Some Training Questions from a New Owner

[Amelia]

Hi Everyone,

Amelia is my 18 week old sweetie. Eventhough she is the cutest and smartest thing, we are having trouble training her. The biggest issue is that she runs away from us and won't COME. Since we are potty training right now, Amelia spends most of her time either in her crate by my side while I do homework (just went back to school), in her playpen that has newspapers down and her carrier to sleep in, or with one of us watching her. The problem is that the second, the milli-second, she gets the chance she runs away and then it is a game of "catch me if you can", which usually includes going potty where she is not suppose to. I am sure it is all fun and games to her (and I am sure we look very funny trying to catch her). She will not respond to the Come command off of the leash and with a treat or toy she will come close enough to see what it is and then dash off before she can be caught. Does anyone have any advice? Do I need to keep her on the leash all the time she is out of her crate or pen? The girls hate this, but I get frustrated having to catch her again and again.

Also, I just read some information today that says I should decide between indoor potty training and outdoor potty training. What do you do? What is the most successful for Yorkies? We live in Arizona, really cold or rainy days come once in awhile, but the heat can get stifling during the summer. Any thoughts?

And one last question - how much do your pups sleep? Amelia is either going full tilt or napping. Sometimes 3 or 4 hours at a time. Is this normal?

Thanks for your responses in advanced. We are very excited about the new adventure of being a Yorkie owner.

~C

[marcerella02]

Originally Posted by Amelia

Hi Everyone,

Amelia is my 18 week old sweetie. Eventhough she is the cutest and smartest thing, we are having trouble training her. The biggest issue is that she runs away from us and won't COME. Since we are potty training right now, Amelia spends most of her time either in her crate by my side while I do homework (just went back to school), in her playpen that has newspapers down and her carrier to sleep in, or with one of us watching her. The problem is that the second, the milli-second, she gets the chance she runs away and then it is a game of "catch me if you can", which usually includes going potty where she is not suppose to. I am sure it is all fun and games to her (and I am sure we look very funny trying to catch her). She will not respond to the Come command off of the leash and with a treat or toy she will come close enough to see what it is and then dash off before she can be caught. Does anyone have any advice? Do I need to keep her on the leash all the time she is out of her crate or pen? The girls hate this, but I get frustrated having to catch her again and again.

Also, I just read some information today that says I should decide between indoor potty training and outdoor potty training. What do you do? What is the most successful for Yorkies? We live in Arizona, really cold or rainy days come once in awhile, but the heat can get stifling during the summer. Any thoughts?

And one last question - how much do your pups sleep? Amelia is either going full tilt or napping. Sometimes 3 or 4 hours at a time. Is this normal?

Thanks for your responses in advanced. We are very excited about the new adventure of being a Yorkie owner.

~C

WELCOME!!!

Sounds JUST like a puppy- they play hard and then they SLEEP hard Sounds normal I love when they need a nap mid play- so cute. She is busy exploring and learning and growing so she needs all that sleep.

The come command= ah such a tough one. You have the right idea with treats- come should ALWAYS and FOREVER be rewarded with treats because it is the only command that might one day save her life. However i think she also needs to learn sit and stay. Work on those- then when she comes- she will learn she needs to sit and stay and then get her treats. When Layla comes she will run right up to me and then sits and waits for her treat- so work on sit and stay and then bring them all together.

I personally like pottying outside- and i live in Ontario- so we get very cold weather- but i'm sure like very hot weather. Layla wont' stay out too long We have bells hung on our door that she rings with her nose to tell me she needs out and they work GREAT> I just hate the idea of spending all that money on potty pads and then the garbage they produce.

STick with it- small dogs are hard to train because their little bladders ar ejust so tiny... but be consistent and have a little mini party every time she get it right- lots of praise and treats

[Karrie]

I agree - "come" is the number one and most important command and should always be rewarded. You can teach "come" in the house by playing hide and seek. It takes two people. One sits with the puppy. The other goes around the corner and call's the puppy's name (i.e. "Bailey Come") - reward when the puppy comes. Practice, practice, practice.

Also, I found that Bailey didn't like being picked up. She associated my approach and bending over with being picked up (which is true if you're potty training). So, as often as I could, I made it a point to bend over, pet her then release. Also, there are times that she needed to be picked up so - then I started telling her to "stop", she'd freeze at my voice, then I picked her up, praised and treated (so that she'd associate being picked up with something good).

