HELP!! House Training Diffficulty
 

Hi Everyone,
We have had our wonderful Yorkie for about 2 weeks now and have become very frustrated in his house training. He knows what "outside" means and even sits at the door when he wants to go out. The problem is no matter how much we take him outside he goes to the bathroom as soon as he gets inside and will never go to the bathroom outside except once. We have even gone as far as putting what he does inside outside on the grass and no such luck. If anyone can help that would be great!
We tell him no if we catch him going inside and put his nose to it and bring him outside right away, then he ends up in his crate while we clean it up so he doesn't chase the swiffer!
My husband and I keep him in our kitchen and can't wait til he is trained to allow him throughout the rest of the house if anyone has any advice please let me know! Thank you!
:confused:

How old is your baby? :)

He was 3 monthsold on the 28th of June.

I wouldn't expect too much from a 3 month old. They are so small they can't hold it long. I would use the kennel some and I will also suggest that you get a baby playpen or an xpen which is an animal pen you can get at any pet store. When you come in and he didn't go put him in the pen. Hopefully if you do this he will get the idea. I would take him out every hour until he start to respond some. My girl is 4 mos old and still makes a mistake now and then. I have had her since she was 8 weeks.
I hope this helps and hang in there. ;)

Three months old is still a baby. You may think he knows what to do, but his body waste muscles don't understand. Those muscles are not strong enough to hold it. We trained Maggie by taking her outside on a LEASH every hour during the day and every two hours at night. We would wake her up to go to the bathroom at night. During the day, after she did her business, I gave her a PP treat when we got back inside. At night, no talking or treat. Just business and back to bed. During the day if we could not watch her every move, then we put her in her exercise pen to play. At night, she slept in her crate (with a cover over it) in our bedroom. It took two months of solid training until her muscles got stronger. Never did we use the crate for anything except sleeping. Most owners work, so this type of training is very hard to do. I can only tell you that I am an older citizen and it was hard for me to do too. If you want a trained animal, it's up to you. Your baby can't do it themselves. Never, Never rub their noses in it. Yorkies DO NOT respond well to punishment or yelling. It will actually make them do the opposite of what you want out of them.

3 mts. is way to young, My Gucci is a yr. old and she use to be trained on wee wee pads for a long time. All of a sudden she has reverted back, she still pees on pad but has accidents with her poop. She does not go at all outside, this breed is very stubborn but sooo cute... Just have lots of patience and hopefully they will learn..


Gina

This is so true. :)

What I did was scrub with Glass cleaner with ammonia to kill the smell. Then I sprinkled dry puppy food over it once it dried. It worked for us. The only problem was he found a new spots to go. There for a while we had little piles of dog food all around the house. Little by little I wouldnt have to put down anymore food and he was really good about going on his puppy pads and now he's going outside only. We still have little accidents here and there. Mostly when he is home alone for a long period of time and I forget to put a pad down for him. This may not work as well as it did for me but it's worth a try. Good luck!!!

You know, it took me forever. I got him at 3 months old too. And he wasn't trained till 8 months. Today he is 11 months old and suddenly, he is having pee accidents! I dont know about this breed, first time for me, but they are very strange about potty, they really like to go anywhere they want it seems like, reading other people's replies. I had other dogs that were well trained by 4 months max, but this breed is really hard to train. Do you guys know if maltese is hard to train? I know poodles are very good about training. This guy, he learned other things very very quickly, but as far as potty goes, it's his way or no way. I almost gave up at 6 months, then I used the treat method as the last resort, and wah la, that worked. so he is good about going on the pad now, but I dontknow, suddenly he is having accidents... Good luck to both of us...

I'm just wondering.....

where does the idea of rubbing a dogs nose in its poop if he has an accident in the house come from??

I hear of many people doing this and it just doesn't make sense to me.

[SIZE=1] Here is what helped me with my frustration. This is from the Mistiblue website.Successful housebreaking training takes patience and careful anticipation of your Yorkies needs. A crate serves multiple purposes and by far is the easiest way to housebreak your new Yorkie. Dogs are den animals and are happy to go to their crate when they want some alone time.
Dogs are naturally inhibited from eliminating when confined to a limited area, which is why most owners choose to crate train their dogs.

