housebreaking help - YorkieTalk.com Forums

jjl720 · 10-08-2006, 02:46 AM

I apologize for the length of this, but am frustrated. I have owned my 5 month old Max for 1 month. The breeder told me he was littter pan trained. The first week he went everywhere but the litter and went in his crate at night. This is the first puppy that I've ever had trouble training. THe vet told me to buy a larger enough crate for the pan, his bed, and food. At the same time I decided to train him to the outside even though I live in an area with significant snowfall. As soon as I started him outside(he did well the first week) he started using the litter pan with 100% accuracy. Now he is still 100% with the pan, but will go outside and pee and poop, and then come in and pee in the pan again. He'll pee 3 times in an hour and a half. First, I am taking him to the vet to see if he has a UTI. My question...how do I get him out of the pan and outside 100% of the time. I can't yell at him for using his pan since that is what is was trained to do. I thought I could deal with the litterpan situation, but don't know. I have a 6500 sq ft house and don't want pans and the smell throughout. Will he ever be able to run to only one or two pans in the house? He is very tiny(2 lbs 9 oz. with a full weight to be about 3 lbs.) I don't want to risk kenneling him for vacations but it also makes it hard to travel to relatives. I don't want him messing their houses if he can't relieve himself outside. He still has not been able to hold it in overnight more than a couple of times. He is never in the crate more than 5 hours. I am afraid to put him in a smaller crate. I don't want to regress to him messing his bed. I know he is probably getting mixed signals for where to go, but winter is coming. Can I train him to go in his litter in the garage on bad days and outside on good? Should I learn to live with litter pans? He's a wonderful little companion, but I want him to be accepted everywhere I go, so his potty habits need to change. Sorry I hope you didn't fall asleep reading this l..o..n..g.. post. Thanks

Erin · 10-08-2006, 04:42 AM

If you want to train him to go outside and you want to crate train him you cannot put the pan in the crate. Crates are NOT for pottying.

He will eventually sleep through the night. Loki needed a 2am potty break until he was at least 8 months old. Totally normal. You'll get into the routine of it and he will go back to sleep. Even let Loki out at his normal time this morning 6:30 and he is snuggled back in with me now. You may have to predict these nighttime breaks until he is mature enough to tell you he needs to go.

As far as the pan - I would just move it outside. Then teach him to ring a bell or whatever so you can take him out. Probably the breeder had him trained but then in a new house he got all confused so you might as well just switch to whatever you want him to do. You've only had him a month. You can expect a few accidents but it WILL get better. If he's holding it 5 hours in the crate you'll be able to housetrain him. Loki never gets left more than 5 hours even now (he's almost 2) and he is outside trained. We never did pads or litter and yes there were a lot of accidents but that improved for while and then stopped as he got old enough to hold it.

jjl720 · 10-08-2006, 05:05 AM

Thanks...I agree with you about the pan in the crate. I am afraid I just like knowing that he uses the pan 100%. There are no messes in my kitchen and mudroom now. I am giving him a little more area at a time with results. I just don't want a cat.! I am torn between no messes in my house and the fact that he is not learning bladder control with the pan.

Erin · 10-08-2006, 05:24 AM

The messes are temporary. The pan could be forever...

And just FYI Loki does fantastic at other people's houses. He goes and sits by the door wherever we go, even without his bells. A door is a door..

jjl720 · 10-09-2006, 03:47 AM

what about a combination of both during the winter. Will he consider the garage outside? I've heard some people put a pan in the garage during the bad weather. We are from central new york and live in the snow belt. There is no way he can get through the snow. I took the pan out and will try again. I really prefer the outside, but he will be small-about 3 lbs. and I will have to make concessions for his health and safety. Both my husband and I grew up in Chicago.

romeos mommy · 10-09-2006, 04:42 AM

my male yorkie goes on pee pads and outside. it's a good combo. a had to borrow another male yorkie to teach him to go outside. they are pack animals and like to duplicate behavior. he only uses the pee pad when the weather is bad. he doesn't like to get wet or cold in the rain / snow.

pixels · 10-09-2006, 05:23 AM

I'm not expert but I have a laundry room I added a baby gate to and put a nice large fleece dog bed in for Molly. She will not go in her area at all. Then as soon as I'm home we let her outside and she goes. Sometimes it takes them awhile to do a #2 but lot's of love and patience.

