Toilet training and Holiday plans

[Alexandra88]

Hi everyone!

So my little Hugo is wonderful; it is so lovely to have him around the house. His current favourite pastime is sitting in the kitchen watching me cook. It is like a tennis match he sits just watching me and even some times his little tail wags!

I have two things I need your help with.

1. Toilet training
2. Holiday plans

So firstly toilet training.

As I have mentioned before I live in a house whereby you enter the front door and walk up about 10 steps and then to exist the house in the backyard you go down a very steep set of stairs again about 10. Up until last week Hugo couldn’t even negotiate one downwards step, and has just finally managed to get down 2 very small stairs inside our house.

As such we have the puppy pads down in the kitchen area, he never misses and always pees on those. He saves the pooping for outside, and only ever outside. He always waits. However this was all fine when he was a tiny little guy with little pees.. now he is bigger and so are they! As such we are going through a lot of pads. Also I would hope he has more control of his bladder so perhaps we can start training him. My biggest issue is he cannot go down the stairs at the back. They are far too steep I don’t want him to even try as he might hurt himself. So how can we encourage him to pee outside? I was thinking I might move the pads to near the door? And then maybe put in a dog door and encourage him to go outside? Does anyone have any tips?


Next issue. Christmas/New Year’s Holidays.

My family is arriving from Australia and we are going on holidays, instead of putting him in a dog kennel I asked whether any people at work wanted to borrow him. My PA said she would, I am just hoping he is ok with her family. She has a 3 year old and has promised me she will not leave them alone together. Hugo is wonderful with children however he is only 4-5 months old so you just have to be careful. Has anyone ever had their chow babysat? If so what did you do to make the transition easier. It will only be for a few days and she will be home with him. Hugo likes people and isn’t scared of strangers, so I trust he will be ok. we are doing a test run in a few weeks just to check her daughter is scared and gage how he reacts!

Thanks for all the advice. I really appreciate it.

[Piff Poff]

Is getting a ramp for your stairs out of the question?

Henry and now Daisy goes to the kennels, they get the playroom instead of a kennel because that's the way it should be for their royal highness' lol. My daughter dog sits for a couple in their home whilst they are away.

Bare in mind Hugo may not eat for a few days and might not poop for 4 or 5 due to a change in circumstances, he will be confused and waiting for you to come home so he can eat and poop where he is comfortable. Do not worry about this, it's very chowy, he will eat when he realises he is hungry and he will poop from necessity, Henry has never not drunk water, so drinking and peeing is fine lol. The first thing he will do when you collect him is go mad, then want to poop then want to eat his fill.

[christina chow mum]

Hi again Alexandra!
Here is my tip for toilet training which I accomplished with Ming in a couple of days and never used puppy pads inside or outside the house. The idea of course is to get him to go as near to, or outside of (the dreaded door down the dreaded stairs). Ho hum...

All dogs pee on the spot where they pee'd LAST. As Hugo uses his pads, he knows exactly where he has to pee and if you watch you will see him sniff the pad before he pees to make sure its HIS pee!
So, here we go.... (I did this trick with newspapers but his pads will work as well..)

Fix in your mind the spot where you want Hugo to FINALLY end up peeing. (Stairs, yard, kitchen corner, somewhere outside, etc.)
Wait for him to pee in the usual way on his pad right where it usually is.
Pick up the pad with the pee on it and place it exactly as it is a little distance away.
Clean the area where the pad WAS with bleach on a damp cloth or a mop.
This completely removes his "smell".
He will look for his "pee" next time round, maybe going round in circles looking for it, not find it and then pee on the pad you have put a distance away because his "smell and pee" from the previous pee is still there.
When he does, you praise him like mad up to the skies "Good Boy"!!! Kisses and treats....

Then you do the same thing again. Move the pee'd pad a bit further away, clean the previous pee'd area with bleach and so it goes on until you finally reach the door, or even, one step at a time, (oooops those stairs again..) the outside world or the spot you have fixed in your mind. Got it?

Now Alexandra, this process might take a day or so and you might not like moving the SAME smelly pee'd on pad distance by distance over a period of time, so what I did was to wait for Ming to pee, take another page of newspaper, rub it lightly over the surface so it picks up the "smell" and put that piece a little distance away and so on, disposing of the previous soiled page and cleaning the area with bleach.
Well, this worked for me and hope it does for you and Hugo. Good luck! I am sure you will beat this together as he only wants to be a "Good Boy" and to please you. Your delight and praise every time he pees on his pad a "bit further away" will keep him at it!.

Sorry can't help with holidays etc. Sure others can though!
Take care!

[christina chow mum]

A bit more info. Piff & Poff's idea (can't believe I wrote that... LOL!) about using a ramp is a good idea. The only thing is if you've ever seen Ming trying to go up or down a ramp with his slippery claws, sliding about with four legs east, north, west and south, ha ha, it 'aint funny. So if I could make a suggestion You could use a ramp but one with those slats across it every few inches just like they have for horses to go up into their horse boxes and come back down again at the other end. This would give Hugo a lot of security after a few hit and misses,especially if mummy chow Alexandra has put a "crate" (LOL) at the top or bottom of it with guess what inside? Yeah, a previously pee'd on pad!
Way to go!

[christina chow mum]

Look what I just found pics of Alexandra! Perhaps you could find something like these or have a little one made for Hugo for his uppers and downers?

[Piff Poff]

You can get doggy ramps for cars quite easily.