The crate should contain a bed. Use something soft like a large towel or a fleece bed. The crate should be large enough for your Yorkie to turn around. Do not feed or water your Yorkie in the crate. The crate is for short term stays like a trip in the car, while you go out to dinner or to the store, when you do not have time to monitor your little Yorkie. It is not meant for long term stays like when you are at work.
You must think of the crate as you would a playpen for a child when you can not directly supervise them. The crate will keep your Yorkie from hurting itself or being destructive towards your furniture. You will know that once your Yorkie is in the crate that he or she is safe and out of trouble. Keep in mind that the crate is not a punishment device like sending a child to his room; dogs do not understand this punishment. The crate gives you a reason to come home and praise your Yorkie for being good instead of yelling at the Yorkie for the mess they made while you were gone.
Responding "after" your Yorkie has had an accident makes for a bad housebreaking experience for you and your Yorkie, it also makes your Yorkie fear you. Your dog will not understand what they are be punished for. Remember they do not speak your language. I would never hit or punish a dog to housebreak it. Your Yorkie will respond to you better if it has a wagging tail then when its tail is between its legs. Your Yorkie learns faster if it is having fun (which you can identify by its wagging tail). Your Yorkshire Terrier will not respond "at all" if all you do is yell at her/him. I am a firm believer in the positive training methods because I can achieve results faster with them.

Is there a sure way of house breaking a Yorkie? Yes, by being consistent. Pay attention to what your Yorkie is doing. If you do not have time to watch your Yorkie then crate him/her. Before crating make sure your Yorkie goes out side and remember when you remove your Yorkie from the crate to also take her/him outside first.
How long does it take to housebreak a Yorkie? How long can you be consistent? Each dog and its trainer is different. If you are training your Yorkie to go outside to potty the more accidents you have inside the longer it will take to to housebreak your Yorkie.
DO NOT give your new Yorkie run of the house until it is house broken. You will not be able to watch and react to what your dog is doing.
How often does my Yorkie need to go out?
As soon as he/she wakes up in the morning.
As soon as he/she wakes up from a nap.
Right after eating.
After every time you play with them indoors.
After you wash and dry them.
Just before you put them to bed for the night.
Before you put them into the crate.
After you remove them from the crate.
Every couple hours in between activities.

I have read many different ways to housebreak a dog. I think trying to find housebreaking utopia is the main problem in getting any dog housebroken.. Above all be consistent and your Yorkie will be housebroken in no time. The real secret to housebreaking any dog is to watch your dog all the time. If you can keep your dog from having accidents in the house your Yorkie will take less time to housebreak.
Where I live we get well over 100 of inches of snow a year and it can be quite cold. All my dogs are housebroken. They either use dog litter boxes that are lined with paper or they go outside, some do both. However I do not recommend this dual method (indoor/outdoor) unless you have a lot of experience housebreaking dogs. It can be confusing to the dog to know where and when it should go inside and outside. My point with this statement is that house breaking a dog is easy if you are consistent and you will have a sense on accomplishment when you are done.
Decide if your dog is going to go inside OR outside then stick to that plan..
Do not push their nose in the potty; it is natural for them to go potty. Your dog will not know why you are doing this. This action only makes your dog afraid to go potty and then you have two things to correct. Remember he/she does not understand or speak your language.

You need to begin potty training day one. The first thing you need to do when you get your Yorkie is to say hello and let it go potty. Pick a spot in your yard that you what your Yorkie to use as its potty area. Place your Yorkshire terrier in this area and tell it to "go potty" or some other word you would like to use (remember always use the same word be consistent). Keep repeating the word till your Yorkie goes potty, then praise the heck out of him or her. You can also give a special reward like a small bite of roast beef that they only get when they go potty. If you do not wait for your Yorkie to go potty he or she will go as soon as they get in the house, which is not your objective. Always, always praise your Yorkie for doing a good job so he or she will do it again on command when they hear the words "go potty". You will spend a lot of time in the first couple of days waiting and hoping for the big moment, just remember if he/she does not do it outside they will do it inside. The more accidents your puppy has inside the HARDER it will be to housebreak her/him.

