How Soon Can He Be Trusted In The House?

[Millennium]

We have an 11-week old Morkie boy named Gus, who we are indoor-training. We have had him for about 3 weeks.

He sleeps in his crate beside our bed (already sleeping all night, no messes in his crate!). During the day (we both work 9-5 with no chance of getting home), he is gated into the downstairs bathroom with his food/water, 2nd bed, toys, and pee pads. Generally, he does very good with going on his pads, although we are running into problems with him tearing them up, or pulling them all over the bathroom, then going where they were supposed to be. We are thinking of switching to astroturf instead of pads to remedy that.

The problem we are having is when we get home and let him out of his room to play etc (always under direct supervision). He bolts away to explore and chase our cat, and usually ends up under the dining room table, where he pees and poops on the carpet, often within a couple minutes of being let out.

I know its too soon to expect him to know what's what, but for the sake of my sanity, when can we expect him to know to go back into his room to pee when he's out in the house? He has never made the slightest attempt to get to his pads when he's out.

[MY OSCAR]

Originally Posted by Millennium

We have an 11-week old Morkie boy named Gus, who we are indoor-training. We have had him for about 3 weeks.

He sleeps in his crate beside our bed (already sleeping all night, no messes in his crate!). During the day (we both work 9-5 with no chance of getting home), he is gated into the downstairs bathroom with his food/water, 2nd bed, toys, and pee pads. Generally, he does very good with going on his pads, although we are running into problems with him tearing them up, or pulling them all over the bathroom, then going where they were supposed to be. We are thinking of switching to astroturf instead of pads to remedy that.

The problem we are having is when we get home and let him out of his room to play etc (always under direct supervision). He bolts away to explore and chase our cat, and usually ends up under the dining room table, where he pees and poops on the carpet, often within a couple minutes of being let out.

I know its too soon to expect him to know what's what, but for the sake of my sanity, when can we expect him to know to go back into his room to pee when he's out in the house? He has never made the slightest attempt to get to his pads when he's out.

yeah, he is still young so it could be months before he can be trusted to go back to his potty area unsupervised.. instead of giving him whole run of the house when you are home try gating him in the living room with his toys and potty pads....

[octobersongs]

Originally Posted by Millennium

Generally, he does very good with going on his pads, although we are running into problems with him tearing them up, or pulling them all over the bathroom, then going where they were supposed to be. We are thinking of switching to astroturf instead of pads to remedy that.

Hi, have you tried something like the ugodog system? We had a pad ripper and that cured it. I have one I'm trying to get rid of if you're interested. PM me. Regardless, you can check out the ugodog on google

[Yeska]

When they are lil is reccomended to have a few areas with peepads designated to pee, bc when they are lil they want to go to the closes bathroom they have, so if his gonna be all over the house put one in livingroom n under the table where he goes all the time, i know is not nice for him to go there but is better than him just peein on the carpet n the smells stays there the peepad u trow away, and other areas hes allow togo to...

Than as he gets older minimize the number of peepads till u only leave one in one certain place is gonna be the designated bathroom trust me is gonna be hard for a couple months but if u work with him is gonna work sooner than u think good luck

[AngelFae]

A friend of mine has her Yorkie house trained only (I actually don't think that he has been outside ever since they brought him home!) She originally had him gated in the kitchen at all times, other than when someone in the family wanted to hold him. It took a few months for him to always potty on his pads (which she had covering the floor in the furnace room at first then was eventually able to have only one down.) Once he was super consistant with getting to the pads for every potty he was able to be free from the kitchen, and other than a week of pooping in front of the front door, he has been great about always getting to his pads. Now he has full run of the entire townhouse and they have no problems with him. He is 9 months old now (I think.)
Good luck!

[Harrysmum]

Originally Posted by Millennium

We have an 11-week old Morkie boy named Gus, who we are indoor-training. We have had him for about 3 weeks.

He sleeps in his crate beside our bed (already sleeping all night, no messes in his crate!). During the day (we both work 9-5 with no chance of getting home), he is gated into the downstairs bathroom with his food/water, 2nd bed, toys, and pee pads. Generally, he does very good with going on his pads, although we are running into problems with him tearing them up, or pulling them all over the bathroom, then going where they were supposed to be. We are thinking of switching to astroturf instead of pads to remedy that.

