[Ladylavender]

4 months old is still very young. Most yorkies are not 100% housebroken until much older like about 6-8months. Some will take longer, others will take a shorter time.

The one thing about yorkies is that you must watch them like a hawk at all times. They should NOT have free-range of the house until fully housebroken. Simply taking the puppy out to potty after eating and other designated times, is not enough.

Accidents must be eliminated as much as possible. The only way to do this to keep the puppy near you at all times. You can either confine the puppy to the room you are in or leash him to you. NEVER let him out of your site. While he is in the same room as you, you will need to pay attention to him, not to anything else. As soon as you see him sniff around like he is looking for a place to squat, you will need to whisk him up and take him outside and use a command for potty and stay out there until he does it. Praise and treat!

If you have chores to do or need to take care of personal hygiene and cannot look after him, you will need to confine him in a crate, but you put him in there only after you have taken him out to empty his bladder and possibly bowels. Make the crate very small but make it cozy. When you are no longer busy, take him outside again to go potty.

Training a yorkie to be potty trained is hard work and exhausting. You must be more of an active participant in his potty training than even he is. You need to also understand that he may learn to be potty trained in one room, but not another. Each room must be introduced as if he was not potty trained at all.

After he is good about not going in the house, he may still not ask you to go out. Unless you take him out regularly, he may still have accidents in the house, until he learns to ask to go out. This may not come to him until he is about 8-12 months old. There are different methods a yorkie will use to ask to go out. The can come to you and yip a few times, or come to you and stare at you, or go to the door and sit there and wait until you notice them and if you don't notice them, they will potty at the door, or (if you're lucky) they may scratch at the door or bark at the door. Which method your dog chooses is up to him.

If you work very hard in this early stage of his life, he will be a beautiful perfect companion for many years to come that you will enjoy so much. BUT you must be willing to do the work up front. It won't last forever, BUT it will take some time.