About Beth Adams Expertise I have 10+ yrs rescuing Cairn terriers. Ask me about rescue work and re-homing rescued terriers. I am also proudly owned by a Jack Russell Terrier rescue. I am also keenly aware that terriers are significantly different from other kinds of dogs, and often not the best choice for some owners.
HOWEVER I AM NOT A VET! PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME IN-DEPTH MEDICAL QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD BE DIRECTED ONLY TOWARDS MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. I WILL BE HAPPY TO ASSIST WITH BASIC MEDICAL QUESTIONS/NEEDS THAT I CAN OFFER MY PERSONAL OPINION ON. If you ask me questions about breeding, please expect me to be direct about my opinion on this topic.
Experience 10+ yrs owning and rescuing cairn terriers. Proudly owned by a Jack Russell Terrier rescue. My JRT is active in being a foster brother, and earthdog and agility events and we're having a blast
Terriers - 7 month old Cairn still not potty trained
Expert: Beth Adams - 3/12/2009
Question I bought my puppy from a pet store in the mall. All she ever knew was her cage, she would pee, poop and eat in her cage when at this pet store. When we bought her we tried to crate her during the day when we were gone. We would get home to take her outside to train her that is where she needs to go potty and she would be soaking wet from her mouth to the front of her chest, I don't know if this was from whining so much or if it was pee. At the time it was cold outside so we would have to dry her off before we could take her out and give her a bath almost every day. She is now 7 months old and we will take her outside she will sniff around but not do anything come back in and pee right in front of us. I don't know what to do, we have stains on our carpet from her and are about to move into a new house and don't want pee and poop in our new house and I am ready to get reed of her if something doesn't change.
Answer Kristina -
First off, I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I have been ill and looking at my computer at all kept making me dizzy and nauseaous (YUCK).
Anyway, I do have a couple of suggestions.
First, you can easily tell if the wetness on her front is pee or saliva by the smell. She may be licking a lot during the course of the day as opposed to wetting her crate. A crate used while housetraining a dog should be just big enough for them to turn around in and no larger. That means that while you will want to use a medium sized crate once this all gets worked out, you will want to use a small one for now. They are much less likely to pee in the crate if they can't find a "corner" to do it in.
Now to getting her to potty outside. We will making peeing the priority since the other is much easier to clean up and doesn't usually ruin carpets, etc. You should take her out immediately upon coming home and plan on staying out with her for 1/2 an hour - though it's unlikely to take than long. She should be taken out about 5 minutes after every meal, and every hour or so.
To increase the odds she will potty outside, take her places where other dogs have peed. They tend to overmark each other and leave what we jokingly call "pee mail". Dogs can tell a lot about each other just from the smell of the urine.
Take lots of tiny bits of cheese or some other high value treat with you. When she pees or poops outside, give tons of praise and give 10 treats one right after another. Dogs respond more to frequency of treats than to volume - so 10 tiny (1/2 the size of a pencil eraser) counts more to her than one bigger piece.
While you're working on this you may want to get an ex-pen or babygate her into an area that is easily cleaned like the kitchen.
Now, that said cairns can be a little tougher to housetrain than other breeds. Who knows if it is their indepenant spirit, but seems to be a generality that holds up.
I also encourage you to attend an obedience class series so you can learn how to best motivate your kiddo to be the dog you would like her to be.
