First, he's not a dog yet LOL
at five months!! He's a BABY. I got my yorkie at six months and the lady told me that he was housetrained to go on pee pads.......right!
She must have been talking about another dog. We had pee pads laid down for the maltese and he would rip them to shreds!!!! It was a play thing for him. Thank goodness the maltese never left "gifts" on them before he ripped them up.
I have two crates one big enough for two or three small dogs and a smaller one. The maltese would make a poop mess everytime we left her in it.........poop on white
But after we adopted the yorkie we never put her in the crate and after the yorkie ripped up the pee pad, stopped doing that too! My view on the housetraining is that you have to be consistent and give it your 24/7: eat, breath sleep like a dog. Never let him out of your sight. I do not work so it was something very easy for me to dedicate my time and energy to get it accomplished. Well, it took a little longer than the maltese, but he is fully housetrained. He will come up to you and push on you when he has to go out and he will not let up until he gets his way. Now that he is a year old, he can hold the pee pee a lot longer and we have stored the crates and they have full roam of the house when we are gone and nothing has ever been destroyed and NO messes anywhere. We are so delighted
more than words can express. But I stayed on top of the little guy like a wart on a frog...I was his shadow for two weeks. Getting him to come......well, my husband and I had practice sessions. He would sit on the floor and I would sit about 30 feet across the room and we would alternate telling him to "come here" and do a hand signal and when he came, we would give him a small piece of treat that he absolutely adored. Did the same with the maltese. I always train with treats and verbal as well as hand signals. They will even sit without a word when I give them the hand signal and will come with the hand signal.........but it ain't easy.....takes a lot of time and dedication and most of PATIENCE!!! Have I helped you at all????
Oh and the running from you thingie......well, I have found if I call his name and take off running in the opposite direction, he panics and runs towards me to see where I am off to.........I usually run into the bathroom cause it is a small room and I hide behind the door and when he comes in, I shut the door and snag him. But that was all before I taught the come here command. Both of my furbabies have to be in the same room and I cannot be out of their sight so that makes it easier to train them too.
