New Shih Tzu Puppy

[LynnHood]

Bella is an 11 week old Shih Tzu who joined our family this week.  I will begin by saying she has the attention span of a gnat and the memory of a gold fish.

We have begun the house training process and she goes almost everytime we take her outside.  Lots of praise and treats along with clicker.  She still goes in the house if we don't take her out enough but trying to not let that happen.  How do we get her to let us know when she needs to go?

Other basic obedience commands like sit or down are proving to be more challenging.  Does this just take an extraordinary long time or am doing this all wrong?  I'm still trying to find a good high value treat but following all the guidelines provided in the course.  

It's only been a week but I guess I was hoping for more progress.

Thanks

[Adrienne]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

Puppies at this age do have very short attention spans, but the good news is that things improve as they start maturing. They also have very little bladder and bowl control so accidents are very likely to happen. The good news here is also that as puppies mature they can holder it for longer and longer.  Please find my replies under your questions (which are in bold).

We have begun the house training process and she goes almost everytime we take her outside.  Lots of praise and treats along with clicker.  She still goes in the house if we don't take her out enough but trying to not let that happen.  How do we get her to let us know when she needs to go?

It's good that you she is going almost every time you take her outside and that you are offering praise and treats when she goes. The goal here is to make the outside her preferred potty place because it's associated with pleasant consequences 1) the self-reinforcing sense of relief derived from the simple act of emptying the bladder/bowels and 2) reinforcement from you. Behaviors that are reinforced tend to strengthen and repeat, so we are establishing a strong pattern here. 

Getting a dog to inform us when they need to go comes with practice and the dog learning to hold it. A dog who cannot hold it yet, won't be able to inform us because the moment they acknowledge the urge, they are already going potty. So as dogs get more and more better at holding it, they can learn to go towards the door to tell us they need to potty if they are not crate or they may start moving around the crate or maybe scratch or whine if they're crated. In the meantime, it is up to use to learn to recognize early pre-potty signs (signs the puppy needs to potty) by watching them very carefully. Watch your puppy for getting distracted when playing (one second she is playing, the next she is leaving the area), sniffing, circling or moving away from where she's sleeping or eating. As we seen these signs, we need to distract them and get them to follow us outside and go potty there. Even better though, let's take them out before they show these signs as sometimes if we're too late recognizing them, they'll have an accident. 

It helps to keep track of accidents so that we mark the time in a journal and take steps to taking them out al little earlier. The more trips outside, the less accidents. It also helps training dogs to go potty on cue. Here's a guide:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/potty-on-command/

Make sure to clean all accidents in the home with an enzyme-based cleaner. When she has gone potty outside, play with her in the yard and then have some fun in the home with her and you can then relax for a little bit, but as time gets closer to her next potty trip (every half hour? every hour?), watch her carefully and take her out as needed. 

Other basic obedience commands like sit or down are proving to be more challenging.  Does this just take an extraordinary long time or am doing this all wrong?  I'm still trying to find a good high value treat but following all the guidelines provided in the course.  It's only been a week but I guess I was hoping for more progress.

The sit should be fairly easy to train, downs can take a bit longer for some pups or small dogs. I would aim to just start with sit for now and move to down only once she knows sit. It sounds like perhaps you haven't found a treat she is interested enough to follow?  Here is a little demo with a Pom named Chanel that I had the pleasure to recently work with on the process of training sit using the food lure: 

 

I hope this helps!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Best,

Adrienne