Hello and wee problem
 

Hi there

Found this forum and it looks friendly, helpful and busy :)

I'm from the UK and have a 4+ month year old Yorkie called Ellie - she's lovely, but one major problem - she wees where we don't want her to and have tried to stop this.

We have got her an indoor bed cage to put her in as the books say that a Yorkie will not wee on its own bed... but Ellie does. She will wee on her blankets. If we have her in the utility room with the outside door open, she will wee in the utility room and not the outside!

4 month old Yorkies don't know they have to go until like 2 seconds before they do. I hate to say it, but take the blankets away. Some of them will go on the blankets. Loki used to go on his blanket and then shove it under the crack in the crate so he didn't have to sit on it. The crate can only have enough room for them to lie down, stand up and turn around. Make sure it is a VERY small space.

She will not learn to go outside on her own. Take her outside and wait for her to go. Make a HUGE deal about it and give her an awesome treat when he goes in the right spot. Repeat a million times! If she makes a mistake and you don't see her, just ignore it and clean it up. If I caught Loki (usually I did) I would grab him and say POTTY OUTSIDE and carry him quickly to the grass - then praise him when he went on the grass. Expect her to try, but not be 100% successful until she is about 6 months old. That's when they tend to figure it out and are able to hold it for a little while. Good luck!!!

be patient...I have learned from here they dont really learn till they are about 7 months!!!

At four moths they need to be supervised constantly as they really cannot "hold it". They need to be taken potty a lot...every time they wake up, after they eat, after they play, and every hour otherwise.

She should be praised wildly when she goes on command or where you wnat her too!!

It is a lot of work in the beginning and there will be many many accidents but putting the time and effort in now will pay off.

Remember, most yorkies aren't potty trained until 12 months of age.

Welcome to YT!!!
She's still very young, It's going to take time to train her.
Be very patient with her, thats the key. :)

Welcome to YT. I am the mom to Chloe and Lacey. I totally agree with these folks in every way. Your puppy is too young to figure potty out and will never learn without you. Persistence and patience is the name of the game.

I dont have personal experience with a yorkie...However when we were training Maxwell we used whats called a pee post~ It has pheramones in it and it makes them wanna go when they smell it...we also liked the fact that it trained him to go in one perticular place.

You can purchase a pee post at that Major Pet chain everyone has in thier town...Pet*o or online at the larger pet products websites Like Foster and Smith. Im not saying that it will totally solve your problem but it sure speeded the process for us.

I have never heard of a pee post, Sounds interesting. Anyways , Listen to the earlieer posts your cage must be to big!! Get a smaller one. Believe me they won't go in it if they will have to be near their own waste. Good luck!! And Welcome!!

Hi I have an 18 month old called Alfie and a 8 week old called Lottie , with Alfie we used the wee wee pads and clickered him and gave him a little treat every time he used this and totally ignored it if he went anywhere else , then started to move the pads outside and he did great with this. We are now starting this wih Lottie so hope it works just as great. Good Luck

Hello and Welcome to YT. Just keep working with her she will catch on.

welcome to yt. yes, it is a friendly, busy and helpful place. what i did to break mine was constant eye on them. very constant. and when you see them start to squat startle with a sharp "no" or "out". then immediately take them out. I rewarded with a small treat as soon after they did it. this was aside taking them out after a nap and after eating or playing. this is what worked for me. i dont know any thing about crate traing. i didn't keep mine in a crate. i would have had to have one big enough to make room for me to be in with them. LOL.
good luck and remember it takes time and patience. just stay calm they will soon get the idea.

Hi folks - thanks for all your replies :) - looks like there's some useful tips, I'll go through them with my girlfriend tomorrow and then if we have any further questions I'll ask.

thanks :animal36

We- have had a chat and there are some very useful tips - thanks!

Our dog crate is quite big, so yes there is room for her to wee away from her blanket. This is something to try.

Didn't realise Yorkies can't hold their bladders until they're older. We feel very reasured that this is normal for them.

Thanks very much again! :thumbs up

Thanks for the tips - we've put some of them into practice, and she isn't peeing in her cage anymore (it seems).

but.....

she still continues to pee on the floor. She will be scampering around merrily for a few mins, then will just squat and pee. She seems to know she has done wrong straight away and we put her outside then try to praise her for peeing out there.

But there seems to be no warning that she's gonna pee, she just squats and goes! :(

Is there anything we can do for this - or have we gotta grin and bear it for another 2-3 months, or....?

It's really beginning to get to us. We just want her to be out and be part of the family.

A friend in Australia sent their pup off to training school for a while, is there anything like this in the UK? and would this do any good?

thanks :)

They don't know ahead of time that they need to go until they are like 5-6 months. Then they have to learn to "tell you" when they need to go. Best you can do is let her out every 30 mins and teach her to go on command that way you know she is empty. It will start to get better. We invested in a good steam cleaner in the beginning and that way we didn't get upset about it since we didn't have stain probs, that sucker (ha) just cleaned it right up!

