Will Mixing Crate Training and Ex-Pen Training Confuse My Yorkie?

[sunamand]

We've had Darwin (17 wks old) for almost a month now, and have been crate training him since day 1. The breeder we got him from advised me to train him for 30 days straight, not 1 day less. We're just a few days shy of 30 days, but I'm feel really bad for leaving him in his crate all day, and him having to 'hold it' in. Would mixing in ex-pen training with paper and wee pads at this point undo all of our hard work? He's been soooo good with crate training and ALMOST never goes in the apartment. I'm tempted to try the ex-pen method for tomorrow b/c I have to work a couple of extra hours tomorrow. Has anyone else had experience with mixing crate training and ex-pen training? Will he now think it's 'ok' to go in the apartment, and forget how to go potty outside? Help!?!?

[Gracie2006]

I have always had Gracie and then Holly in an ex-pen during the day when I am at work. They each have crates inside the pen. Pee pads, food and toys are in there as well.

[GoofyBritt]

Originally Posted by Gracie2006

I have always had Gracie and then Holly in an ex-pen during the day when I am at work. They each have crates inside the pen. Pee pads, food and toys are in there as well.

I'm doing the same thing. I just adopted my baby Bentley on Saturday and he's 9 weeks old. I decided to have his crate inside a smallish area with a pen fence thingy (not xpen though) around his area so he has play room and his weewee pads in there. So far it's working wonderfully and it's only been 3 days!

He didn't necessarily like the 'bed' we bought for him so for the first 2 days he was sleeping on the blanket we had covering the sides of the crate. I then realized that if I put the blanket inside the crate he would probably sleep in there. But I had to slowly make the crate an interesting place to be in... I put his water bottle in the back of the crate so he would have to walk into the crate to drink. Worked!

Then I started putting a few toys in there and putting a little of that puppy booster syrup stuff on some of the toys in there and ever since then he's been fine being in there anytime he is sleeping.

We leave the crate door open since he is in an enclosed area as it is.

Today was the breakthrough with him pooping on the pads, he would only pee on them and poop right next to it... Weird.

OH I had to buy that spray that you spray on the area that is OK to go potty. That definitely works. The puppy pads that have that 'pheramones' and whatever to tell the puppy to go there just didn't do it for him.

I hope this post helped. Much luck you and your baby!

Brittany and Bentley

[hviola]

If you do the pen when you leave, use the pee pads or they might pick a spot on the floor for themselves.

I found working with mine the past 2 weeks that if I dont take her out on a regular schedule, she just picks a spot on the floor and goes. I chose to not go with pee pads since I will be home with her for the first 3 months. But boy, its a lot of work and someone has to be here to let her out. Im sure all this hard work will pay off soon.

[tammytulips]

I would stick with the crate training. Unfortunately I'm now the proud owner of a 7 year old yorkie that will pee on paper that is left on the floor due to the fact that he was paper trained as a puppy. Seven full years he has been doing this and no amount of professional obedience training has been able to fix it. He is now crated whenever I am out of the house.

[sunamand]

Ok so I thought potty training was going really well lately, we've been trainng for about 5 weeks now, (Darwin is 18 weeks old) and my bf even said, wow you house broke this dog pretty quick...then last night around 10 pm about 2 hours after he went outside, he walked up to the tv, and lifted his little leg and peed right in front of the tv!! I made a loud "AHHH" noise and scooped him up and took him outside where he finished peeing, but I'm feeling very upset and disappointed in both myself and Darwin...I can't figure out what it is...did he just get lazy? Or is he still not understanding the difference between outside and inside?!?!

[momof4CA]

Originally Posted by sunamand

Ok so I thought potty training was going really well lately, we've been trainng for about 5 weeks now, (Darwin is 18 weeks old) and my bf even said, wow you house broke this dog pretty quick...then last night around 10 pm about 2 hours after he went outside, he walked up to the tv, and lifted his little leg and peed right in front of the tv!! I made a loud "AHHH" noise and scooped him up and took him outside where he finished peeing, but I'm feeling very upset and disappointed in both myself and Darwin...I can't figure out what it is...did he just get lazy? Or is he still not understanding the difference between outside and inside?!?!

Yorkie are truely hard to potty train. Every time we thought our little one 'had it' he would have to prove us wrong. Hang in there.