Untrainable?
 

I'm looking for full honesty here - has anyone given up on house training their yorkie?

I am not at that point yet, but after finding ANOTHER pee spot on the living room rug, I am truly starting to wonder if Thor will ever understand that rugs are not for peeing.

Strangely enough, when I first locked him in the living room, he did the best - I think we went close to two weeks with no accidents. Now, four weeks later, he's messing twice per day. He uses his puppy pad every so often, but I wonder if he just happens to choose it at random.

It's been six weeks -- when do I just give up and get him belly bands?

I know there are things I still haven't tried, but man, I am getting TIRED of this.

sorry to hear that you are going thru this...from my understanding Yorkies are stubborn...how many pads do you have done? are the paper or washable pads...are you giving him free run of the house....

You're not alone; I've kind of given up too.

Penny's about 98% housebroken. Every few days, I'll find a spot on the carpet. It drives me crazy, but I honestly don't know what more we can do than what we have already done; she's crate trained, I take her outside for walks every few hours, praise and reward her whenever she goes outside, say NO sternly whenever we spot her going inside, and I always thoroughly clean the spots to remove any lingering smell that might be drawing her back to the carpet...

I'm planning to get a house with no wall-to-wall carpeting when my fiance and I buy our own place just so that I won't have to deal with piddles on the carpet anymore. I've told my fiance that is my number one requirement for our new home, and he laughed but I'm dead serious. ;)

Not that I'm any kind of expert... you and Thor know we're still having trouble too. :-) But here's a couple ideas:

1. I think I remember you saying that things were going pretty well until you expanded Thor's reign (even though it was only for 30 min or something like that). Correct me if I'm remembering wrong. But anyways, maybe you could expand his area at a much much slower rate, to let him "expand" his den at a pace that makes more sense to him, so he doesn't get confused. We used collapsed cardboard boxes that we taped together and then to walls (not pretty, but infinitely adjustable and cheap) instead of baby gates. Nikko's area expanded at a rate of literally about 6 square feet every several days thanks to these boxes.

2. Maybe either you should pick outside or potty pads, not do both. Or maybe you should go for outside only - I've heard some stories of dogs never being reliable on pads, but once they get to go outside only and the pads are eliminated, they become reliable. I dunno - I'm kind of an outside-only snob, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me on this point, lol. Or you could pick pads only. But it's an idea anyhow.

3. I've heard belly bands can actually in some cases help potty training.... some doggies don't like their stomach to get wet, so that can serve as a deterrent on its own.

4. Sheesh, it's only been 6 weeks!?!?! We've been at it for coming up on three months, and it sounds like we're about at the same place you are! I know Thor is older, but still - I'm sure he has as many bad habits to break as Nikko has maturity and bladder control to gain. Don't you dare give up yet!!!!!!!

:D

Lauren & Nikko

Ha ha, thank you everyone. Don't worry, I won't DARE give up yet. I know there are still options out there. I just ordered the puppy pads that smell like grass in case Thor doesn't understand the difference between "rug" and "pad". And I might try the cardboard boxes thing too. I had been using one box already to block off one door, but it hadn't occurred to me to get more sophisticated with them. :)

I guess I need to keep trying with Thor for as long as nine months because the reality is that he came to me with the bladder skills of a three month puppy. I can't imagine him not getting it after that long (shudder).

It could be worse.... He only poops once a day, and that is always deposited somewhere appropriate.

My fear is that, at some point, you can't watch your dog like a hawk. Maybe you can do it for 3 weeks, maybe you can do it for 3 months, but at some point, you need to start looking at things besides your dog. And if your dog is really determined to do his business inside and away from your eyeline, what can you do?

So the countdown begins.... 7 months and 1 week to go. Will Thor and I both make it out of this alive? I sure hope so.

The Housetraining for Dummies book I got said that it may take 2 weeks to a month of crate training for him to catch on and that they pretty much train themselves in a crate.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA Yeah. Right.

I crate trained Hiro for close to 3 months. We're starting to get it now. lol

I know you'll hang in there and one day when you're like 'OMG I'm going insane!' Thor will surprise you.

If there is any advice I can impart to you... don't give too much freedom too soon. If you do give him too much freedom too soon, you could be putting an unrealistic expectation on him and you'll be disappointed in him (and yourself) when he messes up. Good luck!

OH MY GOD! HE JUST PEED ON THE RUG!

How on earth did I miss it???? He was literally two feet away from me and I was keeping an eye on him to see if he was going to head to his pad. I guess I couldn't see his lower body because of the coffee table. He jumped in his crate, which I should have realized was a sign -- he only goes there after a rug potty. I stood up and there is a HUGE pee stain!

Okay, I am officially going insane. Where is the "aha" moment???

When I was pee pad training I had to pull up all of my area rugs or they would go on them. I dont know if they get confused or what

Okay, next strategy. I have confined Thor to his crate, and I'm taking him out every twenty minutes or so to see if he will potty on the pad.