The problem we are having is when we get home and let him out of his room to play etc (always under direct supervision). He bolts away to explore and chase our cat, and usually ends up under the dining room table, where he pees and poops on the carpet, often within a couple minutes of being let out.

I know its too soon to expect him to know what's what, but for the sake of my sanity, when can we expect him to know to go back into his room to pee when he's out in the house? He has never made the slightest attempt to get to his pads when he's out.

I personally think it's FAR too young for him to know - I think you're striking lucky when he happens to go on the pads, because he's in a confined space.

When you get home from work, I'd go INTO his room, let him do his glad-to-see-you-nuttiness, and then don't leave the room 'til he's done his business. Say "good wee-wee, good poo-poo" as he's going, and give him his favourite treat.

After 8 hours 'home alone' he's probably ecstatic and longing to break free, he's not going to be thinking (yet!) about going into 'that place' - probably just the opposite!

It WILL happen, but probably not for quite a while yet....sorry! Good luck, Sally + Harry x

[Carmeow]

When we brought Luma home, we had an ex-pen set up in our bedroom with all her stuff in it, including a bed and her potty pads. She was okay with it but started climbing out around 14 weeks old. So then we switched her to a crate, and she learned how to open that the same day we bought it THEN we put a caribeaner clip on the crate door so she can't open it. She slept in her crate okay, but if we didn't let her out bright and early at 6am she'd sometimes pee in it, on her bed. So...we started letting her sleep on our bed and she's never looked back She only goes in her crate if we go to a relative's house.

We started giving her run of the bedroom at around 6 months, and then we moved to a new apartment. She has full run of the apartment now (bedroom, living room, kitchen and dining) and we have a potty pad in the kitchen and another in the bedroom. She never has accidents.

[Millennium]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

He seems to be getting worse he's peeing all over his room when we are out now. We are tempted to quit with the pee-pads altogether.

We've been toying with the idea of getting one of those astro turf mats and putting it on our balcony, thus making Gus an outside dog of sorts. But since he is so willing to pee anywhere in his room, I'm thinking we would have to crate him. However he will be alone as long as 8-9 hours, and that is probably too long to crate a 12-week old puppy, even though he lasts that long overnight. Do you think that we could make him an outside dog at this point, or is inside training our only option?

I don't mind the accidents along the way, but a sign that things are improving would be nice :/

[AprilLove]

Originally Posted by Millennium

Thanks for the replies everyone.

He seems to be getting worse he's peeing all over his room when we are out now. We are tempted to quit with the pee-pads altogether.

We've been toying with the idea of getting one of those astro turf mats and putting it on our balcony, thus making Gus an outside dog of sorts. But since he is so willing to pee anywhere in his room, I'm thinking we would have to crate him. However he will be alone as long as 8-9 hours, and that is probably too long to crate a 12-week old puppy, even though he lasts that long overnight. Do you think that we could make him an outside dog at this point, or is inside training our only option?

I don't mind the accidents along the way, but a sign that things are improving would be nice :/

It is always easier to hold it at night because the bodies system slows down while in a state of sleep. A puppy ususally cant be expected to hold it more than a couple hours at a time, especially a 12 week old puppy. (a general rule of thumb is to assume they can hold it as many hours as they are old in months... three months old= three hours, approx)
He is ripping up his pee pads out of boredom, totally normal to expect this if he is being left alone for 9 hrs a day.
IMO, when you work full time and no one home to watch him, potty training takes a lot longer than if someone is home with him. You cant expect him to be trained, or to "know" what to do instinctually. YOU have to train him to the behaviors you expect from him. Using only positive reinforcement and praise... and more praise and yet even more praise, gets the job done.
But it does take time and a patience a lot of it So when he does use the pads, praise him and reward him a ton!` He will get it.
When you are home, take him to the pad many many times during the day, especially after eating, playing, drinking... and put him on it and repeat often. Set him up to succeed, reward him, use a potty command. When my were in training for potty and just at the moment they finished I would say "potty", to associate their act with a word.. eventually I was able to give the potty command and they would go on command (as long as they had something in the tank.. hehe)

Congrats on your new baby

PS, washable pee pads are almost impossible to rip up, have you considered those yet?