Toilet Training an adult yorkie
 

Im so glad I found this site!! Im in major need of help, I have a male yorkie called Rudy who is 6 years old. When I first got him I was in a different job and was able to take the time to train him which he picked up really quickly. However, Im in a different job now and am out from around 7am to around 5pm, though my son and husband are usually in around 3/4pm. He is not able to hold his bladder all day and picks various spots in the house to toilet! (Both ways). My husband is getting really fed up with it now and even if someone has let him outside he will come in and if we go out he will toilet in the house!

He also gets up in the middle of the night at least once to go out to the toilet! Occasionally I have ignored him and he has climbed back into bed but most of the time I get up as I dont want him going in the house.

I have just printed out a schedule which i'm going to try over the next few weeks and am just wondering if it is really possible to achieve this with an older dog! I feel bad that he is on his own during the day, he gets walked in the evening (and pees the whole way along the walk lol). Really don't want to have to crate him but im thinking maybe its the only way???

Any suggestions would be VERY welcome!!

Angela

Hi and Welcome to YT!

Older dogs can be housetrained, and re-housetrained. Positive Reinforcement using treats to reward good pottys will help him to understand what you want him to do. Confine him in a small room when you're not at home. Using a Belly Band may help. Good Luck and be persistent!

Anna is living proof! I got my Anna at 6 years old. She was not potty trained, whatsoever, pee pad our outside. Having her on a strict schedule worked for us. The first few days, I wrote down everything she did, eat, drink, pee and poop, when, where, how much. I used that to base her potty schedule on. She only poops twice a day very quickly after eating. So it was easy to train her to do that outside. Although the first few times, I had to sit with her in the yard literally for hours waiting for the magic. She loves praise. I still give her a cheer when she goes potty outside and she still enjoys it. Peeing was a little harder to break. As a matter of fact, if it is raining outside, I can count on an accident.



One thing that really helped was to schedule her food and water also. She eats twice a day and the water goes up at 8 at night. That gives her an hour and a half to play and pee before bedtime. Good luck with your training. It can be done. By the way, I agree that confining him to a small room would be better than crating for that long.

This is excellent advice. Writing down her behavior right before she goes will help you recognize her pre-potty behavior so you catch her signs before she goes. A strict schedule is very important and will really help her come to rely on when she needs to try and hold it and when she knows you are going to let her go potty. Confine her to a single room with a good portion or all of it covered with pads while she's being trained and you can rely on her coming 'round to learning how to hold herself.

It really takes about a year of partial-to-full confinement to fully housebreak a small dog to be totally clean in the house for the rest of its life but taking the time now will pay off in big dividends for the rest of her life.