I feel your pain! Our Teddy is approaching five months now, and he was a rascal to train with pee pads. One day he'd use them, another day you'd set him on the pad again and again and again and he would either make a run for it or lay down like "What next, Mom?" Anyway, we abandoned the pee pads for a while and were getting him to potty outside (it was summer) and giving him lots of treats and "good boys." But as soon as we got nasty weather, cold mornings, or rain, it was heartbreaking to have to make him go outside and get wet and shivery just to potty.
Then we got big plastic 2'x2' trays and lined them with pee pads to give him an indoor bathroom. No good. We suspect the pee pads felt like carpet ...? So then we tried newspaper. And we would wait and wait for him to pee on the paper in the tray so we could praise and treat him, and he would just look at you with huge pained eyes saying "take me outside!" He just wouldn't go potty with someone standing right there (most likely because he thought he would get in trouble.)
THEN I had the bright idea to put a pen around the tray and enclose him in it until he went. This took 20 minutes the first time, but after he did it we praised him to high heaven and gave him several treats and lots of cuddles, and before too long it would take him less than a minute to potty after being placed in the tray/pen.
From there we have opened the pen up so he can go in on his own, and now he will go and potty all on his own! He does still have accidents occasionally ... just last night I watched him squat and pee five inches outside the tray, all four paws on carpet (d'oh!) but for the most part he does well. This should only improve in time, and living in Minnesota I'm thankful he got the hang of this in September!
Hope I didn't bore you with Teddy details, but perhaps it may help someone else. I think yorkies are truly good-hearted little dogs who just want to please you, but it can take effort to show them how. Good luck on your potty woes!
