Strange potty habbit
 

Hi there, I'm new here and just recently become the owner of a cute little yorkie female, we named her Winnie. She is a great little pup, sleeps all night in her crate, doesn't bark much, or wine at all.

When it comes to potty training her, i'm having a hard time. We are going with the pee pad training since we are in a highrise apartment and just felt this is the best way to go.

We've noticed for one that when we do go outside, it doesnt matter how long its been since she's gone she will NOT potty outside at all. It is winter now so she may just be too cold.

Anyways, the pee pad is in the kitchen under a counter. She ALWAYS ONLY "goes" in the kitchen, sometimes she will pee on the pad other times not, but if she pees on the pad she will not poo on the pad, actually lately she hasn't been pooing on the pad at all, but she still always goes in the kitchen. Another thing is she will not go if we are in there with her. I take her in there and put her on the pad when we wake up, after play time, after naps and say "go pee" and she'll circle around sniffing but after half an hour or so of trying i figure she just doesnt need to go so i go into the living room and she runs into the kitchen and does her business.

How do i train her if she refuses to go when i'm there??

I'll walk in after her sometimes and praise her and give her a treat if she went on the pad, but if she goes onthe floor i'm not supposed to get angry at her but how can i stop her from doing so?? HELP PLEASE.

I might not be the best one to answer this, I had challenges training my puppy, but mostly because I wasn't consistent! Consistency is the key!! So, if she is crate trained...you take her out, put her on the pad, give the command and wait. If she doesn't go, then she goes back into the crate for 10-20 mins...you take her out and try again. After she finally goes (and I would assume she would eventually), you reward with a treat and some play time. But consistency is always the key...she will never go into the kitchen to "go" by herself at first,because she is never going to be left outside her crate unless you are watching her...and every time it looks like she wants to go, you will go with her...then you can praise and reward her good behaviour. You can't get angry when she misses...because she only missed because YOU were not watching her...Get it? :) That's the theory...and in theory what I did...but my DD and I were not consistent and it took over a year...my own fault (which I accepted and never took out on the puppy)

Good luck!

Very good advise! Except In my experience 10-20 mins is too long. If you wait too long she will relieve herself in her cage and that is a whole lot of trouble waiting to happen.

Try: two or more pads down. Or one little trick I leered was to take a peace of poo and put it on the pad. She will smell her own scent and than know that that it the right place to go poo. Leave it there as long as you can stand the smell but replace it with fresh poo until she gets it.

Put more than one pee pad down. Some dogs don't like to poo and pee in the same spot. You could also try putting down newspaper all over the designated area and as she becomes more reliable start reducing the amount of paper that's down.

Thanx for the advice!! We actually got a poo on the pad today!! and then one beside the pad... but it was close!! :)

I was having the same problem with Mollie not pooping on the pad, but I put a couple down beside each other and she had more room to sniff and pace and she pooped on it.

Great.... its progress !