At night I have a small carrying crate (used for a cat at one time) that is perfect for her to sleep in that I keep next to my bed. Once she is in there I don't hear a peep out of her until the next morning. When we get up we take her outside right away to do her thing. So far this is working for us. Plus I try and take her out every two hours.

I don't use pee pads since she only wants to tear them up. She is such a tomboy! I'm glad this is working for us. Once in a great while we may have an accident because two hours has went by and I have forgotten to take her out.

You need to find a schedule and stick to it. Now when winter comes I don't know what to do because Molly is only 6 months. We will work through it though.

Good luck on your training.

Piccolo's mom · 10-09-2006, 08:14 AM

Piccolo goes on the pee pads but I want them in the batroom. He won't use them there. Right now they are outside the batroom. I keep moving them a few inches towards the door but he moves them back.
What can I do to make him go where I want ?

Bnot · 10-09-2006, 05:07 PM

I've had to tape Venus's pee pads to the floor to keep her from moving them!

And since she uses them in the kitchen, I need to get her "livingroom trained" now. I have carpet in there, and I heard it will be harder to train than on lenolium. I hope pee pads will tape to carpet, lol.

gramgram · 10-09-2006, 05:49 PM

I think I have seen pee pads with tape on them already. Kinda pricey. Our Maggie is just 4 months old today and is using pee pads and going outside. I hear that winter is no fun for little Yorkies!

jjl720 · 10-10-2006, 01:57 AM

My Max uses a litter pan 100% of the time inside the kitchen(if I don't get him outside) Hasn't had an accident in the 3 weeks that I've had him. I'm also taking him outside every 1-2 hours(which I prefer). I'm worried that when I give him more space in the house he will get confused and wonder where to go-in or out. Also, he's 5 months old and how can he learn bladder control if he has a pan readily available. My goal is to have him outside trained and use the pan in the garage in really bad weather. Can he learn both?

Friley · 10-10-2006, 06:41 AM

I think he can learn both methods. The trainer we, my husband and I, talked to about housebreaking said you should pick one spot in the house with pee pads (or outside) and use that spot every time. Once the puppy/dog makes it to this spot without accidents for 6 months you can then try teaching the dog to use another spot whether its outside or another room in the house. The 6 months seems like a long time but I noticed that when we did both outside/pee pads at the same time Baloo, our puppy, was very confused, one minute he would race to the door and the next he'd run around the apartment looking for a corner to go in! It was funny the first time watching him run from room to room, we didn't understand what he was doing, and then we found the mess

. We've picked the pee-pad method because of work and how neither of us can really make it home every 2 hours to let him out. I hope this helped some

TamTam · 10-10-2006, 07:43 AM

I feel your pain! Our Teddy is approaching five months now, and he was a rascal to train with pee pads. One day he'd use them, another day you'd set him on the pad again and again and again and he would either make a run for it or lay down like "What next, Mom?" Anyway, we abandoned the pee pads for a while and were getting him to potty outside (it was summer) and giving him lots of treats and "good boys." But as soon as we got nasty weather, cold mornings, or rain, it was heartbreaking to have to make him go outside and get wet and shivery just to potty.

Then we got big plastic 2'x2' trays and lined them with pee pads to give him an indoor bathroom. No good. We suspect the pee pads felt like carpet ...? So then we tried newspaper. And we would wait and wait for him to pee on the paper in the tray so we could praise and treat him, and he would just look at you with huge pained eyes saying "take me outside!" He just wouldn't go potty with someone standing right there (most likely because he thought he would get in trouble.)

THEN I had the bright idea to put a pen around the tray and enclose him in it until he went. This took 20 minutes the first time, but after he did it we praised him to high heaven and gave him several treats and lots of cuddles, and before too long it would take him less than a minute to potty after being placed in the tray/pen.

