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Originally Posted by hatajay  Thanks so much for encouraging me! I know patience is what I need but I just kept feeling bad because I was physically tired from work and still I had bath her twice a day, never-ending clean-up, and stopping her from attacking her 5 months old sister (I am so worried that if Piano gets pissed, she'd bite Violin to death, I have seen them playing, trust me, never nice unless I was there). Violin did very very well today, she did not soil her crate at all. Although I did manage to find a very small piece of poo on the blanket but I think that's from her coat. Overall, I am sooooooo proud of her today! 
Do yorkies generally have problem with being potty-trained? |
My experience with Sophie is that she would have a good morning and a terrible afternoon/evening. Then progressed to a good morning/afternoon with a bad evening. Finally to a good day then a bad day. So, be proud of her today (jump up and down and clap and be happy and she will be happy with you...it's cute and fun to watch them). But don't be disappointed if tomorrow is back to square one. Many will say that Yorkie's are difficult to potty train. This is for several reason. One being that they are tiny dogs with tiny inside workings. This in of itself makes potty training (IMO - take longer) than say a Lab. Add in their "stubborn" nature and you have double duty trying to get them to potty. But they are trainable. If I may suggest, I purchased a book when I first got Sophie. It was called "Yorkshire Terriers for Dummies". And it covered everything about them (in a very straightforward, humorous way). It was one of the best things I did for myself. I'm not implying your intelligence level in anyway, it just so happened to be the title of the book.
I bought it at my local PetSmart. Truthfully, if Sophie has an accident (most times) at this point (8 mths old) it is my fault. Either I missed the signal, or thought "she couldn't possibly have to go she was just out an hour ago". And looking back, many times the errors were my own. Keep doing what your doing. Determine what you are going to call it, use the same word each time, treat when she goes, do the little doggie dance/potty dance, and move on. Do not scold her if she has an accident that you do not see happening. Only scold her on the ones you see happenening. (No hitting! Only a stern "bad girl". Disappointing you will be enough punishment for her cause she wants to make you happy) As they can't remember they went potty in the crate 2 hours ago and now you are scolding them for it. Sophie was 12 weeks old when I got her. I can honestly say that she really didn't start to get it till she was about 5.5 - 6 mths old. Then she got spayed at 6 mths. and we had a short set-back. Now, unless it's raining outside, she comes and barks to go out almost every time and actually does know when she's done bad (pee/poo in the house) as she'll go running off if you say "what did you do". This morning, for example, she left a little poop on my living room rug. But you know what? We had gotten out of bed and I know that the first thing I need to do is get her outside. But no....I thought I had a moment or two to feed the cats. Guess what? I didn't and she left a little poopy on the floor. So was it her fault? Nope, I don't think so. I was trying to push for a few more minutes knowing full well she probably had to poopy even though she hadn't started asking yet.
Another thing to keep in mind is that once they do learn the "i feel like I have to go potty" it's often at the last minute. You will see that progress also. It will all work out, as long as you stay consistant and patient. Hope today was another good day!!
