I'm obsessed! According to my kids!
 

My kids, who are all married with children & fur babies of their own, are telling me I am obsessed with Baxter! I told them they all needed to get a Yorkie too! Then they'd understand. I also told them "so what if I am, it means he is very well loved & has all my attention". Baxter knows it too! I think the feeling is mutual is why he has such bad seperation anxiety. Look at the picture with the baby gate & cardboard! Needless to say Baxter has won the battle of being confined to the kitchen he did this in 3 hours!

We all have our obsessions abut something !

I was wondering why the cardboard is there, Is he climbing the gate and escaping ?

Oh yes! He was climbing out! My daughter went to check on him & called me very upset because she was scared to death he may have ate the cardboard. She said he acted fine, was eating, his tummy wasn't distended! So I left work went by my house to evaluate how much cardboard was possibly missing! I realized he'd just shredded it to pieces. Most of the pieces were in the kitchen side that you can't see in the picture. So I went to daughters to get him & he was fine. I had called the Vet & he said just watch him that it would be doubtful he ate any. I figured he was probably right when he is so darn picky about food. Then a blizzard hit us, so I've been home with him the last couple of days. I am going to Petsmart to get a crate today.

Yea that is what I was going to suggest doing. Crates are safer and there will be less damage to you home. I have some cage training tips on my web site. The link is in my signature. Hope it helps !

Im glad to hear that he didn't ingest any of the cardboard.

My kids don't say, I'm obsessed! My grandkids tell me that I really love Teeka because I play and cuddle her a lot! Everyone has obsessions or a "love" for something, whether it be football, scrapbooking or any other hobby, person or pet.

Thank you for the link! I did go to it & read up on things. Alot of good tips! I was trying not to crate him because I didn't want him crated all day while I was at work. I gave confining to kitchen area my best shot. When he's older I wouldn't be so hesitant to crate all day. By the time I leave for work & return its about 9 hours. So far my daughters have taken turns either keeping him for me or going to check on him. But we all know how kids can be & can I depend on them for a couple more months, I don't know! Is that too long to leave him crated? I work with several people who have Yorkies that say theirs do fine!
I also am pad training him, which he is doing awesome with! You probably might not agree with this, but he sleeps with me every night. He sleeps right next to me ALL night. When we get up I put him on his pad & he goes! He's a very good pup, minus the anxiety when left alone!

Thank you !

We never had our pups in bed with us all night long. Only for about an hour and then they went into their cage that was set up right beside my bed. Its easier to here them if they need out during the night. But if that works for you than do it. You must be very very careful not to let them jump off your bed. They can be hurt or even break an leg.

I really hope that the kids continue to help you out until your little one is fully potty/pad trained. It wont be easy training a pup when there is noone there to train them. Nine hours is a long time to be left alone unsupervised. Plus it takes a good 6-9 months before he will be fully trained and can be trusted to be left alone and have free roam of you home. If you do decide to cage train him that would mean no food or water for nine hours that he is in his cage and thats not good. At his age he needs his food to prevent against Hypoglycemic Shock.

You may want to consider a cage inside of an x-pen set up jsut to get him use to it. Try cageing him on short trips to the market and reward him for good behavioir when you get home. You could cage him in the am when you leave for work than when your kids come to check in on him, have them feed & water him and put him out to potty/poo. That way he's not in the cage all day without food or water, has had time to relieve himself and can go back into the cage or an x-pen for the remainder of the day. It will allow him access to the pee pads when needed and keep him out of trouble.

You could also try attaching some plexiglass to the gate to eliminate the ripping. Plus he'll be less likely to clime or jump it if the cross bar in on the opposite side.

I think your best chance at getting him trained is having your kids help you while you are at work. Nine hours is a long time with noone to give him the guidance and the training that he needs. I dont mean to sound harsh but, he cant train himself. Your going to have to work extra hard and long with him during the hour and on the weekends that you are home with him if you expect him to know what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

I do hope that you can find some way to confine him that will sooth him and keep him safe while you are working.

I would really like to get him use to the cage on my days & weekends off, then do the x-pen while at work. My problem is if he can climb a 3 ft baby gate, he'll climb out of the x-pen.
To my amazement every time he managed to get over the gate, when I or my daughters came in he was curled up with the cat asleep. Pee'd & poo'd on the potty pads. I have a pad in the LR by the door. I worry most about electrical wires. He's not chewing yet but he will.
I only work 3 days a week so I get to spend alot of time with him on days off. So I work with him a great deal.
I got the cage this afternoon, it's a medium dog size with a divider, so each side is for a smaller dog. I don't return to work til Monday so I am going to spend the weekend getting him accustomed to it. Then next week I just work Mon & Tues so my daughter has agreed to come over at noon when she takes my granddaughter to preschool & let him out for a bit.
With it being in 2 sections can he have food & water in the side he plays & sleeps in, since his potty pads will be in the other side? Or is it still too close in proximity of his "bathroom"?
My daughter has a 4 month old Dachsund that she puts a baby gate in the kitchen door & she does great. It's even a smaller gate then mine, & she has never even tried to get out. So when I finally gave in to getting my Yorkie I had it all planned out to do the same. Nope, I got a Houdini Yorkie! When I got him I never planned to cage him, at least while at work. I use to have a Boston that was crate trained, but at that time I worked 3 minutes from home & would go let her out at lunch time. So when I got Baxter I decided to confine to kitchen so he could move about freely in a safe area, have access to his food & water. I am pad training anyway, he can play with the cat (which they get along great as you can see in my avatar) etc..... Unfortunately he thought other wise.
Thank you for all of your time & advice & reading my huge long posts. I am just in love with this little guy. Hopefully he'll continue to be a good dog, then in a few months this won't be an issue.

I dont mind helping if I can. Plus I can only tell you what worked for me. It may or may not work for everyone. :)

If he has full access to food and water while in his cage than he will pee and poo in his cage. The whole idea of the smaller area for sleeping is that, dogs will not go where they sleep. So by keeping the cage/sleeping area only big enough for him to stand, turn and lay back down is that there is no room for him to wonder off in the cage a go potty and then return to the clean area to sleep.

So if you want to give him full run of the cage with bed on one side and food an pee pad on the other that could work. Depending on how big the cage is. I've never done it that way, so I dont know how that will work. But keep in mind once you start that habit it wont be easy to correct if you change your mind later on.

Anything at this point in order to keep your litle guy safe is worth a try !