From there we have opened the pen up so he can go in on his own, and now he will go and potty all on his own! He does still have accidents occasionally ... just last night I watched him squat and pee five inches outside the tray, all four paws on carpet (d'oh!) but for the most part he does well. This should only improve in time, and living in Minnesota I'm thankful he got the hang of this in September!

Hope I didn't bore you with Teddy details, but perhaps it may help someone else. I think yorkies are truly good-hearted little dogs who just want to please you, but it can take effort to show them how. Good luck on your potty woes!

Zena's Mom · 11-22-2006, 08:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjl720

I apologize for the length of this, but am frustrated. I have owned my 5 month old Max for 1 month. The breeder told me he was littter pan trained. The first week he went everywhere but the litter and went in his crate at night. This is the first puppy that I've ever had trouble training. THe vet told me to buy a larger enough crate for the pan, his bed, and food. At the same time I decided to train him to the outside even though I live in an area with significant snowfall. As soon as I started him outside(he did well the first week) he started using the litter pan with 100% accuracy. Now he is still 100% with the pan, but will go outside and pee and poop, and then come in and pee in the pan again. He'll pee 3 times in an hour and a half. First, I am taking him to the vet to see if he has a UTI. My question...how do I get him out of the pan and outside 100% of the time. I can't yell at him for using his pan since that is what is was trained to do. I thought I could deal with the litterpan situation, but don't know. I have a 6500 sq ft house and don't want pans and the smell throughout. Will he ever be able to run to only one or two pans in the house? He is very tiny(2 lbs 9 oz. with a full weight to be about 3 lbs.) I don't want to risk kenneling him for vacations but it also makes it hard to travel to relatives. I don't want him messing their houses if he can't relieve himself outside. He still has not been able to hold it in overnight more than a couple of times. He is never in the crate more than 5 hours. I am afraid to put him in a smaller crate. I don't want to regress to him messing his bed. I know he is probably getting mixed signals for where to go, but winter is coming. Can I train him to go in his litter in the garage on bad days and outside on good? Should I learn to live with litter pans? He's a wonderful little companion, but I want him to be accepted everywhere I go, so his potty habits need to change. Sorry I hope you didn't fall asleep reading this l..o..n..g.. post. Thanks

Hi: I am having prety much the same kinds of problems with my year old Zena. She has never been pad trained or litterpan trained. I do use a crate but I was advised not to buy a large one as they will go in one area and sleep in another. She has never gone in her crate. She alos will go outside then come in and go in the house. I have learned to walk her for a bit bring her in wait about 1/2 hour and take her back out. It was suggested to me that I keep her attached to me when she is out of the crate by her leash. Maybe wishful thinking on my part but this seems to be having an effect. She has started to bark or act up when she wants to go out. Problem is she wants to go out every hour os so and I to live in a cold, snowy climate. Good luck

10-08-2006, 02:46 AM	#1
jjl720 Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New York Posts: 83	housebreaking help I apologize for the length of this, but am frustrated. I have owned my 5 month old Max for 1 month. The breeder told me he was littter pan trained. The first week he went everywhere but the litter and went in his crate at night. This is the first puppy that I've ever had trouble training. THe vet told me to buy a larger enough crate for the pan, his bed, and food. At the same time I decided to train him to the outside even though I live in an area with significant snowfall. As soon as I started him outside(he did well the first week) he started using the litter pan with 100% accuracy. Now he is still 100% with the pan, but will go outside and pee and poop, and then come in and pee in the pan again. He'll pee 3 times in an hour and a half. First, I am taking him to the vet to see if he has a UTI. My question...how do I get him out of the pan and outside 100% of the time. I can't yell at him for using his pan since that is what is was trained to do. I thought I could deal with the litterpan situation, but don't know. I have a 6500 sq ft house and don't want pans and the smell throughout. Will he ever be able to run to only one or two pans in the house? He is very tiny(2 lbs 9 oz. with a full weight to be about 3 lbs.) I don't want to risk kenneling him for vacations but it also makes it hard to travel to relatives. I don't want him messing their houses if he can't relieve himself outside. He still has not been able to hold it in overnight more than a couple of times. He is never in the crate more than 5 hours. I am afraid to put him in a smaller crate. I don't want to regress to him messing his bed. I know he is probably getting mixed signals for where to go, but winter is coming. Can I train him to go in his litter in the garage on bad days and outside on good? Should I learn to live with litter pans? He's a wonderful little companion, but I want him to be accepted everywhere I go, so his potty habits need to change. Sorry I hope you didn't fall asleep reading this l..o..n..g.. post. Thanks

