Crate Train! Loki is 100% housetrained. Yorkies are only difficult because they are small and it takes longer so many people give up. They can't hold it as long as a bigger dog the same age.
Get a small wire crate with a divider - small enough so your dog can lie down, turn around, and that's it. Slowly you can make the space bigger (Loki has a crate much bigger than his "training" crate - we passed that on to a friend!) We had the smallest size crate with a divider. There is a ton of info on here about crate training.
Don't punish. It's not fair - your dog can't hold it long and they don't know they need to go ahead of time every time. Would you punish a 3 yr old for wetting his pants?? That's why it's called TRAINING. You say OOPS and move on. What you can do is *startle* your dog so they stop peeing on your floor, carry them immediately outside and then give them a jackpot of treats when they pee outside. (You should always catch your dog in the act, because you are watching them every second they are not in the crate.) Soon they figure out you want them to pee outside - and they get treats for it! Take them out on a leash and be right there so you can catch them in the act and say "Go potty" when they go, so they learn to go on cue. Don't let them "play" until AFTER they go, then the reward is sniffing the whole yard. There are SO many things you can do to encourage. There are also many books out there. Let me know if you need a recommendation.
Have you signed up for puppy training? That helps too!
The only "punishment" around our house is a time-out in the crate. Loki gets a little too excited barking so he gets a time-out to CHILL. When he was still having occasional accidents he would get a time-out reminder that we go back to crate training if he pees on the floor. Now he just goes in the crate when we are not home or sometimes he goes in there to nap.
If you punish, you can teach the dog that it's not OK to pee in your presence and makes things more difficult. That's when you will start to find them sneaking off to a closet. There's just so many better ways to do it. |