Hard to potty train!!!!!
 

I have every excuse in the book - why my Yorkie (at 7 months) isn't potty trained very well.

1) Don't we all know that Yorkies (the breed) are especially hard to potty train? Of course, we all know that!

2) I work part time and it is hard to potty train my pup when I can't be home with him all the time.

3) I don't have a fenced yard and can't just let him out every once in a while. I have to stop whatever I'm doing and go out and stay out with him for a while - often!

4) I live alone - I don't have anyone to help me.

5) I'm a night owl and stay up late - so, it's hard for me to get up real early every morning and take him outside.

6) I don't mind taking him outside often - but occasionally, I'm busy doing something else and get distracted and forget to take him out.

7) I don't have much of a schedule for myself - I'm pretty much a free-floating person - so, it's hard for me to follow a schedule for my pets.

8) It's winter. It's cold and dark and wet. I don't want to go outside. I think we'll just try to use puppy pads this week.

9) I keep belly bands on him. He's not ruining my carpet.

10) He's still young. A lot of people don't get their pups trained until they are almost a year old.


Well - these are some of my excuses why we aren't doing very well. And, I have a lot more if anyone needs some.

I've been thinking about this today - and the end result is - I think I'm not doing my part as well as I should. So, I guess I'd better get myself going....


Carol Jean

Poor Carol Jean. I think every one of your excuses is valid. But don't give up. Your life will get infinitely better if you can potty train your pup. Your Yorkie is just getting to the age where he should be able to hold it while you're sleeping. Just be consistent. Watch how he acts around the house, and if he looks like he has to go outside, let him. Praise him if he goes. Treat accidents with a "no" and a trip outside. I don't know what others do, but I put the poop in a napkin and carry it outside in the yard and drop it where I want them to go. Treat successes with praise. I know it seems impossible, but it works.

I can't speak for anyone else but when my sons were babies, there was no room for excuses. Like all babies do, I had to wake up every 4 hours to feed, change diapers, etc. By having my sons, it taught me that there is no excuse when it comes to training babies. Key words are "training" and "Babies". You have to be willing and able to change your schedule while they are babies. Else, IMO they will never be trained.

Puppies are really no different than humans when it comes to training. You have to basically give up your "wants" until they are trained. Max came to me 2 weeks ago. I have altered my life for him until things are on a schedule. I used to stay up and watch Jay Lenno every night. I wouldn't get up until around 8:30 or 9am. Now I am asleep before the 11pm news and up at 5:30am with Max. He sleeps through the night with no accidents.

oh yeah by the way, Max is 16 weeks (4 months) and he hasn't had an accident in 4 days. I am not suggesting that the training is complete. I realize its possible he may have another accident but right now I am very optimistic. All I am saying is, while they are being potty trained, its so important to get on a schedule.

I am a rookie at being a Yorkie mom. I am grateful to the advice I have received on YT. I hope you dont think I'm being insensitive. I know all dogs (like people) learn at different rates. All I was trying to say is, with training Yorkies, (or any baby) you cannot have excuses.

MaxiesMom, I agree with you. I'm a rookie puppy mom too and it's been tough. My whole schedule has been totally altered -- it's built around my 3month Yorkie. I HAVE to to be in bed early (9pm) and wake up early (5am) or the next day means walking around in a sleepy stupor. I HAVE to wake up a couple times a night to walk the puppy. I have never had a baby before, but I have a feeling this is not unlike taking care of a real baby. Taking care of Napoleon has been such a learning experience...

OH BOY..then I guess I should enjoy sleeping in now before Cali comes home..what dooes 5:30 even LOOK like? ;)

I know we got our yorkie way too young. We got Chloe at 6 weeks. I now know why 12 weeks is best. Lacey our last yorkie, we also got at 6 weeks. But, she was a breeze to train. In less than a month, she was 100% trained. She was newspaper trained. I think maybe because we got her from a pet store and she was used to being confined all day long in that tiny cage. Chloe is extremely stubborn in trying to train. We tried crate training. That did not work. She would pee and poop in it. And we were very consistant on taking her out the crate to her puppy pad. She is confined to the laundry room with a baby gate when we are busy and can't supervise her. And she does okay with that. She uses her pad about 95% of the time in there. But, when we let her out for playtime, she refuses to walk back to the laundry room to use her pad. She will just squat wherever. We are almost at our wits end with solution. I know she is still young. She won't be 3 months until the 28th of this month. But, we are wiping up pee and poop constantly.

