You've all heard this before Im sure.
 

My Bella is 8 almost 9 months old and I can not for the life of me get her housebroken. I will NOT use potty pads, newspapers etc. Its my belief that a dog should potty outside and only outside. I can leave her outside for several minutes sometimes up to an hr on nice days and within 5-10 minutes of being inside she will potty. I do watch her for clues and rush her outside and praise her when she potties outside but I do work full time and am not always home with her and when that occurs she is in the kennel. I can not keep her confinded to just where I can see her as I have a very open floor plan the only walls/doors being to bathrooms and bedrooms. I just dont know what else to do, Im lost I keep promising my finacee that she will house break and he is steadfast that she never will and hates her with a passion as a result. Please help me.

Sorry that you are having such a hard time with potty training. My first question is, do you have a set feeding schedule? The reason I ask this is that usually, puppies tend to potty after eating. Maybe you could try to take her out prior to eating for a few moments, come back in and feed her. Wait about 5 minutes and then take her back out for a little bit longer until she does her business, then bring her back inside.

I would maybe, bring her back inside after each time she's done her business so she will know that this is what you expect of her outside. Are you treating and/or praising when she is going outside? This will go a long way in her training. Also, hopefully she is not being disciplined when she does go inside.

The other thing you should probably considering is getting an expen to confine her. Since you do work full time, you may want to consider potty pads. It's way too much to expect a puppy to hold it for hours. Even with a potty pad, there is no guarantee she will use it at first but at least it will be a start. She will learn that it is acceptable to go in a certain spot. If you do not want to invest in an expen, try gating her off in the kitchen or bathroom. Or trying tethering her to you while you are inside. This way if she wanders to find a spot, you will know and be able to take her outside or put her on a pad.

You will need to make some concessions to help her train. She's just a puppy and doing what comes natural and what she knows to do. Patience, consistenancy and diligence are the key things to have when potty training.

And if I were you, I'd send the boyfriend outside while keep your baby inside. :rolleyes::D;) Good luck! Here is a picture of my expen. I originally kept, crate, potty pad and food and water in it. Now they have their beds and potty pad in it.

I agree, an x-pen & piddle pads would be best as she is a little dog with a tiny bladder. Imagine yourself holding in your urine for 7, 8 or more hrs. I know I could not do it , can you ? This is really an unreasonable request for such a small dog , & is not good for her health= UTI:(

I don't use potty pad for mine. I believe dogs should potty outside.

That being said you can't leave a puppy especially a yorkie for 8 hrs and not expect her to not need to go potty. Mine rarely need to hold it more than 4 hours during the day. My parents or brother watch my dogs when I go to work. Is there anyone that can take her out 1-2 times while you are at work? If not could you hire a dog walker?

I used a portable baby play pen for mine during potty training. I got an x-pen when Cozy had her 1st litter- Great with a litter of puppies- Kept them out of trouble. I also would teether my pups to me when housebreaking.

Set her up for success not failure. I have spend many an hour outside in the pouring rain waiting for puppy to potty.

you may have to break that promise especially if you have a yorkie on the smaller end of the scale.
Tiny dogs have really tiny bladder and it is nearly impossible for them to hold it for more than a couple hours.
It would be much easier on her if she had an ex pen with her bed , some toys and her water on one side. On the other line with washable potty pads.
I just think it unfair to expect this little dog to not go
potty for a full work day...

???
Do you expect the same of yourself that you do of others? I hope that from the second you leave your house, until your return that you don't go to that restroom at all throughout the day.

:thumbup: I fully agree. I find it ironic that people expect their small dogs "hold it all day" and wonder how many owners "hold it" all day themselves while at work.

Here's what helps me
 

I have found when I take my dog out on her 6 foot leash she will quickly pee/poo when we go outside. Just pick your spot and walk her out to it and then give the command "Go potty!". Try to find a spot near another "Poo" so that when she smells that she knows what she is out there to do.

If she is not on a leash then she will have such a fun time sniffing/smelling/discovering that the bladder issues get pushed to the back of the mind!!!

I do know of many yorkie owners who put down a pee pad during the day (in an ex-pen like the one in the post a couple above) then use the great outdoors for all other potty issues. That way you could quickly dispose of the pee pad when you get home and you wouldn't have it out while you are there.

