please help before my husband gets rid of our dog

[mymaddiegirl]

Maddie turned a year old yesterday and still not potty -trained. We are using the pads and i keep her in a pen during the day where she can run around. She has her bed, food/water, wee-wee pad and toys and room to play. Is this wrong, b/c she still will have accidents off the pad. And the moment she gets out of the house, she wil have an accident and NOW- is going on ym couch. She recently started going on our bed as well and my husband lost it. he is completely fed up with the accidents as am i- and we are so desperate.
we tried the outside training but it was not working AT ALL.

we at work during the day and as i sadi i keep her in the pen and i also used to keep her baby- gated in a room- but she was still having accidents every now and again-

can someone further explain crate-training..is it too late? i seriously cry everyday and love my dog adn do not want to get rid of her- but it is ruing my marriage and home.

please help.

thank you

[ARCHIE]

I am so sorry you are having such trouble training. I have heard that Yorkies are, at times, very hard to train. However, I did not have a problem. It takes patience and very hard work. I did crate train, my first time in doing it and had great results. I know nothing about pad training. My dogs are trained to go outside only! First, I would monitor the water intake. Take your pup out first thing in the am. Same time every day. Feed him and give water. Play with your pup for awhile and return to create. Take out again about 45 mins later. Make a schedule. It must be the same time every day. When he goes give a reward. I used a tiny piece of liverwurst, recommened by trainer, and used it ONLY for outdoor potty. Return to create. No water in crate. I went home at lunch time to walk him and give water then back to crate until I came home at 5:30. I took him out immediately and then feed him and out again. Left him run around at night for awhile and back in crate then out again and lights our until morning. Out immediately. He was trained at 5mos. He has an iron clad bladder and can hold it for up to 9hrs. After being trained I trained him to have full run of the house. It also took time and many corners of rugs later but now it is great. You need lots of patience and endurance! Good luck.

[jjl720]

I see you are in NY. You must not be in CNY!!! I have had my puppy for 4 weeks and he was littered trained by breeder. I decided to outdoor train him and use a crate because that is how I've trained all my pups. My Max is 2 lbs 6 oz. at 6 months of age. I take him out now because the weather is good , but also use the litter pan as emergency measure. Where do you live in NY because I am from Syracuse and will be getting tons of snow which will make it impossible for him to go outside. THought I might continue outside when possible and pan when not, then totally outside in spring. Hope I don't confuse him.

[TLC]

Please don't give up. I also had a long and hard training with lots of step BACK. Roxy and TJ would do sooooooooo good and then 'someone' would pee in random places - EVERYDAY!!! Also, there was about a two week period where TJ would PEE in our bed every other night (in the middle of the night). I have NO IDEA what going on with them!! It was crazy, I was going to loose my mind and my DH would be soooooooooo mad too!

I use the dog litter box with wee wee pads inside them. I POSTIVIE PRAISE sooooooo much when the pee and poop in the 'box' and then I ALWAYS give a small POTTY TREAT for extra renforcement. Knock on wood, b/c they have been good for a while now...although, 'someone' is still peeing on the towel that is inside their crate. Oh, they have free run (downstairs) I have their toys and crate (for cage matches ) in the living room for their whenever use. Now I don't put any towel or blanket in their crate (no more cage matches for them) b/c 'someone' keeps peeing in their. Roxy will be 2 on 11/24 and TJ will be 2 on 1/31.

You can PM anytime. I also live on Long Island - Brookhaven. I work in Melville

[Peters]

get her a diaper to wear when inside

[Magneticgal]

I tried the litter training for almost 1 yr and finally gave up!! I started a few months ago outdoor training Lexie (and yes- it is a HUGE pain in awful weather- I am dreading winter!) BUT she is doing 100% better! (thank God!) You may want to try to switch her. The important thing is to be consistant with whatever method you choose and realize that it won't happen overnight. With the outdoor training, I kept her in a crate whenever I couldn't watch her and took her out very frequently. We are far from perfect, but every day is so much better than the last!!

[sweetr72]

Wow this must be very hard on you. I dont really think I can help you out much. Darla and Sadie are totally housebroken, Sadie is 4 and Darla is now just over 7 months old. I never crated either of them.

We just moved last weekend and Reece has been peeing and pooping everywhere exept the pee pad...Darla was having accidents for a day or two but it stopped.

I decided to crate Reece..I dont leave a pee pad in there with him at all, only his bed and his snuggle puppy for comfort. He goes in at 11pm all on his own and I shut the door when I go to bed. When I wake up in the morning he waits patiently to go out BUT he takes much longer to do his business than the girls do for some reason...so my suggestion for you is maybe you need to take her outside LONGER to make sure she is done?

I also put the water and food up at 6pm...I take them out hourly because I am home...and Reece choses his crate to nap in with the door open during the day.

Has your dog been checked for any bladder issues??

Good luck finding your answers so you dont have to lose your baby..

