Outside House Training

[MaxiesMom]

I am going to share with you new Yorkie mom's something that was shared with me. If you are going to train your pup to be an outdoors potty goer, then you will need this!!!

Get yourself and exercise pen. You can get them on Ebay or if you dont purchase online then go to your local pet store.

I got max about 3 weeks ago. We knew we were getting him in advanced, just as most of you do. We purchased a playpen from Walmart. Basically it was a portable canvas crate for large dogs. Cost was about 40 bucks give or take. Max stayed in that playpen except for when we were going out to potty, when he was eating, bath time, play time, grooming time. So I can say he was in there 80% of his day.

At first I would bring him out once an hour. He was so distracted by all the wonderful things in the yard (sticks, leaves, birds, squirrels, neighbors near by etc) he would not concentrate on "going" and we'd either spend hours outside waiting for him to go, or I'd bring him in and he'd wet he playpen. I always had a wee pad in there. He hit the wee pad 95%.

Well some genius on YT offered up advice on getting this exercise pen. Said it keeps them more focused on "going". Low and Behold they were 100% accurate.

Now max is in his playpen only about 40% of the day, never never has had an accident in a week and goes potty within 2 minutes of being placed in the exercise pen.

I am grateful for that advice so I am passing it on to you who may be frustrated. Max even tells me by whining that he has to go. I swear its a miracle LOL

Good luck

[Lexi Rae]

[scarlettroses]

So, is the exercise pen a portable metal pen that you set up in your yard? How big is it?

[MaxiesMom]

Originally Posted by scarlettroses

So, is the exercise pen a portable metal pen that you set up in your yard? How big is it?

Go to ebay and search on Exercise Pen. I got the 24" one. its plenty tall enough for a yorkie. Its really not a large area, I'd guess about 5ft circumference

Sharon aka max's mom

[Bizzymammabee]

I purchased mine at a local pet supplier for $60 but I found it way cheaper on www.petsedge.com.

They were the cheapest place that I found the xpen. You can save some money by also going to home depot and getting a few of the wire mesh shelf pieces to create your own closet system. A friend on another yorkie chat did that. It cost her maybe $20 in material. I wish I had thought of it myself and saved the rest of my money. You can get the pieces cut to size and they come in varying widths.

Good luck. The xpen does help a lot with confining them and giving them enough of an area so you don't feel that they are too confined.

[tbradley]

I'm confused, the fence/x-pen is outside?

[MaxiesMom]

yes. I keep the exercise pen outside. It keeps him confined to an area for "potty" only. No sticks, no toys, straight down to business, if you know what i mean