Puppy Trouble!!! Advice please!!

[Mybabytaz]

Hello!
I am new on here.I did a search on the net out of desperation and came across this web forum,so I'm hoping someone out there can help!!
I have an 18 week old yorkie female that we are having major problems trying to potty train.We went all out and got books the crate and 'pee-pads' but nothing seems to be working? We keep our little Tessey in her crate for the most part,and take her out every few hours to eat and play etc. We have been feeding her then putting her on her 'pee-pad' to do her business,and sometimes she 'goes', but just when we think she understands where she's supposed to 'go' she poops and pees all over our house.we even tried taking her outside immediately after taking her out of her crate,and she'll be outside for about 10/15 mintues,but then will come straight in the house and poop/pee on the carpet!! And I've caught her many times pooping/peeing on her bed!! She even poops/pees in her crate.I've made it really small so she doesn't have room in there for a 'bathroom area' but will still do her business in there and lay all in it?! For some reason it doesn't bother her? we've tried rewarding her when she does her business in the right spot,but then that doesn't happen very often and find we are constantly yelling at her,but she just doesn't get it? I really don't know what to do and have contemplated giving her away because of this,which I really hope it doesn't come down to that!! HELPPP!!!

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by Mybabytaz

Hello!
I am new on here.I did a search on the net out of desperation and came across this web forum,so I'm hoping someone out there can help!!
I have an 18 week old yorkie female that we are having major problems trying to potty train.We went all out and got books the crate and 'pee-pads' but nothing seems to be working? We keep our little Tessey in her crate for the most part,and take her out every few hours to eat and play etc. We have been feeding her then putting her on her 'pee-pad' to do her business,and sometimes she 'goes', but just when we think she understands where she's supposed to 'go' she poops and pees all over our house.we even tried taking her outside immediately after taking her out of her crate,and she'll be outside for about 10/15 mintues,but then will come straight in the house and poop/pee on the carpet!! And I've caught her many times pooping/peeing on her bed!! She even poops/pees in her crate.I've made it really small so she doesn't have room in there for a 'bathroom area' but will still do her business in there and lay all in it?! For some reason it doesn't bother her? we've tried rewarding her when she does her business in the right spot,but then that doesn't happen very often and find we are constantly yelling at her,but she just doesn't get it? I really don't know what to do and have contemplated giving her away because of this,which I really hope it doesn't come down to that!! HELPPP!!!

I never recommend trying the crate training method for YOrkies. It may work for other breeds but not toy breeds. It will take at least to a year old if not longer to housebreak most Yorkies. Prior to placing a pet puppy, I make sure the new prospective owner understands that.
The #1 reason a Yorkie is returned to a breeder or surrendered to an animal shelter is failure to house break.
You need to be home a lot of the time. I dont recommend these dogs for people who are at work all day anyway from 8 - 10 hours.
But if you are in that situation, get an xpen to start with. Put your puppy in there when you are busy or away. Put food water wee wee pad, bed in with her. That means she does not have the run of the house. Make sure she isn't a climber and won't climb out otherwise you will have to get a lid for the xpen.
When you are home, keep her in an area where there is no carpeting such as a kitchen and she can play there. When she starts to circle she is looking to go and you can either put her out and stay with her or put her in the pen to go on the wee wee pad.
Do not allow her in other parts of the house until she can be trusted unless she is actually sitting in your lap dozing watching TV or something like that. That could take 12- 18 months of age.

[marcerella02]

welcome to YT!! sorry to hear you are having potty problems... i wish could help... but layla caught on... i know there are many people on here having the same problem as you and they will be able to offer suggestions... i know that a lot of memebers have dogs that are over 1 and they are still having issues hang in there someone will see this and offer advice!

[joy and bella]

welcome to yt!!!! at first i tried using the pee pee pads too, and bella just did not get it. she went on them a few times but never caught on. other times she tried eating the. i started taking her outside and would no joke be out there for 30 minutes or more until she went. i made my boyfriend come with me to pass the time. as soon as she went outside i gave her a treat, right then and there. i did this for a while, she still had accidents a lot, but i just kept with it. finally i went to petco and found these vanilla preztel cookie treats (its at the treat bar they have)...she LOVED these. as soon as i started with them she would do anything i wanted for these treats... now she is totally potty trained!! ooh also...i would take her out allllll the time...like seriously every 2-3 hours. i never gave her a chance to go inside! i know i am crazy, but nothing was working. now she is perfect, if she has to go she will cry and cry....anymore questions feel free to ask.....dont give that baby away....keep at it...she will get it

[marcerella02]

great suggestions!!!

i remmeber learning to have a key word for potting... we use "hurry up" AS she is peeing/pooping... now when we are outside and i say .. hurry up... layla knows we aren't out there to play but to do out busines!! try that with the other suggestions!

[Brookef18]

Chewy is 81/2 months old... He only goes outside and he goes with in 3 min or less!(no kidding!) Here is how I did it.


1. I bought a baby play yard-I think it's the same as an ex-pen but plastic... It is enclosed so you have to pick the puppy up to put them in.

2. Put little rocks in side so he couldn't dig and get dirty every time he went potty! And I lined the edges with bricks...(He likes to step up on the bricks when he is done! MY friend's Yorkie does this too!)

3. Put a few leaves on the rocks to hold the smell so they get the idea! Or transfer some of the stuff from where he has been potting so he knows what to do!

4. Take your baby out at least every hour to try... Chewy goes just about every time we take him out... I tell him to potty.. go Pee or Poopie! I also started off giving treats till he got the idea. Now we go 3-4 hours but in the beginning (3 months) we went every hour or so.

