I have a 2 year old bichon frise bitch, she has always been a bit 'dirty' in regards to weeing and pooing  especially on the night time. At nights we keep her in a relatively small dog cage (ample space) and she keeps herself clean until I take her out in the morning. The only thing is that we are looking to breed her and want to give her a bit more space, especially if she's having pups. But everytime we leave her free in the kitchen or lounge, she wees everywhere! we have another dog with us ( a standard poodle dog) and she always tries to go on his bed too. Whenever we clean up, we always use trigene and wash our stuff in biological washing to get rid of any scents. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can keep my bichon white!!! (if she ever comes to the bedroom to sleep with us, she's clean)

Bichons can be difficult to house train, mine still wee inside if the back door isn't open. I just live with it. They do seem to get better with age though. Our bed and the spare bed is a favorite place too. I just don't let them upstairs now as I know if they get up there they will wee on the bed. I think it is scent marking.

You should maybe take her to the vets to make rule out a urine infection.

As to keeping her white, the only way would be to bath her every 2 weeks or whenever she looks dirty, but that wouldn't do her coat much good. I use Plush Puppy www.plushpuppy.co.uk/ The herbal whitening with ginseng. Its excellent and doesn't make them itch.

I keep mine clipped short as they hate grooming and it's nicer for them and I also use a rain coat for them if its wet, one of those that zip up over the spine as it's easy to put on and stop them getting dirty underneath.

Liz

I had problems housetraining my Bichon - it took till he was 8 months old then it suddenly clicked.  He's now 4 1/2 year old and he is always clean in the house and always asks to go outside even if its the middle of the night.  He did suffer from seperation anxiety at around 12 months because I used to put him in the kitchen behind a dog gate but leaving the living room door open but this totally stressed him out and he would wee and poo even if I only left him for 20 minutes just to take my daughter to school.  I have now solved this problem by trusting him and letting him have the run of the house when we do have to leave him and he's absolutely fine - just sits on the back of the chair and watches through the window.

I usually bath him about every 5 weeks or so and he goes to the groomers every 8-12 weeks depending on the season. 

My Bichon was 17 when he died and was never properly house trained - we also never managed to keep him white !!!

thanks, it might be seperation thing, fortunately i can take her to work every couple of days and she's well behaved. Its just on a night mainly, so i know she can 'hold on' its just like she does it to be naughty!

No such problem with any of my previous Bichons..... or this current Bichon/cross .
He was taught to wee outside from the start.  He has never weed indoors and is very clean.

As with many of the other dogs on here, he will wee when asked to.  He sleeps downstairs and is given the run of the house when I'm out. He isn't destructive and behaves when left; no howling or whining.

Yes, we are lucky but we did put a lot into his first months, so that he would be a well adjusted little dog and he's that allright...

Just need to kerb his inclination to leap all over us.  Oh well, he's just only 9 months and he's great.:)

Our bichon is 18 months old and fully house trained. He is our first dog and we had a trainer straightaway so I guess that is why we managed to house train him so quickly ! Apparently he is not a typical Bichon as we let him get really dirty most days and his walk is never long enough. He is very attracted to mud and water - swims in local (safe) ponds. We get him groomed by a lovely lady who just does Bichons every 8 weeks. He is such a wonderful dog. Not perfect but just a joy to live with.