pee pad trained then outdoor?
 

Hello everyone,

I just brought home an eight week old boy yorkie named bandit. I've been doing as much reading as I have time to on this forum on how to housebreak a puppy. I have been getting a lot of conflicting advice on how to housebreak him.

The breeder I bought him from advised me not to take him out until he has gotten all his shots and is fully immunized, otherwise he may contract parvo. I spoke to someone that worked at a vet and she confirmed the same thing. Other people I talked to just say take him out it should be no problem. I live in an apartment complex and there are other dogs around, so I am iffy about that. And I would rather be safe than sorry.

A little background info on me. I am currently single and in the military. I do shift work that goes about 9 hours a day and sometimes 12-hour shifts. Because nobody will be home when I am working, I do not want to crate a small puppy like him for that long. I just don't think that's right. So I bought a baby gate and confined him in the kitchen with all his toys, food and water, pee pads and crate. The crate is left open so he can freely go in and out to sleep.

I was thinking of trying to train him to use the pee pads for when I am working and away for extended hours or when it is raining or too cold for him to go outside. When he has gotten all his shots, I will start on taking him outside.

I have gotten him to go on the pads a few times, but whenever I come home from work there's always poop and pee all over the kitchen floor. How long does it general take to pad train a puppy yorkie? Any advice and suggestions would be great. Please tell me what I am doing right and wrong. In the meantime, I will continue to read this forum to pick up more training information.

Thanks

Hi, I am just new mom of my girl yorkie and also military family. so sorry and happy same time for you to became a yorkie mom as single and work long hours .
Truffle was 8weeks old when I got her and from day 1 on a way home, I had pee pad in a car and put her on their to pee out side of target parking and brought same pad in a play-pan for her. Do you see his timing for pee or poo time when you with him and take him to pad? I was lucky to knew her timing for potty over the weekend when she came home to let her go potty on pad w/tray.(if no tray, I know she will sherd the pad and never learn to do potty their)
she is been 98% trained on pee pad w/tray in house. but I have 3 pads/tray for her so she can use any of them during busy playing with kids etc.. but when we all gone, I put her in long play pen has bed, food dish, toys play area and pad w/tray and she use pad w/tray 100% when she is alone.

also another suggestion for you to considering to hire dog sitter to stop by in middle of the day for your baby? it's very reasonable in my DC,VA,MD area for 30 minutes for active puppy to play, feed, walk out side potty etc... with report card. ( my opinion, 9-12 hours left along even in big kitchen area still lonely and stressful for new home baby?) I leave her longest is 6hours till my daughter comes home and still feel like I should have sitter to stop by to check for one day a week...) or hope you can go home to see him at lunch time? hope everything goes well for you and your boy!

Was he paper trained? Maybe you could try putting newspaper down along w/ the pee pad and slowly phasing out the newspaper.

Hi and welcome to YT! Congrats on your little one. I have both of mine trained to use pads and outside. I have a pad inside in their pen area and in hubby's garage for those nasty weather days--they can still "go out".

Sounds like you are doing the right thing with your little guy. I would maybe try putting down several pads together, to give him a bigger space, he might just hit the pad from time to time. :D Eventually phase down the amount of pads.

Gating him off is a really good start. Have you considered an expen? It's the same concept but in a smaller area. You can have all his things in here and put a plastic shower curtain under it and line pads around. It's pretty much the same as you doing but in a more confined area.

Because you are gone at long stretches of time, you will have to work a bit harder when you are home. Get to know the signs of when he has to potty and take him right over to the pad. Once he starts to go, pick a phrase and use it only for that purpose. When he does go, praise and praise more or treat him. One day, it will click and continue to praise and treat. lol, if he's anything like mine, he'll learn really quickly to pee on the pad, run over for his treat and then go back and poo on the pad and run back for another treat. lol The best thing that I could recommend is to have patience. It will happen. I think that mine kinda got the idea at about month after we started...but I was at home with them full time, it may take a little longer but it will happen. :)

Here is a picture of our expen, I now have only their beds and blankets and a pad in it but mine are 3 and 4 years old and they only sleep in their at night. Not sure if you can find them where you are but they are on line too.

Charlie, bandit was not paper trained. his pen from the breeder was lined with pee pads, so i think he's more familiar with them.

