Need housebreaking help with my pomeranian pup

[minis3]

I am at my wits end. It was all going so well and now I seem to be back to square one. My pom had gone 3 days with no mistakes. He really seemed to have caught on to the whole housebreaking concept. Wrong!! Yesterday he messed up 3 times and today once already. And this is with taking him out every hour. He doesn't even seem to be trying anymore. Just squats whenever the spirit moves him. And he is so wild! I have never seen a pup with so much wildness. I am beginning to think that I have chosen the wrong breed. I have read that poms can be independent little dogs but this is ridiculous. Any and all help, tips and suggestions will be very much appreciated. Does anyone know if there are any forums for poms? Or any place I can get more info about housbreaking or pom personality? Thank you!

 

[Ashley]

Crate train him. Put him in a crate and only letting him out to potty and short play times. Trying it for a few days. Really does help.

And remember most dogs are not fully, trustworthy house broke until about a year of age.

 

[minisaremighty]

I would love to have a pom! Too fru fru for my hubby though

:

I'm sure there must be a yahoo group for poms out there. I just wanted to tell you that potty breaking my last puppy was soooooo hard for me, so I understand what you are going through. Between 12-15 weeks I was ready to throw in the towel and find a new home for her, seriously. I was at my wits end. I was too lazy to follow through with finding a home, she finally "got it" and I'm sooooooo glad I never gave her away because she is my best bud now (she's 3.5 now). Of course, I was foolish enough to have a baby at home AND a puppy. Would NEVER do that again! LOL!

Are you keeping the little one tethered to you when in the house with you and not in a crate? I found that was what worked for me, as long as I kept an eye on her. She wasn't allowed to be out of my sight, within a week, she got it.

Good luck! BTDT and it certainly can be trying!

 

[Warpony]

my mother in law has a pom and she has always said if she knew then what she knows now she'd have not got a pom. But she loves him anyway. He is a hyper little cuss.

I second the crate training suggestion. make sure the crate is small enough that it can't potty in one end and sleep in the other and then only let the little pup out to play AFTER it has done it's business where it is supposed to. Then keep it close by (I keep them on a leash close to me) so if it starts looking like it needs to go you can rush it outside.

 

[minis3]

Thanks for your replies. And warpony hyper is definitely what my little pom is. I wonder if maybe a female pup would have been a better choice. I do keep him in a crate but maybe I am letting his play periods outside of his crate last too long. I also have a sheltie and I didn't have any of these problems with her. I guess I should have stayed with a breed I knew something about but I wanted a dog that would be small and I could hold. My sheltie is too big for this. She is actually closer to the size of a collie. Thanks again for your suggestions. I won't give up on the little devil yet. But he is trying my patience. I like the leash idea too. Although when I take him out he is on a leash and all he wants to do is play and fool around with it.

 

[Ashley]

I have a cocker spainel who are famous for being hard to house break. It wasnt until 8 months that she was getting better with accidents, and close to if not over a year before she was fully trained. Even now, at 2 years of age, she will occasionally have a poop accident. I think she is a excited pooper instead of the piddling they normally do when excited.

Cockers normally are not hyper, but I think I found the queen of hyper in her. She is good when its just her and me but anybody else or other animals its turns in to a ......gotta go gotta go on the move constantly hardly ever sleeping.

 

[Warpony]

I wanted a dog that would be small and I could hold.

hehe, that is why my MIL got her pom, and the little cuss hates to cuddle and refuses to be a lap dog. She loves it when I bring my dogs over because they just want to cuddle all day... of course they are bald, so like a reptile they love leech your body heat :bgrin . On a cold day they both try to climb inside my shirt, lol.

I've had one of them decide to have a few "accidents" this last week, but it has been very wet and cold and even with his coat on he hates getting his feet wet. So I can't blame him for not wanting to go outside. It's my fault for forcing him to live in Michigan when he would prefer to live somewhere like the Bahamas.

