YorkieTalk.com Forums - Yorkshire Terrier Community - View Single Post

GrayC25 · 05-06-2008, 12:21 PM

Hi there! I'm new to the boards, as well as new to being a yorkie owner. My fiance and I brought home a 9-week old (today!) male yorkie named Samson. He is the cutest little sweetheart and we both instantly fell in love. He's got a sweet and spunky personality and we are so glad he's a part of our family.

We've only had Samson since Friday night, 5/2, but we are both just so confused on what to do for potty training. We've heard and read so many different things, it's hard to know what to do or if what we're doing is the right thing.

This may be long, but I want to be as detailed as possible. My fiance and I both work pretty full days. I'm away from the house for about 9 - 9.5 hours, and that's if I only go to and from work with no detours. My fiance's schedule varies, but it's usually a 6 - 8 hour day.

We don't expect Samson to go the entire day with out relieving himself, he's just too small right now, but we got advice from a friend who has a yorkie herself and she was successful with crate training and so we decided to try that. I know we haven't properly acclaimated Samson to the crate yet, but he he goes in and out of it when his water is in there and when prompted by us (or a treat). Sunday night was our first night with Samson at our home (we got him up north, so didn't get home until sunday evening) and we brought the crate in to the bedroom with us around 10pm. He cried at first, but settled down in about 10 minutes. He woke up around 12am, cried, we took him out, returned him to the crate, he cried, settled down and went back to sleep. He slept until 6:15pm, cried and woke us up. We took him out and I think he went pee (it's all starting to run together now) and brought him in. We put him back in the crate to try and get a bit more sleep and he really couldn't settle down. He was quite for a minute, then started up again. At that point, we started to smell poop. He had gone poop in his crate. How can we tell the difference between whining to get out of the crate and whining to go to the bathroom? At this point, we got up for the day, took him out, fed him, took him out again and then crated him in a small space (our crate comes with a divider to make it as small as you'd like) with no water and left for work. Again, we knew he probably wouldn't make it the entire day without soiling himself, and we were right. He peed but didn't poop.

We had our first vet appointment yesterday and he checked out healthy. We spoke to the vet about crate training and no water during the day. She said since we were gone for so long, confining to an area like a bathroom with water would be better, since he's just so small and has no control yet and also so he wouldn't become dehydrated.

When we're at home, we continue to take him out whenever we think we saw signs and 50% of the time he goes outside. We bring him back in and play some more. We don't really want to crate him when we're at home, so one of us always tries to keep an eye on him. We had one accident last night when we got home from the vet. He peed before he came inside from the car and once we were inside, he started sniffing really fast and squated before I could get to him. I said "NO" and picked him up and took him downstairs (we live on the second floor) and I think he went potty again.

The vet told us to continue crating him at night in the small space. Last night, cried when we put him in the crate for just a few minutes. He woke up again at 12am and cried. My fiance got up and took him out and didn't pee. Samson woke up again around 2:15am and cried. I struggled to wake up fully for a minute, but then got up and took him out. I am pretty sure he peed (again, it's all starting to run together). I took him back in and put him back in the crate. He got quiet for a bit, but 10 minutes later, he started crying again. My fiance got up and took him out again and I got up to check the crate. Turns out, at some point, he had peed on the blanket he was laying on. I put a new blanket in the crate and that seemed to settle him down and he slept until almost 7am.

He wouldn't eat when he first got up, but he peed. He finally had something to eat right before we were leaving, so now I know I'm going to get home to some poop on the floor of the bathroom.

Also, it's probably good to point out that the breeder didn't give Samson a dewormer past 3/28 (and we bought him on 4/30) so the poor little guy now has worms. I'm sure that's not helping with the poop situation either.

I am just so confused at this point. I don't know what's working and not working for our Samson. I don't expect him to make it the whole day, but I worry that I'm not doing the right thing and he's learning bad habits. Does anyone have ANY advice?

If you've made it this far, I really appreciate you reading my story. I'd love any help at this point.

