The YT Potty Log

[Jewly]

I'm nervous about posting this cause I dont want to jinx us but Willow is doing great. I'm not keeping track of days but she has not pooped anywhere but her litter box in about a week she has had a few pee accidents that are always when she is in the living room playin alot. just like a toddler who waits to long to go. If she starts going and realize we see her she automatically runs to her room after the fact. So she atleast knows its wrong. I have only noticed her run to her room once to go poop the other times I think she just holds it till we put her in there for the night or time we can't keep an eye on her as much. We still take her every couple of hours to her room and tell her potty that is when she pees she doesn't run in there by her self often. But all we have to do is walk into there and say potty and she jumps into her litter box and goes. If I dont clean it out everyday though she will still go in there but holds her foot up so she is not touching wet or dirty litter. We are very proud of her she is just 12 weeks old. She has not been out side at all yet so we are not doing both training just the litter box.

[linz06]

Layla was doing great again, even after playing on all the carpet at my parents' house on Easter weekend! My boyfriend and I would let her out of our room in the morning and she would NOT go on her pad (we kept a pad in our room for her overnight)... she would wait to go outside! When it was too rainy to go outside, she finally pooped on her pad. Last night we went to a family friend's house for supper and we were gone for about 2.5 hours. When we got home, there was a pee spot right on the living room carpet She was SO close to making it to the end of the weekend!

[QuickSilver]

linz06, does Layla have a crate or xpen? I JUST this weekend left Thor alone for a few hours without crating him. I let him stay in the living room with the door closed. This is after 30 days of no accidents in my apartment, and I was still a little nervous about it. He did just fine, though.

[linz06]

Nope, I have never tried crate-training her and we don't have an xpen... she has been doing great in my house since I took the area rug away. She has free roam in my house now (except the basement which is gated off) and she is doing really good, hitting the pad about 95% of the time and barking to go outside if I'm at home. At my parents' house she had a pad right there, about 10 steps away from the carpet where she peed

[QuickSilver]

When I started getting serious about potty training, I didn't want to use a crate either. However, once I threw it in the mix, I wished I had used it from the beginning. It really makes things a lot easier. I almost never put Thor in it now, but it is SO much help for situations like yours when you need to step out for a bit and you don't trust them 100% yet. Just my 2 cents.

[linz06]

I have definitely thought of doing it before, but I'm just not sure how she would take to it now that she is almost 4 years old After having free reign her whole life, I don't think she would like being kept in a crate for any length of time

[QuickSilver]

A kong stuffed with cream cheese can work wonders! I don't know, you put a nice bed it in, put it under something so it's like a "den", where she can see everyone coming and going... it might not be so bad for her. It's also nice to know you can crate her for travelling.

Don't tell Layla I said this, I don't want her to be mad at me for suggesting the crate.

[linz06]

lol I won't tell
I did buy her a little doggy tent before, and she had her bed and toys in it, but she would NEVER go in it. Even putting treats there wasn't enough. She would play with her toys outside, sleep in her bed outside, but whatever was in there she wouldn't go near. I thought maybe she just didn't like being closed in on 3 sides

[QuickSilver]

Thor's crate is wire, so he can see out in all directions. I actually put a blanket over it to make it more cozy.

I don't work for a crate company or anything, it just made such a difference for me that I'm kind of a crate zealot now. I'll stop pushing.

[linz06]

LOL! No I completely understand, I know so many dogs who are crate trained and they are just great... I just wish there was like a crate rental so we could try it out before buying one Actually, I wish that existed for a lot of things!

[QuickSilver]

Yaaaaaaaaaay! Thor used his pad at work twice, count 'em, twice while he was playing today! This has been this most difficult part for him, I think, because he's had such a history of peeing everywhere there, and it's a very large space, very un-den-like.

I think he's getting it, slowly but surely.

[Sandysbabies]

I'm almost ashamed to admit this. Kayla will be 2 in June and we are still going at it. I litterly keep Simple Solutions in business. Talk about buying in bulk. If I tryed pads with her she would just grab them up and run and think we were playing. We have tried everything. My husband still gets up about 2a.m. and takes her to potty. To make matters worse, I have a 10mo. old mini schnauzer that was housebroke when we bought her and now she thinks she can do the same as Kayla. HELP!!!!!!!!!!

[QuickSilver]

No shame, Sandysbabies. Thor is two and a half! I've only officially owned him for a few months now, but it took me some time to realize he wasn't potty trained. I was patting myself on the back for training him to hold it for up to five hours at a time, and was in complete denial about the yellow puddles I was finding everywhere.

Have you tried the puppy pad holders? Those are supposed to prevent dogs from carrying them off. Are you training for inside/outside, inside only, or outside only?

I think here are the basics of potty training:

- Confine them to the smallest area you can trust them in. To begin with, this will be a crate or xpen.

- Set a schedule. I'll admit I'm not much of a schedule person, so I changed this to making a rule that Thor did not get to come out of his crate until he peed on his pad.

- Until they are going potty in the right place reliably, you must watch them AT ALL TIMES while they are not confined. This is the really tough one. They are fast and sneaky, and it takes a lot of attention to make sure they're not spilling a drop here or there.

- WHILE they are going, assign a phrase like "Potty" or "Hurry Up".

- Give them a treat RIGHT after they go and praise them like crazy.

- If you catch them in the act, clap your hands, pick them up, and put them in the right place. Emphasize the command phrase - "This is where you go POTTY". You can ONLY correct the dog if you catch him/her in the act. If you find an accident after the fact, the dog needs to be confined more closely, or you need to be watching more closely. Take it as a learning experience.

- Your dog is probably going to mess up, and you're probably going to get frustrated. That's okay, but remember the the dog is doing the best it can, all evidence to the contrary.

- Clean up any messes with an enzyme cleaner to keep the dog from being tempted to mess in that area again.

Let us know how it goes!

[Sandysbabies]

I have a doggie door in the laundry room they go out. She will go out with Tina and Lexi and tee tee (sometimes) and then come right back in and potty. She will run and scratch her back feet and let us know what she has done. She is a spoiled little toot. I know we are probably to blame but we have tried watching her and staying on a regular routine and nothing seems to work. My schnauzers were trained in no time. We just got Lexi in Nov. after losing my baby right before Thanksgiving to cancer and they have all trained when they were just a few weeks old. I looooove yorkies but I think they take the cake on training. Geessssh. Having a doggie door I really would hate to try anything new. It would probably just confuse her. I know the breeder used pads for Kayla's mother and her little sister. But, kleenix, paper, etc. is another story. She is like a shredding machine.

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by Sandysbabies

I have a doggie door in the laundry room they go out. She will go out with Tina and Lexi and tee tee (sometimes) and then come right back in and potty. She will run and scratch her back feet and let us know what she has done. She is a spoiled little toot. I know we are probably to blame but we have tried watching her and staying on a regular routine and nothing seems to work. My schnauzers were trained in no time. We just got Lexi in Nov. after losing my baby right before Thanksgiving to cancer and they have all trained when they were just a few weeks old. I looooove yorkies but I think they take the cake on training. Geessssh. Having a doggie door I really would hate to try anything new. It would probably just confuse her. I know the breeder used pads for Kayla's mother and her little sister. But, kleenix, paper, etc. is another story. She is like a shredding machine.

Yes, they certainly take the cake, and probably pee on it too!

When you say that you have tried watching her, what does that mean? I think for training, you have to set it up so it's impossible for the dog to fail. Because if a yorkie finds a way to fail at potty training, it will take that route.