[chemking]

Hello everyone. This forum has become a lifeline for my wife and me since we got our Yorkie puppy Rex last week.

We tried to start out doing everything right as I have read. The little guy does great in his crate and is socializing very well. He is 9 weeks old, a little young, but the woman who originally owned him basicially left him in a crate for 10 hours a day while she was gone and we felt bad for the little man.

The problem is this: For about 5 days, Rex would both pee and poop outside when we took him out. We were also working on his cue phrase "go poop". Now, all of a sudden he refuses to go while outside. Most times, he will just stand there or play with grass and try to head back inside instead of using t he bathroom. As soon as he gets inside and is placed in his crate, he pees. I have considered the idea that he is trying to prolong being outside, but this doesn't make sense because like I said he often tries to head back to the back door anyway.

For the past two nights, I have taken responsibility to wake up at 3 am to take him out, but of course 15 minutes is wasted and I wake up at 6:30 am to find a crate full of poop and pee. He is on a feeding schedule that I downloaded from this website a while back, and does not have 24/7 access to either water or food.

Please help us. I fear that his previous owner really messed him up by allowing him to mess his crate all day every day.

On the bright side, I have noticed that when in an X-pen he will use potty pads to pee and poop freely. While this is not ideal, it may be our only option for now.

Any advice from you experts?

Thanks in advance,

ChemKing