A new Yorkie mom

[ricolini]

Hi, I'm a new yorkie mom since 6/29/08. My yorkie's official name is [U]The Great Ricolini[U] but we just call him Rico. I got him for my daughter but the funny thing is I've gotten extremely attached to him so he is almost more my dog than hers now. He is now 14 weeks old and a total blast but still having trouble knowing where to potty as in he sometimes potties next to the pee pad instead of on it and he still hasn't pooped on the pad yet but only next to it. He will do both outside for me first thing in the morning but even if I just took him out less than an hour before he sometimes will still pee on the carpet. Any suggestions? My kids will go back to school in two weeks and I was hoping he'd be trained by then so he could hang out in the kitchen all day but I don't want to let him do that if he's not at least going on the pad instead of on the floor. I really don't want to keep him in his crate all day but will if that's the only way to train him to only go where he's supposed to.
Any help is appreciated.

[Erin]

Hi! Welcome to YorkieTalk!

I will let others answer about the potty pads. Mine are trained to go outside so we never used pads, but we did crate train (but I wouldn't recommend putting him in a crate all day without breaks). Anyway, he's not going to be trained at 14 weeks. Usually Yorkies don't start to get it until they are more like 16-20 weeks old and they aren't fully trained (no accidents) until they are between 6 and 18 months old. It's not for lack of trying or lack of intelligence, but they just have tiny bladders and if you want to avoid accidents you have to let them out like every hour. If they need to go, their little bladders don't give their brains much notice! If you are going to train outside it helps to teach him to use a bell. If you want him to go outside then you probably shouldn't use the pads, but you also can't expect him to hold it all day so you might need to use an ex-pen for a while with his bed, toys and a pad. Just relax for now and realize that if he isn't getting it yet it's not because you are doing anything wrong. If you are consistent he will know just what to do once his body gives him a little warning. It also helps to give him a treat when he does the right thing but you have to be watching him to do that. I don't know if you should stake out the pee pad, but you do have to catch him doing it to reward him! if you go outside take him on a leash and take a treat with you!

[4doggiemama]

Was wondering if you maybe should post your training problem in the "training" section? Maybe more help would come? My boys are both 1 yr. old an I still do not allow them to be free when I am gone. I always put them in ex-pens with piddle pads. For my Pommie it is mostly for his own safety. Even my senior girls go into an ex-pen when I am gone. IMO they feel more secure. Hope someone else has some ideas.

[Patti]

Welcome!!!

[KimberlySRN]

Welcome to Yorkie Talk!

[ricolini]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was thinking about trying the bell but wasn't sure if that was the way to go or not. I think I will give it a try now. Ideally I would like to train him to go outside when we are home but use the pee pads when we are away. A friend told me she did that with her teacup chihuahua and it works great. Thanks for the ideas and we'll keep working on it, I know he'll get it eventually, he's a clever little guy! By the way, does anyone know if yorkies like to swim?

[luvmyYorkieJack]

Hello and welcome. I will share with you what has worked for us. I am not holding my breath or anything but I think Jack has finally got the idea.

When we first got Jack at 15 weeks he couldn't hold it for the life of him. We tried the pads but it just wasn't clicking. We would put him on the pad, he would sniff it, then walk off and away from the pad and go potty. No matter how much we tried, he just didn't do. So we noticed that if we took him outside, he was much more willing to go potty out there. So we got rid of the potty pads. After we got his UTI undercontrol, he has been accident free for almost a week. When he goes #1 and #2 outide, we give him a treat. We have no fat, reduce calorie string cheese we give him. That was his motivator (he just loves cheese, that and attention) so we used that to our advantage. We have decided that if he go 5 weeks without accident, we are going to let him stay out of his crate when we are gone to see how he does. It's just a test run but he will be limited where he can go. And as he proves to us he can go without accidents, he will gain more freedom of the house. Hope this helps and good luck.

[Wigfur]

Welcome to YT!

[*sophie's mama*]

Yeah! Another Nebraska YT'er. Welcome to YT! You'll love it here. Sophie is about a year and a half old and she is still working on potty training. She does great most of the time but will have accidents on occasion. We recently purchased her a dog door for our patio door and that really helped. I think it found it on craigslist for like $30. Our kitchen is tiled and that is where she stays when we're gone or busy. Her bed is in there too. They just get better and better IMO. Good luck!

[KYsweetheart]

Welcome to YT, I am a new member as well.

I am trying to use the potty pads as well, and it isn't clicking... but I have only been working on training her with those for 4 days... so I guess time will tell.

[yorkiesmiles]

welcome to YT!!

[Mayas Mommy]

Hi and Welcome to YT ......

[xxmxaxrxyxx]

welcome to YT...yorkies are a little harder to housebreak..but as long as you are consistent then you will be rewarded in the end...

me personally i would rather have my babies go outside...hehe