Thread: Please Help
View Single Post
Old 01-24-2007, 03:31 PM   #6
MissiesMommy
Senior Yorkie Talker
 
MissiesMommy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: CA
Posts: 84
Default

Make sure you aren't punishing her after the fact. Any type of negative response when the puddle or pile is already down only causes her to learn not pee in front of you, which causes further housetraining problems. You're also making her think the crate is a bad place by "punishing" her when you put her back in it after an accident. You have to be really carful what associations your little one learns with things.

Consistency is the key here, and I would also highly recommend training her to go pee and poop on cue. Whenever you see her go pee in the litterbox give her a command (the same command every time) for it. I'm blunt about it and say "go pee" but you can use any short word. Give her a different command for poop every time she does that, and then praise her (use a happy, excited voice) and give her a treat every time she does it with the command (you have to give the command WHILE she's peeing or pooping for it to work). While they're learning the command I say "go pee" while they're peeing, in a soft, calm voice. Immediately after they finish I say "good pee!" in a happy excited voice, and praise and treat. Once the dog has the command down, don't forget to reinforce it by saying "good pee!" when they finish every so often. Once she seems to recognize the command, let her out of the crate, but snap a leash on. Give her attention for a second, then walk her back to the crate and into the litterbox and say "go pee" (or poop or both, whichever she'll need to go based on her previous potty patterns). You'll need to learn to recognize her body language as to when she does need to go and when she really doesn't. (Though Missie will sometimes fake pee if I'm insisting that she goes. lol) For my dogs, if they seem restless or excitable I make SURE they go outside until they pee. If they stare at me it usually means they don't have to go, and I don't make them go out. Watch for signals like that from your girl.

Also, as soon as you get home and let her out with a leash on, clean out her litterbox. It could be that she feels the box is too dirty by the time you get home, so she immediately runs elsewhere to pee. So while you give her attention (on leash) for a second, have someone else clean out the box (or clean it out with her tethered to you), THEN walk her back in and ask her to go potty.

The main thing is not to chase, yell at or scare her. She's really unsure what you want right now, so realize that it's not her fault for peeing in the wrong place, it's your fault for not communicating to her where you want her to pee. As soon as I learned that housetraining accidents were MY fault (I didn't take them out often enough, pay attention to their signals, communicate what I wanted, etc.), we had housetraining down in a flash. Good luck!
__________________
Adopt a Yorkie~ Save a Life
MissiesMommy is offline   Reply With Quote
Welcome Guest!
Not Registered?

Join today and remove this ad!