The YT Potty Log

[westieboy]

You can train to go on command, but I'm suggesting to use just click and treat every time your dog is going to the bathroom. Just train them to pee/poo like you were going to training them to sit, down etc. The timing of the click and treat is crucial. When my puppy squatted and pee/poo I clicked and was giving her a treat when she was still in the act of pee/pooing. Also make sure it is a high value treat, something you know they love and only give it to them for pee/pooing. You know you are getting through to them if in the process of pee/pooing they are looking at you for a treat. That's when they understand that they are doing something correctly to get a reward.

Another thing is during this process you must watch them like a hawk. Combined with a crate you'll be able to time when they need to go so that you can make your click/treat highly effective. Clicking is great if you want to pad train them. It will tell them the pad is the only place they will get that treat. So when you know when they need to go bring them to the pad and click/treat when they are doing it.

Just trying to help. Let me know if you need any more tips.

[westieboy]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

Thor is scared of the clicker. I do praise and treat when he goes in the right place. He definitely knows to go on the pads, 99% of the time anyway. It's that last 1% that's killing us.

What kind of clicker are you using? There are different types of clickers out there, some are louder than others. I use the i-click. Is there a pattern for the 1%?

[QuickSilver]

I'm looking for a "quiet" clicker, but there don't appear to be any in my area. For potty training, it's a moot point, since Thor knows where to go and knows he gets a treat for going there. If I don't see him go, he'll come running to get his treat.

As for the 1% that's left - if I saw a pattern, I'd be addressing it. This off-pad pooping just started.

If you care to read back to the first page of the thread (it's a long read), you'll see that Thor is several years old, and came to me untrained. I thought I had him completely trained in my apartment and just needed to solidify the lesson not to mark in my office. I have no idea why he's decided to be devil-may-care with his poop both at home AND the office now.

[lucirbc]

I know it's been awhile since i posted in the "potty logs" but i though that this breakthrough warrented a post!

The other night i was watching t.v. and Coral went and stood by the door we use for potty time and just stared at me as if to say "momma i gotta go!" I hooked her up to her leash rather quickly and we went out, and she did her business! i was such a happy momma!

[westieboy]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

I'm looking for a "quiet" clicker, but there don't appear to be any in my area. For potty training, it's a moot point, since Thor knows where to go and knows he gets a treat for going there. If I don't see him go, he'll come running to get his treat.

As for the 1% that's left - if I saw a pattern, I'd be addressing it. This off-pad pooping just started.

If you care to read back to the first page of the thread (it's a long read), you'll see that Thor is several years old, and came to me untrained. I thought I had him completely trained in my apartment and just needed to solidify the lesson not to mark in my office. I have no idea why he's decided to be devil-may-care with his poop both at home AND the office now.

Was he ok before in the office or has he always had accidents there?

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by lucirbc

I know it's been awhile since i posted in the "potty logs" but i though that this breakthrough warrented a post!

The other night i was watching t.v. and Coral went and stood by the door we use for potty time and just stared at me as if to say "momma i gotta go!" I hooked her up to her leash rather quickly and we went out, and she did her business! i was such a happy momma!

YAAAAAAAAY! It's always nice to hear good news in the potty log.

Originally Posted by westieboy

Was he ok before in the office or has he always had accidents there?

He grew up considering the office his personal bathroom. I got him from a coworker a few months ago. Since then, I have added pad training in addition to outside. He has not had an accident in my home or office for 45 days, but I did catch him about to mark an office chair a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to trust him in the office 100% because the space is so big and his pee marks must be everywhere.

However, I posted recently that he pooped in two different places in my home a few days ago, which he has not done in months. A few days before THAT, I caught him squatting behind me in the kitchen. Then yesterday, he squatted down at work right in front of me. I had thought that he'd gotten thrown off because I was moving furniture around my apartment and I'd finally given him access to part of a rug in my bedroom, but now I'm not sure because he was offbase in my office as well.

He just pooped in the right place of his own accord in my apartment. I had restricted him to the living room for a few days after the mis-poop I didn't catch, and I let him back into the hallway and kitchen today, where his second pad is.

Just FYI, this is all covered just a few pages back in the thread. Have you read it?

[westieboy]

I started to read the whole 27 page thread but have only made it through 1/3 of it. I'll have some more suggestions when I get through the entire epic.

What did you use as a cleaner for all his accidents? Also, I agree with you that you probably missed some spots that he has gone in. Also where do you feed him?