Dawn

[River]

I really fretted about how long it took Indy to housebreak. All my other dogs were trained and trustworthy by 6months, but not Indy. It took over a year to get him to the point where he is pretty good now. He will be 2 in Feb and it was only during this past summer that it finally seemed to click with him. I also use the crate, but he now has a little more freedom than he did. He does sleep with us but has never had a problem on our bed, but he wasn't allowed in our bed until he was consistent about going potty outside. The key is like the others said, BE CONSISTENT! No matter what, make sure you keep the schedule the same and he knows what's coming next. I thought I would lose my mind with Indy too, but it did finally sink in. There were many times when I just wanted to give up, but I would make myself keep consistent and it did finally pay off.

[MyTrixie143]

If I were you I would crate train her. The only time you should keep her in her playpen is when you are gone for awhile and she can't hold it the entire time. If you keep her in the pen during the day when you are there, she will never learn to be pad trained. Just because she goes on the pad in her pen does not mean that she is pad trained and she will have accidents every time you take her out of the pen. I had to learn this the hard way with one of my dogs.

Start by taking her out of her crate and placing her on the pad. Tell her to "go potty" or similar command. Don't let her get off the pad or wander around until she goes on the pad. Give her 10, 15 minutes being the most time you give her to go potty. If she does not go potty by this time put her back in the crate. Try again in 15 minutes. Keep repeating this until she finally goes on the pad. Once she goes on the pad praise her big time and give her a treat. As an added bonus to seal the deal, she now gets to be out of the crate for some play time. Once they pick up on that they have to go potty before they are allowed out, training will go much faster and be easier.
Note: first thing in the morning you might want to place her on the pad to avoid an accident because she has to go so bad. During the day, you can lead her to the pad, this will teach her to go their own her own rather than having an accident because she didn't have you to take her there. Always keep the pad in one place, that way she will learn where to go.

Keep track of her bathroom habits, this may take a couple days to figure out. Figure out how many times a day she goes potty, out of that how many times she is going pee and how many times she is pooping, and how many hours go by before she has to go again. This will help you out alot as you will know how often to take her to the pad and what she should be doing each time, peeing and pooping or just peeing.

Remember to be patient and consistent, she will get the hang of it, it just takes time.

Good luck with her training!!!

[doortego]

Just wanted to wish you good luck. I know how upset you must be.

[FirstYorkie]

Whether or not you put her in a crate, when she is out of it or her pen, I would keep her tethered to you. Put a leash on her and then loop it around your belt.

This way, you two will learn to communicate better. You will be better able to pick up on her signals that she has to go and can hurry her to the appropriate place. When she does it right, have a party! Give her a treat and lots of excited praise in a little girl voice. When she gets it wrong and you catch it later, just quietly clean it up.

Until she is fully trained, do NOT let her have the run of the house. You are asking for trouble. Keep her contained where clean up is easy.

[luvmybabies]

Originally Posted by Peters

get her a diaper to wear when inside

If all else fails I agree to get her some diapers. At least it will keep your husband from wanting to get rid of her until you can get it resolved. They are not the easiest breed to potty train.
You might tell your husband...surely he would not give up a human baby at 1 year old because he or she was not potty trained! When you took the responsibility of this furbaby they deserve the same exact chance as a human baby <IMO>.

[mizzwanned]

I suggest to get her diapers also so that she does not pee on all the furniture and your hubby won't get mad. Then keep trying to crate train her. It should work. My other dog we got when he was 1 and was not paper trained and he did learn it. Good luck

[mymaddiegirl]

thanks for all your help....i am trying to confine her to her pen and monitoring all food/water intake. i hope it will work.

"You might tell your husband...surely he would not give up a human baby at 1 year old because he or she was not potty trained! When you took the responsibility of this furbaby they deserve the same exact chance as a human baby "
i tell him this ALL the time- trust me- i agree!!!!!

i will keep everyone updated- so far- she has peed twice on my FLOOR in her pen and i didnt say anything- but praise the heck out of going on the pads and are trying to also walk as much as possible.

[P-did]

A couple of ideas I haven't seen anyone mentioned yet:

- spray vinegar (mixed with water in a spray bottle) on spots where she has accidents. The puppy will never go on that spot again. I did this (sprayed pet deodorizing spray followed by a vinegar/water spray) in her pen so that the only place that smelled good to for peeing was her litter box.

- use some kind of pan or litter box instead of the pads. Countless people have had trouble with pads, and that is because the puppy often sees the pad and the carpet as the same medium; it looks too similiar. But a litter box or pan looks competely different, and therefore, will recude the chance of confusion.

- IMO, crate training should only be used by people who are home enough to take the dog out of the crate every hour or so. In any other situation, it's animal cruelty and simply should not be tried. Keeping a puppy in a crate for more than 2 hours just isn't right (unless it's sleeping at night), they have too much energy that needs to be released. My 15 week old puppy always uses the litter box when she's in her pen. And she gives clear signals when she needs to go (like suddenly stop playing and just sniffing the floor non-stop), so we put her in the pen and she now goes right away most of the time. She knows peeing in the litter box gets her out of the pen. The only time she seems to have accidents is when a new person visits and she gets so excited she leaks.

And please have your husband read this:
http://www.crean.com/jimwillis/hcy.html
before giving away the dog.