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Originally Posted by Helene46  Hi, my name is Helene..I joined this forum several months ago when I got my first yorkie. Unfortunatly I was not able to keep her because I just could not house train her. I tried EVERYTHING!! and nothing worked. It made me sad to get rid of her, but I just could not keep her any more. I have another dog in the house (lab) who is housebroken, but she would pee on my carpet after the yorkie did.
To try and make a long story short I am the proud mama of another yorkie. I love the breed and so want one! I had one all picked out and was going to get her after she was weaned from her mama. For many reasons tha that I will not get into right now, I wound up getting her at 5-1/2 weeks. The main reason, the owners wanted her gone! Sooo...needless to say I took her and have been playing "mama' to her. She is doing wonderfully..eating puppy chow drinking water from a bowl etc and has been for almost 2 weeks. She will be 7 weeks on Tuesday.
I keep her in a crate and while I realize she is too young to potty train I would love to be able to get her in the habit of going on a puppy pad. I do not want her to think of the crate as her potty..but rather her "safe haven"....So this is where I am having problems and am looking for a little advise...I have read the threads on house training, but we are not there yet...
So this is our schedule. I get up at 4:30am and leave the house at 6:15. My husband doesn't leave the house until about 11:30 for work, so he can help me that way...the problem is, I do not get home from work until about 5 which means puppy will be in her crate from 11:30-5...
So my question is..should we be using another approach? I was thinking gating her off in the bathroom...maybe putting her box in the bathroom and lay some pads down ..so she has her crate to sleep in and a place to go potty. Oh of course a lot of chew toys too because she loves chewing on things already...
Another question is, how do I get her to realize that the pad is the place for her to pee and poop, not the floor and not the crate? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Helene |
All I can say is WOW. I can't believe those worthless people would just throw a pup out. That's insane!!!! Your baby girl is so lucky to have you in her life. I do have some concerns though. She's only 7 weeks old, and in case you didn't know yorkie puppies should leave their mom at 12 weeks at the very earliest. That's not a suggestion either, that is what the mother club of the Yorkshire Terrier mandates. What's done is done I guess, but that just means the burden falls on you to keep this little one going. She requires constant supervision at this very critical part in her life.
Do you have a snuggle buddy for her? It's this stuffed animal with a heartbeat and heating pad (I think) that will help keep her warm and serve as a surrogate litter mate. Do you have nutrical, or nutridrops on hand? With one so young, my biggest concern would be hypoglycemia.
If I were you, I would use an ex-pen. I would take just 4 panels and put pads down so it covers half of the area. On the other half I'd have her bed, blankets, food and water. Since no one is really with her, and she has no dog mom or siblings to teach her how to potty appropriately or where she needs to go, your best bet is to rub a little urine on the pad so it smells like a potty place. Keep all of her other stuff smelling fresh by using an enzyme cleaner. Too much room at this time might confuse a puppy this small.
I really hope our wonderful breeders see this post. They can give you much better advice on what to do with a puppy this young. I wish you two a long happy life together.