I have to wonder if Thor and I have been living a lie this entire time. I noticed when I went to wipe up the latest mess that the spot had almost disappeared after maybe five minutes. I guess I have incredibly absorbent rugs. If I was working on the computer or napping, Thor might have peed somewhere and gotten away with it even though we were in the same room. Or maybe the pee pads have convinced him that it really is okay to potty indoors.

I probably need to steam clean my carpet....

Harley is 18 months and still has accidents despite being taken outside every 2 hrs during the day,he has no problem at night and can hold it..i have been using belly bands for a while now and they have been my saviour..they are not an excuse but boy do they lower my stress level..now when he does have an accident my carpets are spared and i do not get stressed out...hang in there i know how you feel!!.

I would make his world very tiny again. His crate or an X pen unless he is sitting with you or playing with you and I would leave it that small for as long as it took. Like you said he may have been peeing without you knowing it all this time , so he might think that is OK. I would put a pad in the X pen with him and when you see him pee on the pad take him out to hold or play with and give lots of praise.

My Nickie was n ot fully trained till she was 2years old hang in there bud

You know what I felt the same way you did in regards to having the puppy trained, however my wife is the one who always stays on the puppies butt and it seems to have paid off. I also felt like the puppy was hopeless in training it where the proper place to go was, out of nowhere now the dog is so trained (IN DOORS) that I am shocked but very happy. Best bet is to do like she does and try to continue the training and stay positive, it should pay off in the long run.

Poor little guy. He has no idea what's going on. He's been in the crate all day.

Thor, clueless:

Here, he contemplates his misdeeds.

is outside potty training not an option? I would find out what I need to do to get ALL his pee smells out of the house. From your posts it sounds like he's confused on where he is allowed to go potty.
I personally didn't want my dogs to think that the house is a place to potty. But I know for some thats unrealistic.
My father in law's 6 yr old yorkie is paper trained and he uses a large aluminum roasting tray with pads on it so she has something hard to walk onto. The problem I see with that is that if she pees near the edge its off the tray and on the carpet or floor.
Another friend of mine trained her maltese to a litter box with pee pads in it. so the dog had 'edges' and learned thats the potty place.

I feel your frustration. Madison is 8 mos and we've had her since she was 5 mos and the breeder had not trained her. she had access to outside porch or one room in the house and went potty where she wanted. we go weeks with no accidents and I think ok we are done. and then out of the blue we have an accident. so I still have bedrooms off limits and basically in a 9 room house she has access to my bedroom, hallway, family room and kitchen. everything else is gated off limits or doors closed. IF I am in my bathroom getting dressed doing hair and makeup or showering or whatever I close my bedroom door and she has to stay in my room ( both dogs together) If she hasnt gone potty in a while and I take her out and she didn't go and I'm gonna shower... she goes in her crate. This has really kept the accidents down to a minimum.

Good luck to you and Thor and I can't wait to hear your progress.

Oh my he's really a handsome dog, I love his coloring and haircut. Wow! LOL, I'm used to seeing just your avatar pic... don't be mad, but I kinda think your avatar pic makes him look like a cute little old man who just bought a spiffy new jumpsuit but is now rethinking his goal to start jogging every day. :p

Lauren & Nikko

it will change honest i have had the best luck with having mine duel trained puppy pad and outside .when i frist started training my little guys i would only give them so much space i would put there crate and water and food down i would put the puppy pad in a plastic container that has a side on it so wnen he lifts his leg its not going allover the place and when they used it i would make the bigest fuss over them kisses and loves we would have our play out of the pen area and if i could not supervise them they were not left out to have an accident .all of a sudden after it started to kick in and we could trust them out longer and longer and they would run to the pee pad .mine range from 2years to 8 years and we now can trust them all the time .i it just takes lots of patience and lots of love and try to set him up for success and he will get it .for the stains i use this stuff called Petzyme pet stain and odor remover it is all natural and it does really seem to work ,if he has had lots of accident you might have to clean your carpets as they will go for the same spots .well go luck and dont give up it will pay off soon

:eek: Better upload some more pictures! I'm on it.


He does go potty outside, but I want him pad trained for a number of reasons:

1. I live in an apartment building, so it is tough to immediately correct mis-pees. I have to get my keys, get his leash, walk him down several flights of stairs, etc.

2. I'd like the option to travel.

3. He hates going in the rain.

4. He doesn't give any signs when he's going to pee, and seems to think that peeing outside is nice, but not necessary.

5. And last but not least, I found that when I was playing with him indoors, he'd literally do a half-second squirt after a few minutes, even if he had just been outdoors. That's kind of what prompted this whole pee pad switch, I thought he didn't want to interrupt his fun with a full-blown potty break.


He really does seem confused. He sat on the pad for like ten minutes, and behaved beautifully. He Sat and Stayed the entire time. I'm really at a loss because he has used the pad before and gotten great treats. I tried moving him to pads in different room, no go.