 

[runamuk]

I am at my wits end. It was all going so well and now I seem to be back to square one. My pom had gone 3 days with no mistakes. He really seemed to have caught on to the whole housebreaking concept. Wrong!! Yesterday he messed up 3 times and today once already. And this is with taking him out every hour. He doesn't even seem to be trying anymore. Just squats whenever the spirit moves him. And he is so wild! I have never seen a pup with so much wildness. I am beginning to think that I have chosen the wrong breed. I have read that poms can be independent little dogs but this is ridiculous. Any and all help, tips and suggestions will be very much appreciated. Does anyone know if there are any forums for poms? Or any place I can get more info about housbreaking or pom personality? Thank you!

Check http://www.americanpomeranianclub.org/index.htm for breeder referral in your area.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/POMLOVERS/ this is a great group worth joining

I am friends with a couple pom breeders and have considered them as a lap prospect. The thing I have been told is toy dogs need to go far more often than big dogs. A dog door to a yard/kennel area is a huge help. Crate training is very beneficial but do not expect a toy pup to hold it for more than a couple of hours. Even as adults it is uncommon for a toy breed to hold it all day (8-10 hrs) they just can't physically in most situations. Other tricks (having just finished house breaking a chow pup she is 7 months) keep them on a food an water schedule. To help with overnight I restricted the water consumption before bed time and I was still getting up around 3-4am for a potty at age 4 months now she gets up around 6-7am with a last potty around 9-10 PM. Poms are typical spitz type dogs, independent, a bit hard headed, and can be yappy. The poms I know are very bouncy active happy dogs even the oldsters are pretty bouncy LOL nothing like my bear rug chow who plays hard for an hour then snoozes for the rest of the day :bgrin .

 

[ForMyACDs]

Small dogs are much more difficult to housebreak than larger ones. Think about how small their little bladders are with that tiny size. It doesn't take much to fill them up.

I agree.....start crate training. Let him out when you are able to watch him 100%. Take him out frequently (puppies can piddle as often as every 15 minutes) and don't get angry with him about mistakes......think of it this way.......he doesnt' know any better, but YOU do. If he piddles then it's your fault for not being vigilant enough. Clean up the mess and vow to watch more closely next time. It works....really it does!

 

[Dontworrybeappy]

Small dogs are much more difficult to housebreak than larger ones. Think about how small their little bladders are with that tiny size. It doesn't take much to fill them up.

I agree.....start crate training. Let him out when you are able to watch him 100%. Take him out frequently (puppies can piddle as often as every 15 minutes) and don't get angry with him about mistakes......think of it this way.......he doesnt' know any better, but YOU do. If he piddles then it's your fault for not being vigilant enough. Clean up the mess and vow to watch more closely next time. It works....really it does!

Yep! This is what we have done... we've also learned that it's easier to watch them if you contain them in a pen in the room you're in - a toy dog's small size can lead them to believe that any room you aren't in is, by definition, "outside".

:

Potty pads are also your friends with a toy dog - if you can't get them to wait for you to let them outside, at least you can teach them to go on the pads. (We tried litterbox training our 1st pom, but the cats used any litterbox we set up for him and then he either ate the "tootsie rolls" or wouldn't use the box since it belonged to the cats!)

Tad is 4 months old and is good about going outside my office (an 8x10' insulated "house"/shed) to go potty, and he also uses potty pads in the hallway at night when he sleeps in my bed. He still will sometimes have an accident in the wrong place if we don't keep an eye on him in the living room, but he's getting better!

 

[capall beag]

Until he is fully housetrained I would get a little playpen. Put his crate in there. It is almost impossible to housetrain a small pup when they have the run of the house. You barely notice if they are squatting because they are so close to the ground!

With little dogs it can take a longtime to housetrain.

You could litterbox train him, using paper. I never liked the idea but my friend does this with her chihuahuas. They caught onto it right away.

 

[JO~*]

Wow I guess I am blessed because both of my Poms were easy to housebreak.

I have a male and a female. The female I have had since a small pup and the male I got as a 1year old and he was NOT housebroken when I got him, never taught at the breeders. It only took about a week to train him. I do crate my dogs at night.

The only thing I can say bad about either one of my Poms is that the male will pee on me when he is excited about going somewhere and I pick him up.

The female is a couch potato, the male not so much.