potty training

[PixiesMomma]

i have a 5 and half month old yorkie who weights 3 and half pounds and im trying to piddle pad train her. she doesnt go on them during the night and she goes on them at random times during the day mainly only once a day. i have tried punishing her but she doesnt seem to care, and i tried the dont go there spray but she tries to eat it. please help me if you can, thank you

[Carterna]

I wish I could help but I feel your frustration (although I look at that sweet face when she pees on the floor and its hard to be firm with her). I just adopted a little girl named Izzy, she is 2 years old and weighs 2 lbs. ADORABLE! I love her but she doesn't pee when I take her out and usually decides to pee when I bring her back in! I was told that if you potty train them to use the potty inside that if you soak up their pee (i know kind of gross) with a paper towel if they pee on the floor and put it on the pee pee pad it is suppose to signal to them that it is okay to pee there. GOOD LUCK SWEETIE!

[yoyo27]

You shouldn't punish the puppy its in the training stage. I know its frustrating when they don't go where they are suppose to but that is part of training. If the puppy is going somewhere else and you see it you need to say no, move the dog to the potty pad and say " Go potty or whatever you use". When you get up first thing in the morning they usually have to go potty. Its a good time to take them to the potty pad and tell them to "Go potty" usually a few minutes after they eat. Do the same thing. They will get use to going there on command. If you are taking them outside do the same thing. Take them in the spot you want them to go and say " Go Potty" make sure you have treats with you then tell them "yes" and give a treat when they potty. They will learn to do this and the treat is the reward. If they go after you come back in the house. You still need to take the little furbaby back outside and say "Go Potty". Repeat this and be consistant. Also make sure you go approx the same time so they get use to when they get to go. Little ones need to be taken out alot of times per day. Also try an obiedance class or one that will explain how to work with your dog and train them. They go over the potty and crate training with you.

[PixiesMomma]

thank you for the help, i will try to be alot more consistent with her.

[missremy]

hi! i have a baby yorkie who's 16 weeks old now. it's my first puppy ever, and i did a lot of reading on training. i've been pretty successful and fortunate for having a bright puppy. we have pads in 3 areas in the house. she still has accidents in the living room under a side table where its harder to keep an eye on her, but for the most part, she has no problems. she has no more accidents in the bedrooms either. i know it's hard to take the puppy in the middle of the act because their pee time is so short so watch for lots of sniffing in corners. if you catch them in a place you don't want them to go, you can only scold them when they are in the middle of the act. once you find a accident, you can't take the puppy back to the place or scold her afterwards because she will not associate herself with the accident. lavish lots and lots of praise right after she goes on the pads, i learned. if you start the praise in the middle, don't do it in a manner that will startle her. have your treats ready. also, if you ever scold her, don't say her name with "no" because you don't want to associate her name with a negative meaning. just say "bad girl/boy" and be firm. as they say. repetition and consistency is the best. good luck!

[bruizersmummy]

Please someone offer advice, I am searching for the answer too!

I have pads all ofer my house and my 17 week old baby will NOT go on them. I have tryed placing the poop on the pad to show her thats where she is supposed to go. But still nothing. I also can't take her outside. I am in an apartment for onther 2 months (untill our house is finished) and we are not allowed to have dogs here. So I am trying super hard to get her pee pad trained. And info would help. Thanks

[nicksgf]

Get them on a schedule! I work so Scooter is in a crate for 3-4 hours at a time during the day. First: as soon as I wake up in the morning we stay on the pad until he goes pee. Then tons of praise (obviously). For poop I usually have to watch for signs and as soon as I see him sniffing or crouching or something I take him to the pad and he's not allowed off until he goes. Then when I come home for lunch it's the same thing - he's not allowed off the pad until he goes. And right after work. Then every 2 hours in the evening I make him wait on the pad until he goes or every time he's let out of his crate. Occasionally he just squeezes a bit out (if he doesn't really need to go) but better squeeze it out on the pad than have an accident elsewhere!
We still have the occasional accident, but the schedule helps TONS! Give it a try!

[Skippy's Mom]

know--I love the pads. You should see my reply on another thread in the training section. I don't know how to put it here on this reply. For Gabby- I have a large cage that I put a small pad in on one side and a towel on the other side. She could stay "clean" and had a space to potty. This was also her pen durring the day when I wasn't watching her. As she got older and better at going on the pad in the cage- I attached a short leash to a smaller cage in our family room. I put the pad on the outside of the cage-a blanket inside the cage with her food and the cage door open.. Now her potty area was outside her cage and she was still limited on how far away from it she got. I would reward her every time I saw that she had peed or pooped on it.

