I feel guilty and frustrated at the same time. HELP!

[SorJen]

My baby Guinness is 5 days shy to being 4 months old. I have had him for over a month now and for the first three weeks he was wonderful... he would pee on his wee wee pad but still needed training with pooping. Since he was doing so good, I started letting him run around the whole apartment but once in a while would put him into his play pen so taht I coudl do some work without worrying if he is peeing or pooping on the carpet or me stepping on him by mistake. I guess he caught on because he always wanted to be out of his playpen (kitchen) so he started to pee out of his wee wee pad. I thought it was just out of nervouness of being locked into the kitchen by himself so i cleaned it up a few times... then he kept on doing it all the time... so i started ignoring him... now what he does to get our attention is, if the peeing doesnt work, he would poop... if that doesnt work either, he would bark really loud. Its been going on for a whole week now. I tried walking him for long periods of time and he just wouldnt go until he gets back into the apartment... so i walked him and sat in the kitchen and waited for him to go for over 30 minutes... he wouldn't go... as soon as I walked out of the kitchen, he pees and poops!!!! I really lost it today and yelled and spanked him. I feel guilty about it but I dont know what to do with him!

[MeganS]

oh dear...

first welcome to YorkieTalk. I'm sure you'll learn a lot here.

and now to the issue at hand here. your dog is just a puppy. he has NO idea what you want him to do yet! Yorkies are a difficult breed to house break. take us for example, our yorkie just turned a year old and still has some accidents.

also, I dont think he's doing it just to get your attention. He probably just has to go outside. Always keep an eye on him..never let him out of your sight. soon, you'll start to realize when he's telling you he has to go..he'll start giving you "signs." once that happens, you grab him and run lol.

when he does what he's supposed to do, make sure you praise him. praise praise and more praise. throw him a little mini party haha.

and don't hit him. He doesn't know he did anything wrong. he's still a baby..he hasn't learned good from bad yet. Hitting him isn't going to help the situation, it will just make him fearful of you. and I know you don't want that.

good luck! and I hope you stick around! we'd love you see pictures of your puppy!

[Patti]

Very well stated Megan. It takes time and patience with any puppy.

[Jaspermom]

Never hit your pup. It does him no good, and he has no idea why you did it. I know you already know this because that's why you are here asking for help. I am glad you came here.

OK, deep breath.

You need to be aware of the times of day you KNOW your pup needs to relieve himself. After eating and after play and exercise is a common time. If you are pee pad training, you need to confine him to the pad and use key words like "go potty" when you want him to do his business. If he doesn't do it right then, you need to keep an eye on him until you see the "signs" that he is going to go. You know, sniffing around, circling, etc. Put him on the pad, and say "go potty". And when he does, you need to praise praise praise. I treat as well, but some folks don't. Praise can be enough.

Expect accidents. A four month old will have accidents. If your pup is like most of ours, you need to expect accidents for maybe a lifetime! But you can train them down to very very few!! Patience patience patience! And if you find that you need to yell and hit, roll up a newspaper, go in the bathroom, shut the door, look in the mirror and hit yourself over the head while chanting,"I should have been watching him"!!

You may also want to consider crate training. You can do a search on that and find tons of info!

Good luck, and give that puppy big loves, OK? And welcome to YT! You did good by coming here!

[SorJen]

Thank you so much for your responses, although I sort of already knew that that is what it would be said to me. You see... at first i thought them to be accidents... but for it to happen 6-7 times throughout the whole daY????? is that possible??? every single time I put him into his play pen it will start with peeing and he would bark a bit, if I ignore him, the next thing would go to pooping, i also ignore it.. then he would bark non-stop! i believe during the morning is usually accidents.... and here and there... but for it to be the same way again and again.... I dont know... I need to relax.

[Jaspermom]

Originally Posted by SorJen

Thank you so much for your responses, although I sort of already knew that that is what it would be said to me. You see... at first i thought them to be accidents... but for it to happen 6-7 times throughout the whole daY????? is that possible??? every single time I put him into his play pen it will start with peeing and he would bark a bit, if I ignore him, the next thing would go to pooping, i also ignore it.. then he would bark non-stop! i believe during the morning is usually accidents.... and here and there... but for it to be the same way again and again.... I dont know... I need to relax.

You are right, you do need to relax. And ignore the barking. Wear earplugs if you have to, lol! And please don't leave him in the playpen all the time. You need to have some play time with him. The better and closer the relationship you have with him, the more he will want to please you. Love him up. And make it your goal to train him right. You will have a happy pup AND a happy you!

Keep reading here. There is a ton of threads on potty training. Just use the search function. We have ALL been there/done that. You are going to be fine.

Good luck!

[SorJen]

Originally Posted by Jaspermom

You are right, you do need to relax. And ignore the barking. Wear earplugs if you have to, lol! And please don't leave him in the playpen all the time. You need to have some play time with him. The better and closer the relationship you have with him, the more he will want to please you. Love him up. And make it your goal to train him right. You will have a happy pup AND a happy you!

Keep reading here. There is a ton of threads on potty training. Just use the search function. We have ALL been there/done that. You are going to be fine.

Good luck!

Actually, my husband and I spend at least 1.5 hours playing with each day and let him run around the apartment most of the day. When we lock him into his playpen is usually for 10 mins or so when we are home, or at most 4 hours when I am in school. As for the barking... I cannot allow him to bark too much because I live in a apartment complex where the walls are very thin. During the day when most people are at work, I just ignore his barking, but he would just go on and on and on and on and wouldnt stop. I tried the Cesar Millan calm and assertive approach... it worked at the beginning and he caught on that too and wouldnt even respond to that. Dont get me wrong... I love my little baby to death... tomorrow is another day and I'll just have to try again and keep my cool. I am wondering if Guinness is too smart for me.

YorkieTalk is great... before getting Guinness, I spent hours and hours reading up on all the posts in health, picking a puppy, finding breeders, training, puppy proofing, etc.

I really appreciate all of your comments and replies.. =)

[MeganS]

haha yeah..relaxation sounds good lol.

with young puppies, such as yours, you'd be surprised how often they go. We took Tucker out every 15-20 minutes and he'd still sneak in accidents. Now it's rather rare...so patience is key.