Yoshi was pad trained almost immediately after I got that puppy spray stuff to tell him where to go. The outdoor training, however, took about til he was 6 months old for him to really catch on. I work full time with no one else in the house, also, so I would keep him in the bathroom with a babygate up and a pad down if he wanted to pee. First he would just go everywhere. Then he started figuring out he got treats and praise when he went outside (I would stand there w/ him for FOREVER). Then one day I came home at lunch (I've done that for a while to check on him) and he just stopped going on the pads and held it. Up until that point, however, at about 4 months it seemed like he didn't have a clue what was goin on.

I also didn't want to put him in belly bands that much because I didn't want him thinking that whenever he didn't have a band on that it was ok to go.

I think the key is consistency and TIME. that part sucks the most. he really really wore me out for a few months, and I had to put him away when I got too tired of constantly following him around (I just wasn't having any time to relax). You/he will eventually get it if you just keep it up.

Wow, Carol Jean, that is a pretty impressive list of excuses!

Here are 2 things I know:

One, he's not going to be potty-trained unless YOU put the time and effort into it. He's not going to do it by himself and it's not likely that someone else is going to do it for you.

Two, only you can decide if it's worth the time and effort. If it's not, screw it - keep belly bands on him.

The choice is yours!

5:30 looks dark, that's what it looks like, trust me :eek:

Thanks you guys!!!!! There is no doubt I need to be more scheduled as far as my potty training goes.

I was hoping though that a lot of you (whose posts I read over and over again) might see a little of me in yourselves.

And training doesn't stop at "potty training" .... most training is a lot of work that we should be doing ourselves -

Carol Jean

Actually, Carol Jean, I think every one of those excuses is a valid one! And I think I have used them all at one time or another. And who the heck cares if your Yorkie is perfectly trained by now, anyway? Just "go with the flow" and enjoy him. If you don't mind cleaning up after him, that's all that counts. He is your yorkie baby, and you do the training that you feel necessary.

Carol Jean I see some of me in those excuses as well. I agree with the quote about who cares if he/she is perfectly trained. Let me tell Georgie does really good with going outside, but one day last week he went #2 in the laundry room :eek: . I have to be honest if my worst problem is my baby having accidents occasionally then I think I am doing okay :D

When I place a puppy, I always tell the new owneD that it takes one day short of forever to get trained by a Yorkie.. I can just imagine a bunch of Yorkies getting together and talking about how hard their humans are to train and wondering out loud about our IQ levels...Can't you just hear them asking "Do you think your boys or your girls are harder to train?" "Have you tried those pee pads?" "How about those Depends?" And so on..

Me again - I am glad that summer is coming and it is getting warmer outside...because my puppy will go readily outside - if he has to. I have another dog - and if that dog pees - my pup will pee also.

If I put him in the laundry room first thing in the morning before he has gone to the bathroom and leave him in there for 10 or 15 minutes - he will use the potty pad. And, when I'm at work and leave him confined in the kitchen, he will use the potty pad.

It's just when he's running around the house - and I'm not watching him that he will pee anywhere he wants (but is wearing a belly band - so no damage is done). So this is the time - I need to be more diligent.

Again - warmer weather will be a real welcome - so that we can go outside more.

Interestingly - his wearing a belly band does not, in itself, keep him from using the potty pad. I have seen him use the potty pad before with the belly band on. And once he got outside with his belly band on and lifted his leg and pee'd on a shrub.

Carol Jean

Since I got Royce I changed my schedule usually I go to sleep very early around 9PM but now I go to sleep around 11 sothat he has plenty of time to play. I also reduced my hours at work( told my boss I need to study for a course related to my job ) but the truth is that I dont want him to be alone more than 6hrs . I used to wake up at 7 am now i wake up at 6 so that royce has one hour to play before i go to work ...so you can always adjust if you want to . forgot to mention that i go out less often at night and most of the time when i go to a restaurant i take him with me :aimeeyork