Hello,
We're having problems paper-training my shih tzu puppy. Oscar knows where to go in his pen when we leave him home, but he has a great time ripping up the peed-on paper as well, making a huge mess of pee and shredded bits of paper everywhere. He's been paper-trained right from the start, and we didn't start having this problem until a couple months ago. He's also starting to really get into the 'humping' phase, and we have to wait another month to neuter him (he's a runt). I don't know how to get him to stop humping everything. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
-Jen

As far as the humping its just his natural instinct, if it is too much of a problem remove anything he can hump (ie. teddies etc.) when he starts to hump them and give them back when he stops...

As far as your toilet training is concerned he should really be going outside by now if thats what your aim is, otherwise you will be left with a puppy who will pee anywhere and everywhere...

I've added quite a bit about toilet training shih tzus on other posts which u can look up!

I've got a litter of 2 girls at the moment - mum isnt housetrained - I've found the shih tzus impossible to be honest! so with these two I'm going to try something different, in a week or so I'm going to start crate training them and see how it goes, I'm going to try to do without paper as much as possible and put them outside when they are a bit bigger - although its going to be extremely difficult being the middle of winter but if I can I will because I dont want these puppies to go to homes and be untrainable... I'll do my best anyway!

Thanks for the quick reply..
We're using a combination of crate training for sleeping and napping and a pen in the garage for leaving him home alone. I like this method because 1) He can keep himself occupied and has room to move around and 2) because I don't have to worry about the mess of him pottying inside the crate. He's doing really well with the outside potty training, it's really just the times he's alone that I'm worried about. I've also been giving him chew toys and such in his pen so he won't feel so bored as to have to rip up his paper, but it doesn't seem to be working- he's ripping up his newspaper as faithfully as before, and it's becoming a bad, not to mention messy, habit. He has been doing extremely well inside the crate and hasn't made a mess in it for the last 4 months. My question- should I just put up with the pen-training or keep him inside the crate instead when we go out?.. I would prefer not to do this and would feel much more comfortable with him in the pen, but if it might help his behavior, I'm willing to give it a try.
Good luck with your girls!

how many hours during the day is he left in his pen alone???

Let's see..he's in his crate during the night, then first thing he's taken out to pee (around 7), then put in his pen until about 7:30, when everyone's up. He stays inside until 8:30, when we leave for school. When my mother gets home she walks him, then brings him inside until she has to go out. Then he's put in the crate. Basically, when she's home, he's inside. He's put in his pen while she picks us up, when we get home he's walked, and brought inside. he stays in for about an hour and a half, then he's in his crate again for homework time/dinner. After dinner, he's inside until his bedtime, around 10. So, he's inside for a good chunk of the day, whenever someone's availiable to at least keep their eye on him.

Hi! I too have a Shih Tzu. We got him at 4 months old from a kennel and for the first two or three months, I honestly thought I would never manage to train him as he was so unused to using anything but the home as his toilet!
His trainer said to leave him in his crate for an hour or two at a time, then outside for a pee. He can go for hours without doing anything, so I'd have to put him back in his crate again until he goes.
Paper training rarely works I"m told. They tend to think they can do it in the house as opposed to outside being the right place.
With crating, eventually they should get used to knowing what they have to do as soon as they go out. I also walk mine regularly at set times about 4 times a day and over time, this gets them into the right routines. (I hope!)
I'm still not 100% sure of him - especially in strange houses but I honestly think this business of crating them until they 'go' is the best. Once they do the bizz, you let them free in the house for an hour or so before repeating the whole ghastly process!
It's quite a hard way of doing things but I think you might find results happen much sooner!
Good luck and let us all know how you get on! It'll be great once you crack it!
Alison

Thanks for the advice!
I've noticed over the past few weeks Oscar has been doing really well with the outdoor trainng. As soon as we bring him out, even without a leash on, he'll go right to his spot and pee. It's catching him after he does it while nancing away that's the hard part. :) He's awarded right away, then always brought inside. I don't currently have a set schedule going for him, but he's walked at least 4-5 times a day, and he seems to do fine inside provided he's taken out every hour or so.
Good luck to you, too!