The Dachshund and Chihuahua House Training Dilemma

I use Dachshund and Chihuahua as a base to start with because my dog, Hollie, I think is part Dachshund and part Chihuahua. When I found her at a rescue, the information I received was that she was a four month old Miniature Dachshund. But as she got older, her legs got very long and her belly area became more concave like a Chihuahua. I also found that her mannerisms mixed between the two races. This included the trespassing dilemma.

Because the Dachshund is a strong working dog, it has a very stubborn personality. This tends to make them stubborn and/or independent. Although the Dachshund is trainable, it may not be easy to train. In fact, the Dachshund may try to train his trainer. The owner of this breed should feel comfortable letting the dog know who the “leader of the pack” really is. This dog’s stubborn temperament makes him hardy and he is not the easiest to train. With continued positive programming, the Dachshund learns, and with a determined owner, the Dachshund will develop training quickly.

The fact that Chihuahuas are so small makes house training them a bit challenging. Chihuahuas can hide under furniture or sneak into corners unseen and leave surprise little mounds for you to find at a later date. Patience will be needed in the process of house training this dog. The Chihuahua will learn quickly with positive reinforcement training. Some owners never get their Chihuahuas fully house trained, especially in bad weather. The Chihuahua does not like the cold and tends to shiver. They don’t like to get their feet wet, so going out on damp or wet grass discourages the Chihuahua from going to the bathroom.

In any breed of dog, there are two recommended training methods for housetraining your dog. The first is to crate or containment train your dog. The second is to train your dog with paper or puppy pad. In any case, consistency is the essential key. Once a bad habit starts, it’s much harder to break and retrain your dog.

Hollie, my Dachshund-Chihuahua has a bit of both temperaments which has made house training her quite a challenge. She was originally paper trained when I got her. When she got a bit older, I put her in a pen during the day with a doggie door with access to the outside. Hollie would use the piece of carpet just inside the door as a potty. She didn’t like the grass because she was so small that the grass brushed against her tummy. When the grass was watered, she did not like to get her feet wet. So when she went out, she would use the yard instead of the grass and the rug right outside the door as a potty. When she visited other houses, she would go to another room and leave the owner a little surprise in the corner even though they had a doggie door that she could use. Like last winter, the pen was too cold to hold her and she was given a little more room to roam, so to speak. She now believes that the rugs are her bathroom area.

With this frustration at hand, I set out to find some answers. I have never had a dog that had these problems before. Once she showed up at the dog door, the rest was a done deal. Not with Holly! I found a dog training that has helped me overcome Hollie’s behavior problems.