I need to vent a little. And, I want some advice to see if you all think I'm on the right track with what I am doing.
My Yorkie is 9 months old. He is my first puppy, and I admit to making a lot of potty training mistakes with him in the first 3-4 months that I had him. After educating myself a little better I feel like we've been working in the right direction over the last 2 months. I do a combination of crate training and just keeping him by my side. He sleeps in his crate at night and has no accidents in there. Then during the day he stays in a playpen when I'm out running errands or when I can't have him with me and supervise him. Then we have play time probably 3-5 times a day for about 30-45 minutes. The rest of the time he I keep him on a leash and he follows me around the house.
He got sick and was in the hospital for a week recently. Up to that point we had been doing very well, and were having almost no accidents. Then when he was getting sick he started having several accidents a day...even in the crate. Since he's been home and better we were back to having almost no accidents! I was so happy...and starting to feel like I might be able to start giving him longer play periods off leash...
Then there was today! While we were playing he decided to run under the kitchen table (a favorite spot of his) and have a quick pee. Then while I was in the bathroom he decided to pee outside the bathroom door. I corrected him both times and immediately took him outside where he finished peeing and I praised him like crazy. But, it's just frustrating to have been doing so well and then suddenly have two accidents so close together
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Do you think what I am doing to potty train is ok? Any advice? Do you think he is getting enough free time off leash and out of crate? The books I was reading said to crate them for 2-3 hours and then let them out to play for 30 minutes throughout the day. But, I don't want to crate my baby for so much of the day, so that's why I started letting him be out on the leash during the times when I need to do chores and can't be chasing him all over the house. Do you think this is ok?
Sorry for the long post! If you've gotten this far thanks for taking the time to read.