My dog is scared to potty outside. How do I stop indoor accidents?

Question

When we got our dog last year She was not paper trained in any way! from that day she is SCARED TO DEATH to go outside to go potty, so we opted to paper train as we have another chi that paper trained herself. (Long story) it has not worked well at all. Now she is peeing all over the house and no matter what she won't stop. She is also has anxiety, not sure if it's separation as she pottys even if we are home! Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Female | spayed | 1 year and 4 months old | 10 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

I'm sorry to hear that you're having this problem! In my experience, it's quite a bit more difficult to reliably paper-train a dog than it is to teach them to go outside to potty, so I don't recommend this unless you really have no other options. But if you feel that she is too afraid to go outside, then you can certainly give it a try. Since it sounds like things are not going well at the moment, I would go back to basics and start all over again, as if she had never been trained at all - just like a new puppy. Pick a room with hard floors, like a kitchen or bathroom, and cover the floor completely with paper (or pee pads, if you prefer). This will be her potty area. Place her in this area frequently (every 20-30 minutes, at first), and praise and reward her with a treat if she pees or poops. In between, she needs to be either in a crate, or under your direct supervision to prevent any accidents. If you see her starting to sniff or circle, pick her up right away and put her in her potty room, then praise and reward her for doing her business there. Over time, she should start to go to the potty area on her own when she needs to go. Make sure to praise and reward her every time she does this, and continue to supervise her closely at all times to prevent any opportunity for accidents. When she has gone at least two weeks with no accidents at all, you can gradually begin to give her more freedom in the house. It will take a great deal of time and patience to train her, so you will need to be very diligent and consistent in order for this to work. Once she is reliably going to her pads or paper every time to potty, you can start to pick some of them up to make her "target area" smaller. You can also place pads in some other parts of the house for her to use, if you wish.

My dog is scared to potty outside. How do I stop indoor accidents?

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