Realistic housetraining
 

I'm a new Yorkie mom. Never thought I'd love anything (other than my kids) but I am head over heels with Charlie, a 14-week old Yorkie. I'm wondering what's a realistic expectation with housetraining? He's doing just okay. He has no accidents at night, ever. Sometimes he pees on the pee pad, other times no, even if he's right beside it. When he does go on the pee pad, we praise him and get all excited. He's given a treat, and I even upped the treat to a little piece of cheese, which he loved. He NEVER poops on the pad.

I don't want to get discouraged. (After all potty training my kids wasn't done overnight ... well, one did.) I'm just wondering what's realistic expectation?

Sounds like you're off to a great start. We potty trained Bailey in 2 months and she was reliable in 4. It wasn't easy - but it was worth it.

We (hubby and myself) spent every free moment in the family room with Bailey waiting for her to make a mistake so that we could scoop her up and take her outside. Scoop, take, reward - Scoop, take, reward - all part of the training process. When we couldn't supervise her, she was in a crate or expen.

Bailey learned to pee on command fairly easily. It was the holding it and telling us that she needed to go outside part that required extra training. As far as pooping - we quickly learned that she poops once a day after eating - so we stayed outside until she pooped, then praised and treated. Poop training took much more patience on our part -esp. out in the cold and rain. Just be careful about letting them back in before they poop.

I have to laugh, even still today (Bailey is three years old) hubby and I always check in with each other about Bailey's poop. We know that once she poops, we can relax for the rest of the day. lol.

You just gotta be consisitent - and that's hard to do. Very hard to do. Its difficult to devote your time to potty training when there's other things to get done. But if you can put your household chores aside for several weeks to potty train, you'll be very glad that you did. And for those chores that must get done - then put the pup in a crate/expen so that it doesn't have an accident while you're back is turned. Otherwise, it will learn to potty in the house when you're not paying attention.

Good luck!

I'm so jealous about the poop thing. My puppy poops like 8 times a day, no joke. She has pooped 3 times in one hour! She's out of control lol. We even got her on a feeding schedule, hopeing we could fix this problem, but it has not helped.

I never potty trained Louis on the potty pads, he only goes outside. He was very easy to potty train. You just have to be consistent. Don't ever leave the puppy by himself. If someone wasn't there to watch Louis we would put him the crate, that way he couldn't wander around and use the potty in the house. I am not sure about potty pads, but I would take Louis outside about every half hour. That is great that your puppy can hold it through the night!:) Welcome to YT btw!:D

hahaha! Lucky Ladies! Mine weren't fully potty trained until they were about a year old! :eek: :D

Be Patient
Be Consistent
*Stay on schedule (food & potty)
Praise Praise Praise
Confine when gone
Clean mistakes with a good cleaner

*not to be confused with withholding food -- which is a no-no for a puppy

Woah - 8x a day seems like a lot! Puppies tend to poop more but the most I remember Jackson going was 4x a day, but typically it was around 3x a day as a young puppy (I got him at 9 weeks old). Now it tends to be 2x a day pooping at 1.5 years old.

What food is she on, if you don't mind me asking? Food can be a culprit in dogs pooping alot. Often times, I'll notice anyways, that dogs eating grocery store brands, such as Iams, Pedigree, Purina, etc will poop a lot more because there are a ton of fillers in those that need to come out!

Science Diet

agreed on both counts.

As puppies I free fed, so they pooped more often but never more then 3 or 4 times in a day... now they only poop once or twice a day.

you might consider looking into some better brands of food, this may help you out a lot... you can find tons of info. in the health and diet section!

I have been very very lucky with lily:D she is 12 weeks and is fully trained she goes outside when she needs and hasn't had an accident yet appart from her first 2 days home with us:D I never used puppy pads but as have two older dogs(labs) i think she just learned from them that and the fact i was always taking her outside and praising her when she pee or poop. I would say she goes poop 2-4times a day max. I always took her out after she first woke up and whenever she had finished eating, now she just automatically goes to the back door:thumbup: Good luck with your training i'm sure your baby will get it soon

yvonne
xx

Science Diet doesn't always sit well with some dogs. Vets just recommend it because the company gives them huge kick backs. The first ingredient is chicken or lamb by-products. I feed Blue Buffalo and my pup poos twice a day like clockwork :)

Also, I found once we had a routine down, Wookie knew that once he pooped he got to go back inside. So he would try to squeeze out anything and then high tail towards the door. I had to actually say "ah ah" and put him back in the grass. A lot of times he would squat again because he actually wasn't finished, he just wanted to go back in and play!

It took us about a year with both our yorkies trying to use pee-pads which they spent more time destroying than peeing on. Were currently potty training a new chihuahua pup without using the pads, just watching, waiting and scooping her up and taking her outside which seams to be working much better as it doesn't confuse her. Luckily its also fairly nice weather here and she loves following he yorkies out into the garden.

My Bella poops a least 6-8 of times a day too. She will pee on the pad but will poop on the floor. I stay right with her and scoop her up when I see her squat. I praise her all the time. I just keep repeating it over and over.

I will just keep doing what I am doing and hopefully she will learn to go on the pad to poop.:D

I used the crate training method with Sasha. I must say that it took almost a year to fully potty train her. The issue I was having with her was that she'd go to the door when she had to go, but she wouldn't bark or make a sound letting anyone know so she'd have an accident right by the door. One day I decided to try the bell method. I hung a bell from the door and each time we'd go outside to potty, I'd take her paw, have her hit the bell & I'd say "go potty", take her outside and if she went she'd get tons of praise and a treat. I kid you not within 2 days, she had it downpacked. I was shocked. Me and my mom were on the other side of the house when we heard the bell ringing. We both looked at each other, went to the door and saw her standing there. I took her out and she went! Needless to say shes never got so much praise, hugs and kisses as she did that day. Good luck on training. I learned patience is definitely a key thing when it comes to potty training. Afterall, I do believe yorkies are one of the toughest breeds to potty train.