5m old girl Frenchie giving us a hard time :)

[G_A]

Hi everyone,

Our pup Evita will turn 5 month old in a couple of days and as lovely as she is we are having difficulties understanding her behaviour.

We are a household of 5 with our oldest child being 7. We live in a townhouse with 3 floors. In the beginning Evita lived in the first floor in a crate. The breeder told us not to use one time diapers as she will eat them so we tried the multi diapers but after some time the smell was just too much to bear around the kitchen and living area.

So we moved her to the second floor second floor in a larger crate without any diapers.

She has 3 walks a day, sometimes even 4 and still pees inside her crate on a daily basis. But that's not the main problem. In the evenings or in the weekend we want to have her with us in the living room but every time we let her out of the crate, whether its to one of the bedrooms or even worst the kitchen, first thing she does is pee. This is so annoying, as on one hand we want to spend time with her and love her but she just makes it impossible with her behaviour.

Obviously she understand the kitchen is where all the yummies are although she only feeds on her dry food, and maybe she is kind of marking this area? I really have no clue. The bedrooms are all with carpets.

For now we have decided not to let her walk in the house at all until see a change which is very sad. So it is pretty much her being in her crate all day, besides when it's her outside walk time.

Any ideas on what we can do to change this behaviour?

 

[Cbrugs]

I guess my first question is why is she "living in a crate" as you say? Like, that is where she spends her time? I personally do not think that is any way for a dog to live. Being crated trained is one thing but "living" in a crate is totally different. And being only 5 months old, she is not potty trained yet which is why she is peeing in the house.

Puppies need a lot of attention and consistency when it comes to training, especially Frenchies as they can be a stubborn breed. Also, Frenchies are like "velcro" dogs, they like to be with their humans.

 

[G_A]

When she lived In the first floor she obviously spent more time out of the crate than in it. Cause she is super cute and we would always want to play with her. We moved her to the second floor because the smell was just too much for us. Now she spends more time in the crate because very sadly every time we bring her to the living room she goes to pee right away. So I am looking for solutions which is why I decided to post this thread.

Today after he evening walk of about 30 minutes, I played with her in the living room and after exactly 1 minute she peed a fountain. How does that make sense?

 

[Cbrugs]

Did she pee while on the walk? You could have her check for a UTI to see if that is causing an issue. But puppies do need a lot of consistency and praise while potty training and mine usually "got it" around 5 - 6 months but some can very well take longer.

 

[Rusty’s Owner]

Hi everyone,

Our pup Evita will turn 5 month old in a couple of days and as lovely as she is we are having difficulties understanding her behaviour.

We are a household of 5 with our oldest child being 7. We live in a townhouse with 3 floors. In the beginning Evita lived in the first floor in a crate. The breeder told us not to use one time diapers as she will eat them so we tried the multi diapers but after some time the smell was just too much to bear around the kitchen and living area.

So we moved her to the second floor second floor in a larger crate without any diapers.

She has 3 walks a day, sometimes even 4 and still pees inside her crate on a daily basis. But that's not the main problem. In the evenings or in the weekend we want to have her with us in the living room but every time we let her out of the crate, whether its to one of the bedrooms or even worst the kitchen, first thing she does is pee. This is so annoying, as on one hand we want to spend time with her and love her but she just makes it impossible with her behaviour.

Obviously she understand the kitchen is where all the yummies are although she only feeds on her dry food, and maybe she is kind of marking this area? I really have no clue. The bedrooms are all with carpets.

For now we have decided not to let her walk in the house at all until see a change which is very sad. So it is pretty much her being in her crate all day, besides when it's her outside walk time.

Any ideas on what we can do to change this behaviour?

Sounds like she is peeing in her crate because she is living in the crate, crate training is very good as a bed or ‘safe area’ but I wouldn’t recommend a dog to live in the crate.

One recommendation I have, have you looked into a X-Pen?? When I brought home my Frenchie he was crate trained, and his crate was his sleeping place/comfort area but we always had a X pen around the crate for the times he would sleep in his crate overnight because we would put a potty tray that looked like grass, so he wouldn’t have to pee in the crate in the middle of the night. But he was only ever in the area with the crate and X pen at bedtime as a puppy.


