Max has zero inhibition, but Teddy is a shy pooper. I think it is part personality and part the way they were raised. Teddy had free outdoor access at the breeder's home until he was 8 months, so he had privacy. Max grew up on a short leash.

lol. This is exactly what she does if nobody catches her or she thinks you aren't watching. She likes to do it in a bedroom. Then she trots back out to the family like she just had to go run a quick errand. lmbo. So annoying, but she is such an innocent lil thing.

My theory is that the bigger a dog is, the easier it is to house train, and the better house trained it gets. For example, Jackson is a bigger Yorkie, about 15-16 lbs or so, right? My Jax is 10 pounds, he's also pretty big, and he's pretty well house trained too. My dad has a 5 pound Yorkie that he worked really hard on house training, from the time he got it as a puppy. He's semi-retired, spends all his time with his dog, he's not neglectful at all. Still not remotely house trained. My dad just takes him out every few hours to pre-empt the inside accidents.

So my theory is that size has something to do with it. It's toy breeds in general who have this problem, not just Yorkies.

YorkieRose--I have a similar problem with mine, although they are well house trained when on hardwood and linoleum, they totally forget everything when allowed to go into the back of the house, which is carpeted. So I use baby gates to block them off from the back of the house. They are trustworthy in the front of the house and roam free there. Don't know if that's workable in your house but it's what I would try.

Yeah, well shoot me, but I find that hilarious. :D

Ehh- I would much rather the people who laugh about their dogs mistakes then come here to rehome their dog because it isn't housebroken- those people obviously find it unacceptable that their dog goes inside yet I find their behavior unacceptable.

I hear that.

Very good point.

To the OP, I have two yorkie brothers from the same exact litter that I brought home and trained at exactly the same time and obviously in exactly the same way. I swear Oliver literally took a week to potty train. He just "got it." Charlie took almost 2 years!!! I really don't think I was lazy and believe me I didn't laugh it off -- cried my eyes out most of the time. Even after he seemed to get inside/outside, Charlie still had accidents. Oliver never has. It sounds like you are fortunate enough to have gotten an "Oliver" and that's very lucky for you. I wouldn't have believed a Yorkie would be hard to train either if Oliver was my only dog. A "Charlie" might come into your life someday and proove you wrong ;)

Max is an Oliver. Zero problems. Teddy was older and fully trained when he came to me, zero problems. I have thought about adding a third dog, but I am afraid my luck would run out and I would get a Charlie. ;):D

It is very interesting that your boys are from the same litter and were raised under the same circumstances, yet demonstrated very different results in potty training.

That was why I shed so many tears. I couldn't understand why one was SO easy and one was SOOOOOO hard. I think I tried every training trick ever invented!! Their personalities are just vastly different. Recently we adopted an 4 year old, in tact male (now neutered)...he was even easier to train than Charlie :)

"Charlies" can be really sweet, funny little cuddlers though, so I would go thru that painful process again. I can't imagine not having him in my life.

Gates are used all over my house...and all is well most of the time...but at least once a month she gets out because my husband forgets to lock one...she uses her nose to push them open...He is the one with the college education and a little Yorkie can out smart him...LOL

Mine too! Charlie (yes, the one that took so long to potty training) has outsmarted my husband too (he's an engineer!!!). Charlie will also push the gates and once we even watched him actually sit up on his hind legs and PULL a gate towards himself to create a gap he could sneak around...hubby never forgets to secure them after witnessing that.

I have a foster who can open gates and crates! She is hilarious. I have to put bungee cords on them if I happen to have a pup that needs crate rest after surgery as she feels it is her obligation to "free" them.

I bet you do. Sad thing is...we have carpet.

There is a thick blanket lining her playpen. Just found out she has been peeing in there. It's her house. She has her Cloud and food. But evidently that doesn't matter. She goes to the side of her things and then expects housekeeping to come and clean it up. Thought she might stop with a blanket covering the bottom. Nope. Hey, she doesn't have to do the laundry, so why should she care.:rolleyes: And she gets really anxious when left in there alone sometimes. Apparently the answer is to just use it as a bathroom.

roflmbo.
We need video of this!

How thoughtful and sweet of her! LOL

Housekeeping, lol! She is a princess, so shouldn't it be "ladies in waiting" instead? ;);)

That is great!

"Charlies" is super cute and I agree, I wouldn't have any regrets. Every dog has his/her challenges. I would trade a little barking for a potty accident or two. :p

I don't have a video of Charlie pulling the gate, but here is one where DH didn't secure the gate (just pushed it against the wall), so Charlie's nose went into action.

I know Charlie makes this look so easy, but all of other dogs were completely perplexed on how he got out. Even after Charlie moved the gate away from the wall, no one else could figure it out. They all stayed in the kitchen and just watched him in the other room.

