Bichon Frise owners

How did you manage to housebreak your pups? Archie is 80% paper trained, has no interest in going to the toilet outside & is unpredictable in his toiuleting so though we take him out regularly we're having no sucess!

Any tips? Crating isn't really an option due to size & layout of our house.

Thanks

Hi Lilifer, yes Bichon Frise house training is a bit hit and miss isn't it They are meant to be amongst the top ten hardest dogs to housetrain I never bothered with paper training at all, just took him out to the garden frequently, especially after a meal or a sleep. Perhaps if you put the paper outside he might get the idea a bit better. Go out with him when he has had a sleep or a meal and stand with him until he performs and give him lots of praise when he does. Our Bichon was 8 months before I could say he was housetrained but he is great now although he does get stress anxiety when I leave him for a short while so he poos and wees in the kitchen then - but I have solved this (I hope ) by crating him for the 30 mins I am out in the morning and he hasn't done it in there yet 12 weeks is still very young - just keep taking him out and get him used to going outside as much as possible and I am sure one day it will all click into place

Have you any photos of him because I would love to see some if you have

i agree with foxys advice.
Bichons can be very difficult to housetrain. My mums bichon is 7yrs old and is not housetrained altho i dont think she really knew how to do it properly so he never learnt.

Just make sure you give lots of praise when he goes to the toilet outside and try using a command word together with this, i use 'toilet' and 'quickly'. This way you can begin to make him go on cue.
Take him out reguarly, so after hes had a play, had something to eat, a drink and when he wakes up from sleeping. These are the most important times to take him out. A young puppy cannot hold it for very long and i think up to something like 6 months they do not have full control over their bladder. Much like babies. Be patient with him and make sure u never tell him off for going inside, just clean up the mess and take him out and praise him when he goes outside. Hope this helps.
Also, paper training can have the opposite effect when housetraining as the dog may think that going indoors is acceptable.