[yipyap]

Well, my breeder/friend said all her Yorkies were trained to use newspapers in their basement doggie runs & also went outside when she gave them the free run of her fenced in backyard. When I first brought Taffy home, I was still in my last year of teaching school, and he used newspapers in his "puppy room", which was half of the kitchen!..I would take him outside to pee & poo in the a.m. as Soon as I had on my robe & slippers; no house is next to ours, thank God! We stayed in the Same area of the yard at 1st or the pup would not realize he was not out side to play!! I praised him and gave him a little piece of soft meat treat. (He loved that!) Then, back in house for me & hubby to get ready for work. He would follow us around the house--When we left, he had the kitchen...doors closed. I would cean up his wet newspapers from his tray, etc. when I got home...I got home 1st! He would sometimes do his poo beside the boot tray that held the newspapers, so I tried an extra sheet next to the tray, that helped. (I found boot trays at Wal-Mart for $5.00, and he was pretty good at staying on the paper in the boot tray). While he was young, we also kept one tray outside the t.v. room in the hall that had wooden floors, but husband did not like that! As Taffy got older, I shifted over to taking him outdoors more and more often during school holidays, the mornings, afternoons, evenings, and especially in the summers when we were both home. We found a type of meat treat that we could use as a reward, and we kept praising him for going "right away"! OUR FUN WALKS WERE LATER ON, NOT DURING POTTY TIME!! Now, he always slept on the big bed at night, and I had another boot tray & newspaper in the corner of that bedroom with a 6" piece of "used newspaper" under a clean top sheet of paper as a reminder...it worked well when he was little. Now that he is 3 years old, he sleeps all night, but I still leave that tray & paper in the bedroom corner, and he rarely uses it at all. We found out from reading and talking to other owners that if there were TOO MANY Rooms that the pup is allowed into, then the More Mistakes he will make, especially in those rooms that were not used often by us, rooms we did not really "live in" or spend a lot of time in! This old, two story farmhouse was built by Mike's grandparents in the 1930's, so there was a room we use daily as our t.v. room right beside the kitchen. We learned Very quickly to "close off" the front dining room door and also the old fashioned-double doors that went into Front living room (there were rugs!)--these rooms we only used if there was company! So, the pup had figured, hey, no one in my family is "using" these 2 rooms...I guess I can pee or poo on the rugs in there! NO! This meant our Taffy was really only in the t.v. room and the kitchen during the day while we were home, or hewas following us...which he always wants to happily do! When a puppy, he stayed in the kitchen with his food&water, the puppy newspaper tray, and his small wire crate with a soft puppy bed in the crate while we both taught at nearby schools. As he got older, the dog crate was put into the t.v. room...by then he was 2 yrs old, and I was "retired from school" and I still would take him outside 1st thing when we got up, AND I took him outdoors more and more during the day!--remember, these are small dogs with LITTLE bladders.! At first, we went out @ every hour, but that tapered off pretty soon as he got on a routine & he got older. HE was not using the boot tray in the kitchen, and my hubby happily took it out! Now, Taffy was going outside most all the time, and he would do it right away too because I went Back inside the house! I could peak through the window to watch him, AND Taffy WOULD bark when he was done, so I would come take him inside with me! He likes his outdoor bathroom "privacy", so we put 3 metal doggy stakes outside near different spots in the back. I would take him outside to a stake and he would do his pee, then move near the bush to poo. (I always took along a paper Kleenex or piece of toilet paper to lift up his little poo to flush in the downstairs toilet. Also, since we live out in the countryside with a pasture across from the yard fences, we could also take a nice big tree leaf and throw the poo wrapped inside the leaf out into the cattle pasture! It would deter wild skunks, foxes, and then it would just disintegrate from rain! Gone! Now, Taffy follows me all around the house while I clean. He still stays OUT of the dining room and the front living room, because they aren't used much at all, and we keep the doors closed!! He loves to "guard" the bedroom where we sleep when I go to town; he naps on the bed, and at 5 1/4 pounds, he now waits till I get home to go outside to pee...even with the old boot tray in the bad room corner, he ignores it now!! Taffy is now basically an "outside trained dog". He still has a large puppy play pen in the basement that can be all fixed up with dog crate, tray & his newspaper, food & water dishes, and our sister comes over to take him for walks and clean the wet newspapers & change food while we may take a rare weekend trip. (There is also a great kennel where we once left Taffy with his own food and his own crate in his kennel dog run that goes into a nice, clean building, and they walk the dogs every day..this is great if our sister is out of town.) But, to train a dog takes patience! If you PUNISH the pup, he thinks he is being punished FOR PEEING OR POOING!! True Story: My younger brother & wife (both young & working) finally gave away their small dog in the 1980's because he was "hiding" peee & poo behind the sofa & chairs, etc. Then, he was getting scolded and put in his crate ("Bad Dog!!")..so, the poor dog thought his humans HATED HIS Needing to POTTY!! He thought he should NOT be PEEING AT ALL!! Finally, an older, retired couple down the street adopted their little dog and took him outdoors during the day and gave him treats and praise, the little guy stopped going in the house!! All trained after 4 months of patient work!
So, if you can't invest the time to train a puppy, you may be better off getting a dog that is older and already trained! But, if you are gone all day, it IS NOT the dog's fault....his bladder is killing him, and he needs to go!!
LOVE YOUR DOG!!



After cleaning the rug in the dining room