Very cute! :)

:yelrotflmCharlie!

:yelrotflm LOL, you are right. I'm so scared I'll get another dog who will just be a little hellion that I am stumped on how to train, haha!

LOL... omg!

Charlie is a cutie!!

My 2 dogs are complete opposites. Cooper took to potty training very quickly and since had only 2 "accidents" that I can remember. The first one was the day we brought Max home. Max squatted on the floor and Cooper figured that was acceptable behavior:rolleyes: The other time was when I refused to let him out at 3am (this became habit, and he was playing not pottying) and he peed right there in the bedroom. I'm pretty sure he stuck his tongue at me and went back to bed.

Max is a struggle still and what makes him even more difficult is the fact that he schemes. He enjoys eating poop but doesn't eat it outside. It almost seems like he'll wait for me to be on the phone or to be preoccupied and he will go hide in a room and go potty. I think Crystal summed it up perfectly. Sometimes he'll be so nonchalant about it, as if to run an errand. But sometimes I'll catch him and he'll be laying on his back rolling beside it because he doesn't want to get yelled at. I'll even find him sitting in his kennel after the deed is done because he knows he's wrong.

I'm home all day and we have a very strict potty routine many times throughout the day. I'd say that Max is about 80% trained. He goes like clockwork every morning after breakfast, but every morning he runs to the living room. I say "come outside to potty Max" and he follows me outside with no problem.

It's frustrating but really no big deal. I clean it up. It is unacceptable to let my boys potty in the house but sometimes it's much easier said than done.

I was totally stumped! I tried to be on a really strict routine with him too going outside after every meal, etc. When that didn't work, we tried going for long walks shortly after they ate. We walked once for about an hour with no potty, so we went home. The minute we got in the door, he peed right in the middle of the floor. I clapped my hands and said "NO!" (because I read if you startle them a little you can get them to stop peeing for a sec and get them outside). The poor guy just looked up at me with this horrified look and kept peeing...after an hour walk, he couldn't hold it anymore. :(

The first time he "accidently" peed on one our walks (right in the middle of the sidewalk), he gave me that same horrified look. Except I started jumping up and down and cheering and gave him a treat. He sort of got it after that, but there were still accidents for quite a few months. :p (my husband was VERY embarrassed that I was cheering over pee in front of all the neighbors)

I still cheer outdoors, on our walks, and people look at me like I'm nuts. :) We use pads in addition to outdoors and Max thought he was not supposed to potty anywhere but home. It made going anywhere difficult. He would cry to get home to his pad. When he finally pooped on one of our walks and saw how excited I was, he wanted to do it every day.

I took a long time to potty train Tibbe and he's been totally clean in the house for years. I don't count the time just last month when I forgot it was about his potty time due to my rush to ready for a visitor coming, he needed to potty really badly and was whining and spinning around so fast. I thought he was just excited that he knew we were soon to have a visitor! Finally his whining got really high and frustrated as he spun like a top right at my feet and I told him to be quiet and went on dressing in the bedroom. Later, in the den I found a "mistake" by the door and felt such a fool. Let him outside and cleaned it up, just saying "no potty in house" in a regular voice as I looked him in the eye when I saw it so he would know I wasn't thrilled with what he did but wasn't mad at him at all. I let him outside and then praised him and loved him up when he came back inside so he could know the incident was over. That was my fault entirely - just forgot his schedule in the rush to get ready for our visitor and totally misread his pleadings and spinning to be let outside. And it was the excitement of him knowing the visitor was coming that made that incident. When I am gone from home and it is his time but he's just lying around and not all excited, he holds it. Other than the occasional time when that kind of once-a-year excitement episode happens to Yorkies or Poodles or GSD's, I think Yorkies, like other breeds, can be totally clean in the house once they are grown if they are healthy.

I agree that I have been a little lax with Lucy. She has more accidents than any other dog I've ever had. Thank Goodness they are tiny accidents.

She's so small and when I first got her - I worked at home - so it was no problem just to take her out every hour or two and that was fine.

The problem came if I had to be away at a swim function for 3-4 hours or perhaps all day; of course, I would get someone to come in . . . but, by then, she was used to going out every hour or two. And she wasn't gonna wait any 3-4 hours :)

Now, I work in an office and she's home all day with my elderly father and his caregiver so I just have to cross my fingers! I know Wilma (caregiver and lovely lady who adores Lucy) lets her out but she's only there half a day . . . then I rely on my son (age 16) when he gets home from school. I know he lets them out when he first gets home but no one is actively watching them after that - to make sure no one is getting into mischief!

I will also admit that my time is so torn between full-time work; full-time Mom, caregiver for elderly father; required attendance at various sporting events; teaching my son to drive . . . that this is not my most important hot-button issue.

I try to divide my time between EVERYONE each and every day. The time I spend with Lucy and Ringo is MY TIME and we are usually to be found on a trail where Lucy pees and marks like nobody's business!