Best of luck to you and hopefully she will catch on quickly. For me, the leash along with constant coaching of "Go potty" has been very helpful to housebreaking!!! :animal-pa

I do not leave her roaming the house 8 hrs a day while I am at work. She is kenneled at night and holds it all night doesnt whine or anything. When I am at work she is kenneled and my brother comes over to let her out. These are not times she potties in the house. When she goes in the house she is just walking around and decides to pop a squat. To answer your question yes I do go 8 hrs at work without using the rest room as I am a chef in charge of an 18 member crew and a 300 person capacity banquet room so even sitting down is often not even in my day...

have you ever heard of the tethering system ?
i have never used it myself but i have seen posts about on here before.
actually it may work well for you since you have an open floor plan in your home. i believe you take a 6 ft leash attach it to your dog and say around your ankle , that way she has freedom but will be close by . if you see that she is going to go potty , i am sure you know the signs, you just pick her up and take her outside and tell her go potty.
maybe that would work for you...
good luck

I think you have just solved your own problem. You have been offered a number of good suggestions, but it really comes down to this. You CAN"T trust her out of your sight yet. So, if you can't watch her at all times, then you need to kennel her. Her mistakes are yours...you have given her too much space too early. Yorkies are small, and can be difficult to housetrain. I made many mistakes with my first dog...and she was 1 year old before she was reliable in the house...all my fault...so tell your bf he is going to have to be patient and either work with you or stay out of the way.

Good luck...its work but worth it!

...."I will NOT use potty pads, newspapers etc. Its my belief that a dog should potty outside and only outside." ........................... I PERSONALLY have learned after 35+ years with Yorkies, flexability is a MUST!!! You are going to have to make adjustments and concessions in your rigid beliefs. Yorkies are terriers and are very stubborn....it is a quality I personally find very endearing, but I am also very stubborn and refuse to be out done by a small dog! I work within THEIR realm of possibilities, and gradually they will come around to MY way of thinking....but rigid attitudes wont work at this stage of the game!.......
" I am a chef in charge of an 18 member crew and a 300 person capacity banquet room..." .................................. I suspected you were in charge of something, as you "run a tight ship"....which is necessary in your job capacity...but cut the baby girl a little slack! All that "capt. of my ship, king of my home" stuff is going to have to soften up a little when dealing with the puppy....because believe me, SHE will win this war of the wills unless YOU can out smart her and make her think all this is HER "TREAT WORTHY" idea!

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::)

Yes, I don't believe in making Miles hold his pee pee and poop because I don't want it in my house. I go to the bathroom anytime I want why shouldn't he. Besides, I had two cats years ago so I don't mind the potty pads as I am used to it. Small price to pay for my beautiful doggie!!;)

Nice, very similar to my set up at home. I don't have the crate in the pen though, that's Miles' little bedroom next to my bed. I have a potty pad in their just in case but he never uses it. Doesn't like to (blank) where he sleeps unless he's has diarrhea then he cries for me to clean it up, he hates it...

I have a smaller crate that I used for his trip to the hospital when he got neutered. Maybe I will try putting that in there to give him a little safe haven. He rarely goes in it. Probaby reminds him of his surgery.

on top of what everyone else has said, another thing that will go a long way in potty training is to make sure the accidents in the house are properly cleaned up, especially if you have carpeted floors. just because you can't smell urine doesn't mean your dog can't, and she will continue to go in places that smell like potty. Here's the method that works for me - it's time and money consuming but it helped me make a lot of progress in potty training my dog. (i'll include links for all the products i mentioned, in case you're curious)


I purchased a blacklight urine detector from petsmart to find the little pee areas that I missed - get the room as dim as possible and turn your blacklight on. Pee stains will glow white under the blacklight. If you turn it on and discover that your carpet is totally littered with white glowing stains (like what happened to me when I first used it - yikes), consider getting your carpet professionally cleaned and pet treated to start over, if you can afford it. I paid 80 dollars when I had mine done.

Once the pee stains are located, soak the area with a cleaner that has an enzyme urine destroyer in it. Nature's Miracle is a pretty popular one. (if it's a fresh accident blot up as much as you can before this step) let it soak in for 5-10 minutes, then clean the area with a carpet cleaner. I bought a compact carpet cleaner from petsmart specifically for accidents, but if you already have a carpet shampooer or something similar then that should work just fine. After that, I spray the area with something called No Go, a potty training aid. I absolutely love this stuff and I swear by it. When miles has to go potty after I've sprayed this stuff on the carpet, I'll see him sniffing around frantically with his nose to the ground looking for a spot that doesn't smell like the no go - another thing that helped a great deal with potty training, since i could easily spot when he was looking for a place to go.

If you don't have carpeted floors, obviously accidents are much easier to clean up.. just make sure you aren't using a cleaner that has ammonia in it, as ammonia smells like urine to dogs.

I hope my post was at least somewhat helpful.. good luck with your potty training. I know that it can be stressful.. just know that while yorkies are notoriously hard to potty train, they are also very smart. They will learn what is expected of them if you are diligent enough.