5. Watch your Yorkie nonstop when he is in the house and the second you see him start to go... say (don't yell) No no no no..quickly take him out to his POTTY! Chewy got the idea that going in the house wasn't ok after doing this about 4 times!!! Before that I would just clean up the mess and not say anything but I don't think he realized it was any problem!!!

Before I took my friends advice and did this play yard thing I would walk Chewy and he WOULD NOT GO! He sniffed EVERYTHING!!! But never took the time to go potty! Then would go inside... I was at my wits end. I think the thing about them having a potty place is there is nothing to sniff... once they sniff it out in the beginning it is always the same! If Chewy doesn't go within 5 min we go back inside. He has been 99% potty trained since 4 months.

Hope this helps!

[GracieGirl]

I also had problems with Gracie learning where to potty. We live in an apartment where you we have designated pet areas. She refused to even step foot in them. I am assuming it was because she would smell all the other dogs!

So I resorted to wee wee pads. I took an area of my entry way and blocked it off with her pee pad, food and water, and bed. I would let her out to play around the house with me and keep a close eye on her. When she started acting like she had to "go" I would pick her up and put her in her area, place her on the pad and say Go potty....she caught on but it to multiple times for about 3-4 weeks.

Now that she knows the pad is a potty place I have began to start retraining her outside. We go for walks and she does potty...I have noticed aftyer many weeks, even months now she is finally understanding that even if she isnt on a pad outside when I say potty she goes.

I would agree with everyone. It takes a long time Gracie is 2 years old and we finally have fully trained her to potty on a pad and outside as well.

Repetition is the key! Stick with a routine and they will catch on!!!

[Mybabytaz]

Thank you guys for all the advice!!!! I will definately take your advice and stick with it!! When we got my baby Taz,he was already trained so I never had to go through all this training before,and for some reason in one of books,it suggests that Yorkies should be potty trained in about 5/6 months, well my baby is already 4 1/2 and no where close to being tranied so I was definately getting worried!! I thought there was something wrong with her!! I still don't understand why she poops/pees in her bed though??

[RascalLucy]

It took me 6 months to get her trained, but 1 year for her to be accident free. I used the crate, but only at night. I only let her have the kitchen and family room to move around in. We used baby gates. I kept my eye on her all the time and took her out every 45 minutes and I would say "go wee wee" over and over, I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy. I wanted her to have the same command as our big dog. And we went on many long walks to get her to poop.

[celstu1]

I had a yorkie who went pee & poo in his crate EVERY single night! Every morning I had to take him in the shower with me and wash him before work. I guess he hated that because after a couple weeks he stopped doing it. He was coming alone really nicely but he was almost never alone.

My 2 boys now are 1 year and 4 months old. Neither of them are housebroken and its very frustrating. Ive read all the advice from people and books but nothing seems to be working. What does work though is if they won't go outside after 10-15 mins I take them in and gate them into a small area of the kitchen with newspaper down. I will not let them out until they do their business on the paper. They pretty much always go on the paper when they are locked in the kitchen, but they do not go on the paper if they have free run of the house, they will go wherever they feel like it! The hardest part is when I have to gate them in the kitchen and they are crying bc they want to be with me and i know they do and Im just sitting on the couch watching tv. If you can get past that and just check on them every 10-15 mins until they go and tell them to go pee on the paper (or something) then when they do let them out. I only let out the pup that goes, the other one stays in if he has not gone yet. This seems to work!

I tried treats, that didnt work at all. everytime they went out and came in they expected a treat, they did not correlate that pee = treat.

[LittleHarley]

My little Harley has been the same way. He is 3 months old and has not had an accident in the house in over 2 weeks. I use to keep him in a crate but I started keepinghim i the bathroom with his bed and toys and he has been great! I work 8 hours a day so he is in there all day!! I'm just having problems with him chewing!!

[purple3198]

I bought a very large crate and put her bed on one side and her pee pad on the other.

[DianeW]

Hello
My Harvey is 9 months old and is 99% house trained now. It was hard work and we had to be consistant. We take him out throughout the day every 3-4 hours and tell him to "wee and poo" and he does so after a few minutes, i then praise him like crazy but dont give treats. At night he sleeps in the kitchen in a crate that has his bed one side and a wee pad the other side. It is only very occationally that he has done anything on the pad, and that is if we have slept in later than usual. He goes to bed at about 1am and is let out of his crate at about 7.30am to do his business. He is only in his crate at night time as there is always someone in during the day with him. If we go out visiting we take a wee pad with us and Harvey uses that, but i do watch him all the time. I hope things soon improve for you - i am sure they will. Take care.

[mikey1985]

Hi! Welcome to Yorkie Talk- I'm a newbie too and am loving it so far- its a great source of info & sharing! I'm training my 12 week old right now too. He completely gets the "going outside" concept, but as I live in an apartment I want him to use wee-wee pads also. I've been doing what some of the others say: watch them closely (esp right after eating/drinking) and when u can see they're about to go, pick up & put on pad. I reward w praise & a treat after. If Ralfie does have an accident, I gently scold him & when cleaning it up, I blot the pad with it. Sounds gross, but they tend to go where there is already their smell. He's progressing pretty well so far. If I have trouble still in a few weeks, I'm going to try those grass scented pads. Every pup is different, but if you pay attention to how the little guy acts, you can pick & choose what works for them. Best of luck!!!

[JeanieK]

You've already been given lots of advice so I just want to welcome you to YT.

It takes loads of patience and lots of time. And books aren't much good because they can't read.