My yorkie Rebus is 6 months and not toilet trained
 

My yorkie goes out regularly but will still pee and poo inside, today I discovered he pooped on the couch on top of a blanket that my other dog would normally sleep on.

I'm curious what age should he be understanding that the toilet is outside.

I would be interested in this info, as well. Mine is 11 months old and hasn't mastered potty training at all.

Well, to put it lightly, he's a dog. Unfortunately, you need to train him or he won't miraculously 'get' it. If he is given free-reign to go onto your couch without your supervision and he's pooping on it, that's a BIG sign he shouldn't be on the couch and shouldn't be roaming without your supervision. At 6 months he's still learning, but doesn't know it's 'bad'. Humans know it's bad to pee and poop on a couch, dogs don't :p

You'll have to start from scratch. Restrict the areas he's allowed to go to and limit him to one small area when you're not watching him. If your eyes are not on him, back to the small area he goes! When you're not home, either crate him or put him in a x-pen. All these should be incorporated into potty training.

Note that with using a crate or x-pen (which is very helpful for potty training), you'll want to look into crate training (so that they learn that the crate is a good thing) and separation anxiety training (so they learn to be calm and relaxed when you're away and they're alone in their small space). A calm and relaxed dog is a happy dog!

The best training you can provide is to reward and celebrate when he potties where he should (outdoors or on pee pads, depending on which route you wanna go) and prevent at all times any possibilities of accidents. In other words, teach them what's good and avoid the bad. This applies to anything you teach them (aka positive reinforcement). If they never have accidents and only pee and poop where they should and get good feedback from you, they'll learn in no time that that's 'good boy' behaviour.

But it's up to you, to make sure they don't have accidents in order for them to learn. And to do that, you need to restrict their space, set up a regular potty schedule, set up a regular feeding schedule, and have eyes on them at all times when they're not in their small space. With time, when you're playing with them supervised, and there's no accidents, you can slowly give them more space (i.e. first a small room, then add the adjacent room, then add the adjacent room - this should span over weeks, not days). Again, do it gradual so you prevent accidents.

There are many many guides to teach you how to potty train your dog. My favourite was by the late Dr Sophia Yin. Free Puppy Potty Training Guide Her guide taught me to teach my Scottie that he needs to earn his space within my home.

Otherwise, on YT, http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...ebreaking.html is an excellent starting point.

So.. it's not really based on age. I guess it's based on your time and effort in consistent training. Sorry to let you know it's actually a lot of work. But if you decided to get a puppy, hopefully you knew in advance you'd have to put in a lot of work. The good news is, it's soooooo worth it!! :D