He must be DYING to poop, he had a ton of green beans last night and high fiber dog food today.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

He IS handsome! I had to show him to my hubby!

Aw, thank you! Now he's pink from all the compliments. :p

Ten hours later, he's fully relieved himself, #1 and 2 on the pad. I have been taking him out every half hour. Thankfully I didn't have much planned for today!

I think he must not know the difference between the rug and the pad. He seemed so determined not to go on the pad, probably because I yelled at him for peeing on the rug earlier. Learn from my mistake, don't yell at the dog for bad potties (unless you want him to go outside).

I really hope those grass-scented pads make a difference. Obviously they are supposed to smell different, and they are also a different color. I can't wait for them to get here.

I feel your frustration! Twinkle is almost 8 months and she's still having accidents during the day, even though she's held it all night since about 13 weeks old:confused: She get two long walks a day and also will sit by the front door to be let out if she needs to go during the day and will go for weeks without an accident and then.....for no reason at all one day she'll just pee on the floor! I'm hoping that with perserverance, praise and treats she'll eventually be 100% trained. Good luck to you! xxx xxx

It can be frustrating. Oscar is 14 weeks old now. He's only had one overnight indiscretion in over a month which is good, but still has accidents during the day.

99% of the time he does his business outside, but occossionally he'll come in from the patio and pee within a couple of minutes!

I just try to be patient, and i'm gratefull that I didn't fall for a great dane :)

This morning I put him on the pad straight away, and he peed on command. Very nice. Then while I was throwing away the old pee pad, he ran after me, pooping. Oops! Quick and easy to pick up, thankfully.

I think my new strategy is going to be to periodically crate him and refuse to grant him his freedom until he goes.

The thing is of course that ultimately, I want him to take the initiative on this and pee in the right place on his own. How can you tell if the dog is ready to do that? Presumably you can't keep him in the crate forever.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I had Hiro crated for probably longer than he needed to be, but I didn't want to take a chance and I wanted it strongly reinforced that he was not to potty where he lives.

After not seeing an accident while he was out of the crate for 'free time' (about an hour a few times a day after pooping and or peeing) for a whole month, I graduated him to spending all day out of the crate, but baby gated in the kitchen for three weeks. This way he had more freedom, but NOT run of the house so he could hide any mistakes.

Just within the last week I've let him run around the house (with his belly band on and under my watchful eye after he's peed and or pooped) He's been good so far, giving me little signals that he needs to go outside...

How did I know he was ready? I didn't. (I hope he is, but I still don't know for sure lol) I heard somewhere that a dog isn't trained until he/she's not messed for a month. That's what I've used to gauge his provision of freedoms.

I hope this is kinda helpful. ^^

It's definitely helpful, thank you!

I have to admit that the second that I thought Thor might be able to handle more freedom, I gave it to him, because I want the freedom myself, heh. I'm sure that didn't help him, though.

Okay, one month of accident-free crate training, starting today!

*sigh* I haven't given up, but I am still trying to think of a way to get Smokey to understand that the world is not his potty. He just lays down on the pee pad when I try to train him like I did Chip and when I take him outside, all he does is run. He'll wait until we go inside then pee wherever. He shows absolutely no signs... he just walks and squats. I'm at a loss. He's going to be 2 in April and I've tried everything it seems.

I was exactly the same. I wanted him to be ready to be a big boy SO bad! I only had myself to blame when he proudly told me that he wasn't! lol So I know exactly where you are.

Be strong and remember that a few months of being a hardass IS worth it for him to become a well trained little boy! ^^ Afterall, he has the rest of his little life to run around your house and cause (unrelated to potty) chaos!

We're shooting for the one month mark too!!! :-) Yesterday Nikko had an accident in our neighbor's house, right next where the neighbor's dog had just had an accident and it hadn't been cleaned up yet (long very stupid story as to why Nikko was over there and in proximity to another dog's pee accident, I won't bore you).

But anyways, I don't have to start our count over again because he peed in the neighbor's house, do I? Please say we can keep our number? :D

:rolleyes: Lauren & Nikko

PS: Quicksilver, I kinda miss your lil' old man picture now, lol. I went to your album, and you've got a lot of great pictures there... Thor is so handsome. If Nikko's back ever turns grey, I hope his coloring ends up similar to Thor's.

I found that Riley was very hard to train. He will turn two years now on the 20th of this month. But thank god he has finally got it. He was a poop eater, peeing every where, even on the sofa!:eek: I was at my wits end and really wanted to give him away, but thanks to hubby's confidence in him I kept trying, and now am very glad I did. He has turned into a wonderful little man, and we enjoy him very much... although it was a rough road for a while, but it does get better... just hang in there!! It took Riley about 19 months to finally get it:D O I forgot to mention that we trained him to do his business outside.