[Hamoth]

Seperation anxiety. Chewy can't stand being even in another room from the people. When my wife and I are in different rooms he runs back and forth between them. When one of us is gone he whines and moans and grunts and destroys things right in front of the other person.

Hates the crate, and we lost that battle and he now sleeps in bed with us as a little jittery foot warmer.

When we leave him by himself (tried crate and pen), he will thrash and cry and yelp as if physically hurt. It's really distressing. You can hear it all the way to the car, and when we arrive at home and get out of the car, it's often still going on. I know my dog, and I'm pretty sure that he thinks that we simply forgot him and he gets deeply emotionally wounded by this.

We have ahd some progress. Today we went to a resutrant. I mentioned to my wife that I had read somethign that contradicted all our earlier readings (crate in the bedroom never move it) and left him in his crate in the LVING ROOM instead of the bedroom. I never heard a single cry. Perhaps there's the lesson?

Still, he's terribly clingy and not for want of attention. We have never stranded him in his crate, and during his puppy-hood we would sleep with our hand dangling in the crate to reassure him. He never stopped crying at night after 3 weeks he somehow got out and into the bed and we had our first night's sleep in a long time. Since then, we let him sleep in our bed.

He doesn't mind the crate wehn traveling, so long as we are there. He even goes in voluntarily. But if he hears the keys jingle and we aren't near the crate, usually the shaking and crying starts.

Potty training went VERY smoothly. He had the basics in a week or so, and had it down by 7 months age. We NEVER scolded him for going inside, we ALWAYS cleaned up the messes using a commercial pet-odor remover, being careful to leave no trace. We also followedthe directions for out-door potty training that were listed in the "puppies for dummies" book. We went by the letter and it worked really well for our Yorkie, you might give it a try...Here's a summary of the method:

First recognize the signs, and keep a mental timer, always wonder "hmmm, does Chewy need to go?"

If I saw him walking in circles, suddenly aport playing, sniff the ground as if tracking something but not going a really specific direction, and walking "that walk", then I knew. When I wasn't sure, I took him out anyway.

Have a phrase for regular out-door visits for that purpose. We chose "Pee-break!". Get excited, it's FUN to go on a pee break! Yay!

We always make him sit on the mat in front of the door (using a treat until he gets used to the ritual) while we clip to his harness. This gets him in obedience mode. I notice he's different when in "working mode" than when in "love me" mode, or "play" mode. Then, we use the short leash and bruskly walked him to a specific out door location that we used every time. If he sees rain or feels like being a pain, he'll try to stop and make me drag him. To avoid this I pull the leash to my hip, and give it almost no slack and pull UP. This leaves him almost suspended by the leash and harness, but not really and not painfully. I'm sure msot of you know all this, but just for the new yorkie owners DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING WITH A COLLAR ON A YORKIE. NEVER tug a yorkie by the neck, you migh kill your dog.

Anyway, the tight leash pull-up should make him scramble his feet to keep up with you, kinda air-walking and mostly supported by back paws. Don't overdo this, but I found it a critical part of the process. A Yorkie will likely see rain or smell something odd or just feel like going inside where it's warm...gotta be firm. Usually the tight and up leash trick gets him back to obeying and walking along with me. In 20 seconds, I have brought him to his place.

At this point, be all-business, completely serious.
"Chewy, watch me" To get hte eye contact...
"Go Potty!" Happy voice.

Look away from him and wait.

Don't make eye-contact until he begins. Don't let him pull me elsewhere or anything. The leash is fixed to my hip (by my thumb) like a training lead. He's not going anywhere and not getting one ounce of attention until he does what I need him to do. Since he's a puppy, and he hasn't gone in a while or didn't last time I took him out, ect, I KNOW he's got to go. So I wait.

Once he "assumes the position" I begin prasing:
"Goooood Potty Chewy, Good boy! Good potty!"

When finished I give him a treat and let him lead me about the yard if he wants, or go back inside at a leisurely pace. His understanding becomes "business first" and fun thereafter.

Chewy took to this system VERY quickly. In the total time I've had him (~3 months) there have been something near 30 total accidents. 1 in the last 30 days.