Potty Training
 

I need advise from all you seasoned Yorkie owners regarding house training. My Lexis has been with us for a little over 3 weeks now. I was keeping her in the crate the breeder gave us but she was just doing her business in there so there was no diffence between in and out of the crate. I then gated off the kitchen, studied her habits and put weewee pads in 3 locations. She is very good about pooping on the paper. She was peeing on the pads pretty well to but over the past couple of days it's been hit or miss. If I take her out of the kitchen I make frequent trips back with her and put her on the pads but she just walks off...and later I'll find her puddle on the floor.

Can anyone offer me some advice? What am I doing wrong?

oooooooh they can be so stubborn! Higgins was really good about peeing on the peepee pads, but has not been good about pooping on 'em. Now he goes peepee outside, and sometimes poops outside, but mostly he just poops all over the house!!!! :mad: And that little bugger KNOWS it's wrong! If we catch him, he turns around, grabs up the poop and runs under my bed with it! Or even runs out the doggie door with it and drops it outside!!! He then won't look at me for an hour. Every time he pees or poops outside, we just praise him to the skies. It's s l o w l y working....ever so s l o w l y. :o

I wish I had an answer for ya!

YorkiesRule ... congratulations on your baby!! We used the "reward" method with Toto from "day 1"! We rarely let her on the ground and therefore trained her to wee wee pads and it works wonderfully! :) If you are in a position to spend lots of time with her, it will go faster. Simply watch her when she goes ... if it's on the pad, praise her and give her a little treat [something that she loves ... we use a small piece of Honeycomb cereal] ... if she goes on the floor ... don't make a big deal of it [certainly don't scold, without a word we would simply pick her up, place her on the pad and say "tee tee here"] She quickly learned that when she went on the pad it "pleased" us and they live to please us!! Before no time she was going on the pad and if we didn't readily see her go ... she comes to us and "announces" that she did a "good thing"! :p We still praise her and give her a treat! We apply the reward method to everything that she does that pleases us and she is always anxious to respond to whatever "word" we apply to her "tricks"!! :cool: Another thing we don't do is raise our voice to her!! It mortifies her and she just "tunes us out"! Patience and repetition was our "key to success"! Everyone has their own method of training ... this particular one happens to work for us! Good luck! ;)

How big is the crate? I think you need a smaller crate, maybe one made for a cat. She shouldn't be peeing in the same place she sleeps.

It's looks rather large even though the breeder said it was the small size. She can have a small pillow in there, space in the middel and food plates on the other side. But if she has extra space why wouldn't she pee in the open space rather than on her little pillow? I'll try blocking it on one side to make it smaller. Thanks for your observation, it's worth a try.

Im kindof having a similar problem...as some of you. Ive had Ollie for 3 weeks now and he knows he should go outside, but sometimes he will go off and hide (or try too) and do his business inside. I praise him and reward him when he goes outside...but we still have inside accidents!!! Im not sure what do do about this...so im just continueing what im doing and hoping his inside business will stop...help?!?!?!?!
Also, what should i do if i have to be gone all day? A couple of times i cant make it home at lunch to let him out and all that stuff...he has his own little room (4ft by 6ft) where he stays in the day and he wont potty in there (9 times out of 10!)...and i leave a TV on...but i feel so bad! Is this ok for him???? He is only 4.5 mos old...any suggestions???

If you can train him to pee in a litter box (with pee pee pad on top of it) that may help. Then when you are gone, put the litter box inside the room in the corner. If he can associate peeing (and or pooping) in there, he will go there instead of peeing in the room. Good luck, and welcome to YorkieTalk! :)

Babies sometimes do make pee pee mistakes, a TV on is good (we leave the Animal Planet on or a classical music radio station). :)

So should i train him to always pee/poop in a litter box...forget the outside stuff??? How do i go about doing this???
Ive tried the potty pads and put them in the corner of his room- but he has no interest in those. I dont want to confuse him though.....

How big is your baby and how big do you think he will get? Since Toto was supposed to actually be about 2.5-3 lbs. we made the decision to train her to wee wee pads [she is actually grown and 4 lbs]. Due to our lifestyle the wee wee pad training is perfect! If you can spend time with him it will probably be easier. Just watch him and when you see him pee on the pad ... praise him and give him a treat [give him a treat he really likes but doesn't get often!]. When he has accidents, don't yell or carry on and scold ... he will just think that you don't like to see him do it and will hide and do it where you won't see him! :) Good luck, welcome to YorkieTalk and keep us posted!

Lots of praise and you could try putting im on the pee pee pad every hour or so if you are with him. Also, at first, you can put a dash of his pee onto the pad, that way he knows the 'scent' and will easier associate it with peeing and where to pee. :)

I just had to let you know that your story about Higgins made me laugh so hard today!! Oh, not laughing at the effort in potty-training, but the part about him grabbing his poop and running under the bed, oh too funny!! These Yorkies are smart, too smart for their own good I think sometimes, ha ha!! I think that is why God made them so cute because even when they do stunts like your Higgins, we still love them to pieces!! My Schatzie is almost 5 months, STILL working on potty training. We've had her for a little over a month. They say it's tough with these breeds so I will be patient. Good luck!! :)