Ellie suddenly gets really good at it when I bring treats back into the equation.:rolleyes: You can watch her like a hawk and she will do everything right. She just can't figure out how to ask to go out and doesn't care to. If you take her out when she has to go by reading her mind, then she will go.

BTW, when I picked her up from the breeder's, the pups were in a crate with newspaper which IMO set her up for a life of not understanding what a crate is for. I know there is little choice when it comes to raising pups. You have to put something down on the floor. But I don't think this helps train them any.

I should have added, when I started having trouble potty training Cricket, I called her vet to ask what I was doing wrong? - did he think she had a medical problem? He said if he had a quarter for every yorkie owner that called him over the years w potty training issues, he could probably buy a car. He was the one who suggested pee pads to me - I had never heard of a dog using them before that. The pee pads eventually did the trick, along w bribery. I always thought after speaking to him that this breed was just a little more difficult. :idontknow Like I said, I owned different breeds than this one before.

Lucy came to me at 2 1/2 years old and was outside trained. She had many accidents after she first came to us and I would clean it up with her close to me and tell her no. After several months of occasional accidents she got used to our routine and she has been doing extremely well-I can't remember the last time she had an accident and now she is almost 3 1/2.
I grew up with labs and shepards and thought they were the smartest dogs ever but since I have gotten Lucy I have realized just how smart yorkies are!! :)

My girls are potty pad trained because Tessie refused to potty outside, she didn't like me watching her or getting her feet in the grass. and Sassy learned from her. Tessie is 100% pad trained and Sassy at 11 months is doing good. My boys are still hit and miss, they will go on the pads, outside, an sometimes places they aren't suppose to. Calvin has done better about letting me know he needs to go out, he runs around, pacing in front of the door looking at me, usually Hobbes will go when Calvin does because there are treats involved. I am fortunate that my vet owned a Yorkie for 13 years and is familiar with the breed. There is no way I could raise 4 without Yorkie Talk.

Who cares? As long as the dog is well cared for and healthy, what business is it of anybody's if an owner allows his or her dog to not be housebroken?

I'm not talking about an owner who lets his dog do whatever it wants anywhere, and the poop and pee is so bad it poses a health risk not only to others in the home but also the dog. I mean the owner who is lazy or doesn't have the patience to properly train their dog but still cleans up after it so their house doesn't look like the ones on those reality shows. As long as it's not a health issue.

I don't really see it as "blaming" the breed, there are differences among breeds, and some are harder to train. I took YorkieRoses comment to mean, if you've only owned one yorkie, you may not know the breed as well as you think. Most breeders are pretty much in agreement on Yorkies being more difficult to housebreak. Every now and then someone gets a yorkie who was a breeze to train, and they thnk because at 4 months old there have been no accidents they are out of the woods. :rolleyes:

There are lots of individual difference between Yorkies, some take longer than others, even if the human is doing a good job. No doubt, Joey, took longer than my son's two Shih Tzu's and he trained them the way I trained Joey. If Joey started having accidents once a month, I would try to look at what's different? For example, Joey doesn't really like a dirty pee pad, and although we have two pee pads out for him, one in each of our offices, if we are both in an office and he has to poop, he'll go in the hall. I could put another pad in the hall, but I don't want to, the poop pretty easy to clean and it doesn't happen that much, but it really is my fault when he makes a mistake. I really think Joey wants his own room where we go to clean his pads, and don’t stay long. I don’t know why he’s such a private dog. Maybe he takes after me. :D

Tessie is private like Joey. she wants a clean pad in the laundry room where no one can see her. Sometimes I have to shut the door for her so the other dogs can't watch her. She is such a spoiled Princess.

I sometimes wonder what I did to make him that way, or if he was just born like that?

I think for a piddle pad trained dog, discrimination is the problem. We have hardwood floors and don't have a problem with Sadie. We had a lot more problems when we had carpet. Bathroom rugs are a disaster and thank goodness they are washable. When we travel, the first thing we do is pull up the bathmat. Otherwise, we end up washing it. Sadie does like her privacy to poop. I keep a piddle pad in our guest room and our dining room for that purpose. She will go into another room to poop. The other thing I've noticed is that although she squats to poop while on the piddle pad, more often than not, there is a little trail of nuggets that fall as she trots away from it.

Beemer - oh Beemer. The downside of a non-neutered male! I kept him intact because he was a show potential puppy and I agreed that if he turned out, I would try to take him in the ring. Last spring I finally declared (with the help of my breeder) that he is not going to be a show dog (he's small and his hair isn't good silk, and his color isn't clearing). He was 18 months old by then and pretty set in his marking ways. He does pee on the piddle pads - I can tell because he squats to do that. It's the marking that makes me crazy. Luckily he has a couple of favorite spots and I keep a piddle pad kind of wrapped around that particular furniture. To his credit though - he is really good about pooping on the pads. I'm getting ready to schedule his neuter and maybe I'll get lucky and the marking will get a little better.

Both of mine stay in playpens (with piddle pads) when we aren't home so that's not an issue. When we travel or he goes to someone's house, he wears a belly band. It seems to work pretty well.

I've had a lot of dogs over the years but no Yorkies. These are my first piddle pad trained dogs. I agree with Nancy that it's harder for a dog to learn that it's ok to go to the bathroom in the house - but only on a piddle pad than it is to learn that you never go in the house. Except for Beemer's marking, my dogs are pretty well trained and it's good enough for me - I don't need rugs.:rolleyes:

I had many problems as well and still do at times. Cooper is doing much better about doing his business but he has good weeks and bad. I HAVE to stand out there and tell him repeatedly to "go potty", just assuming he will doesn't work. What he has started doing a few times a week is catching me with my back turned while we're outside and peeing on the concrete patio :eek: . I have no idea why he does this. My husband says that sometimes he thinks that Cooper's way of "giving us the finger" is to urinate in strange places. He definitely has a stubborn streak. To answer the original question it is not acceptable, but it happens. :)

My exact thoughts.

Even Victoria Stillwell said Yorkies can be the most difficult to housetrain...they are so self-willed.
I have trained many..had many 100% trained...so I think I can train a Yorkie..but I have had some who were impossible to trust..my Pinkie is one...as long as she remains on tile, we are fine, never pees on tile, vinyl or wood...but when she sees carpets she pees...fortunately here in south FLorida I only have tile, but a couple rooms have area rugs...I have worked and worked with this girl who is spayed and 5, health, head hard as a tank...nothing works...so she wears parlor panties when in these areas...

What do you advise...how can I get her to stop..she will pee and then go get in her pen because she knows it is time out for her...if I see her sitting in her pen, I go looking for a wet spot...no one yells at her, spanks her..I show her I am unhappy, she apologizes and kisses me...and has this look..."DID I DO THAT?"

She uses the wee wee pads just fine...so giving her a treat when she does it means nothing..she uses them all day...but let her walk from the kitchen to the master bredroom and she must squat on an area rug...I have taken them up and replaced with new many times...makes no difference..pees on the new one...so I have decided this is her one small fault and since I have many faults and she loves me, I will accept her and love her....

BUT...seriously OP how would you handle Pinkie...?

Sound very similar to Ellie. She knows what she does is wrong and she knows where she is supposed to go. She apologizes if caught. She rolls over if caught sometimes. She knows exactly what she is doing, but doesn't want to ask and can't resist it sometimes. I'd love to know how to train her completely.

Hahahaha well, live with a couple of mine for an experience. No remorse at all. Just go in another room where no one is and pee. Then sit back with the rest of the pups and look innocent. :p

No, it is not funny....but in a strange way it is.

Amen.