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Originally Posted by caseybear Unfortunately, that is what we were told too. However, it is not working. I am concerned that she is trying to "get back at us" for putting her in the crate. We are going to try and purchase a baby gate this weekend and see how she does. We have tried to get her to use the potty pads, but so far no luck. I guess we'll keep trying. Thanks for the advice. |
Dogs do not understand the concept of revenge. She is going in her crate because that is when she needs to go and no one is home to let her out and she cannot hold it. You need to walk her in the morning and wait until she poops. Try changing her feeding schedule so she does not have to poop while you are not there.
A 14 week old Yorkie cannot hold it for 4 hours. Things will improve as she gets a little older. In the meantime it is cruel to leave her in there longer than she can hold it (and I'm a huge supporter of crate training, but only when done correctly). Try the baby gate and just ignore the mess until she is old enough to be put back in the crate for 4 hours.
Is there any way you can take a few days off to work with her on this? Or at least stay home all weekend and just work on potty training. You need to wait for her to poop outside and then praise/treat her like crazy. Do this a few times and she'll start to get the hang of it. Expect accidents for the next 3-6 months. Also, don't confuse things with pads - that just teaches them it's OK to potty inside and then you go and change the rules and it's not OK any more. That's confusing. It's either OK or it's not, you need to choose one and commit.
Loki pooped in his crate 4 or 5 times when he was that age. He pooped and peed on the floor all the time, even while we were watching him! After a while we learned how to predict or tell when he needed to go. A few months later he learned how to tell us he needed to go. Dogs just want to make us happy, and if we show them what we want from them they will do it. Loki is totally housetrained now, even with all of the setbacks we had in the beginning. You just have to patient and consistent.