10-08-2006, 05:05 AM	#3
jjl720 Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New York Posts: 83	housebreaking help Thanks...I agree with you about the pan in the crate. I am afraid I just like knowing that he uses the pan 100%. There are no messes in my kitchen and mudroom now. I am giving him a little more area at a time with results. I just don't want a cat.! I am torn between no messes in my house and the fact that he is not learning bladder control with the pan.

10-08-2006, 05:24 AM	#4
Erin Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Chicago Suburbs Posts: 3,306	The messes are temporary. The pan could be forever... And just FYI Loki does fantastic at other people's houses. He goes and sits by the door wherever we go, even without his bells. A door is a door.. __________________ Erin, Sammy & Loki Sewing patterns and tutorials @ www.dogundermydesk.com

10-09-2006, 04:42 AM	#6
romeos mommy YT 3000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Pennsauken , NJ Posts: 4,068	my male yorkie goes on pee pads and outside. it's a good combo. a had to borrow another male yorkie to teach him to go outside. they are pack animals and like to duplicate behavior. he only uses the pee pad when the weather is bad. he doesn't like to get wet or cold in the rain / snow. __________________ Bernadette & Romeo

10-09-2006, 05:23 AM	#7
pixels Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Le Claire, Iowa Posts: 12	What we do... I'm not expert but I have a laundry room I added a baby gate to and put a nice large fleece dog bed in for Molly. She will not go in her area at all. Then as soon as I'm home we let her outside and she goes. Sometimes it takes them awhile to do a #2 but lot's of love and patience. At night I have a small carrying crate (used for a cat at one time) that is perfect for her to sleep in that I keep next to my bed. Once she is in there I don't hear a peep out of her until the next morning. When we get up we take her outside right away to do her thing. So far this is working for us. Plus I try and take her out every two hours. I don't use pee pads since she only wants to tear them up. She is such a tomboy! I'm glad this is working for us. Once in a great while we may have an accident because two hours has went by and I have forgotten to take her out. You need to find a schedule and stick to it. Now when winter comes I don't know what to do because Molly is only 6 months. We will work through it though. Good luck on your training. __________________ Ms. Molly

10-08-2006, 04:42 AM	#2
Erin Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Chicago Suburbs Posts: 3,306	If you want to train him to go outside and you want to crate train him you cannot put the pan in the crate. Crates are NOT for pottying. He will eventually sleep through the night. Loki needed a 2am potty break until he was at least 8 months old. Totally normal. You'll get into the routine of it and he will go back to sleep. Even let Loki out at his normal time this morning 6:30 and he is snuggled back in with me now. You may have to predict these nighttime breaks until he is mature enough to tell you he needs to go. As far as the pan - I would just move it outside. Then teach him to ring a bell or whatever so you can take him out. Probably the breeder had him trained but then in a new house he got all confused so you might as well just switch to whatever you want him to do. You've only had him a month. You can expect a few accidents but it WILL get better. If he's holding it 5 hours in the crate you'll be able to housetrain him. Loki never gets left more than 5 hours even now (he's almost 2) and he is outside trained. We never did pads or litter and yes there were a lot of accidents but that improved for while and then stopped as he got old enough to hold it. __________________ Erin, Sammy & Loki Sewing patterns and tutorials @ www.dogundermydesk.com

10-09-2006, 03:47 AM	#5
jjl720 Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New York Posts: 83	what about a combination of both during the winter. Will he consider the garage outside? I've heard some people put a pan in the garage during the bad weather. We are from central new york and live in the snow belt. There is no way he can get through the snow. I took the pan out and will try again. I really prefer the outside, but he will be small-about 3 lbs. and I will have to make concessions for his health and safety. Both my husband and I grew up in Chicago.

