New to house dog
 

Hi Yorkie lovers! I just got a house dog for the first time a couple of weeks before Christmas. I picked up my 9 week old Yorkie on Dec 9th. :aimeeyork I live in the country and have had outdoor animals all of my life but have never had a dog in the house. I picked the Yorkie because I am hoping to have him for alot of company. (Which he is). I love him so far but will be glad when he gets over many of his puppy behaviors. I work a 12 hr night shift so when I am gone, he is locked in my kitchen. I take him out when I am home and not sleeping to potty, which he has done pretty well. He has a potty pad with holder when I am gone or sleeping. He is doing great going potty on it but seems to love to poop on the floor and play in it! :mad: Also the last few days he is chewing up his potty pads into a hundred pieces and also chewing my the cubbards in my kitchen. He has many chew toys available for him to chew on. (I am sorry this post is so long!) Any suggestions?

Congratulations and welcome to the world of a puppy! He is very young and it can take a while to potty train them. I have a 6 month old and she still has accidents in the house! As far as chewing goes, try Bully Sticks to help with teething. It sounds like he is bored.....

Invest in an ex-pen....set him up with his bed, food and water and his pee pad in the ex-pen, which you want to keep away from walls or cupboards...when they get bored, or left alone for any length of time, they will happily entertain themselves, chewing up walls and base boards and cabinets! Kind of try to arrange your sleep time around the pups sleep time....he has been sleeping and alone all night, so when you get home, plan on taking him out to play and potty and interact with you for several hours...he is still very young, so he will tire out soon, when he starts to wind down, THAT is when YOU get to go to bed!

Sounds like she needs to be exercised more. My dog loves to misbehave if I leave her alone for a long time and come back and don't walk her. It's like her way of getting back at me.

Congrats on your first Yorkie! :) As others have suggested, he sounds bored and needs more exercise / interaction. What about leaving him some Kong toys? Put his dinner inside and seal it with cottage cheese / peanut butter and then freeze it. Perhaps don't leave all his toys on the floor. Rotate them to keep it exciting. Also, try to walk him / do a short training / teach some tricks before you head out for work to tire him out. All the best! :)

Thanks for the suggestions!

I would be cautious about leaving thing like bully stick for him to chew on unsupervised. They can choke if they get a big piece off of them. He is at the chewing stage of his life!

Can anyone puppy sit for you or stop into see him a few times while you are at work. I would definitely get an X-pen. A puppy with +12 hours of time on their paws will find tons a trouble the least of which is shredded paper?

I work 12 hour shift, too so mine go to visit Grandma/Grandpa or their Uncle!

Hey congrats on your new baby! So happy for you and welcome to YT!!

I would say he is bored. Does anyone come by and check-in on him while your away for those 12 hours? As far as the shredding and destroying your cabinates, I say to invest in washable pee-pads. They usually aren't abe to shred those and since your gone for long periods of time, you do not have to worry about him shredding and possibly ingesting them. With your cabinates, I would use the spray or enclose him using another method. Possibly a pen because you are gone too long for a crate. That way he can't even get to the cabinets.

I agree with having someone come in even at least once during that time for say 1/2 an hour to an hour and spend some time with him. 12 hours is an eternity for a little one and they do get bored very quickly. Good luck to you!

So glad you're enjoying your new baby, he can be a wonderful addition to your life. These first few months they are teething and will chew on everything. I use bully sticks like someone mentioned, but only when I'm home and can supervise. They have lots of dog teething toys you can buy, I found some at Target that you can even pop in the freezer and the cool gel helps their gums feel better. You want to find something that's big enough that they can't choke on. Regarding chewing on pee pads, I had to switch to washables, and that worked for me, but many people have said they just tape the pee pads down with duct tape. Best of luck!

Thanks for all the suggestions! I really appreciate it! Things have gone a little better the last few days :) I almost hate to say anything & jink myself. I think part of the problem was that I had been sick for almost 2 weeks and so hadn't spend alot of extra time with Gizmo (my puppy) because I had felt so horrible. I also saw on the internet that I could either put rubbing alcohol or white vinegar on the wooden areas, which I did & so far it has helped. I also got Gizmo several more things to chew on of different textures, to hopefully help with his teething & chewing. I also started putting his toys in a container (one he can't chew up) and put the toys back in the container a couple times a day & it gives him another thing to do. As far as him chewing up the pee pee pads, that hasn't changed so I think I am going to check into the washable pads & try to go that route. He is still pooping on the floor much of the time & playing in it, but occassionally not now. As far as the 12 hr shifts and having someone check on Gizmo, unfortunately, no I do not have anyone that can check on him most of the time. My husband is gone out of town all week & only home on the weekends. When he is home, of course he checks on Gizmo, but most of the time, that is not the case. I live in the country & don't have anybody that is close that can stop by unfortunately. I know it's a long time, that is why I don't leave him in a carrier. Yes, I am gone the long shifts, but because of that I also have more days off I can spend with him. I am going to look into the x-pen also. Thanks everybody! :animal36

Glad you are finding some solutions to your problems. Playing with their poop is kind of normal, mama pup would actually lick it off them in the early days, and some people have problems with them eating it, just be glad that's not a problem! Hopefully you find better toys for him to play with. There are also some interactive toys, where you can put some kibble in the toy and they will roll the toy on the floor and get the kibble out. Make sure you leave food out for him all day, the early months they can get hypoglycemia. Wish you the best of luck with Gizmo.

