CCRT trainers and foster families have managed to work with literally hundreds of chihuahuas under their care, successfully house training them so they are wonderful dog companions.  Here are a few of their training tips for potty training.

Dog repeatedly pees in house in a favourite spot in the house

Suggestion: Try placing his food bowl on that spot at meal times.

Dog pees in a variety of places in the house.

Suggestion 1: Use a belly band.
If you are a bit handy you can make your own belly band easily – a strip of flannel (or a long tube sock will work too) and a bit of velcro (or a big child safety pin) and a panty liner is all you need. Put the liner in the cloth, and then wrap it around his belly and “pee-pee”, and fasten. Change the panty liner as needed. Some dogs will stop right away when they feel the pee on their tummy, some will soak the belly bands… either way, it will help with the clean up anyways!

Suggestion 2: Use an old face cloth to make a diaper for the dog.

Suggestion 3: Put down puppy pads (or newspaper) on the floor, fill a pop bottle with water. When the dog pees (and I know it sounds gross) roll it in the urine and put it directly in the middle of the puppy pads (or paper). He will smell the urine on it and lift on the bottle as he would a tree.

Dog Does His Business in His Crate

Suggestion: The crate you are using maybe quite big and offer your dog a lot of room to ‘go’ yet still leaving enough comfortable, clean space for him to rest and sleep. Try putting him in a smaller crate for a period of time. Once you have established that he is no longer ‘going’ in that crate, try going back to his larger crate. Hopefully, he will have been trained to no longer ‘go’ in it.