If you see your dog going potty in the house, the key word here is "see" this is not the same as finding potty in your house and knowing that your dog is the only one who could have done it. If the latter is the case just clean it up and do nothing to the dog. If you catch your Yorkie in the act, move quickly pick your Yorkie up and take it to its potty place. Use the phrase "go potty" or select your own phrase. Once it finishes it's business praise your Yorkie. Praising your Yorkie is the most important part as your Yorkie wants to please you. Giving her/him a treat will speed up the process too.

Do not rush your Yorkie when potty training, it may be cold, rainy ,nasty, you had a bad day at work, you are tired, if you make this a bad experience for your Yorkie it will take considerably longer to house train. Remember your new friend does not speak the language but they can tell if you are happy with them or not base on how you speak and treat them.

In the beginning you "must" go out with your puppy (not matter what the weather) you must be there to praise them and to use the "go potty" phrase so they know what you expect. If you plan on taking your Yorkshire terrier with you on trips, having them trained to go on command is a benefit. [/SIZE]

Thanks for the advice so far everyone,
Fenway is...getting better, he actually has gone outside a few times now, and he knows going in the house is wrong. He is getting the idea. Obviously mornings are a mess but daytime is getting better. I know a few of you have said 3 months old is just a baby, so around what age should one expect them to be completely house trained at?
Also, I did not mean I literally rub his nose in it, I just show him and say no. (which is when he actually does it when we are in the room with him)

thanks again the advice is appreciated and seeing that other people have the same problems with their yorkie makes me feel better!

You should try potty pads as an addition to the outside traning. Linus picked up on it real quick. It keeps it all out of the carpet and is a good way to help them since they have small bladders.

~The silent dad

BE PATIENT !! 6 months old!!
 

Any responsible breeder or vet will tell you don't expect any house training
before they are 6 months old.
At 3 mos old they are still puppies. Babies.
My vet told me, every dog is different.
He's not ready till he's ready. Wait it out and be patient. :aimeeyork

Thank you for this great information! This is the best information I've found so far. I'm picking up my baby in a couple of days and I've been freaking out about the crate/potty training. I've always had adult dogs, never a puppy. The last dog I had was rescued from the pound and I was never able to housebreak him. He was trained to pee on carpeting! Apparently, the folks who had him lived in a condo and would have him pee on a piece of carpeting they kept on the balcony. I feel a lot more confident about training my new baby.

Me Too!
 

I need help too! My Yorkie Tater Tot is 1 year old and is having accidents every day still. I crate train her during the night and when she wakes up we go "potty" outside and it is a sure thing! However, during the day she has accidents- sometimes just seconds after we went to potty outside. I have waited her out for an hour telling her to potty and putting her on the grass. The we come in, and sure enough I find a surprise. We tried the bell thing, but she didn't ever take to it. My husband is completely anti-peepee pads, but I think it's our only option. I saw the entry that said not to do the dual pee pad and outdoor training. What are my other options? My husband is threatening to give her away if this continues- we are in a brand new house and Tater has certainly worn the "newness" off! :eek:

There's been some really great, sound advice here.

Just wanted to add a couple of things. The praise and treats work really well in letting them know what you do want. But you can forget about the harsh tone of voice or any kind of correction to let them know they've made a mistake. It's hard for me not to let out a sigh when they make a mistake, but they know the difference between getting a treat for going in the right place and a sigh and a horrified expression on my face when they go on the carpet. That's correction enuf. One of the posters cautioned against being harsh and it's been my experience that you just teach them to hide when they go.

Since consistency and patience are the keys, I found that a collar with a bell on it helped me out a lot. You need to watch the puppy carefully and the bell can be just enuf extra information to give you an edge.

My dogs seem to be trained between 6-12 months in terms of knowing the command to go and knowing they're not supposed to go in the house, but it can take them up to 2 years to be consistent about letting me know when they have to go out. Up until that time, if I'm not watching or if they don't have access to a doggie door, I'm likely to miss their cue.

