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Hello, friends:
My partner and I just adopted two lovely chihuahuas (brothers, both fixed) which, since we live in Vegas, we've named Black and Jack. (har har.)
Anyhow, we're a bit puzzled. We were warned (got them from the Nevada SPCA) that they weren't housebroken (and we have to wonder how they lived for the first year or so of their lives). Turns out, they seem to have some of the concept but not all of it. It's very confusing.
We live in a 3-bedroom, two-floor townhouse with a small downstairs patio (about 10-by-12 feet, no grass, small flowerbed.)
We've got a crate and are trying to train them, but we're afraid we're not being consistent and perhaps missing some of the idea here.
Some of our questions:
1. Do they get food and water in the crate?
2. We crate them at night and then whenever we're out. In addition, I work from home and sometimes crate them for an hour here or there when I'm working. Is there such a thing as crating them too much? Should we be penning them into the tiled kitchen instead sometimes?
3. Every time they're crated, they are taken immediately outside. Is this enough to teach them where to poo and pee? Is there more to it? These are not particularly food-oriented animals. Black actually had to be begged to take a treat earlier today. He's indifferent to that sort of reward and I'm not sure if he can tell the difference between being praised for something he's just done and the love we give him otherwise.
The key problem: Black is very slow to do pee or poo and sometimes just won't, even if his brother does and is praised. Jack seems to get it, although tonight he surprised us by marking inside the house AFTER having been out and having peed and poo'd there.
Today we took them both outside for a while and Black didn't do much. He had eaten 30 hours and 8 hours before this, but still... no poo. We gave up, took him inside. About a half-hour later, hanging out in my office as they sometimes do, my attention was on the computer until I smelled...the poo.
Why? Why didn't Black do it outside, as his brother did? Am I supposed to take the dogs out every 20 minutes until the go? Or crate them at all times? Or keep them on a leash at all times while inside?
Arrgh! They're such lovely dogs. I've already managed to win one
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