Why are yorkies so hard to housebreak?
 

Yorkies are notorious for taking a long time to be housebroken, and our Joey is no exception. I am taking Joey to my mother's house for Thanksgiving and she is all up in arms about him peeing and pooping everywhere. She honestly thinks that my fiance and I have just "not tried" to potty train him. How can I prove to her that it's a breed thing?? We have done EVERYTHING, and he still has mistakes (he is 8 months).

Print this thread out,, once everyone post's you'll have proof! :rolleyes:

AND He will for awhile.... :yelrotflm
You have to understand he has tiny interiors, bladder etc.
Plus most toys have this problem.
Patience, that's all. In time he will be housebroken.

I know..but my mom has a Chihuhua and a Min Pin and she swears they were both housebroken in a week. She just doesn't understand :( She is convinced that Joey is going to "ruin" her house.

Now I don't want to be disrespectful towards your Mom. I am a Mom to a 22 & 16 yrs boy & Girl.
So that out of the way.
No way did those dogs get housebroken in 1 week, no way.
If your mom got both those dogs as puppies she went through potty training for a few months.
I don't care what anyone says, puppies take several months to train.
I have trained over 10 dogs in my life time. Not just Yorkies, believe me puppies take time.
I think your Mom has forgotten. I'll bet her dogs are over 5yrs now. Are they?

Yes, they are both over 5 years old, but in defense of my Mom, she literally had them outside ALL the time for that week (or two weeks)...she is obsessed with getting the dogs potty trained. But, she definitely has memory lapses, so she could be forgetting some of the mistakes her dogs made....that being said, her dogs definitely did not take 4 months or more (the amount of time we have had Joey) to potty train.

Make it easy! Get a belly band and put some panties on him while you're there! :D

Are you trying to teach him to be pee pad trained or outside trained? My mom literally had her weimeraner trained in under a week, but she took her out to potty everytime she ate, woke up, drank, ect. About every hour on the hour. Logan took a little longer, but after a month he didn't poop in the house and at 5 months he was completely trained and hasn't had an accident since. Getting him fixed also seemed to help.
I would take a crate or playpen to your moms house for him to hang out in when you can't give him your full attention that way he won't sneak off and potty.

Well, Joey won't go to the bathroom at all outside (unless i put a wee wee pad down - which my mom thinks is bizarre). He was recently neutered, and it seemed to make it worse for awhile. Yes, I think my mom needs to get a crate for her house so we don't have to worry so much.

Thanks everyone!

Here is a product that I really like for visiting other people's homes and especially for my leg lifter. They are a little expensive but they are so adorable on the dogs people just think they are clothes. Because I live in the west I do the denim with the red hankie in the back pocket. Everyone just things they are overalls for the dogs. For the pads that go in the panties I just use woman's light day pads and they work fine and are less $$$.

My visit is so much more enjoyable because I am not worried if there will or won't be an accident. ;)

http://www.joybies.com/

Hope this helps.

I don't want to speak too soon. But I picked up Kiki on November 12th and today is the 21st of November and we've only had 2 accidents in the house and that was my fault. I consistently take him out after eating and then every hour and 1/2. I crate him if I am leaving the house or If I am doing something that will cause me to not be able to watch him like a hawk. I also have the potty sniffing down pretty well. When he has to go, he starts to walk around the house really fast, like he is looking for something and his nose is to the ground the entire time. When he does that, then I know that it is time to go out.

He is doing very well!

Ladyt & Kiki :aimeeyork

This is perfect - I didn't even know these exist!! Thanks so much for the link :)

Maybe you can stay a whole week and she can have Joey trained by the time you leave. :p

When you get there, hand him over and say 'Okay, now prove it!' . LOL

Ha ha - seriously!! She is such a know-it-all...we'll see how good she is over Xmas break and when I go on my honeymoon, Joey will be all hers!!

That is exactly what I was thinking... if she's so good she should be able to work wonders in just the one day! :D

Cali is the first dog I have had that I have been home all day with and it made training a lot easier but it still took awhile to get her 98% trained. I leave a play and go soft crate at my parents and keep a wee wee pad in there so it's like her set up at home.

My Female was so easy to potty train my little boy was much harder.
I would just put a belly band on him while you go visit, then you wont have to worry about him peeing on any thing.

I do not know this answer...but let me just say that I feel everyones pain..I am tryig so hard to be aptient with Dollar...I will take him outside for like 10 minutes he will run around everything...so then i will take him back in thinking that ok, maybe he doesnt need to go. As soon as we get inside he squats and pess. UUGGHH!!! But I know that in time it will come... (hopefully) :rolleyes:

LOL... Sherry Lynn you are to much!
Hugs,
Barb

What we hoomans have to realize is--it is hard for them to TRAIN their hoomans. It is totally our fault if we are not trained...LOL I can just hear a bunch of Yorkies discussing how hard it is to train their moms and dads..
"Yea, I have read all the books and tried everything and he/she still doesn't have it down..can you imagine? I mean, I take them outside and we stay for a FEW minutes and then they come inside and make me poo/pee in the house. What is it with these hoomans? Now, we are going away for Xmas and I am so concerned that they will not know when it is time to potty and cause an accident in the house. Man, will granny be mad!" lol
Seriously, BELLY BANDS, BELLY BANDS, BELLY BANDS! And sanitary pads. I have to laugh at this. I have long been thru menopause (who named that period in WOmen's lives as MENopause?) but my son saw a pack of pads in my car. He laughed his arse off when I told him they were for my MALE Yorkies. Do I think he believed me? Not on your life.Was he smart enough to keep his mouth shut? You bet!! Put belly bands on him during the holiday so YOU can have a nice visit. THEN, hide them when mom is responsible for him while you are honeymooning..

