[yorkietalkjilly]

Took me over a year to train my Tibbe (got him when he was 9 mos. old) but he's now totally clean in the house. All the work of going right by a schedule, coming home to let him out to potty instead of going shopping, taking him out ON SCHEDULE no matter what else was going on, watching him like a hawk when he wasn't in his wire crate - which was 90 percent; of the time, never letting him roam the house that first year and taking him out after any and all excitement all eventually paid off. The only time Tibbe was in his crate was when I left the room for longer than 5 seconds or left the house but the rest of the time he was confined to the room I was in and I watched him constantly for a whole year. After a year, he got complete run of the house and for another year, he had some "accidents" but after that, they stopped entirely.

Don't expect miracles just don't give them chances to mess up and they will learn. But letting them out on schedule and after each exciting thing that happens - after coming out of the crate, after loving or play sessions, after a bath, after grooming, after clipping toenails, after training, after greeting you, family or company, after someone comes to the door, after a hard barking session, after coming in from a walk - etc. All of these kinds of things can cause excitement and trigger the need to urinate or defecate in a young or untrained dog. Plus, let you dog out on a regular schedule in addition to following these times of excitement. If you will do it that way, your dog will in time learn that he can rely on being let out so often it is easy to hold it until then. He'll make the association that going outside is the natural thing for a dog to do and actually want to make his mark outside where the whole world can "enjoy" his scent. Playing into that and letting him out there very often and watching him or confining him the rest of the time during training will give him the big picture. But it takes time and bladder control for them to get to the goal of fully housebroken.