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by westieboy

I started to read the whole 27 page thread but have only made it through 1/3 of it. I'll have some more suggestions when I get through the entire epic.

What did you use as a cleaner for all his accidents? Also, I agree with you that you probably missed some spots that he has gone in. Also where do you feed him?

I think we're kind of beyond this stuff, to be honest. If you are looking at the beginning of the thread, you'll see that I've been working on this for months (there were threads before this one). I'm familiar with training techniques such as the clicker, I know about crate training, I've read a ton about potty training in general from these forums and from several books. We even tried potty bells for a while. If you had told me six months ago that I would still be trying to get Thor 100% trained, I would not have believed you.

I use Nature's Miracle to clean his spots at home. I work in an office building that covers a fraction of a city block, and is three stories high, so no, I have not tried to eliminate the residual scents of his accidents at the office, particularly since he toileted anywhere he wanted there for two years prior to my ownership. I'm not sure why this would be relevant anyway, since he is generally very well behaved at the office and uses his pad reliably. I believe I will be able to keep him from marking my specific office completely, and the rest of the office most of the time, but I'm not going to stake my life on it.

Not sure why it matters where he eats? His bowls are generally in the same room as his pads, but I move them around sometimes.

[westieboy]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

I think we're kind of beyond this stuff, to be honest. If you are looking at the beginning of the thread, you'll see that I've been working on this for months (there were threads before this one). I'm familiar with training techniques such as the clicker, I know about crate training, I've read a ton about potty training in general from these forums and from several books. We even tried potty bells for a while. If you had told me six months ago that I would still be trying to get Thor 100% trained, I would not have believed you.

I use Nature's Miracle to clean his spots at home. I work in an office building that covers a fraction of a city block, and is three stories high, so no, I have not tried to eliminate the residual scents of his accidents at the office, particularly since he toileted anywhere he wanted there for two years prior to my ownership. I'm not sure why this would be relevant anyway, since he is generally very well behaved at the office and uses his pad reliably. I believe I will be able to keep him from marking my specific office completely, and the rest of the office most of the time, but I'm not going to stake my life on it.

Not sure why it matters where he eats? His bowls are generally in the same room as his pads, but I move them around sometimes.

Dogs do not like to defecate where they eat. So one method I've used is to feed them where they have accidents. You can start feeding at your office since at this point he has not really associated your office as an extension of his living space.

[QuickSilver]

Hm. Well, I do feed him at work... BUT, I recently moved his food bowls back to the kitchen. I'm not sure this coincided with his mis-poops, but he does prefer using the ktichen pad for pooping. Maybe he felt that pad was too close to his food and didn't want to use it anymore. It's a theory.

[RebeccaMoore923]

Alright, so I've come to know that Yorkies are VERY hard to potty train.. I have a 4 month old Yorkie named Riley.. and we're having such a hard time.. We're pad training him, b/c weather here is so unstable, that its our starting process... Anyways.. He goes on the pad in his "caged area" but when we have him out and about..he SOMETIMES goes on the pad, and the other times he just goes.. More so in the kitchen.. and he poos more often in one specific spot. We get really excited and praise him when does go on the pad, and when he doesn't we show him, say bad and take him to the pad.. I could be going about this ALL wrong..So this is why I come to you, fellow Yorkie owners, who TRULY know the experience I'm having.. Does anyone have any kind of advice that might help me at all..whatsoever.. because somedays I'm at wit end and I just dont know what to do!

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by RebeccaMoore923

Alright, so I've come to know that Yorkies are VERY hard to potty train.. I have a 4 month old Yorkie named Riley.. and we're having such a hard time.. We're pad training him, b/c weather here is so unstable, that its our starting process... Anyways.. He goes on the pad in his "caged area" but when we have him out and about..he SOMETIMES goes on the pad, and the other times he just goes.. More so in the kitchen.. and he poos more often in one specific spot. We get really excited and praise him when does go on the pad, and when he doesn't we show him, say bad and take him to the pad.. I could be going about this ALL wrong..So this is why I come to you, fellow Yorkie owners, who TRULY know the experience I'm having.. Does anyone have any kind of advice that might help me at all..whatsoever.. because somedays I'm at wit end and I just dont know what to do!

Welcome! Here are a couple pointers to get you started:

- Generally, you can determine the # of hours your yorkie puppy can hold it by taking the # of months in his age and adding 1. So a four month puppy should be able to hold it for five hours in general.

- Clean up all accidents with an enzyme cleaner like Nature's Miracle, particularly if he is choosing one spot over and over again.

