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yorkietalkjilly · 02-22-2011, 06:27 PM

If you have ready access to outside and are up to it, taking them outside literally every 15 minutes begins to imprint them once they are outside, get the urge and do it out there. There is their scent out there with all the others. Just give them hope they will get to reinforce that whole episode by repeating if frequently and soon they begin to associate mealtime with outside right after. Drinking water with outside right after. Tugowar with outside right after. Naptime with outside right after. Excitement of any kind with outside right after. Pretty soon when outside after one of those episodes, they get the urge, go and after enough repetitions, it all begins to get associated in their brain and that's the way it should be from then on in their minds. It is SUCH a hassle though while in the midst of that intense a training scheule and one has got to give oneself some candy or shopping rewards for such sainthood of sticking to that strict schedule but before long your Yorkie is habituated and once a Yorkie is habituated - it's written in STONE in his mind! To this day after my Tibbe eats he still looks to me to take him outside! I kindly tell him "not right now" because I know he really doesn't need to go potty and that it's usually more than 2 hrs or more after he eats now before he needs to really "go" but he's still so associating his initial training of outside right after eating that he asks after every meal. I learned after he grew up that he really can't go right after eating and so eventually stopped taking him out and started asking him to wait until the urge and not the meal prompts him. Once, they were one and the same - he ate and he needed to go. Now, after a couple of hours after mealtime, he asks again but this time with urgency in his look and attitude and out he goes into the back yard. No matter how ragged you get, stick with a strick schedule and habituate your doggie. Once they prefer going outside, you can then slack off and wait until the actual urge to go in prompting them to look to you to get them outside and it all gets relaxed and casual and it is no big deal. However, my first fews weeks of having Tibbe still give me nightmares regarding that schedule!!!! Well worth it? A lifetime of a dog that is clean in the house.

02-22-2011, 06:27 PM	#21
yorkietalkjilly ♥ Love My Tibbe! ♥ Donating Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: D/FW, Texas Posts: 22,140	If you have ready access to outside and are up to it, taking them outside literally every 15 minutes begins to imprint them once they are outside, get the urge and do it out there. There is their scent out there with all the others. Just give them hope they will get to reinforce that whole episode by repeating if frequently and soon they begin to associate mealtime with outside right after. Drinking water with outside right after. Tugowar with outside right after. Naptime with outside right after. Excitement of any kind with outside right after. Pretty soon when outside after one of those episodes, they get the urge, go and after enough repetitions, it all begins to get associated in their brain and that's the way it should be from then on in their minds. It is SUCH a hassle though while in the midst of that intense a training scheule and one has got to give oneself some candy or shopping rewards for such sainthood of sticking to that strict schedule but before long your Yorkie is habituated and once a Yorkie is habituated - it's written in STONE in his mind! To this day after my Tibbe eats he still looks to me to take him outside! I kindly tell him "not right now" because I know he really doesn't need to go potty and that it's usually more than 2 hrs or more after he eats now before he needs to really "go" but he's still so associating his initial training of outside right after eating that he asks after every meal. I learned after he grew up that he really can't go right after eating and so eventually stopped taking him out and started asking him to wait until the urge and not the meal prompts him. Once, they were one and the same - he ate and he needed to go. Now, after a couple of hours after mealtime, he asks again but this time with urgency in his look and attitude and out he goes into the back yard. No matter how ragged you get, stick with a strick schedule and habituate your doggie. Once they prefer going outside, you can then slack off and wait until the actual urge to go in prompting them to look to you to get them outside and it all gets relaxed and casual and it is no big deal. However, my first fews weeks of having Tibbe still give me nightmares regarding that schedule!!!! Well worth it? A lifetime of a dog that is clean in the house.