Who wants to give me lots of good house breaking advice?
 

House training as in potty training...what are your best tips and tricks? Do you strictly use outside for your dogs, or pads/grass patches inside as well? I am a stay at home mom, so I will have plenty of time to train him once he gets home, just wanting to see what tricks I can learn from the pros :D

My boys use both pads and outdoors. Here is my blog about training tips:

Potty Training Small Dogs - Dog Life and Style

Thanks!

:) Hello! :D

Well, when we brought our Harry home he was a 'bigger boy' (quite huge actually!!! :D) and we decided to only outdoor train him as he's a 'leg-lifter', too.

So we took him outside after all the trigger-times (on waking, after eating, after drinking, when he started to 'circle' etc.) or every hour or so during the day if none of that was happening! :)

While he was actually going we would say "GOOD wee-wee" or "GOOD poo-poo" and then throw a little party after he'd done a victory circuit of our back garden.....:D. Harry got the hang of it soooo quickly, and was totally clean within 2 weeks....

It'll help that you're a stay at home mummy - and I wish you the very, very best of luck with your new little boy :)

Thank you for your reply. That's pretty much what I did with my bigger dogs when I had them...hopefully Sheldon will respond well :)

Macaroni goes outside all the time. When he was learning I took him out every 10 to 15 min, I praised him and gave him treat. It takes time and patience but in end you will be rewarded. Macaroni goes to door when he needs to go, good luck.

If I were you, I'd skip the pee pads and train him for outdoors only. We do pee pads, and I regret it a ton. Here are some helpful threads:

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...ms-solved.html

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...info-pics.html

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/gen...ebreaking.html

I know that outdoor only is the best bet, but I'm also on a second floor apartment...so that's the only reason training both, I guess.

if you want to train a dog to potty outside, my best advise is to use a bell, I hung a ribbon off the doorknob with jingle bells at the end of it. ring it before you take him out to go say the words like Sheldon go potty, go potty. after about three days of you ringing the bell start gently bringing your pups paw or nose to the bell, after a week or two he will start to ring it on his own, also use the same door for going potty. Then treat on the spot if he goes. I also use both words peeps and poop and my Lola knows the difference, she pees first thing in the morning but poops mid day so often when she poops she wants back inside, and I say Lola go peeps, go peeps and sure enough she turns around and pee's. I also keep her on a retractable leash and stand in one spot and don't allow her to walk around forever. I don't want to be one of those people that are being lead around their whole yard for 15 min plus while their dog is looking for the perfect spot to wet.

I really like the bell because I know when Lola needs to go out. My nephew is visiting with his 11 month old dog and while she is pretty much house broken they have no idea when she has to go out, so they are constantly taking her out and walking all over the yard on the off chance she has to go. Not every dog just automatically figures out a way to tell their owner when they need to go out. They also don't want to treat her after she goes which I think is a mistake. By treating Lola I think she does her business faster because she can not wait to get back inside and get her treat. When she was being training I gave her the treat on the spot outside, but now we just wait till we come in, and LOL I can never forget because she heads to the area in the kitchen where they are kept and just keeps starting up at the cupboard

I love, love, love this idea. So simple, yet never occurred to me. I will try...training the three kids to leave the bell alone might be more difficult though. Lol.

one more thing, knowing the words like go potty, and the difference for pee and poop are really helpful. It makes our life easier especially if I am in a hurry and I have to go out and she has not rung the bell yet. When we get the leash and harness on that I keep by the door, and head out with me saying go potty I swear she goes on command the same as if I were telling her to sit or stay. I am glad Lola is housebroken, my last male used paper and was never 100% housebroken, still would once in a while pee on a rug or mat, and no matter how much time I spent wiping up and sanitizing it always smelled a bit, but I realize that sometimes because of where you live or work schedules pad training is a necessity

too funny, also it seems like all pups go through a stage of ringing the bell to get a treat or just go outside. After a month or so Lola started ringing the bell for the heck of it, knowing she had just gone I would ignore her and pull the bell up out of reach. I would set the kitchen timer for about an hour or two so I would not forget to put it back down. Once she realized I was wise to this she stopped ringing the bell for the heck of it. I think because when we go out it is strictly business she only rings it when she has to go.

I also think it is important even if you have a fenced in area to take your dog via a leash to potty for several reasons. First you have control and will know what and when your dog went. if you have a large yard you can not always see what they did. Also if you are somewhere where there is not a fence and your dog is only use to going off leash they will not always go when leashed. My sister's dog is a great example of this, she has a large yard, the dog goes out and she has no clue if it peed or pooped, then we have to leave so she has not idea if the dog will have to go when she is out, so she also has pee pads down, which the dog sometimes uses or sometimes does not she will just go on a throw rug. She can not bring the dog to my house or other places without a fence because the dog refuses to go on a leash. We were in NYC once for two nights and her dog did not pee for over 24 hours because she would not go while on a leash.

If your training both ways only train one way at a time or youll confuse her. I found it easier to indoor train first

Will do. I've only had experience housebreaking large breeds. Mostly Boxers, Pits, and Mastiffs through rescue so inside training was never really an option. Thanks for your thoughts.

If youve never dealt with a yorkie with housetraining I can tell you it will take all of your patience. Yorkies are super stubborn with house training and some people never get their yorkie fully house trained. The younger you start the better off you are