, never went on the floor at all, then I made them dissapear and she only went outside, she rings a bell when she has to go. She is 5 months and maybe has the occasional accident which is to be expected, my sister inlaws lab is the exactly the same age as her and still has a few accidents too.

Alot of owners of really little dogs dont even take there dogs outside nowadays they just use those pee pads or a litter box, I dont know about that its not for me, I think a dog should be made to go outside. But I guess if you are in an apartment or something it is way more convenient
 

Doberluv

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#20
Well, my little boy Chi, whom I got when he was 9 weeks old learned in about 2 weeks, was reliable in another two weeks.... and he's as smart as a whip, can learn new skills in a matter of minutes. He's one of those dogs with tons of character and that little head that cocks to the side when you ask him a string of questions. The wheels are definitely turning. LOL.

My girl Chi took longer, but I didn't get her till she was 7 months old and she was raised in a room full of puppies and newspapers. She had what's called, "dirty puppy syndrome." She was conditioned to go inside. But she did learn. Now, she knows to go outside and if I'm there to see her standing by the door, all is well. She will even come and get me and act a little anxious, run back out of the room. If I'm paying attention, I will know what she means, but sometimes I'm off in la la land and don't notice. If I'm not home and she has to go, she goes. She can't seem to hold it very long. But this is only with poo. She seems to never have a pee accident.

My Doberman was almost a year old...I think like 10 months before he was reliable. He was the longest in learning this of any dog I've ever had. He's incredibly intelligent in every other way. But I don't think it's intelligence so much in his case, as it is the fact that they are slow to mature physically as well as mentally. They are juvenille for a long time. LOL.

I think part of the reason people think toy breeds are hard to housebreak may be that they don't expect much out of them. I see this with training and manners, treating these dogs like people etc and forgetting that they're dogs like any other dog. Their small bladders may have something to do with it and some other factors. But I think if they're taken out often, not babied about the weather, watched carefully inside, they can learn just fine. Also, if they have an accident, it's so tiny that it's not as horrible as a big dog's mess, so maybe people subconsciously aren't as careful about watching them and taking them out often as pups.
 

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