At this age if you can get him comfortable going outside; ie, not scared of noises or movements, etc, that's very good.

Good luck to us all!

CJ

PS My first Yorkie is 15-1/2 years old. I saw a chart recently that said 14 dog years = 100 human years. If that's true, that makes her about 115, I guess. She's been blind for about a year and has to sleep in a crate now, but she NEVER messes in there and barks repeatedly for me to come get her to go out to potty. I remember that I had to put her water dish outside to teach her to bark to open the door. Somehow that worked. God bless her. Makes these pups seem like such a royal pain in the butt :D

"The problem is no matter how much we take him outside he goes to the bathroom as soon as he gets inside and will never go to the bathroom outside except once. We have even gone as far as putting what he does inside outside on the grass and no such luck. If anyone can help that would be great!"

Sorry, this was the specific issue I wanted to talk about and I forgot :eek:

My boy (now 2 years old, so this is definitely NOT cute) pulls the same thing with the poop. He's so coy about it. So now I take him out and we wander around, we come in and I hold him - maybe brush him or just carry him while I'm doing something else - and then 20 min or so later, we go out again. Since I know what he's going to do, I try to head him off at the pass. This has been working. I have had to do this 2 or 3 times before he will produce the goods. These poops are plenty small and not a big deal to clean up, but it's amazing how often I manage to step in one and wind up with a mess from one end of the house to the other. My mantra is "I'm smarter than him. I'm smarter than him. I'm smarter than him." We'll see, eh?

CJ

Are these potty training problems something associated with Yorkies? Has anyone had any experience with other dogs? My friend has a Corkie and she said she got up every 2 hours for months to crate train him and he is great now. She said it took until he was about 1 year old! Oy Veh! It's just like when my kids were little. You know, sleep depreviation is a form of torture! ;)

I'm still having so much trouble. Maggie is 8 months! I know this is old for her not being trained, but everytime we start making progress someone in my house (my dad... who DOES NOT own the dog) thinks he knows a better way and ruins it. Also, I would crate train her, but my dad and grandmother are always home and she sees them so she go nuts in the crate. I'm at a loss of ideas here.... I move into my new apartment in september and I'm debating whether i should just work on it then when i can do things my own way... i don't even know. :(

Reminds me of the same problems I had/have with my kids. I have to remind family members that I'm the mom and I get to make the decisions, unless they want to start paying for the clothes, school, food, braces, doctor's bills, etc!

Well I pick up my baby tonight. The one thing that I have heard from so many people is consistency is the key. I really hope this works. I signed up for a puppy training class at PetsMart starting next week and a free "crate training" class at my local SPCA. I'll pass along any hints I get!

My 2 pups will be 10 weeks old tomorrow. I want them to go outside in a litterbox on the porch to shelter them from the rain & snow. When I'm working, they will be blocked off in the kitchen with a pee pad.

They are slowly catching on to all of this. The first week I would just put on a pad when I could catch them. The second week when I would catch them I would say "uh-uh", pick them up, & put on the pee pad. This upset Hannah so bad she thought it was wrong to pee! She would then hold it for 45 min. start to pee again, & I'd say uh-uh, the pee pad, & then we would go another 45 minutes. I don't even say uh-uh no more. They are soooo sensitive. I was stressing out over it too & I think they felt it. I backed off & decided it was just going to take a while & to be more patient.

My neighbor said what he did was when they start to go to the bathroom they would put a paper towel under them & he swears that's how his was pee pad trained. I am trying that too & the pups are getting better at the pad training. Sometimes I go in the other room & come back & one of the pups have used the pee pads. Wish I could catch them to praise them. But I think they are getting the hang of this. Maybe give this a try.

Stupid question. How can you tell if they're going to pee?

I AGREE with this - your puppy is very young - they have tiny bladders and cannot hold it - they CAN be trained but it does take work on your part and you can get into a routine and have better luck with accidents - TREATS, PRAISE AND LOTS of Patience work wonders - he'll get it and one day....