Potty Training----Please help!
 

I recentily bought a Yorkie..Kayla. She will be 4 months on the 26th and weighs 2.5 lbs. We are having a hard time potty training her. What is the best way to do it? Keep her in her crate all the time? Take her out how often? I take her to work with me therefore I am with her 24/7. We have had her for 2 weeks now. I have puupy pads for her crate but I would love for her to start going outside all the time. She is not trained the the pads yet either. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!!! I don't want to have to buy anything but puppy pads if that.


BTW---I am Alaina. I will post piucs of us in a few days. I have been browsing her for a few days now. It seems like a neat place.:)

If you are with your puppy all the time, you just have to remember to take her out OFTEN. First thing in the morning, about 10 minutes after every meal, or drink, and usually about every 2 hours throughout the day. To help, you can try getting her on a feeding schedule, if she's 4 months, you are probably feeding her 3x a day- this will help with housebreaking... Schatzie is 11 and 1/2 weeks old and she has few accidents, usually at night when I'm busy making dinner or something and forget to take her out (it's MY fault!)...otherwise she is great about going outside-

The crate should be for sleeping, transporting, and keeping her safe if you're out and can't take her with you, IMO. You say you want want her to be trained outside, then don't use the pee pads, she will be confused and end up going everywhere.

Some people think it's a good idea to crate train, meaning keeping the puppy in the crate and letting it out for eating, playtime and bathroom only, the theory being that a dog won't soil where it sleeps, etc. but I don't do this.

What has worked best for me with my dogs, is to keep them in a gated off area (like a kitchen) with their toys, food/water bowls and their crate with a blanket (door open so they can go in and out...) and taking them out to go potty ALL THE TIME. I say to them, "go potty" over and over, and when they do, I praise them like crazy. Also, for night time, I cut off their water 2 hours before their bedtime, take them out for one last potty break to help reduce the chance of an overnight accident. I put them in their crates for the night and I have NEVER had a nighttime accident with them. I hope this helps, don't worry, she'll get the hang of it!!

The purpose of the crate is to create a den for the dog. Dogs naturally want to be in a den where they are warm and secure. They also don't want to soil their den. So, by using a pee pad in the crate you are defeating the purpose of the crate, the dog's natural desire not to soil his den. Like the others have said, if you are with the little one all of the time, take it outside of the crate to pee on a pad or outside on a rigid schedule.

I had touble potty training as well. A friend of mine has a yorkie and told me hers was litter box trained and I laughed and told her my puppy was not smart enough to do that. She brought over a yorkie litter box and dog litter from pet smart . Sprayed a little teetee spray where she wanted him to go and from then on we use the litter box. I no longer have to go outside when it rains. Most of the time, he refused to go and came back inside to do his buisness. I no longer buy the expensive dog litter from pet smart, I slowly transitioned cat litter (cheaper and easier to find) (pet smart 2 hrs away). I clean out daily. I did confine him to a small area to start. good luck.

I love the litter box theory. I want to try that. My Dogs are pee pad trained then we move to outside.