Simple Solution Spot Spotter - New Puppy Center - Dog - PetSmart
Nature's Miracle® Stain & Odor Remover - Natures Miracle - Featured Products - PetSmart
Pawsitively Clean&#0153 by Bissell® Yikes! Compact Deep Cleaner - Cleanup, Stain & Odor - Cat - PetSmart
Top Paw™ No Go Training Aid - House Training - Dog - PetSmart

My dog is named Bella too..I pad trained her because I work. She also potty outside too. I never trained her to go outside. I just open the door and she run outside and poop or pee...

I believe you may have to use a potty pad in the beginning, but can eventually transition to outside. My cousin's Shorkie was blocked off in the bathroom with a potty pad when she first got her during the day, as she worked full time. She placed food/toys on one side, the pad on the other and her dog instinctively used the pad from the get go. When she got home with her, she watched her and took her outside to potty every hour on the dot, or sooner if she had just ate or drank a lot of water obviously. Eventually, she started coming home and noticed the potty pad wasn't used, so she knew she was holding it. She continued to use the pen, but removed the potty pad after a week of Bella not using it during the day and Bella continued to hold it all day with no accidents. Now, Bella has free roam of the house while she is gone all day and goes to the door when her owner is home & she needs to go to the bathroom. She is 7LBS full grown and can hold it for 8 hours at a time.

How I trained Teaka
 

I've learned that Yorkies are very smart and finicky dogs. Teaka is my first Yorkie and I've learned a lot. However, training her wasn't any better or worse than any other dog I've had. It just took longer.

::FYI, if you live in a climate where it rains or snows for lengthy periods of time, get yourself potty pads as back-up. They have saved many a rug stains in my house. Oh and don't have green rugs! Teaka thought it was grass. :D Shes so smart!::

I first got Teaka in April. She was 8 weeks old, and this tiny lil thing. I didn't feel safe with her wandering around the house. She looked like an overgrown gerbil. She was so tiny!!! So I had this playpen set up for her in the livingroom. It was rather large, so one corner had a potty pad, on the other side, opposite corner was her food and the rest was well a play area.

I would feed her, and then wait 20 minutes. I would actually pick her up, and place her on the potty pad and say "Go pee pee" Sometime she would just look at me. I found it better for Teaka if I didn't look at her, but I stood right there. Sometimes I'd pick her up and place her there again. I would wait 5 minutes standing there, then I would decide she probably doesn't have to go. She has always been on a feeding schedule, and I would purposely feed her an hour before I had to go anywhere so I made sure she went. If she did use the potty pad there was always a high pitched "Good Girl!!" and a treat of course.

Eventually she outgrew the play pen and we moved the potty pad to a discrete location in my house. Again I showed her where it was and placed her there on several occasions. Once she learned to use the potty pad, we slowly moved the potty pad across the house (yes in plain view of guests) towards the slider door. She kept on using it, and then we actually staked the potty pad outside. (Thankfully this was in the summer when it didn't rain all that much) She kept on using it. Finally we got rid of it.

Then we had the issue of, well how the heck do we know when she has to pee? She started having accidents because we weren't seeing the signs. So, I attached a round bell (think jingle bells) onto a string and attached that to the slider door handle. She would look outside and I would say "Have to go Pee Pee?" she would look at me and I would ring the bell. Then let her out. I did this for a couple of months I think. She would ring the bell. Then I'm like, well that bell is kind of stupid looking. Then I taught her to bark on command. So when she would ring the bell I'd say "Teaka speak" and she would.

Now 3 years later, Teaka will sit at the slider, scratch it, or bark when she has to go outside.

She will only have accidents if no one is home for more than 8 hours (but she'll use the pee pads) if its snowing, or if its raining, or if shes sick (pooping issues). Other than that, I'd say she goes outside about 93% of the time.

We always have a pee pad out for Teaka (where guests can't see). If I see her starting to circle on it, I immediately get up and put her outside. She knows the pee pads are for emergencys only.

Keep at it, it took months for Teaka. I think she was about 6 months old by the time my whole process was done. Teaka is not crated at all, for a little dog, she does really really well. :)

I feel the same way. I know Khloe is just 5 months old but this potty thing is rough. I don't let her have food or water after 7:30. We do so well all night long. Its during the day. I keep her crated next to Kirby's crate. I come home during lunch or have someone else take her out. She will just squat her little butt on the floor like nothing. I need a prayer and a solution.

Feeding late
 

How long should a 3.5 lb 5month old be without food, if I feed her late she poops all night on her pad....but I want to eventually let her sleep without locking her in the bathroom with the doggie gate. If I feed her the last time at 6pm and she doesnt eat again until the next morning at 6am is that too long a time...12 hours without food? Also she eats about 1/2 cup a day, her food is out all day, is that about right for her size and age?