11 month old in 2nd home, housebreaking issues Five weeks ago we adopted our Yorkie from a household which was feeling overwhelmed by the financial and social needs of four dogs. We were told he was completely housebroken and "bell trained" but not surprisingly neither were so. So, to his credit our little guy has in the last five weeks only had one pee accident in the house. However he has had an average of one poop in the house every four or so days. He likes to poop on walks (which is something new to him) and clearly learned at his former home to hide his pooping because he runs to the basement or upper floor to go. Yesterday I blocked both stairs with baby gates. Today we discovered a poop in the ground floor den. And yes, I clean all accidents with Natures Miracle enzyme cleaner. I've even seen him run out to pee, come in the house, and ten minutes later go poop on a walk. I take him out at least once an hour. I'm not sure why he is so good about peeing outdoors but not pooping. Any suggestions much appreciated. If we don't get this resolved soon we might attempt litter box training, but we would rather not. |
Welcome to Yorkie Talk and thank you for giving this boy a loving home. Limiting his roaming space in your house until he has the potty training thing straight is very good. You may want to limit him to one room where you can supervise and then gradually increase. Great job on the frequent outings and walks. When he poops on your walks, does he seem shy about it, turn his back to you? My younger boy was very shy about pooping in front of us. Shyness might have a little to do with why he is doing it indoors. Or the feeling of safety because squatting to poop is a vulnerable position. Bring little treats (can be a single piece of kibble) on your walks. When he poops, praise like crazy and give him a treat. Make a really big deal about it. At 5 weeks, he is still settling in. Keep up the great work and things should fall into place as he gets more comfortable. His body will likely develop a rhythm and pooping time will become more predictable, able to time it to walks and outings. Age helps with that too. |
Thank you for the guidance. We have been treating and praising, and will continue to do so. Here are my latest thoughts based on his behavior -- it seems he needs a little bit of time to poop. I've never seen him go out and poop right away, as I mentioned outside poops are typically occur on a walk. I suspect that at his previous home he was banished to the outdoors for extended periods of time. Of course this was over the summer months, and he had other dogs to play with. When we got him he was very reluctant to go outdoors -- we suspect because he hates getting stuck outside, but then again just a guess. Over the last several weeks he has progressed to wanting to go out, but not for long unless 1) There are squirrels which need attention, or 2) We go out with him. We are vigilant to let him back in when he wants to come in to overcome what we perceive to be his fear of being left outside for long period. After sending him out to pee this morning he came right back inside. I then went out and walk around the yard and he was happy to follow, and pooped in short order (immense praise and treat given). So what it _seems_ we are dealing with is he hates to be apart from us long enough to go poop. |
Is it a possibility he was potty pad trained? It's a disposable pad/sheet. Maybe while working to get him to go outside per Maximo's recommendation, offer him a pad inside as an alternative?????? Our pom came potty pad trained, he'll pee outside all day long, but like your pup, he poops inside 97% of the time. |
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