Dogs would prefer to not need to potty in their bed usually.

Have you been taking her outside to potty other than the walks? They need to pee more than 4 times a day, so the 4 walks doesn’t mean they won’t need outside more.

Frenchies love being played with, being with their owners as much as possible!
They love to cuddle and even just to sit with their owners getting some attention, if she doesn’t really get much time to play with you or go outside other than the walks, or can’t cuddle or sit with you for affection, she probably would pee in the house because of that.

They are very smart dogs, and yes can be very stubborn at times and to train, However, consistency and praise and affection is key.

You also can get a bell that hangs off the door handle, so she can ring the bell when she needs outside to potty.

Also a good thing to do is teach her a command like ‘go pee’ or ‘go potty’ and when she does go, say yay good potty or good pee with a happy voice and reward with a good treat. She will figure it out. And she is still young so the sooner you teach her to go outside and be consistent the better it will be, she is a puppy and will of course have accidents even when fully potty trained sometimes.

When my Frenchie was fully housetrained/potty trained and always went outside, he suddenly started peeing everywhere in the house and I knew he was fully potty trained, I knew something was wrong. I took him to the vet for the urine check and he had urine crystals that were causing him to be uncomfortable and needing to pee more, or a UTI can also cause that.

But I would maybe have her checked for any urine crystals or UTI.

At that age I was letting my Frenchie out every 3-4 hrs sometimes 5 hrs was the longest in between pee time outside. Even now I still let him out every 3 hrs sometimes sooner, sometimes 4 hrs depending on if he is sleeping or playing and he is 3.5 years old. He lets me know when he needs outside.

4 potty times a day on walks wouldn’t be enough in my opinion.


The diapers also don’t teach the dog anything, cause they get used to being able to pee wherever and whenever so if you have a diaper on her all the time she thinks she can pee wherever and any time, which makes house training more difficult.

 

[DOGMOM]

Hi everyone,

Our pup Evita will turn 5 month old in a couple of days and as lovely as she is we are having difficulties understanding her behaviour.

We are a household of 5 with our oldest child being 7. We live in a townhouse with 3 floors. In the beginning Evita lived in the first floor in a crate. The breeder told us not to use one time diapers as she will eat them so we tried the multi diapers but after some time the smell was just too much to bear around the kitchen and living area.

So we moved her to the second floor second floor in a larger crate without any diapers.

She has 3 walks a day, sometimes even 4 and still pees inside her crate on a daily basis. But that's not the main problem. In the evenings or in the weekend we want to have her with us in the living room but every time we let her out of the crate, whether its to one of the bedrooms or even worst the kitchen, first thing she does is pee. This is so annoying, as on one hand we want to spend time with her and love her but she just makes it impossible with her behaviour.

Obviously she understand the kitchen is where all the yummies are although she only feeds on her dry food, and maybe she is kind of marking this area? I really have no clue. The bedrooms are all with carpets.

For now we have decided not to let her walk in the house at all until see a change which is very sad. So it is pretty much her being in her crate all day, besides when it's her outside walk time.

Any ideas on what we can do to change this behaviour?

Puppies need to pee more often then adult dogs. When they get outside their cage is when they go the most. They start moving and get excited and oops! I was just in the potty training stage with my boy last year. Took him about 6 months to finally get it.

Because he would eat the pee pads if it was in his crate, I’d leave him in his crate without one when I went to work but I would come home for lunch and take him out. He would pee often when out of his crate but That is to be expected because he wasn’t potty trained yet. When he has an accident, I’d stop him and pick him up and take him outside. After I’d reward him right then with a treat outside (don’t wait to give the treat inside because she won’t know what it is for anymore) So eventually he knew that peeing meant outside. But another main thing is, I didn’t yell at him if he did pee inside,Yelling at them just causes confusion, I don’t know if you have but just in case.. Don’t because she will think peeing is bad and sneak off behind your back to do it so she doesn’t get in trouble. I also had 2 pee pads that I’d leave out in the common areas where we would be in and wherever his favorite pee spot was. If he went on the pee pad then he’d get a treat. Be sure to Get a pee pad holder, that way it doesn’t move and she doesn’t eat the pee pad, the holder prevents them from eating it.
But I think my main reason of getting him trained was taking him out often when home, like every 30mins to an Hour to prevent accidents. And reward reward reward. Eventually it will click!