Mom to Hot Rod, thank you for the confirmation of doing the right thing. I have a small apartment so the only place i could create a den for him was the kitchen. I will try to attach a picture of the pen when I figure how to upload pictures. And should I wait for all his shots before taking him outside to potty train?

Thanks

Mtcoco,

Thank you for all your suggestions. Just to clarify, i am a single male parent to a yorkie :). The good thing is bandit did 90% of his business on the pad when i checked on him this morning. I am hoping he keeps up the good habit when i come home from work today.

My female yorkie is 5 months old. I got her when she was 4 mo. old. She is kept in a play pen similar to this one. She will use pads and use outdoors 90% of the time. But, she still goes in the floor the other 10 %. even when she has been outdoors for a while. I have a male yorkie who is 6 years old. He was trained before the age of 1 completely. Potty pad trained and outdoor. Any suggestions?

Hi all, I actually had a question about the going inside and outside thing. I am getting conflicting information/advice about whether it is good or bad to try and train my Yorkie to go both inside and outside. I am single and work all day. I can come home for lunch and walk her (when I get her used to the harness and even used to walking - I just got her not even 2 weeks ago). It just isn't feasible for us single people who work to be able to do what a lot of people here say to do which is take the dog outside every few hours or whenever she looks like she is going to potty. I know a lot of people here have multiple Yorkies and are home all the time, so they can do that. Plus weather is a factor where I live.

She was paper trained, but I screwed it up and let her run around my apt. and she peed and pooped everywhere, so now I am confining her to her pen, letting her out to play with her and watching her like a hawk. She KNOWS that she is supposed to go on the papers, the breeder had her trained to do that, so I am just trying to rectify my screw up of giving her the run of the house.

People are telling me that her going inside and outside won't work, she will be confused, she won't know how to go outside, you HAVE to do one or the other. It would be really nice to cut down on the amount of pee and poop I have to deal with inside.

My question to all you single people that work and have Yorkies is: Do any of you have success with having them go both indoors AND outdoors?

Sportschick,

I've had bandit for three weeks now and he's at eleven weeks old. He is learning very well to go on the pads in his pen in the kitchen.

I had the same questions as you. I am single and am in the military so the hours are kind of crazy at times. I definitely did not want to confine my small puppy to a crate for 9-13 hours at a time until I am able to get home to take care of him. So I just left his crate in the kitchen and baby-gated off the kitchen. At first I left out only one pad and it was a lot of hit or miss - mostly misses. I started to figure out that he had a particular spot that he would go to to poop. So I started laying out two pads and it has worked out a lot better. He mostly poops on his second pad and pees on his first pad I taught him to go on. After three weeks, he knows to go poop on the pads and goes to pee on the pads most of the time when I am not around.

It is very difficult to try to potty train your puppy when you're single and not home, but your opportunity to train him is on your time off. Bandit is very good when I am home. I let him play on the couch with me. I lay out a hand towel and put all his toys on one side and I sit in the middle. Every hour or so I would take him to his pads and tell him to go potty, which he does very well. He would even go pee when he doesn't have to pee. He will just take a few swigs of water and muster out a tiny bit. He just knows to do it. Your time off is your most crucial time to train him. If you're patient and persistent, your puppy will learn.

I was also in the same situation as you whether to train him indoors before taking him outdoors. I think I made the right decisions. I am training him to go on the pads right now until he gets all his shots so I can start training him outside. I just figured if he learns to go on the pads and I am away for an extended amount of time after he's trained to go outside, he can always relieve himself on the pads. It seems to be a win win situation. They are, after all, a small dog. I believe training bandit outside will be much easier now that he knows to go on command on the pads. Every time he goes, i praise him loudly and say the command words "go potty" and now he understands.

I also never let him out of my sight throughout this potty training period when he's out of his pen. He's had a few accidents on the couch but that was expected. Just be real diligent and take him to his pad every hour or so.

Hope that helps. I am still in the learning process of potty training my pup, too =).

seekinganswers

My dog is 7 months old. I was supposed to get her at 4 months old, but I moved and then had all kinds of issues with my apt. that weren't safe for her so I had to keep postponing and postponing her. The breeder kept he in a pen with another puppy for the extra 3 months. So not only do I have to contend with the potty crap (pun intended), I have to deal with her not having her little friend to keep her company.