05-06-2008, 12:21 PM	#1
GrayC25 Yorkie Yakker Join Date: May 2008 Location: Metro Detroit Posts: 57	Confused about potty training Hi there! I'm new to the boards, as well as new to being a yorkie owner. My fiance and I brought home a 9-week old (today!) male yorkie named Samson. He is the cutest little sweetheart and we both instantly fell in love. He's got a sweet and spunky personality and we are so glad he's a part of our family. We've only had Samson since Friday night, 5/2, but we are both just so confused on what to do for potty training. We've heard and read so many different things, it's hard to know what to do or if what we're doing is the right thing. This may be long, but I want to be as detailed as possible. My fiance and I both work pretty full days. I'm away from the house for about 9 - 9.5 hours, and that's if I only go to and from work with no detours. My fiance's schedule varies, but it's usually a 6 - 8 hour day. We don't expect Samson to go the entire day with out relieving himself, he's just too small right now, but we got advice from a friend who has a yorkie herself and she was successful with crate training and so we decided to try that. I know we haven't properly acclaimated Samson to the crate yet, but he he goes in and out of it when his water is in there and when prompted by us (or a treat). Sunday night was our first night with Samson at our home (we got him up north, so didn't get home until sunday evening) and we brought the crate in to the bedroom with us around 10pm. He cried at first, but settled down in about 10 minutes. He woke up around 12am, cried, we took him out, returned him to the crate, he cried, settled down and went back to sleep. He slept until 6:15pm, cried and woke us up. We took him out and I think he went pee (it's all starting to run together now) and brought him in. We put him back in the crate to try and get a bit more sleep and he really couldn't settle down. He was quite for a minute, then started up again. At that point, we started to smell poop. He had gone poop in his crate. How can we tell the difference between whining to get out of the crate and whining to go to the bathroom? At this point, we got up for the day, took him out, fed him, took him out again and then crated him in a small space (our crate comes with a divider to make it as small as you'd like) with no water and left for work. Again, we knew he probably wouldn't make it the entire day without soiling himself, and we were right. He peed but didn't poop. We had our first vet appointment yesterday and he checked out healthy. We spoke to the vet about crate training and no water during the day. She said since we were gone for so long, confining to an area like a bathroom with water would be better, since he's just so small and has no control yet and also so he wouldn't become dehydrated. When we're at home, we continue to take him out whenever we think we saw signs and 50% of the time he goes outside. We bring him back in and play some more. We don't really want to crate him when we're at home, so one of us always tries to keep an eye on him. We had one accident last night when we got home from the vet. He peed before he came inside from the car and once we were inside, he started sniffing really fast and squated before I could get to him. I said "NO" and picked him up and took him downstairs (we live on the second floor) and I think he went potty again. The vet told us to continue crating him at night in the small space. Last night, cried when we put him in the crate for just a few minutes. He woke up again at 12am and cried. My fiance got up and took him out and didn't pee. Samson woke up again around 2:15am and cried. I struggled to wake up fully for a minute, but then got up and took him out. I am pretty sure he peed (again, it's all starting to run together). I took him back in and put him back in the crate. He got quiet for a bit, but 10 minutes later, he started crying again. My fiance got up and took him out again and I got up to check the crate. Turns out, at some point, he had peed on the blanket he was laying on. I put a new blanket in the crate and that seemed to settle him down and he slept until almost 7am. He wouldn't eat when he first got up, but he peed. He finally had something to eat right before we were leaving, so now I know I'm going to get home to some poop on the floor of the bathroom. Also, it's probably good to point out that the breeder didn't give Samson a dewormer past 3/28 (and we bought him on 4/30) so the poor little guy now has worms. I'm sure that's not helping with the poop situation either. I am just so confused at this point. I don't know what's working and not working for our Samson. I don't expect him to make it the whole day, but I worry that I'm not doing the right thing and he's learning bad habits. Does anyone have ANY advice? If you've made it this far, I really appreciate you reading my story. I'd love any help at this point.