When Small Dog + Snow = Peeing in the House

[ramama]

What do you do? We take her out 5+ times a day and she is still peeing in the house. I try to take her to the few patches of grass, but no-go. I know it sucks to be a dachshund when there's snow on the ground, but I try to make it as pleasant as possible by leaving a towel on the heating vent while we're gone so she can get dried and warmed up quickly. I thought about shoveling a patch in our yard, but in reality, she never pees or poops in our own yard anyway (we live in a townhouse development, so she prefers the "common areas"). Any idea?

[SoulCakes]

Umm, hmm...

I'd go ahead and dig that patch, then bundle your dog up and take her outside. For a long time. Until she pees in the patch. Then I'd reward her with treats and lots o' love and then an hour later I'd do it again (just like when she was being housetrained). If she doesn't pee outside after you've stood out there for ten/fifteen minutes, I'd take her back in and keep a CLOSE eye on her for another ten/fifteen minutes, then take her back out again and wait for her to pee. You'll catch her when she needs to go eventually, and until then you want to make sure she doesn't pee in the house. After she goes on the patch once or twice she'll have figured it out.

Does she only pee in the house when there's snow? Or is she not totally housebroken in the first place?

[ramama]

Yeah, she was totally housebroken before. She starts peeing in the house when there's snow, and it sets off a whole peeing-in-the-house bad habit that extends for a period after the snow is gone. But this time is worse, for some reason. She peed in the house three times yesterday!

Thanks for the advice, though. I will go shovel that patch and get her treats ready!

[ramama]

I also thought I'd mention that we got our dog when she was already housebroken, so I've never actually housetrained a dog! So no advice is too simple LOL

[neetling]

I had to shovel our yard this winter for our pug but she wasn't going inside. When I saw that the snow came up to her chest I went ahead and shoveled.