Finally just broke through to my Yorkie, what I did was bought one of those kiddy pens, the ones with the gates you can attached and detach and make playing area small or big, well since the yorkie goes between two houses, mine and my girlfriends, we have taken 3 sides to the crates and created a little open pen at both houses. Imagine a U shape pen, we put both pens in the corner of the room, typically near dining room or living room and we lay down a few puppy pads. We have had the Yorkie for 2 weeks now and she will be 10 weeks old this week, so she is learning quick. Since we know her schedule now, which is, needs to go poopie and pee at 5-6am, feed her than she will go pee at 8 before I go to work, than crate her, than she goes when I come home from lunch at noon, typically pees first, than I feed her play with her for 10 minutes and than she goes poo, than come home from work and repeat those steps and than she goes pee one more time before bedtime around 11pm.
We tried all other training, going outside but its way to cold her and just doesn't work, esp since my GF lives on the 4th floor of her condo, no elevator either, imagine that 4 times throughout the night.
But what we did was we created the same bathroom enviroment for her since she will be going from both houses. One thing that made us do this is her awareness of where she eats and where we get her food. We realized that when she was hungry she knows exactly where to go, we placed her bowls in the laundry room and when she was free, very limited in time, she would run over to the area when she was hungry, this was at both houses. So made us think well if she knows where to eat than she can learn where to go potty.
So one thing I learned on these boards is that you have the dog walk over to the spot themselves rather than carry them, we were hesitant with allowing her to walk at first because she likes to go anywhere, she doesn't sniff or anything, just squats and goes, so for this week when we started this, I would literally hold her back end and walk over maybe 10 feet to the potty area I created with the baby pens, almost like carrying her like a wheel barrel, allowing her to use her front paws to walk but making sure she doesnt get a chance to squat and pee, once we get into the pen area I would put her towards the back and I have a chair there for me at the opening and I would sit there and continually say pottie, pottie, pottie while pointing at the mat, before she would sit there for 10 minutes staring at me while jumping around, but past few days right when I put her on mat she goes immediately pee and poopie, immediately I praise her with treats. The best advice I got is probably letting her walk over to the area, the thought is that eventually she will go into this area by herself and do her business when she wants to go.
But one thing that I can tell you is kinda annoying is she is so small after she pees while walking away her hind legs always walk over the pee, so we have to keep baby wipes next to the area to wipe her feet with.
So far it has been good and i hope she gets it! So maybe try setting up an area for your dog to go to, for the most part what I read on this board is for consistancy and can't get anymore consistant than that. |