 

[jlhog]

Rex spends time in his crate when we cannot keep an eye on him. Our first rule is when he comes out of the crate he goes outside. He has no accidents if we do our part. He will be 6 months old tomorrow and this seems to be working for him. Sometimes I think he is giving me a sign he needs to go out and I will let him outside. Just not sure on his signs yet, but we are learning.

 

[2bullymama]

you need to train her and praise when she goes outside. frenchies are notoriously difficult to potty train, they don't just get it, they have to have months of training to get it down.

Cheli was like this… he never has and still does not tell us he has to go. We have to maintain a schedule and watch that he doesn’t go unseen because that means he probab has to go. Good thing is for us.. he is attached to me like white on rice, where I am, he is right there or following. But first two years we had him… potty was a tough nut to crack. Crated when at work and we hired a pet sitter/walker for midday.

You have to take them out immediately upon waking and immediately after play time, then within 20 mins of eating. Take on walks at least once a day and teach them to signal to out when the home. it is your job to train the puppy, they puppy has no idea not to just go where they stand or sleep until they are taught.

 

[CutieFrenchie]

I've never heard of using a diaper just because. Did the breeder actually suggested using diapers or was this idea from somewhere else?
Sounds like you guys need to go back to basics and start over. Evita hasnt learned where she can pee yet. Definitely get rid of the diaper.

The general rule is they can hold their pee 1 hour for every month of their age. A routine works best starting off. You'll have to watch them like a hawk for a while.

Pee first thing in the morning. After playing. An hour after eating. And anytime after any excitement. Can even start a routine of having Evita sit by the door, then say let's go potty outside and take her outside. Then say go potty when you get to the spot you want her to. Celebrate and reward the potties immediately. Right now it seems she doesn't know the word potty yet. It's just going to take consistency, time and patience.

Remember if you weren't there when the accidents occurred inside, don't bother correcting those. You lost the opportunity. Don't worry, you'll get more chances!

 

[Ilvsantana]

Hi everyone,

Our pup Evita will turn 5 month old in a couple of days and as lovely as she is we are having difficulties understanding her behaviour.

We are a household of 5 with our oldest child being 7. We live in a townhouse with 3 floors. In the beginning Evita lived in the first floor in a crate. The breeder told us not to use one time diapers as she will eat them so we tried the multi diapers but after some time the smell was just too much to bear around the kitchen and living area.

So we moved her to the second floor second floor in a larger crate without any diapers.

She has 3 walks a day, sometimes even 4 and still pees inside her crate on a daily basis. But that's not the main problem. In the evenings or in the weekend we want to have her with us in the living room but every time we let her out of the crate, whether its to one of the bedrooms or even worst the kitchen, first thing she does is pee. This is so annoying, as on one hand we want to spend time with her and love her but she just makes it impossible with her behaviour.

Obviously she understand the kitchen is where all the yummies are although she only feeds on her dry food, and maybe she is kind of marking this area? I really have no clue. The bedrooms are all with carpets.

For now we have decided not to let her walk in the house at all until see a change which is very sad. So it is pretty much her being in her crate all day, besides when it's her outside walk time.

Any ideas on what we can do to change this behaviour?

I think the behavior change should start with you. Take her out of that crate unless she has to be in there when youre away. Theres enough people in your household that someone can take her outside every hour and stay with her until she does her business. Try positive reinforcement training instead of putting her in a flippin cage

 

[Brandy R.]

When she lived In the first floor she obviously spent more time out of the crate than in it. Cause she is super cute and we would always want to play with her. We moved her to the second floor because the smell was just too much for us. Now she spends more time in the crate because very sadly every time we bring her to the living room she goes to pee right away. So I am looking for solutions which is why I decided to post this thread.

Today after he evening walk of about 30 minutes, I played with her in the living room and after exactly 1 minute she peed a fountain. How does that make sense?

Im so sad that you are missing out on your frenchies personality my Belle will be 4mths in a cpl days ..she pees daily..and poops in the house, she does it outside also we wake up at 230 3 am and take her out and she gets treats when she goes outside..I feel like we're almost there...good luck.