I think this is a great idea!

Besides that, I think the belly bands are the best idea.

Personally, I can understand that your mom doesn't want a dog around who "messes" in the house. Perhaps you can restrict him to areas that don't have carpet for easier clean-up? I found it interesting that you said your mom should buy a crate. I don't mean to be rude, but I think protecting her house from your dog is your responsibility, not hers. I'd buy the crate myself if I were you.

Up until we got Binks a couple weeks ago I had only had poodles, and they were all housebroken within 2 or 3 weeks.
I don't know if its just a breed thing or what but they are extremely easy to housebreak.
Now Binks I am thinking is going to take longer, some days I think ok maybe he's getting the hang of this and then others its like omg he's never gonna get trained hehe. :eek:
But I'll just have to keep working with with him and taking him out about every hour and a half and maybe eventually he will get it.
I do praise him when he goes potty outside, as of yet we haven't been giving him the stern no no's when he goes inside, hes just so little I'm afraid of scareing him.
I think I'll start giving him a treat also when he goes potty outside, maybe that will help.

When we got Diesel he was only 9 weeks old. He was already trained to use a puppy pad. I bought him a playpen and thats where he sleeps at night. I also put a puppy pad in the pen with him at night. He will use that at night and during the day he will go out. I take him out at least every hour or two. He goes everytime I take him out. Well he at least tries. I don't think he is doing much everytime tho. He is 16 weeks now and for the most part is housebroken. Now if I get busy cleaning and I forget to take him out then he will go to the front door and go. At least he knows where to go. I was really scared that he would take forever to housebreak. I had heard such horror stories about it all. Thankgoodness my baby was easy! My grandmothers dog on the other hand is just awful about going. He is 16 months old and STILL isn't housebroken. That being said my granny hasn't worked very hard wiht him either. He will go outside to pee and then bring his butt back in to poop. When he does it he will go hide and do it. I just don't see how she deals with it. I have told her to put his butt in a crate when she leaves and when he comes back in from peeing so that he doesn't poop all over. She will have no part of it. Her baby isn't going in a crate. But oh well. Nothing I can do. I am just thankful that I didn't have to go through all of that.

I got my Moses at 9 or 10 weeks and he was going 75% of the time on his wee wee pad when I brought him home. I got my little Baby Evelyn at 7 weeks, and she was about 95% wee wee pad trained. In fact, I have two Mini Schnauzers who weren't wee wee pad trained at all (they went outside), but after Moses and Baby Evelyn came, and they saw them going on the pads, they started doing it also. They were both over 1 year old when I got Moses and Baby Evelyn. Now all 4 are wee wee pad trained. In fact my little Baby Evelyn has just started sleeping through the night in bed with us and she is only 4 months old.

I have to disagree about yorkies being hard to housebreak.i had yorkies from 179-2003 & cant wait to find my new soul- mate.I live in MA so its cold in winter. I dual trained afew yorkies for indoors on pee pads & outdoors on a lead!

Yeah, Joey wasn't too hard either!

I wonder if size has anything to do with it. Joey is on the larger side. I wonder if the bitty-babies take longer. It would make sense if so.

Roxie was too hard either but she is a little larger at 6.5lbs. Since I live in San Diego with a fenced in yard, I trained her to go outside only. But I honestly did not consider her completely potty trained until she could ring the bell herself to let me know she had to go outside. We went for months without accidents but I was taking HER outside. Now she takes herself and we haven't had any accidents in months. YIPPEE! :aimeeyork

Hello - New to Yorkie Talk
 

I have two Yorkies... Jack is 9, and a new arrival Khloe, 5 mos. (got her at 10 wks)... Going crazy with potty training and don't remember Jack being so hard. I'm researching YT for hopefully an answer. Khloe is sweet, but "just doesn't get it".... I refuse to give up!

Lucy doesn't have it all down pat either - especially since we moved. Tell your Mom that you WOULD LOVE and REALLY NEED her help. I'm a Mom and I love to hear that! Maybe she does have some tips she could give you.

I agree. When you are a guest in someone's house, even your mom's, you have to respect their property and make sure it's not damaged. A crate, belly bands, a gate, do whatever it takes to keep him from pottying in your mom's house.

If you don't, you may find yourself an unwelcome guest. I have a wonderful neighbor who used to stop in for a visit while walking her dog. Shadow was recently boarded and learned to mark and now he lifts his leg when he comes to visit. Unfortunately, he is no longer welcome in my house or other neighbor's houses now.

Yorkies have a reputation for being very difficult to housebreak, but if you get a puppy from a responsible breeder no younger than 12 weeks who has started pad training it can make all the difference.

I forgot to ask ... has he been neutered yet? If not, that can be a lot of the problem.