KittyKat - I know exactly what you are going through and I'm so sorry. I know how frustrating it is. SO and I got our first puppy when he was only 6 weeks and about the first 3 months we had him was absolute hell. I remember waking up every other hour to take him to go potty in the middle of the night. The frustrations we had with our first puppy lead to so many fights between SO because we were tired from not sleeping, grumpy and exhausted like you. I'm not proud of it but we thought about giving him up several times because it was so tiring but am so glad we never went through with it. It will take a while but I think the long term happiness your doxie will give you will be worth it.
If you don't mind me asking, how old is your Doxie? If he is 2-3 months or younger then IMO not being able to hold it for long is normal. If he is about 4 months or older and still having these accidents, I would seriously wonder if he has any behavioral problems. Also, keep in mind that dogs under about 4 months can only hold their bladders for a couple hours at a time. By the time a dog is between 4-6 months, they should be fully house trained. Some get it a little sooner, some a little later. Our first dog was fully house broken at about 4 1/2 months. Our second dog was about 80% housebroken around 5 months.
Here are some things we did that I hope will be helpful. Neither SO or I are vets or animal behaviorists but we did A LOT of research and online reading and books when we got our first dog. When we did discuss it with our vet and our dog behaviorists, he gave us a lot of the similar advice that we had come to on our own.
- Crate train him during the day and not just at night. Crate training during the day to housebreak is the single best thing we did. What we do is let him out in the morning to pee. When he eliminates outside, REWARD him both with praise and with treats immediately. After he eliminates outside, we usually give him a little bit of free reign around the house
- If he does not eliminate outside, we bring him inside and put him in his crate. Since dogs will not eliminate where they eat/sleep it trains him to hold it and prevents accidents around the house
- If your dog "owes" you a poop or pee, continue to crate him and only take him outside to eliminate. If he eliminates, give him a little bit of free reign around the house as a reward. If he does not eliminate, put him back in the crate. He needs to understand that he can only eliminate outside. He probably thinks hes okay to eliminate in the kitchen which is why he has been doing it so much. The benefit of the crate training during the day is that it gives him NO chance to eliminate in the house and strongly reinforces eliminating outside ONLY
- Put treats and toys for him to find inside his crate. His crate needs to be a good den for him and a place he is comfortable in. Especially since you will be crating him a lot and at night, he needs to feel like he likes to be in his crate rather than think he is in there to be punished. We used to hide doggie food pebbles in his crate when he was a puppy so when we put him in there, he'd "magically" find the food or treats inside his crate and associate his crate with positive things. Kong toys are great things to keep a dog busy while in his crate too and helps them to fuss less
- ALWAYS crate him at night. In my experience, dogs tend to hold it more and have to go less if you put him in the crate. It also sounds like you planning on having him sleep in the crate in the long term (which is where our dogs sleep as well). If you want him to sleep in the crate in the long term then you need to enforce it now and consistently. Dogs need steady routine and structure. Don't let him sleep outside since that's not where you want him to be. He needs to learn to sleep in the crate because that's where YOU want him to sleep. Remember you are the owner and authority - never let the dog train you to do what he wants. You need to train HIM to do what YOU want.
- Chewing and eliminating in the kitchen - do you immediately scold him when you see these things happen? If you catch them in the act, you need to show them that these things are wrong. We've tried the anti-chew sprays but honestly, those do not work very well. What is he chewing on? If its chords and things like that, can you block off those areas with puppy gates? If it's shoes or toys or things lying around the house then you'll just have to put them away/out of reach to make it easier
I'm sure there are more things that I am just not thinking of right now but I hope some of the tips above help. I'm not sure if you are already doing them but if you are then I think that's great! Sometimes it just takes time. The most important thing is that you are providing him with the proper training for him to be a housebroken dog. Dogs do not come with instructions and your dog is leaning on you to teach him how to be a "good" and "proper" dog. Another thing I want to iterate is that it is so important to make sure you are training the dog to behave the way YOU want him too. Do not let your dog "train" you so to speak. By taking him out of the crate at night, he is training you that he doesn't want to sleep there. By peeing in the kitchen repeatedly, he is training you that he will eliminate where he wants. Do not let it happen! You need to be able to train him to be a good dog that will eliminate outside properly.
Most importantly, please don't get frustrated and give it some time. I know how hard it is and I'm sure you are doing a great job. If there is anything else I can help you with, please feel free to PM me. HUGS and good luck!
