Potty training
 

Time to get serious with the potty training. As long as he is in the room with me where his pee pads are he does great. But if he's out of the room roaming the rest of the house it isn't long before he pees or poos somewhere. :( A friend of mine told me to take on of the napkins i use to clean up his pee with next time and put it out in the middle of the yard to encourage him to pee out there and then make a big deal when he does. (which i would do anyway;)) I thought that was a great idea and am going to try it.

Any other tips on the house breaking I could use?? Never had to train a puppy before. :confused:

Limit your pup's freedom to roam until his potty habits improve. Keep him relatively close to his pad.

Make frequent trips outdoors for potty breaks, every 1-2 hours if necessary.

Good luck!

Thank you. That's great advise. I don't want that bad habit to get out of control. I took him out this morning when we woke up and he went pee and poo in the grass right away. I did have the napkin with wiped up pee on it sitting in the backyard grass just to let him know its ok to go out there. I was really surprised to see how quickly he went. It was his first time. He's still very young. I am going to get serious about it now while he's still young, so hopefully when he's grown, I wont have to worry about it anymore. Hopefully he catches on quickly. I'm going to give that tell bell thing a try too. :)

Glad to hear you had success this morning. :) Keep up the praising for good potties. I believe praise is the key to my success with my boys. They love the attention they get for doing things right.

:thumbup: Definitely lots of praise. I stopped praising Max when he pottied outside when I thought he was trained and he reverted back to having accidents in the house. I think we are finally almost pee trained outside (no jinx:rolleyes:).

Definitely praise. It's funny because I was afraid to praise him while he was going because I didn't want to distract him.. . lol :D
But I did afterwards.

What are some good treats. I have those pre-packaged treats you buy from petco, but was wondering if there are anything else he would enjoy better that is still good for him. Is cheese ok, I know dogs love cheese, just not sure how good it is to give them. I just want him to feel rewarded when he does good so he wants to keep doing good.

Christine - read my thread on treats: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...ic-intake.html

Maybe cheerios or Gerber Puffs?

Yes Cheese is fine...that is what I use...my furkids LOVE it...I have a 6 month old Harley and he is doing so well now at letting me know he has to potty, that he has full run of the house now "when I'm home" and has graduated to the big bed at night with DH, Bella and I...no accidents YAY!!:D.

What I did when I first got him at 12 weeks old...I kept him confined in a play yard...with potty pads on one end and his food/water/bed/toys at the other end...My babies are outside trained I live in Florida, it rarely ever drops below freezing here :D I took him outside every 1 1/2 - 2 hours I set my timer on my stove to remind me...I have my cheese already cut up and in a baggy in the refrig so all I have to do is grab it on my way out...I still do this with my 2 1/2 year old too Bella...and out we go...once everyone has done there business I throw a potty party and hand out treats...when we go back in I let Harley play for a few minutes with me keeping an eagles eye on him...if I could not watch him at all times I put him back in his play yard...if he didn't do his business outside no treat and right back in the play yard and I sit and watched him to make sure he didn't use the potty pad..I only had the pads in there for night and when I was gone. I would wait 10 to 20 minutes or if he started to go on the pad, back out we went until he did his business...I never gave him full run of the house tho...I set him up for success and I never gave him a chance to fail and success starts with you ;). I take Harley out now at 6 mos old every 3 to 4 hours but most of the time Harley lets me know he has to potty...Good luck with your potty training, he will get it if you are consistent with him.:)

and this is the play yard I still use if I have to leave the house for a few hours. I love it..and the reason I like this one is cause it has a floor in it in case he has an accident and it has a mesh top that zips up if you have a climber which I do, Harley has already scaled it..easy fix tho, just zip the top closed....you can only get them online...I ordered mine off Ebay..dog play yards/xpens.

:thumbup::thumbup: Definitely save the cheese as an occasional high value treat for more difficult training of a new trick. Even then, go light on cheese. It is very easy to make a dog sick, especially a small Yorkie pup.

I have always used a single piece of kibble as my primary reward treat. It is all I used for the first year I had Max. Keep in mind that if your pup is a really big eater, even kibble may add up. I take into account how many kibble rewards I give during the course of they day and then adjust meals accordingly.

Keep the treats light and small. Verbal praise and excitement go a long way.

I give my puppy tiny bits of cooked carrot or raw apple and lots of praise when she potties on her pad.

Now, if she pees on her pad, she barks at me & runs to the kitchen and sits waiting for her treat. If she poops on her pad, she barks & waits for me to pick it up and walks with me to the bathroom to flush it. As soon as she hears the flushing sound, she zooms to the kitchen.

How cute is that! lol

Yes.. I need to find a new treat. He is a very good eater, but I can tell he's not too crazy about the treats I have. He doesn't scarf them down when he gets them.. Sometimes he doesn't even eat it. I will try different things and find something he's crazy about and use it to motivate him. :)

I didn't read your post until after my last post. I will keep all this in mind. I don't want to over do it. I am going to give the cheerios a try. But the packaged treats from petco are definitely a no. He doesn't care for them. I thought cheese may be a bit much at his age.

I believe the way a treat reward is presented has a lot to do with the value of the treat. When I present Max with a kibble, it is my enthusiasm and praise that makes the kibble so appealing. It is the ritual. He loves the sound of the kibble container, the button that has to be pushed to pop the top.

Also, you condition the dog's expectations by what you give as a treat and when and how often. So, if you start out with lots of yummy cheese for potty breaks, your dog will have really high expectations for treats. Finding something of higher value for later training will be difficult. Hope that makes sense. I have my boys conditioned to be very happy with the tiniest bits of anything, and they know that boiled chicken, a tiny shred of parmesan, or a dab of baked sweet potato are really, really special treats.