Owen is a go"in".

[wolfman]

Owen is my daughter's 8 month old intact male yorkie. He may be "going" to my house because my daughter can no longer care for him. He spends most of his day in a small corner of her kitchen because he never quite got the hang of the pee pee pad thing. He pees and poops on the pad, then tears it to shreads then pees and poops where ever he wants. If he is let loose from that corner the whole house if fair game to him. There is very little interaction or physical contact and he cries and whines all day long. Why do I want to take this dog you ask yourself?? Well I'm a sucker for rescues. I have a 6 yr. old rescue greyhound and a 4 yr. old rescue maltese. I also have a bought from a breeder 1 and one half yr. old golden retriever and a 13 year old shepard/beagle mix. I have just purchased a new home where my husband and I and my fur kids live on second floor in a newly constructed inlaw appartment(my son and his family live on first floor) so if...if...if I take Owen house training him to outside will be quite a challange living on second floor. I am putting down tile floors through out the house to accomidate my other dogs but I fear that if Owen has a pee pee fest in the house my other dogs might think its ok to mess the house too. Can well housetrained dogs get untrained??? Owen is such a cutie patootie but I don't want to go borrowing trouble. My daughter can't put him to rescue or in the paper for sale because her 9 year old son(my grandson) would be broken hearted. Atleast if I take him my grand son can still see him. I belong to breed related forums for my other babies and I was sooo happy to find Yorkie Talk. Sorry this was so long. Look forward to your replies.

[bettyeanne]

Wolfman ... I believe that Owen's biggest problem is "He spends most of his day in a small corner of her kitchen"!! These babies are the most loving little creatures you will ever encounter!! They "require" lots and lots of TLC. One of the things our breeder told us was that they are "velcro" dogs ... we can certainly attest to that as our Toto is spoiled rotten and wants to be held all the time if we are sitting down!! We have lots of time for her and I even take her with me when I am doing research in courthouses ... so far every single one has welcomed her with open arms!! She is the sweetest little baby and we just adore her! We haven't had experience with potty training a little boy but our little girl was relatively easy. Because she is so small [4 lbs] and to suit our lifestyle, we chose to train to the wee wee pad and it has worked beautifully! She is 13 months now and very seldom ever, ever has an accident! Owen possibly chews up his pad out of boredom? Make sure that he has several things to chew on [we use Nylabones] and any time you see him chewing on something he isn't supposed to, simply hand him something he IS supposed to chew on. Since you will be living on the second floor ... if I were you and could spend time supervising him, when he goes on the pad, praise him and give him a little treat [we use little pieces of Honeycomb cereal]! We never ever scold Toto ... we just give her lots of attention and lots of praise! They are absolutely "wild" to please you!! When we would catch Toto going on the floor, we simply [without a word] placed her on the pad and said "tee tee here". When she would go on the pad, we carried on like fools saying "Good girl, tee tee!" and gave her a treat. Before long she would go to her pad and if we didn't notice she had used it she would find us ... sit up and "tell" us!! I do hope you will be able to take Owen home with you ... sounds like he really needs attention and lots of cuddling! Welcome to the forum and please keep us updated on how he is doing!!

[fasteddie]

Yes, give her a lot of attention. She is probably scared and used to being alone so much she fears everything. Take her places, praise her, talk to her, just 'socialize' with her as much as possible. Then start from there... good luck! Just some TLC will help!

[Higgin's Mom]

I absolutely agree with Bettyeanne that the problem is her confinement to the corner! She needs companionship and ACTION! When Higgins was a baby, he used the pee pads for several months. In fact, if we are leaving him at home when we go out for longer than a couple of hours, I put a pee pad down for him. Our old dog Pogo has NEVER used the pea pad. And Higgins has only chewed up the pea pad once.....not sure why.....

TOYS! Yorkies need LOTS of toys! My house looks like it has a two year old child living in it! Toys everywhere! We have a toy basket in the house and both dogs love to go through it looking for that special toy. There is also a little toybox in our camper they love to go through. Both dogs LOVE new toys and we are forever buying them! Right now the "Heave a Beaver" is a favorite." And when Higgins doesn't have enough toys INSIDE, he brings more toys -- sticks and stones and leaves and bark and whatever -- from the OUTSIDE into the house! Our house looks messy most of the time.....but we sure have a happy Yorkie.

One thing we noticed this week: Higgins wants our attention ALL the time. He mostly got it when we were camping last week and relaxing and playing with him most of the time. Now we are home and we have things to do and he goes from one to the other complaining.......We take lots of time with him, but have started to tell him that "Now you have to play by yourself for awhile" and he does......

I think that Owen will do well with company from your other dogs and a more relaxed environment with someone who cares......Keep us posted!

[max's mom]

You must be a good person .....there is a special place for people who rescue pets who need a new home.....I hope all the good suggestions will help you with little Mr Owen......As you know, Yorkies are very very people oriented...especially their people.

Max's Mom

[wolfman]

Thank you all for your replies. I plan to take a week's vacation in early November so I'll have plenty of time to spend with Owen . I plan to take him for a weekend or two before then to see how my other fur kids will react to him . In the past, as my dogs have come into my life, my husband has always just looked up to heaven with a sigh as if to say,"O.K., whatever makes you happy." but this time ..HE.. wants Owen for his dog. Go figure! I'll keep you posted on our progress and I'll be visiting this forum to learn as much as I can about the breed . P.S. I signed on as wolfman because my daughter says that Owen is so nutty that he needs a lobotomy so she calls him Lobo which is spanish for wolf..isn"t it?? Well anyway My golden Dudley is my Dudley Man, my maltese Max is my little man and Owen will be my little wolfman. See, he fits right in already! Thanks again

[Higgin's Mom]

What is it about Yorkies that appeals so much to MEN??

