[luvmyYorkieJack]

Ello. Here is what I have tried and seems to be working. First off, Jack is from a "breeder" and I say "breeder" because I whole-heartedly believe she is a backyard breeder borderline puppy mill. She never takes the puppies outside (not even to begin potty training). So we started at spot numero uno. I have read that as a general rule of thumb is that a puppy can hold an hour for the number of months he is. Example Jack is 8 months so he should be able to hold it for 8 hours, which he can but it's a stretch and kind of pushing it.

Jack does not use potty pads as he doesn't get them. We started by taking him out every four hours and as it neared the fourth hour we would confine him to the couch as long as we were on it so he couldn't run around and find a spot to pee. We began to lengthen the time every week and now he can generally hold it for about 6 hours but usually 7. We have limited his water intake to meal times (twice daily 1/4 cup each meal time) and if he is chewing. If he drinks more water because he was chewing we do not make him wait until the 6 or 7 hour mark. When we first began potty training him, we would give him a small chunk of cheese when he peed outside and pooed not to mention we shouted and hooted and made a huge deal when we went outside and he just loved it. We even let him run around on the leash and played "I'm gonna getchya" (which he loves). If he goes in the house and we do not see it, we merely clean it up and ignore him for a few minutes. It he pees and we catch it, we say ah-ah in a loud voice and move toward him. This usually causes him to stop and we can rush him outside so he can go. When he does go outside, we reward him for the behavior. He still occasionally has an accident but it is generally at the fault ofthe human and we admit it. He has been getting better at alerting us he needs to go out but sitting in front of us and just staring. Also if you ask if he needs to go potty in a high pitched voice he will turn his head if he needs too. I don't know how he learned that but it works. And if he doesn't he wont do anything which usually means he wants us to play with him. He's so friggen intelligent.

I hope this helps to give you ideas as well. Good luck and keep us posted.