Rhianna is completely pee pad trained, she was like that when we first got her, she will also go outside as well. Brody on the other hand . . .:rolleyes: He will go outside or on the pee pad after Rhianna, but there are several times where he'll come nonchalantly out of the back bedroom or bathroom like he did nothing . . .I have also seen him just randomly walk by the table leg and lift his leg . . .:mad: I usually say HEY and he just looks at me like What, I didn't do anything . . .:rolleyes: Not sure why he likes to mark, Rhianna is spayed . . .but he does things out of habit I feel and we have tried correcting his issue, even put him in a belly band . . .he's really hopeless . . .:( I'm thankful I don't have carpeting.

So, to me, I think it depends on the individual dog really.

Not acceptable
 

But it is also not the end of the world (for me). Let me try to give you a visual so that you may understand the why, since I'm a very curious person myself and usually, like you here, I'm not judging I'm just curious :p

My house was referred to as the museum by family and friends. I didn't held get-togethers, parties or entertained more people that I could closely monitor in my house. Every thing was in its place and there was a place for everything. I would tolerate nothing less than cleanness, neatness and complete order. There was absolutely no democracy in my kingdom, I was sole ruler, period.

I couldn't stand 'loud' colors on my walls (still can't), my carpets were off-white (or light beige) and light wood and fabrics on my furniture and soft, light draperies. I never went to bed leaving dirty dishes in my sink, never left the bathroon vanity with water splash stains, or the hair blower out.

When I said 'spring/winter/summer cleaning', I meant thorough cleaning, not just dusting and picking up. It meant drapes went to the cleaners, curtains that I could wash at home would get washed, ironed and before putting them back, I cleaned the blinds one by one, the windows and screens.

Cabinets would get emptied and cleaned inside and out, all its contents washed and dried before being put back. Even top of cabinets would get the grease and dust removed. Every inch of my house would get swept, vacuumed and mopped, top, under, front, back, and sideways... Four times a year this was my ritual. And then there was the maintenance--- keeping it all looking and smelling just as it did when I finished cleaning. That required daily rituals and weekly management.

I bought dozens of cheap slippers for man, women and child (prayed that kids would stay home) all sizes I could get at the flea-market, so that people who had to take their shoes off at the foyer, would not leave that awful foot odor on my carpets and which lingered in the air for days anyway even after I sprayed with Fabreeze :mad:

Can you believe I was that much of an an** retentive, control freak??? Yep, I was. I feel much better now ;)

You see, I adopted a little girl and she turned my world upside down :aimeeyork. She was a little pig, who pottied, vomited and rubbed her royal fur-butt everywhere while I would quietly freak out and thought I would go insane for sure. This little girl stole my heart with those beautiful innocent eyes and the occasional kiss. Then came her brother who showers me with love and all that only a fur-baby can offer.

Together these two little piggies have thought me what's really important, what's worth having a fit over, what priorities are and what it all means :thumbup:.

I'll be honest, I struggled at the beginning :( It wasn't easy to relax my ways at first. I put my babies in crates (though I hate those cages), I close out areas so that they would only have access to a few rooms (which ruined my wall paint) while I was training them with all the patience my love for them could muster.

I traded carpets for wood-like floors, invested in ugly colored rugs and made other changes that I wouldn't have been able to live with before they came into my life. When they gave me signs of being totally hose-broken, I got rid of all the obstructions and gave them free range of their home.

They did great for a while, but with sickness and disruptions in their lives, plus their daddy being an enabler, they relapse once in a while and do have accidents every now and then. It's not the end of the world for me because I know that after a relapse, I should not expect them to go back to normal in a snap of my fingers. I love them enough to be patient and understanding. And as long as they're healthy, which is my #1 concern, we'll try again, no biggy, no need to get my undies in a twist :D

Wow, beautiful story, thanks for sharing this, it should be in the library! I'm reminded of a person here who bought a yorkie and she too was a neat freak. The poor little thing would hide under her spotless glass table, and just shiver when he saw her, he was scared to death of her. She finally decided rehoming was her best option, and most of us were so relieved.

I read the whole thread. IMO it seems like us long time Yorkie lovers confess, Yes, most Yorkies are hard to housebreak. And some Yorkies are never fully housebroken. It is amazing to see how having a Yorkie changes peoples lives and the tolerance they teach us. Like Kate said, you learn what is really important. I would not give up my Yorkies over pottie issues anymore than I would get rid of an incontinent child or relative. You make adjustments. I am blessed with two girls that I would say are truly housebroken. Rubin occasionally marks. Abba and Ginny Joy are only 5 months old so it is a work in progress. I have accepted my home will never be accident free.
So is it acceptable ? I guess I have to say yes. Could you pass me a paper towel ?