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04-25-2005, 08:13 AM | #1 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 42
| I'm ABOUT TO FREAK! Hello everyone, My husband and I just bought a new Yorkie for our son...her name is Elbow. She is about 5 months old...we've had her for about 2 weeks...and training her is absolute hell! We started putting her in a crate because that is what everyone told us to do. The thing is...she ALWAYS poos there....and by the time I get home...I have to bathe her! It's been 3 days in a row now! She pees on her training pad SOMETIMES...wont' go outside when we go for walks..and pees anywhere in the house....we've tried to schedule her eating so that she won't poo whenever she pleases...but even though we feed her once in the morning and once at night...she poos all throughout the day...and its never predictable! HELP! How do I train her? She hates her training pad...if she does go on it..it looks like it was just an accident! |
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04-25-2005, 08:28 AM | #2 |
Yorkie Yakker Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: VA
Posts: 65
| smaller cage Well first off you probably need a smaller cage if she has that much room to manuver. There are also certain times you can definitly count on that she's going to have to go to the bathroom like right after she wakes up from a nap, or a little bit after she eat's. For the pee pad if you havent gotten the spray that goes with the pad try getting that I find that it helps sometimes. |
04-25-2005, 08:34 AM | #3 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Effingham, Illinois
Posts: 2,535
| There are sooo many posts on YT about potty training. Please don't expect her to get it after only two weeks. Consistency and patience are the only way. I keep Lexy in the laundry room/kitchen area. The only time she has access to the other parts of the house are right after she does her "business" and only if we are there to supervise. Yorkies are hard to potty train but so worth it in the end! How large is her crate? Perhaps you need a very small one to crate train her. If the one she is in is large enough, it won't bother her to poop in there because she can get away from it. Take treats outside with you and when she goes outside (and she will if you stay out long enough) get akk excited with her and give her a treat. Make sure you say the work you use to tell her to go potty. For instance, when Lexy goes outside, I say "Good Girl, Lexy!!! You went potty outside!" That way I'm hopefully teaching her the words potty and outside in a positive way that will make her want to please us. Hang in there! She'll get it in time! At least 95% of the time! I don't know any yorkie who is 100% potty trained! |
04-25-2005, 08:38 AM | #4 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California
Posts: 2,990
| may i ask where you got her????? did she come from a petstore? did she come from a breeder that kept her in a kennel/crate like environment???? because much like petstore puppies they dont get a choice in where they get to go, and if you gotta go you gotta go...so as a result these kinds of puppies have a more difficult time potty training becuase they are used to going in their crate and they think it is ok |
04-25-2005, 08:40 AM | #5 | |
Donating YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Charlotte
Posts: 2,836
| Quote:
I'm no expert but 5 months old is still very much a young puppy. If she poos in her crate, maybe it's too big or maybe she's staying in too long. It takes time and lots of patience and LOTS of praise when she does go where she is supposed to! Best of luck to you!
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04-25-2005, 08:55 AM | #6 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California
Posts: 2,990
| i know of some people who have yorkies a year old and are not trained yet ... toby is now 7 months and he has it down good thus far, he did go through a rebellious stage at around 5 or 6 months though |
04-25-2005, 09:18 AM | #7 | |
BANNED! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: New York
Posts: 446
| Quote:
Elbow: Posters here know I subscribe to the Whole Dog Journal. It so happens that this month’s issue has an article on crate training (you can visit their website to get a copy of this article). The writer discusses her surprise that on the email list she belongs to, she learned that animal shelters are turning away potential adopters who want to crate train their dogs. However, the writer, like myself, feels that crate training is an excellent way to get dogs housebroken. Well, she relays in her article that the problem is that people are “over-crating” their dogs. From your post, I am guessing that you, like 99% of other Americans, are a two person, two income household and no-one is around during the day (you are feeding your puppy in the morning and night and I suppose letting him out at those times). Sad to say, too much time in the crate leads to a puppy that can no longer hold it in, has in accident in the crate, and thereby can no longer be housebroken with a crate (the crate is now marked with the puppy’s scent). Your puppy is very young and just like a human infant, not in complete control of his bowel movements (the muscles and nervous system still need to develop). I don’t have the article in front of me but I think she used the rule of thumb that a puppy should not be in a crate for more hours than his age (four month old dog should not be in the crate for more than four hours for example). With tiny toy dogs, I’d half that for all the reasons I’ve posted so many times before. Let’s face it, most Yorkies are not easy to housebreak, again for all the reasons I’ve listed in other posts. Sadly, many people purchase small dogs thinking they are going to be easier to keep and train and suddenly find themselves putting up posts such as yours! Crate training IS an excellent tool for housebreaking puppies but it can be easily overused. A puppy should not be spending 70+% of his time in a crate. Even from a physical and psychological development standpoint, he needs more exercise than that. OK. So the question is, what to do? First thing to ask, is it possible for anyone in your family to relieve your puppy at least one more, preferably twice more times a day? How old is your child? If you kid gets home from school, say around 3 PM, he could give the puppy a pee-pee break then. If no one is home, there are other options: 1) A pet sitter? 