Loki is a year now and he goes to the door and stands there when he needs to go out. If I realize he hasn't gone in a while I ask "Loki, do you need to go outside??" in a really happy voice and sometimes he will go to the door and sometimes he will ignore me. But I just remind him :-) It will get better!!

My yorkie is only 2 1/2 months old and I have only had him for 2 weeks.

Because he is so young, he sleeps a lot and this helps. But I keep him with me almost constantly..... on the davenport - in a bed in the kitchen -- in a bed in my office - sleeps with me at night - etc.

I take him to his puppy pad almost hourly - and he usually pees. I take him more often if he hasn't gone for a while.

I take him outside also. (I want him to learn that he is supposed to pee on his puppy pad or outside - not just in one place).

He's pretty good about sleeping most of the night, but if he does wake up, I take him to his puppy pad.

So - after all my times taking him to his puppy pad - he really does use it most of the time - and he has gone there himself several times and gone to the bathroom. (Good for him!!!)

Now the bad news - I work and am gone for about 6 hours - four days a week. When I am gone, he is confined to the kitchen with his bed, toys, food, and a puppy pad. And, he uses it some of the time - but not always.

So - I think we are making headway - but I do know that I am going to have to keep up this regimen for the next few months ahead and be consistent.

It's work - but not really that bad - he doesn't weigh a thing, so carrying him off to his puppy pad often really isn't any work. But - I have to remember to do it consistently. And, I have to get up in the middle of the night if he wakes up. (He almost always goes then.)

I personally don't like crate training. I have crate trained before and don't like my little puppy confined to a crate all the time. I'd rather keep a constant eye on him. I'm sure this is just a matter of preference.

Good luck - Carol Jean

You're making progess!
 

Wow! How great that you actually tried some of the things suggested! You'd be surprised how many people post, ignore the advice, and then complain again about the same problem a short time later.

I'd say that you are making progress. She's no longer peeing in her crate. Sounds like your little girl has a small bladder and has very little warning before she has to go. I KNOW it is a pain, but I think you are going to have to take her out more often, and probably, *alot* more often. She may have to go as often as every 20 -30 minutes until she starts to learn.

Be sure that you give her LOTS of opportunities to be successful outside and then really reward lavishly. I always gave a tidbit of people food when Joey pottied outside and oodles and oodles of cuddles and "aren't you the smartest puppy ever?" type praise.

Another thing that may be lacking is a way for her to tell you that she needs to go. What I've used successfully with several dogs is a bell hanging on the doorknob of the door they go out to relieve themselves. It will ring naturally every time you go in and out, but you can give it a jingle to be sure that she notices it. Most likely, she will start ringing the bell *very* soon to be let out. This is the hard part. She wants out but doesn't always have to go to the bathroom. Have patience. Every time you hear her ring the bell, RUN to open the door. She may even stand there and stare at you like "why did you do that?" That's okay. She's got to learn that bell ringing = door opening. Before you know it, she'll be ringing the bell and going out to potty.

I can't say it enough: REWARD HEAVILY!

2 more thoughts if you're not tired of reading yet:

While she is pottying outside, softly say "go potty"(or whatever you want your cue to be). Say it every time that she is doing it right. Before too long, she'll learn to go when you tell her to.

Also, IF she is staying dry in the crate, you might can stretch her bladder a little. After she has successfully pottied outside, she gets a few minutes of free play time (just be sure that you end it BEFORE she pees on the floor) and then she goes into the crate for a few minutes. This way, she learns the sensation of holding it. To begin with, these lengths of time will be quite short - maybe 20 minutes play time followed by 20 minutes in the crate, then outside again. You can gradually increase the length of both play time and crate time, but what you DON"T want to do is leave her long enough to have an accident in the crate.

GOOD LUCK! Let us know how it's going!

Thanks for these tips - we are using the cue 'go wee wee' - dont know if it's working yet.

Friday night we had her in the lounge for about 4 hours - in this time we let her into the garden 4 times and SUCCESS no wee inside.

Still some slip ups - but fingers crossed

My new Yorkie Charlie is also 4 months old...We thought he was sooo smart, and was pottie trained easily. Although we now know that they need constant supervision. Sneeky little devil's. He had us fooled, He would go outside with his other siblings...but discovered that it was much better to go on the carpet because it was cold...he went for one week without going in the house, but then voila..when we werent paying attention, he thought what the heck...I thought we had him trained...but I guess I still need to watch him all the time. I here now that they will catch on withing a couple months. But like they say...soooo darn cute, what do you do? How can you be mad? Just keep on it. I will never sit down again.