10-09-2006, 08:14 AM	#8
Piccolo's mom Donating Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Posts: 778	Piccolo goes on the pee pads but I want them in the batroom. He won't use them there. Right now they are outside the batroom. I keep moving them a few inches towards the door but he moves them back. What can I do to make him go where I want ? __________________ Barb & Piccolo If your dog barks and doesn't fit in a bread roll, don't eat it.

10-09-2006, 05:07 PM	#9
Bnot YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Mobile AL Posts: 1,399	I've had to tape Venus's pee pads to the floor to keep her from moving them! And since she uses them in the kitchen, I need to get her "livingroom trained" now. I have carpet in there, and I heard it will be harder to train than on lenolium. I hope pee pads will tape to carpet, lol.

10-09-2006, 05:49 PM	#10
gramgram Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bridgman Posts: 41	I think I have seen pee pads with tape on them already. Kinda pricey. Our Maggie is just 4 months old today and is using pee pads and going outside. I hear that winter is no fun for little Yorkies!

10-10-2006, 01:57 AM	#11
jjl720 Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New York Posts: 83	My Max uses a litter pan 100% of the time inside the kitchen(if I don't get him outside) Hasn't had an accident in the 3 weeks that I've had him. I'm also taking him outside every 1-2 hours(which I prefer). I'm worried that when I give him more space in the house he will get confused and wonder where to go-in or out. Also, he's 5 months old and how can he learn bladder control if he has a pan readily available. My goal is to have him outside trained and use the pan in the garage in really bad weather. Can he learn both?

10-10-2006, 06:41 AM	#12
Friley Registered User Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Centreville, VA Posts: 35	I think he can learn both methods. The trainer we, my husband and I, talked to about housebreaking said you should pick one spot in the house with pee pads (or outside) and use that spot every time. Once the puppy/dog makes it to this spot without accidents for 6 months you can then try teaching the dog to use another spot whether its outside or another room in the house. The 6 months seems like a long time but I noticed that when we did both outside/pee pads at the same time Baloo, our puppy, was very confused, one minute he would race to the door and the next he'd run around the apartment looking for a corner to go in! It was funny the first time watching him run from room to room, we didn't understand what he was doing, and then we found the mess . We've picked the pee-pad method because of work and how neither of us can really make it home every 2 hours to let him out. I hope this helped some

10-10-2006, 07:43 AM	#13
TamTam Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Minnetonka, MN Posts: 39	This is how we house-trained Teddy ... I feel your pain! Our Teddy is approaching five months now, and he was a rascal to train with pee pads. One day he'd use them, another day you'd set him on the pad again and again and again and he would either make a run for it or lay down like "What next, Mom?" Anyway, we abandoned the pee pads for a while and were getting him to potty outside (it was summer) and giving him lots of treats and "good boys." But as soon as we got nasty weather, cold mornings, or rain, it was heartbreaking to have to make him go outside and get wet and shivery just to potty. Then we got big plastic 2'x2' trays and lined them with pee pads to give him an indoor bathroom. No good. We suspect the pee pads felt like carpet ...? So then we tried newspaper. And we would wait and wait for him to pee on the paper in the tray so we could praise and treat him, and he would just look at you with huge pained eyes saying "take me outside!" He just wouldn't go potty with someone standing right there (most likely because he thought he would get in trouble.) THEN I had the bright idea to put a pen around the tray and enclose him in it until he went. This took 20 minutes the first time, but after he did it we praised him to high heaven and gave him several treats and lots of cuddles, and before too long it would take him less than a minute to potty after being placed in the tray/pen. From there we have opened the pen up so he can go in on his own, and now he will go and potty all on his own! He does still have accidents occasionally ... just last night I watched him squat and pee five inches outside the tray, all four paws on carpet (d'oh!) but for the most part he does well. This should only improve in time, and living in Minnesota I'm thankful he got the hang of this in September! Hope I didn't bore you with Teddy details, but perhaps it may help someone else. I think yorkies are truly good-hearted little dogs who just want to please you, but it can take effort to show them how. Good luck on your potty woes!