About Ashten Expertise I have owned chihuahuas all my life, and love the breed. I can answer questions about color, shape, size, training, some breeding, and if you wanna ask me anything else, I'll give it my best shot.
Experience I have been owned by Chihuahuas, or as humans like to put it, owned chihuahuas, all my life, and I have also trained my dogs.
Expert: Ashten Date: 4/9/2007 Subject: Please help! I need to retrain a 5 year old chihuahua!
Question Hi, we have a chihuahua named Link. We just recently bought a new house and my husband has a chihuahua that stayed at his parent's house until we found a house and could afford one. We just brought the chihuahua over to our new house. He is almost 5 years old and I need to retrain him to go on his puppy pads. He has already pooped on the carpet and urinated on the carpet. Is there any easy way to retrain him to go? He's probably scared cause he spent his whole life with 4 other chihuahuas. So, being by himself is really new to him. Is there any truth to the saying, You can't teach an old dog new tricks? I really need help. He has always gone on puppy pads instead of outside, which is fine. We live in Minnesota, so the winters are really cold. My other question is, can a chihuahua go outside in the winter? What is the coldest temperature that they can handle? I would like to train him to go outside, but I want him to get used to going on the puppy pads first. Please help me with my questions! Thank you!!
Sincerely,
Tanya Thurmes
Answer Hey, Tanya!! No, there is not ANY truth whatsoever to the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks.". I currently own a 13 year old (human years, not dog years) Chihuahua (named Reneford), and I just taught him how to sit and stay last month. But back to the training. It was hard for us too, and actually, still is. I have a five year old Chihuahua, too. He still goes in the floor every once in a while, and was also trained with puppy pads. But we live in Texas, and don't get much of a winter, so it was easy to train him for outside, too. What you need to do first, is "puppy proof" all of your valuable areas of the house. Like, if you have carpet in one room, try to keep him out of there, or put several puppy pads down. What we did was when we went somewhere, we closed our dog in a pad-covered, roomy bathroom or laundry room. Next you will need to praise Link when he goes on the pad. Dogs love praise, and he will start to get the idea. When he has STOPPED going on your carpet and is going on the pads, you can try outside. Lay a few pads down in the grass/dirt. Let him outside, and he will get the general idea. Every day, let him out and decrease the number of pads. Chihuahuas can withstand a temp. that is pretty cold. But what they really need in the winter is a nice, thick, warm sweater. Oh, and just a tip, if you have a carpet cleaner called "Resolve" in Minnesota, go pick a few bottles of it up. It comes in a solid red, plastic squirt bottle. Trust me, you will need it!!!!!
Glad I could help, and drop me another question if you need anything else about ANYTHING with your Chihuahua!!!
