I, too, was having difficulty teaching my yorkie to go on the paper. Since she hasn't had all of her shots and we live in an apartment complex with lots of dogs, we were unable to take her outside.
Somehow (when I wasn't paying attention) she learned her bathroom command "go potty". I would always say it when she was going to the bathroom on the paper and then gave her a treat. It was working somewhat. She always seemed to get on the edge of the paper and it was making a mess. Not to mention it was getting messy cleaning up the newspaper. When I was at the vet last I saw another lady with a yorkie. She recommended that I get the litter box. Since I knew she would eat the litter pellets that you can buy, I just lined the box with newspaper.
So far it has worked great. She now can associate a place (other than the carpet) to go to the bathroom. She almost always pees in it by herself. We have some days where she poops in it everytime and some days where she only poops in the carpet. But I can deal with the poop..its easier to clean up.
As far as teaching her commands, I started with sit and anytime I saw her sitting I would tell her what it is. I would wait a long time in between teaching different commands. I tried "down" right after sit and now she gets them confused. It is much easier to teach something new than to try to undo something wrong!
Good luck! |