Housebreaking is possible, but will take an enormous amount of work to break his old habits and to re-build new ones. If you want a guarantee that he will never have potty issues in the future, he will need to be trained to go outside. I think that if you are considering training him to go in the house on pads, you are never going to have a 100% housebroken dog.
The amount of time you need to invest in housebreaking could be anywhere from 2-3wks to 4-6 months, or longer. If he is not neutered I would definitely get him fixed asap. When you are home, you must confine him to one room only and that's the room you are in, and you can never never never take your eyes off him. You must take him out frequently, every hour on the hour in the beginning and he must be your 1st priority before anything else, until he is reliably house broken. He will need to be taken out on walks every day and at a set scheduled. You can incorporate the aid of your child, but I don't know what his/her functioning levels are.
When you are not home, I recommend crating him him or confining him in an x-pen with very little room in it except for his crate, toys and bedding. Since he is 7 months old he should be able to hold it for about 8 -9hours without going potty, but if he has too much room, and he is used to relieving himself, he will do it. That is why I think in the beginning crating is more effective.
It helps if you have a fenced in yard too. (not necessary, but helps)
I think the barking is probably easier to train, but you will need to be consistent and positive reinforcement should be used. There are good training sites on the web and you can google for help on how to train not to bark, excessively. This will take some work too, but probably not as much as the housebreaking issue.
If you can devote a small blip of your life (6-8months) to house breaking, you will be rewarded with the best little companion for the rest of your life. While you are going thru it you will wonder why you got yourself into it, but you will be soooooo happy you did, when you have a well trained little yorkie. There is nothing better in the world then a well trained yorkie in your life. |