2) Day care? (for the dog that is!) 3) Not my favorite option, but it may be your only one, using an exercise pen and a wee-wee pad. This option DOES NOT teach your dog what it means to be housebroken but it does keep him confined to one space so that he isn’t marking up your entire house but it also helps prevent him from going in a confined space and being tortured by having to sit in his soil all day. I’m a big proponent of teaching dogs to go outside because I think it, in the big picture, helps them learn housebreaking with whole lot less confusion (paper training is a difficult concept for many dogs because “where it is OK and where it is not OK” is variable – sometimes the paper is in the bathroom, sometimes in the kitchen. Sometimes the dog pees on the paper and misses and now its on the floor, is that OK? What if the dog misses and hits the wall (a male dog problem)? It’s very easy to make up a household with scent and confuse a dog with this method). That said, with training, I’m also a realist and recognize that you need to work to feed your family. If all else fails, I’d go with the ex-pen! You might want to use regular newspaper in stead of a wee-wee pad for one reason - if your puppy is a chewer and no one is around to observe him, he could chew the wee wee pad. Some wee wee pads have an absorbent inner layer. If swallowed this could make your puppy very sick. Newspaper, will allow leaks which will cause you problems with "marking" so if you go that route, make sure you put the ex-pen in the same place every day and understand that this spot will be "marked." Again, this is not a great solution, but it may be, depending on your financail means and lifestyle the best option available to you. Last edited by yorkipower; 04-25-2005 at 09:24 AM. | |
04-25-2005, 09:39 AM | #8 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California
Posts: 2,990
| lol......... hello yorkiepower, we just keep bumping into each other I have to admit, that the wee wee pad INSIDE the house didnt do to well for toby....... so...... we stuck the wee wee pad outside on the patio and now he does great, we tried several things so i guess it is what works best for you and youre little one and it takes a little bit of trial and error |
04-25-2005, 10:24 AM | #9 |
BANNED! Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: New York
Posts: 446
| Yeah, I really DONT like paper training (indoors). I’m with you on that. Whenever possible, I try to convince people to make the great outdoors their dogs pottie and keep the house the clean and pristine doggie den. Unfortunately, with the hours many people work, that’s just not realistic. It’s also unfortunate that people don’t realize that often times, they must take off from work for awhile or have someone home before they get a puppy. When I worked for the North Shore Animal League as a kid, it used to perplex me that so many people wanted puppies because they claimed them to be easier to train! I’d try and try and try to convince these people that they’d be far better off with an adult dog whose personality was already shaped and whose bladder was working on full thrusters, but the myth of the “puppy for my kid so they can grow up together” most of the time prevailed. I’d like a puppy too, esp. with Bun being so sick, but I work too many hours and am not home to give a puppy the proper foundation training. Until I can devote the time necessary, I’m sticking to adult dogs. |
04-25-2005, 10:34 AM | #10 |
YT 2000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California
Posts: 2,990
| i will never ever get another pound puppy or rescue dog...... my parents and i went and got one and she is still around and we love her, but it was not a good choice for them.... the problem was that they really didnt get to know her before adoption and she is a really high maintenance dog.... what you get out of an adoption scenario is not always "perdictable" ...... i know of SEVERAL dogs that have "potty trained" on their adoption card (which is BS).... for some people it works,....... for some people it doesnt..... i gues im one of the ones that it doesnt, I agree with you on the "take time off" though...... i think toby wasnt even left by himself untill he was 5 months old and even then it was only for about 3 hours or so......you are right, with puppies it really does take a lot of one on one time and you cant leave them alone for a whole work day |
04-25-2005, 10:39 AM | #11 |
YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Alabama
Posts: 789
| You know my pup never got the whole idea of the crate training thing. When we first got her the breeder told us that she was doing very well on the paper training, which she was. But I wanted her to go outside and now looking back I should've kept her on the paper training just a little while longer she willl not use it at all now. I wish she would at least when I am not doing my part and forget to let her out, lose track of time, or we leave for a while. Anyway when I started taking her outside I tried the whole crate training, and mine was just big enough for her to turn around in. I really believe she thought she was supposed to go in the crate, as soon as we would put her in it she would go to the bathroom then start yelping like "Ok I went now GET ME OUT OF HERE!". So I quit using the crate like that, now if she goes where she isn't supposed to I put her in her crate long enough for me to clean up the mess and just a little while long as a "time out". Does anyone not recommend the "time out"? I have been told not to let the dog see you clean up the mess (I don't know why though) so I put her in her crate for that and just a little while longer (maybe 5 minutes or so).
__________________ Courtney |
04-25-2005, 01:03 PM | #12 |
YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: House Of York
Posts: 1,079
| Don't get frustrated. As you can tell from reading many of the post that small dogs aren't the easiest creatures to potty train. Beside, you only have Elbow for 2 weeks and she is still a pup at 5 month old. It will take a bit more time before she get its. |
04-25-2005, 01:10 PM | #13 | |
Moderator Emeritus Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Tontitown Arkansas
Posts: 4,909
| Quote:
Hi, I am sorry you are having some problems with the potty training. You are not alone as many do. How long is Elbow kept in the kennel. WIth her being 5 months they say an hr per month so that would put her max at 5 hours, however I think personally that is still too long for a Yorkie or any small breed pet. maybe try giving her breaks out of the kennel to her potty pad more times so she doesn't get the idea that she doesn't have a choice but to potty where she lies. Good luck.
__________________ ~~**~~ Schatzie and Ransom ~~**~~ | |
04-25-2005, 01:26 PM | #14 |
YT Addict Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Dallas, Texas
Posts: 418
| Lucky for me. I just got my new little girl she is 19weeks and she was already potty trained when I got her!!! She has only had 2 accidents since we got her, and they were my fault. I am sooooo thankful my breeder did such a good job with her. She minds very well, and us just so loving. This is the difference with a really good breeder and some that are not as devoted. My male was 13 weeks when we got him, and you could tell no one ever worked with him. He is doing better, but boy does it make a difference if they are started out on the right path. |
04-25-2005, 01:47 PM | #15 |
Mom loves Gucci Donating Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New York City
Posts: 6,427
| Everyone has given you great advise. Remember Elbow still young and you only haver her for 2 weeks. The key to pottytrain is consistency and patience. Keep working with her and soon she will start doing the rite thing. Good luck. |
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