[roshaym]

Hello,
I am a new mommy too...and I am having the opposite problem, when my puppy's in her exercise pen when I am at work or at night, she ALWAYS pee's on her pad...it's when I take her out that's the challenge. I suggest that you put your puppy on a leash and have 4 pads out and basically walk her on the pad's just like you would outside. This is working pretty well for Kendall in the mornings or after a nap, it's just hard for her to stop playing and go over to the pad without me making her...but it's only been a week. Good Luck!

[KathyK09]

Mariah is now about 7 months old and is pee-pad trained. She is in an x-pen while we are at school/work during the day and anytime we can't closely supervise her. We put her x-pen in the kitchen which is centrally located in our house. She usually only has access to the kitchen and family room when loose. I don't believe we would have been able to get her trained without the x-pen. She immediately would always go on the pee-pads while contained in the pen - which was a great first step.

When we were first pee-pad training her we would let her out of her pen and closely supervise her. We began by taking her back to her pen & pee-pads every 30-45 min to "go potty". We actually set a timer so that we didn't forget. We would walk her back to the x-pen and put her in her pen and close the door. I would then sit on the floor next to the pen and tell her to "go potty". Eventually she would go and I would immediately give her a treat and lots of praise then let her back out. We would follow this routine every 30-45 min or anytime I suspected she had to go. If I could not closely supervise her I would put her back in the pen.

Eventually we got to the point where we coaxed her to go in the pen by herself and then told her to "go potty". She would pee on the pad every single time (on command) and then we would hugely praise and give a treat! It worked really, really well! Very quickly she learned to go during these times (although she has never pooped “on command” she didn’t have any accidents either - she seemed to go during the day or night while contained in her x-pen). It got to the point where we coaxed her to go into her pen by herself and with the door open she stayed in there and "went potty"!

This process took a couple of weeks. Eventually we got to where the point where she was totally pee-pad trained. Now when she is loose her x-pen door stays open - and completely on her own - she goes in and does her business.

We are now training her to also go outside. To help with the process we have put a collar with a bell on it to keep track of her – which really helps, as she is really active. We don’t use the collar to hook her to a leash or anything – we also use a harness for that purpose.

It’s important to keep them contained in a smaller area and closely supervised – this is why at 7 months she still only has access to the kitchen and one other room. I hope this helps! There is so much great advise - we would have been lost without this website! Good Luck!

[YorkiePaw]

I tell this to every Yorkie owner who has potty training problems...patience and consistency really is the key to your success. Just remember to use positive reinforcement when your Yorkie does use the pad and eventually with the proper training you will start to see results. The guide in my signature has helped me and other Yorkie owners I know and saved us many headaches (thats why I help promote it!) But I do wish you luck with your training and I hope with some good training techniques that you begin to see results.

[C101Yorkie]

I would not punish her if she goes in the wrong spot. I would, however, praise her when she goes in the right spot.

[ritagail323]

I have the same problem! I have recently adopted 2 yorkies, Danielle is a 1-year-old female and Boss is a 2-year-old male. They had been in a kennel, then someone had taken them home with them and gave up on house-breaking them and just got rid of them! I love them both! They are the sweetest little things! But, I am going crazy trying to train them to use pee-pads! Boss will pee on them, but also hike his leg in other places! Danielle won't use them at all! It seems that a lot of people are having the same problem! Let's try some of their advice and see how we do!

[jhjones]

I'm thankful that I found this site. At least it seems like you guys are really understanding. I have a 2-yr-old male Yorkie named Max. I haven't had very good luck in house breaking him. He will do really good for awhile and then will start hiking his leg where ever he wants. I've tried everything I know I even hired a trainer to help just to get him to go on the puppy pads. I've bought books, crates, gates, I'm about to lose my mind. Also, I have been really sick and found out I have hashimoto's thyroiditius and some other problems. I'm so drained and fatigued and I don't have anyone to help me with him. I love him but I can't keep all of this extra work up and I don't know if I should try to find him a good home or not. I feel guilty even thinking that - I've had dogs all of my life and I have never had a problem house training until him. I'm not getting any younger and I'm not able to mop everyday. I've been crating him a lot more lately and I feel guilty about that too but I don't know what else to do. If it rains he refuses to go out. So I thought I would stick with the puppy pads. Anyway, it feels good just feel like I can at least vent. Thanks for being here.