I, unfortunately, gave her the run of the house (while I was home) when I got her a week and a half ago . She WAS paper trained, but she just decided to pee and poop where she wanted. The breeder told me not to let her run around AT ALL, but I didn't listen and now I am paying. I have her in a small ex pen in the kitchen when I go to work. I cover the floor under it with papers and her bed and water are in there. I do let her out when I come home and play with her and I play with her in the a.m. I still can't tell when she really has to go potty or she is just sniffing around the floor. Sometimes she is really good and goes into the pen and goes on the paper. Today, she went in once by herself and peed, but then peed twice in the kitchen and even started to poo, but I grabbed her and put her in pen. She KNOWS better, but she just keeps doing it.

I am going to come home for lunch tomorrow and put her harness on and try and get her to walk outside. This will be the first time she has even been out. The breeder trains them to be indoor dogs. But this dog has way too much energy to just stay inside and she is older, getting to the "adolescent" stage, which means she can get very bratty and defiant.

I just feel like she is NEVER going to go where she is supposed to. I am trying to focus on the good days I have with her like yesterday and not the ones like Friday when she freaked out and flung everything around in the pen because she couldn't get her way and have me in the kitchen with her all the time.

This is a great forum because everyone helps you out and tells you their own tales of Yorkie woe and that they all got through it.

Anyway, good luck with Bandit.

My Bella is 3 months old and I am also trying to Pad train her. I also brought a gate to block off a spot for her to pee and poop and she uses it when I put her in there but when she run all over the apartment she poop and pee where ever she is at...I don't know what else to do...I also give her a treat everytime she potty on her pad and she sleeps with me at night but she doesn't potty in my bed....

No. ZoE is fully potty pad trained and she doesn't have a clue what to do outside. Even though we are outside and walk regularly, she didn't pee outside until she was almost a year old...and that was cos it was Halloween night and she was outside for HOURS as we were handing out candy.

I really like having a potty pad trained yorkie. It is just so convenient. I like knowing that she can go potty whenever she wants and doesn't have to hold it for unreasonable amounts of time because I'm not home. I like not HAVING to rush home right after work. If I need to stop at the store on the way, I can and not feel guilty about it. And it makes traveling with her so much easier. No matter we are, ZoE will go on her potty pads. I've put one down in the homes of friends & family, in the open trunk of my car, in my son's dorm room, etc., and she knows to go on potty on it.

This is all nice to know. Charlie is trained on a potty pad indoors just because it fits my circumstances best, but I've seen him go pee a few times outdoors and that was exciting for me. I would like him to do both so when it's nice I can take him out more and also save on potty pads.

I was concerned about taking him to friends and fams home if he mainly goes on pads. Not everyone appreciates you putting a pad down in their home but I want to take him a lot of places with me as he gets older. I do carry a pad though. He peed on my friend's carpet a few weeks ago when playing indoors with their puupy. :eek:Embarrassing. Their pup is trained to go outdoors. He is very reliable at home or my mom's though the pad is always in the same place. Yet I've moved the pad when mopping or threw one down in another room in my home and he pottied right on it without me even really showing him it. :thumbup:

Well, I took Beanie out this morning for the first time to get her walking. I didn't want to just start on the busy street, so I took her in the back area of my house. She did really well, BUT she got a freakin BURR on her face. That's right. A burr. I live in the effing CITY and the first time I take the dog outside, she gets a burr on her. At first, I was so upset because I can't get it out. Then I just started laughing because what else can ya do? I haven't even taken her to the groomer's yet for the first time. But I called the place and they said I can bring her in and they will remove burr. They can't groom her today but they will take out burr.

I was hoping that she would potty outside, but that didn't happen. I am holding hope that I can get her to do both. Go inside and outside. It is going to be a long road before she will just go where she is supposed to and potty, which is in the pen now. I have to keep her in it till she does her busines, then let her out to run around kitchen and watch her like a hawk.

But now that she has walked on leash, I am going to walk her before work, at lunch and after work. I am going to get rid of all this Yorkie puppie/going into adolescence energy if it kills me!!!!

Sportschic, sounds like we have something in common. I am single and I work all day. I will only be able to come home during lunch some days. I was wondering if you can pee pad train and then transition to outdoors also. My yard is not fenced and I am concerned about parvo since a puppy won't be fully vacinated. We have dogs roaming the neigberhood.