- Amazingly enough, dogs don't seem to connect their bathroom actions with what actually results on the floor. This means that they may know you'll get upset if there's poop on the floor, but they usually don't connect that to the fact that the poop comes out of them. What this means is that if you don't catch them in the act, they won't know why you're upset later. If you find an accident after the fact, consider it a lesson learned.

- If you find accidents, that means that you need to watch your pup more closely, or confine him more. I found that I needed about ten days where I really did nothing but watch Thor. Even when I kept "an" eye on him, rather than both eyes on him, he's so small and fast, I'd STILL find accidents! You can make this easier on yourself by getting him a lot of exercise during this period so that he sleeps most of the time.

- A lot of pups have trouble determining the difference between rugs and potty pads. I use Nature's Miracle pads because they are supposed to smell different. You can help this along by blotting a fresh pad with his pee and/or poop I can't tell myself, but I think Thor can. You'll want to make sure your pup eventually figures out the difference. Otherwise, he will decide it's by location, and he will potty there even if you move the pad. Someone posted a while back about how the sun would come in through her window at a certain time of day and make a white, squarish shape on the floor. You guessed it, her puppy thought this was a pad and would proudly potty there.

- A regular schedule helps. Before you go to bed, put him on the pad and tell him "potty". Do the same thing when he wakes up, and every few hours during the day. Expect him to poop within an hour after a meal. Dogs also need to pee when they play.


Best of luck to you! Let us know how it goes.

[westieboy]

Originally Posted by QuickSilver

Hm. Well, I do feed him at work... BUT, I recently moved his food bowls back to the kitchen. I'm not sure this coincided with his mis-poops, but he does prefer using the ktichen pad for pooping. Maybe he felt that pad was too close to his food and didn't want to use it anymore. It's a theory.

Yes, dogs like to defecate as far away from their living space as possible. That's why smaller dogs can be a challenge since 10 ft to them is pretty far. It's important to teach them how big of an area they live is.

I've gone through most of this thread and I think you are using multiple pads in the house? If so you may want to cut down on the number of choices he has. This will accomplish 2 things. One, is defining the living space so he is not even thinking about defecating in certain rooms. Two, is training him to tell you when he has to go if the door is closed or something and he has to get to his pad. When he starts telling you he needs to go you really have him trained.

Another thing you can do is feeding him on the spot of his accident. I've done this and it gets the message to them that this is where you eat and live, not peeing and pooing.

I've read that he will run to you for a treat after he goes. If he misses or has an accident will he still come to you for a treat?

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by westieboy

Yes, dogs like to defecate as far away from their living space as possible. That's why smaller dogs can be a challenge since 10 ft to them is pretty far. It's important to teach them how big of an area they live is.

I've gone through most of this thread and I think you are using multiple pads in the house? If so you may want to cut down on the number of choices he has. This will accomplish 2 things. One, is defining the living space so he is not even thinking about defecating in certain rooms. Two, is training him to tell you when he has to go if the door is closed or something and he has to get to his pad. When he starts telling you he needs to go you really have him trained.

Another thing you can do is feeding him on the spot of his accident. I've done this and it gets the message to them that this is where you eat and live, not peeing and pooing.

I've read that he will run to you for a treat after he goes. If he misses or has an accident will he still come to you for a treat?

I have two pads in my apartment for now. He's fine using both of them. I don't particularly care if he tells me when he needs to go; that's what his pad is for. He recognizes the pad's scent and if I move the pad, which I do at work sometimes, he will move his business with it. I'm not sure if your Westie is pad trained, but many people recommend having multiple pads out when they are learning so they don't have to go far to find a good spot.

He does have a command word, "potty", which I use first thing in the morning and before we start playing.

I am going to say again that he hasn't had an accident in well over a month, except for one day where he pooped in two different rooms. So to ask if he comes to me for a treat after an accident... well, I don't know, because every time he's gone inside, he HAS deserved a treat. Even that time, he did have a piece of poop on his pad as well. He's had bad intentions a few other times, but I corrected him before any damage was done.

Anyway, thank you for the tip on keeping his food near his pad. I am not sure that's it because today he used the pad closest to his food to poop, but it's something I'll watch for if/when I move his dishes again.

[QuickSilver]

I apologize if some of my answers are defensive; I'm going to be honest and say that some of your comments seem rather condescending. A lot of your advice is great for someone who is just starting out, so maybe it would be more helpful to address some other posters. There are lots of other threads where people are asking these types of questions.