My Don has often announced to one and all that he does not like dogs. He has never owned a puppy in his life. He and his wife Jean once took in a stray Dachshund, but that is the only dog they ever owned. Jean was a cat person and they had lots of cats over the years, until her death in 1996. When Don fell in love with me, I came with Pogo! And Pogo went to work on Don so that eventually, they became good buddies.

However, Don always said "When Pogo dies, there will be no more dogs, because I really don't like dogs all that much." Yeah well....I won't live life without a dog! So I went to work lobbying for a puppy for Pogo to mentor before he got too old. Don finally caved, but said that the puppy HAD TO BE a Yorkshire! He bought Higgins for ME for an anniversary/birthday present.

BUT guess what? Higgins has become HIS dog! They are inseparable. Don is a blithering fool over the little guy! It has been as much fun watching DON as it has been watching Higgins! And the other day, Don came up and gave me a big hug and said "Thank you sooooo much for bringing Higgins into my life!"

An observation: The more confident and truly MALE the man, the smaller his dog! It is men with underlying poor self esteem and phony swagger that want to own the Pitbulls and Rottweilers. This is just a generalization, but take a look.......hmmmm?

[fasteddie]

Heheh, I call my Yoda little Wolfie all the time. Especially when he shows a little teeth, with that teeth and the furry face, little Wolfie gets me to smile every time.

Men like Yorkies so much cuz they are cute and smart. As are the women that love Yorkies... The cute helps, but the smart really gets them. And Yorkies are very loyal too.

[YorkiesRule]

It's me again! I feel like a pest and a failure all at the same time . We've had our puppy for 1 month now and the vet has told me that I really need to get her house broken. He says to use the crate method so I pulled her crate out of the basement. His instructions were to take her out every couple of hours to the wee wee pad and then return her to the crate. Take her out before eating and put her on pads and again before returning her to crate after a meal. We can take her out to play with her for a short period but to try and avoid letting her run around. She finally just stopped crying about being in the crate for about 1/2 hour (probably a soar throat). She can see me wherever I am so it's just a matter of not liking the confinement in her 'puppy penitentiary'. I hope I have the strength for this because she is just wetting and pooping all over the gated area but it kills me when she cries. Is this normal? Am I doing this crate training method properly?

[Higgin's Mom]

That's nuts! You and your poor puppy need to be together more and she needs not to feel that the crate is a penitentiary. The fact is, housebreaking a puppy, particularly terriers, takes a loooooooong time. Higgins is 8 months old and he isn't fully trained yet. Know what we are doing about it? Not much. We see that he is taken outside regularly. This isn't too hard for us because we are retired and in and out of the house regularly in good weather.
When we see him go outside, we praise him to the skies. And when he goes inside, we don't scream and yell at him, but we very sternly take him to the door and tell him to pee/poop OUTside. Very gradually he has learned to do 99% of his peeing outside. And his pooping inside is getting v-e-r-y slowly better. He'll get it eventually.

And carpet cleaners take care of the rest.

When you accept Yorkie parenthood, you accept messes. They just aren't cute ALL the time.

By all means, put her in the crate when you must leave the house, and perhaps at night. But when you are home, let her out! Just keep taking her to her pee pads or outside and praise her when she does it where she's supposed to. They are smart. She will learn. But they are also easily distracted, willful, and forgetful, so give her time. Lots of time.

Now take a few big deep breaths and smile and go let her out of "jail" and give her a big hug! She is probably very confused by all the fuss and needs some lovin' on!

Just my two cents, but I disagree with that vet.

[fasteddie]

Yup, we sort of 'punished' Yoda by putting him up on a desk (he doesn't like it usually) and left him there for a bit if he made a mistake in the house. It takes many, many months for him to be house trained... You can also try the bell method (by putting a bell or ringer near the door) and get her to associate the bell with going to the bathroom! Good luck!

[Maddie-Rudy-Mom]

It is so true about men loving yorkies, I worked with a couple of them that had them and they loved them to death. This summer I went to Sutherlands with mom to get some mulch and took my two. While waiting for them to load our mulch and older man came up to me and just went crazy over my two. He picked up Maddie and just hugged and kissed her, he had an older yorkie at home that was the love of his life. I had tears in my eyes as he talked about his furbaby, it was so sweet. He said he didn't know how he would go on without her when she was gone. He was a big man, I could see him sitting in his chair with his little furbaby in his lap. When I think about him and his yorkie it still puts a smile on my face. ..................Cindy

[YorkiesRule]

Thank you all for your words of encouragement. At least now I know I'm not doing anything wrong. The crate has to go. I can't stand to pen her up like that. I've also found (for anyone else that's new to this out there) that since I started to put her in the crate 2 days ago, she misses the pads constantly. She's clever and I'm sure that's not by accident. At least it's comforting to know it's just the breed and they do take a long time to train. It's better than feeling mean and inept. Thanks all!

[Higgin's Mom]

BIG, BIG HUGS for you and your little one! You two have fun together! And she'll get it eventually.