Well..I have to say I think my way is working for "my" little one, so far ( I this may change if you ask me later though). I would not leave him in his crate with a potty pad. His crate is to be only big enough for him to stand up and turn around. It is not for eliminating. If you want a pad to be near him then I would do a crate and put pad outside of it so that you can take him out of the crate and put him on it.
The best suggestions that were given to me (if you work all day and can not come home to let him out) is to put him into a crate at night. Put him in around 11 or 12 (initially) and let him out around 5 or 6. You may have to do one in the middle too. the object is to just keep extending it out until you get to the times that you want. That has always worked great for me. If you can come home during the day then I would crate also. The object is to keep extending it out too. If you keep letting them out during the day then they will get use to that. I had only a few accidents with my other puppy and now she goes from 7 until 4 or 5 (or later if I really needed). This yorkie is different in that she is only 1 1/2 lbs. Everyone made me nervous with all the possible health issues that could occur (hyper"something, kidney problems etc). All of that made me crazy. So, I set up her crate ( smallest crate size) and put a divider in it and a soft bed. I put this into a 5x5 square shaped pen (was smaller before). I put the pads on the left and the crate on the right (I use to have the pads in front of the crate (only room enough for crate and a pad in front). After I saw that she was going on the pad, I made it (pen) bigger, separating the pads so that I could see if she was getting it. I leave her in it during the day (when I am at work) and at night (except last night, I will explain in a minute). I leave the pen door open during the day. This is set up is in a den that we have all been hanging in (I believe in the one room at a time method). I keep placing her back through the door of the pen, and onto the pads, with directions to go "potty" and praise her when she does. It took a few days, but now she goes in and out and uses the pad (I still keep placing her on it). I was thinking last night of putting her into a crate at night to help her to learn to hold it longer and also to make sure that she really is getting the idea. I have another crate upstairs in the bedroom. I saw that she had just went potty on her pad and I was tired early (10pm). I decided to bring her upstairs with me and lay with her for a few minutes before putting her in. We fell asleep. She moved a few times during the night but I kept her under my wing. She finally got up around 5 am. I took her right down to her pen and went back up to bed. That made me realize that she can hold it in for a while. She did not wet upstairs and she held it until she was in her pen. Not bad! I came down at 6 and found poop on the pad. Tonight, well, I am planning on the crate in my room (I don't normally believe in putting puppies, when starting, in the bedroom). I think they sleep better, and get use to you not being there every second, when you are not sleeping in the same room with them at first. I would normally still leave her downstairs but my other puppy has been sneeking off to sleep wih my son, before I have a chance to crate him. Since she has been proving to be completely trained, and staying asleep the entire time with him, I am permitting this (she is only 14 weeks!). She was completely crate trained! I still do not trust FiFi (my yorkie). I still think that she would walk off, while I would be asleep, and poop somewhere in the room. But, I can see now, that she is capable of holding it. I can tell you, that she does travel around with me and hold it the entire time. The reason I want crate training is because then you can teach them to go on command. My other puppy goes on command. When you crate train you can teach that. The problem with a pen (and not seeing them go) is that you do not always know when they went to plan for travel. That essentially becomes my main reason for wanting to crate train her. I am, however, working on getting her to go on command now. It seems to be working. Ok..I have just rambled a lot here. One last thing. The other problem with the bedroom is that you feel bad (as I did last night) and you sleep with them. What if the bed is too high and she can not get off (even if she wanted to) to get to her pad)? Then what? She may not wake you and may just go potty right on the end of your bed. She did this to my daughter the first week. Oh yea, the reason I am actually thinking of crating her in the bedroom is so that I can hear her to take her out and onto the pad when she has to go (and then put her back in). The only problem with that idea is that I do think it will be real hard to take her out and then not hug her vback to sleep after. It may actually be best for me to crate her (within her pen) downstairs from 11 until 5ish and then work out from there. I will debate tonight unless another reader can give me a suggestion on that. - Kathy
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Originally Posted by atcapers I meant to say 13 weeks. He 13 weeks and weighs 2 pounds. I haven't tried the crate method. So I just leave him in the crate with his potty pad and eventually he will get the hang of it? You said that you don't keep him in the room also. Is that the best way? What size crate is the best? I put him in an area blocked off with the pee pee pad and he just steps all over it. |
