[Brianna]

Hello! Since this is my first post, let me just do a brief introduction. My name is Brianna, and I am the proud mommy of a 20 week old Yorkie/Maltese mix named Louie! We picked him up at 12 weeks old from a breeder, who was very kind and clearly treated her babies very well. Louie is a sweet, playful, and affectionate pup, who always wants to be around the family. He's also very smart if I do say so myself (though this is our first dog so I guess I wouldn't really know, haha). As of now, he is 4 lbs 12 oz, and the breeder estimated he should be between 5 to 6 lbs as an adult.

Anyway, on to the topic. I'm looking forward to discussing things with you all. I apologize in advanced if this has been asked before, but I've been Google-ing like mad and haven't found a thread on any Yorkie, Maltese, or other small dog web site that really answered my one big question.

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Potty training was a nightmare the first two months. Louie pooped and peed in his crate every day. We constantly had to wash the bugger, which gave him dry skin and made him all itchy. We had no clue when he would pee or poo, as there was no consistency. He got a urinary tract infection from the new food we put him on (it royally screwed up his pH), which threw him off when he was starting to get better. He then got neutered soon after the infection cleared, which further screwed things up. Through it all, we did our best to stay as consistent as possible even though he wasn't, lol!

Now, our attempts to potty train seem to be paying off as he has been improving greatly. He has not peed or pooed in his crate, overnight or otherwise, for a full four days. In those same four days, he has only had three accidents, which is a huge improvement! He has learned to bark to let us know he has to go outside when he is crated. When he is out of the crate, which is the vast majority of the time, he'll either scratch at the baby gate or ring the bell to go outside, whichever is closer.

He is now predictable. He'll poop and pee in the morning at 5:30am, then he eats at 6:00am. He'll bark between 8:00am and 9:00am to let us know he has to pee. From then on, he asks to go out to pee almost exactly every 2 hours. He'll poop again somewhere between 11:00am and 12:00pm. He eats again at 4:30pm, then poops between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. He pees one last time at 10:00pm to 11:00pm, then goes to bed. Aaaand it starts all over again!

Bottom Line/TL;DR
We don't want to have to wake up at 6:00am every morning for the rest of our lives, and we don't want to have to take him out every two hours during the day!!! We're slowly pushing his evening meal to 5:00pm, then we want to push his morning meals to 7:00am and eventually to 8:00am. I understand that he's a puppy and he can't hold it for too long right now. That said, here's my big question: WHEN will he be able to hold it for more than 2 hours at a time during the day, and when will he be able to hold it for more than 8 hours overnight? Will that ever happen?

Thanks!!!