Good luck!

[lemonlauren]

We've just started teaching "come" with treats as well... it seems to be starting to work, anyways. I point at the ground with a treat in my hand, and usually he comes. I started this by playing a game that includes all of our training so far as well as his dinner and some exercise (since he hasn't had all his shots yet, we can't take him outside except for pottying).

I hold his dish of kibble and throw a piece of it across the kitchen for him to chase. He dashes over to get it, I act excited, and he runs back to me to proudly eat it. I started saying "come" with the hand signal when he was running back toward me, then treating with another kibble piece out of my "come" hand when he was close enough to get it. Most of the kibble pieces are used up this way, but several others are used mixed randomly in to get him to sit, stay, and "high-five."

Another tip I picked up from someone here on YT is that whenever either of us picks him up, we always say, "Ready!?!" first - so he knows when it's coming, and knows if he doesn't hear us say "ready" he's not going to be picked up.

Lauren & Nikko

[megansmomma]

Originally Posted by Amelia

Hi Everyone,

Amelia is my 18 week old sweetie. Eventhough she is the cutest and smartest thing, we are having trouble training her. The biggest issue is that she runs away from us and won't COME. Since we are potty training right now, Amelia spends most of her time either in her crate by my side while I do homework (just went back to school), in her playpen that has newspapers down and her carrier to sleep in, or with one of us watching her. The problem is that the second, the milli-second, she gets the chance she runs away and then it is a game of "catch me if you can", which usually includes going potty where she is not suppose to. I am sure it is all fun and games to her (and I am sure we look very funny trying to catch her). She will not respond to the Come command off of the leash and with a treat or toy she will come close enough to see what it is and then dash off before she can be caught. Does anyone have any advice? Do I need to keep her on the leash all the time she is out of her crate or pen? The girls hate this, but I get frustrated having to catch her again and again.

Also, I just read some information today that says I should decide between indoor potty training and outdoor potty training. What do you do? What is the most successful for Yorkies? We live in Arizona, really cold or rainy days come once in awhile, but the heat can get stifling during the summer. Any thoughts?

And one last question - how much do your pups sleep? Amelia is either going full tilt or napping. Sometimes 3 or 4 hours at a time. Is this normal?

Thanks for your responses in advanced. We are very excited about the new adventure of being a Yorkie owner.

~C

If you keep her leash on you can catch her when she runs away. When our Pebbles was a puppy she would run under the bed so we couldn't get to her. I started keeping the leash on her and when she would run I could catch her much easier. That is until she wised up and before she would run she would stop, look at me, GRAB THE END of the leash and run.But that's a whole other story.

She is not too young to start training her to do simple commands and she will learn very quickly. Come is of course the most important command, followed by drop it.

Puppies sleep a lot and sounds like she is acting like your typical little girl. As for potty training, it really is your call on this. There are many people her that do a combo of both with great success. I just recently started to put a pee pad at the back door since I was missing poop and they were going at the back door in the laundry room. I thought we were good but I think it must be the extreme cold. Not the end of the world and we just move on.

[alaskayorkie]

At obedience class, they had us teach sit, stay and come while being on leash, the idea being you can control them better.

As they get better, you can use a longer leash or just a 20-foot rope or string to guide them.

[cslcs25]

Re. "runs away and then it is a game of "catch me if you can","...we have been working on solution for that with our Abby. We have been having pretty good luck (most of the time) with the following method:

Approach her saying "uppy the puppy" (cutesy, right?). Then when she allows you to pick her up reward her with treat and saying "GOOD uppy puppy!!!". Abby is getting better at it. I sometimes have to say her name a bit harshly to get her to pause. I also have to sometimes walk towards her a couple of times saying it. But she is definitely improving! If your little one never lets you pick her up maybe try this method while she is on a leash.

We are also working on "come" command which is a whole different thing. Even though we give her a treat every time there are times when she just doesn't want to!!

[JoeyP]

lol
Catch me if you can is the right saying ...
Your puppy thinks your playing a wonderful game with her
Mommy chases me and makes a lot of noise whenever I run away WHEEEE!!!!

You want to make it as much or better even more fun for her when she comes to you
what better way to do it is with treats ...
something she loves to eat
Play with her and get her attention
Show her the treat and say COME or say her name
She'll come believe me
and repeat this a few times and then have some one put her down where there are distractions between you and her
make her see the treat and call her
do this a few times and the game will stop