Personally I think 12 hours is way too long to leave your dog alone. Someone needs to stop by after 6 hours and take him for a walk. I would not want to be locked in a room for 12 hours. He is bored and lonely.

I am sorry that Gizmo has to be here for the time when I am gone to work for the 12 hr shifts! I wish that he did not have to endure that, but I do not have anybody that can come by to check on him when I am gone to work! I am at a time in my life that I have no choice but to have to work each week. It would be great if I could just be home with him each day & night but for us, if that was the case, we would be out on the street and we'd both be pretty hungry & cold. I feel bad that he is here by himself for that amount of time, but it is the reality of my life and nothing I can do about it except get rid of him. However, although he is here for the time I am gone to work, I do spend alot of time time with him on my days off. I also take time to play & spend time with him when I get home from work. Due to the long shifts, that is why I do not keep him in a carrier during that time, I just think it's too long. I have tried to get him many different types of items to play with to keep him busy and stimulated when I am gone to work.

I wanted to clarify that yes, I do work 12 hr shifts. I don't know if it makes any difference but I work night shift 12 hrs. This is the reason that I cannot have someone stop by to check on Gizmo. Although I may be able to get someone to stop by at 1am or 2am in an emergency, but there just isn't anybody that will stop by regularly in the middle of the night. :animal36

Just a little update: Things seem to be going a little better. I have gotten him multiple different textures of chew toys and interactive ones, & he seems to really like the diversity. Also, he has learned to play ball & I have been spending extra time with him playing ball to use up a little bit of his energy before I have to leave to go to work.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions. :animal-pa

I think it does make some difference, your dog is probably sleeping all of the time you are gone. I do not think it's necessary to have someone stop by in the middle of the night. I think it's good that you're playing ball with him, maybe even a little walk now and then would be good, they say, "A tired dog is a happy dog."

Congrats on Gizmo he sounds like a normal active small puppy, word of advice do not leave ANY type of chew item with him when you go out. Most of what is sold as edible is not good for small dogs and can lead to expensive and life threatening digestive problems. I know this from experience. I got Lola in late April when she was 4 months old, I would wheel a big metal crate around the yard while I gardened to keep her safe from wood chips, dirt and stones, but instead of keeping her safe I came close to bringing on pancreatitis. To keep her occupied I gave her a small greenie that looked like a tooth brush, these supposedly were recommend by vets. Well she loved it and it kept her busy for a while, I thought she would chew and chew it for hours but in less than an hour it was completely gone as she ate the whole thing. Well it started with loose stool and rapidly progressed to running brown water every hour. It took almost 5 days and two trips to the vet to get her somewhat regular again. Her butt was so sore that she would cry out in pain each time she had a BM, even after all this time she is acts worried and scared if she has a difficult BM. One of the gals from my meetup group had the exact same problem with her yorkie. Bully sticks are better for pups, I buy a larger one that takes a long time to work on, but there are many dogs here that don't do well with them so keep chew times under half an hour. Rawhide chews are also a no no for most dogs especially such small ones, if you read the label carefully you will often see warnings like not recommended for puppies or dogs under 5 lbs. Also stay clear of any jerky treat, just about everyone I have ever seen are made in China and China has had a lot of problems with dog products being contaminated. I would never buy anything edible for a dog that was made in China. Believe me I would love to leave Lola with a chew bone, raw hide, pig ear, greenie but from experience they often can start a digestive problem that is hard to get rid of. It is also very easy to be fooled when buying these chew foods, they are well packaged and look like they are healty for gum and teeth health. I am at the point that except for a bully stick Lola gets nothing else to chew on. So many of us experienced yorkie owners still make honest mistakes when it comes to chew food, because the companies that market them are very crafty on what they put on the package and fool us. Please don't feel embarrassed if you have questions on this topic because many of us that have had yorkies for years are still confused over what is OK and what is not, post any type of questions you may have, we are here to help you.

I agree, edible chews must be supervised and you shouldn't buy anything edible with the word "China" on the label. I do think it's safe to use the non-edible chew toys and these are very useful for a teething puppy, and just wanted to make sure the OP understood that.

I've noticed several post about people having trouble with puppies chewing when they are gone etc? I'm beginging to feel like I am the only one here who kennels my dog. He has a little cage about 12x18 that he is mostly quite content in. The only time he protest about being in there is if I stick him in during the day to do housework and he can see me running around. Which I don't blame him but I don't care because if he is out of my sight he's in trouble and him staying in the kitchen while I do dishes is just laughable. If you were to get one like this you would not have to worry about your cabinets. :o) I can't even imagine not having a place to keep him safe. Especially when we first got him he was 6 weeks and 1.5 pounds. I would have been scared to death to lose him! lol

That may be okay at first, but they do need more room than that so that's why many people get the x-pens, if it's for all day. I'm with you though, keeping them safe is number one!