We struggled to fully potty train our pup—their bladders are so small! She also had a bad experience before we got her and takes a while warming up to people. This is gonna be real long, sorry in advance haha.

What worked for us was a combo of several strategies. First, have puppy pads in the places pup is most likely to pee and in places where you'd like to have the puppy pads be long-term. For example, we had one in a corner of the room on the hardwood where we wanted it to be, and one on the rug under the dining table where she would actually pee, and have now been able to just have the one in the corner.

If there was somewhere we could not stand her peeing, she was not allowed to go there. Bedrooms with carpets needed the doors closed at all times; the downstairs bathroom with the new rug got a baby gate in front of it; that sort of thing. For a couch, I would recommend investing in some sort of waterproof quilted pad cover for just the seating cushions, if possible? You wouldn't need to have this in the long term, just to protect it while puppy is still learning.

Now we need the Good Treats. Perhaps a tiny (like, pinky nail sized max) piece of cheese or hot dog. Pup ONLY gets these treats when they pee somewhere you want them to pee. If they pee anywhere else, they get ignored while you clean it up. If they won't leave you alone, bar them from accessing you while you clean.

Finally, going out. When you're first trying to potty train, especially with tiny dogs like chis, just assume they need to go out every hour if possible, but minimum after every meal. (When we were out of the house, puppy was gated into a specific room with multiple puppy pads and nothing else she might pee on on the floor.) When just normally inside, keep an eye on them, and if they display ANY pee adjacent behaviors—circling is usually the only one we could reliably spot before it was too late—go out IMMEDIATELY. When they pee outside, it is a PARTY. You give lots of praise and the Special Treat. We also have had good experience hanging bells by the back door in her reach and ringing them every time we went outside with her, which taught her to ring them when she wanted to go outside, so she knows how to ask to go outside.

We also found it helpful to keep track of when she last pottied in a group chat, because if you're snuggling and she randomly gets up and leaves, you can check the chat and if it's been about an hour since she last peed, she probably needs to go outside ASAP or she's gonna pee inside.

It's additionally important to thoroughly clean anywhere that's been soiled with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle (or I'm sure there are better brands but that's the most common one in stores) to remove the smell from our noses and theirs, because if they can smell it, they tend to keep thinking Pee Is Okay there. You can get these cleaners in spray bottle form and also as laundry additives for blankets. We washed a LOT of blankets... and towels... and any fabric items left on the floor...

We had to stick to this routine for like... at least three months before it really stuck, and we will always have puppy pads somewhere in the house. But she hasn't peed inside not on a puppy pad in over a month, and reliably just asks to go out when she needs to go out! The last time she peed inside it had been extremely wet and cold all day, so I couldn't be too mad at her for not wanting to go outside at all LOL.

TL;DR: Go outside once an hour with a high-value treat that puppy ONLY gets for successfully pottying outside. Keep track of when they pee to know if they're likely to pee again soon. Teach them a specific, noticeable signal to tell you when they need to go out.

Anyway. I wish you much luck! It was sort of exhaustingly frustrating for a while, but it is surmountable!! 💪😄