[TishaMoon]

Please help me! I knew yorkies were supposed to be hard to train, but I'm at my wit's end! Bailey's almost 11 months old and peeing on the carpet almost once a day. The very frustrating part is that she never had this many accidents as a tiny puppy! She was started on potty pads by the breeder and it only took a couple days for her to readjust to my house and pads, then she was pretty consistent. I'm a teacher and when I was off with her all summer it was great. At this point she was around 5-6 months and rarely if ever had any accidents.

But as soon as I went back to work and had to leave her 8-9 hours a day she started going on the carpet like crazy. Not while I'm gone, but when I get home (she's gated in the kitchen when I'm gone, and only goes on the pad. Based on how well she was doing and now this, I completely think she's trying to act out and show me for leaving her. I've mentioned this before and people always say no, she can't be doing it on purpose, but what other explanation is there? It's crazy to me that it took me months from the time she was 10 weeks old to about 7 months old to go through 1 bottle of Nature's Miracle to clean accidents, and I've gone through more than 3 in the last 7-11 months age range.

So since the carpet is becoming so problematic, and rugs and things have always said "potty" to her (and she just peed on my new Christmas tree skirt, which is why I'm finally posting, so frustrated!), I want to FINALLY get her going outside! This has been another issue, as I always wanted that to be the goal, but I had a just dirt backyard and she ate rocks and things and freaked me out, so I stopped taking her out for a while. She has just never realized that outside is a potty spot. I've only seen her go outside about 2-3 times on very long walks, and only on grass (there's no grass in my backyard, just ground cover and wood chips). When I get home from work and see she hasn't used the pad recently (or sometimes at all) I talk her out back and sometimes I've waited close to an hour with nothing, then she goes when we come in. I've tried taking used potty pads out there and using that training spray that smells like pee, no luck. But I have 3 weeks off for Christmas coming up and want to really buckle down and use this time to get her going outside.

SO really what I want is help/tips from anyone who's had pad trained dogs that they transitioned to outdoors.

-Do I remove her pads altogether or keep them and try outdoor training at the same time? (She's less than 4 pounds and I really can't see her holding it the whole time I'm at work, so pads will probably still have to be around while I'm gone.)

-Is there a point in doing the bell training (to signal she needs to go) this late in the game? Anyone had success with this?

-What exactly should I start to do? At 11 months do I still take her out every hour or so? What if she doesn't go?

-Is there anything I can spray on my carpet and rugs to tell her they're not okay for potty?