Puppy's First Day Home
 

I got my little girl today. YAY! She's really affectionate, loves naps, and is an extremely calm puppy (compared to her brother and sister anyways lol). I've been preparing for weeks and I think everything went well besides potty training and her crate. She had an accident and next time I was able to put her on the puppy pad and praised her. Then she took it upon herself to get on the puppy pad and use the bathroom all by herself. At this point I was thinking she picked it up and adjusted really fast buuut then she had another accident. :(:cry: I've never used puppy pads before and thought the process would be a lot better/easier (having to go 5 ft vs running the puppy all the way outside),but I guess not.

With her crate she has no problem being in it with the door opened, she laid/slept in it with the door open most of the day, however, once I closed the door she had a fit. I only close the door when she doesn't go potty and it has been a while since she last used the bathroom. After she whined for a bit I opened the door, picked up her, and took her directly to the puppy pad (I was afraid she was whining because she had to go potty). I gave her about 5 mins to go and then when she didn't do anything, I put her back in her crate and closed the door. I'm not sure if that was the correct thing to do. I don't want to reward her whining by letting her out, but I also need her to learn to let me know when she needs to go potty.

We are going to the vet tomorrow to get her checked out and hopefully I can find a good puppy training class. But in the mean time any potty training tips or general 'what I know now that I wish I knew then' advise would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to YorkieTalk and congratulations on your new yorkie baby. How old is she? We will be looking forward to seeing pictures of her. Potty training takes time. My personal feelings is that it is best to keep them in a x-pen or confined to a smaller area while potty training. You could put her crate in an x-pen along with her food and water and her pee pads. This way when you are gone or busy around the house and unable to watch her she will still have more freedom and she will be much happier.

Thank you! She'll be 8 weeks on Wed. She has a x-pen that connects to her crate. The accidents were in the x-pen. I put a tarp underneath the blankets to make sure it wouldn't get on the carpet if she had an accident. It's not so much the accident, since all I have to do is wash the blanket, it's that I'm not sure is she is understanding of where I want her to go.

When I start potting training my pups I usually have the whole floor of the x-pen covered with pee pads so they get use to using them. As they get older I start removing some of the pads and I enlarge their play area. One thing about puppies is that when they are in a pen they like to run up to the front of the pen close to where they are picked up. For that reason I always put their pads at the far end of the pen.

It sounds like she is a good puppy. Good luck with your vet visit. Let us know how it goes.

Welcome to YT and congrats on your new baby.

Potty training is a process and she is still very young. Just be consistent and positive and she will get it! I thought about pad training when I got Lexi b/c I thought it would be more convenient, but went with outside training instead and I'm glad I did. I got Lexi at 13 weeks and she was training in a week. I know Lexi loves to sniff around to find the perfect spot and it's a lot easier to do that outside where she has lots of room to sniff around. Also, You can stay outside and let her walk around for a while until she pees and poop and give a treat and praise right when she goes, but with the pee pads you can't really hold her there until she goes. Just my opinion that outside is easier, but I know there are a lot of people on here that use pee pads with success. Come winter time, I'm probably going to wish Lexi was pad trained!

Welcome to YT...your new baby sounds adorable and smart too! I bet she will continue to pick up on potty training quickly. Have you read the Potty Training threads/e-books/stickies in our General Training Section? If not, I highly recommend it.

As far as the crate, none of my lovebugs would tolerate a closed crate - it really made them out of their minds, so I didn't/don't believe in crating when it causes such stress, it's too much for them in my mind, and it's also not necessary...so I never continued w/ a closed crate school of thought. Some dogs love their crates though.

What she said!!! This is exactly how mine were pad trained. BTW, be patient, it may take a little while before she gets it exactly right every time. :)

She would rip up all the puppy pads if I did that. The only thing stopping her from ripping up the 1 I have now is that it's secured by the pad holder. I just made her x-pen smaller, by almost half, to give her less options to choose from. Hopefully that works.

Thank you!!

I don't use disposable puppy pads for that reason, mine would tear them up. I use washable potty pads. Hopefully your baby will catch on soon.

Ugodog
 

I have a thought. I use a container for my Joey to potty in that is called UGODOG. It is a heavy duty plastic container that you can put papers or the disposable puppy pads in and then on top of that there are two grids the dog stands on to go potty. The pee goes down the holes into the container and the poo stays on top. I say this because you said you were having to secure her pads with the pad holder. I like it better than the ones they sell with the artificial grass they stand on. I use newspaper and change it out daily and wash the container and grids out with disinfectant wipes. Just food for thought if it could be a help. Hope that it gets better soon enough. It is hard to housebreak I know. Best wishes to you and your little one.

That's what I have. You can put the pad underneath the grid or secure it on top. She's doesn't like the way the grid feels yet so I'm going to eventually make the pad smaller and smaller until there's no pad left. But for now I'm just working on trying to get her to use it consistently.

Since their whole x-pen is covered with the pads, do you try to direct them to a specific spot on the pads or are they allowed to go wherever they want? I'm willing to give anything a try. I just need to know specifics so I don't mess it up.

I wish I could leave the crate open all the time, but most of her accidents happen after naps. She'll wake up, pee wherever she feels like, then bark/whine/howl to let me know she's awake. With the door closed, she has to let me know she's awake first and then I can direct her to the pad.

That is nice that you have it as well. Hope she will eventually not be bothered by the grid. She must be real sensitive as they are close together and look smooth to me. My Joey is a real little guy full grown at 3.5 lbs but he never took a dislike to it. I had looked at others and even bought the one with the grass but it was too small even for him. This one gives him more room to walk around if he wants. I sure like it especially since he does not have to go out in the weather to potty. All the best to you in your potty success.

I want to try this. Is there any particular kind of reuseable pads that you use or will any reuseable pads be ok? Also, do you try to direct them to a particular spot in their x-pen or do you just let them potty where they want?

I buy mine from this website: Used Waterproof Pads

I buy the reclaimed pads and they are clean and look good. I buy item number 222-2732. They are $4.95 each for the 30" x 32" size. I wash 6 at a time in a large capacity washer. I have been using them for years.

If you have your girl in an x-pen then put the pads at the far end away from where you pick her up and let her out. You might have to experiment at first.

There are other places where you can order more colorful, prettier potty pads but they cost a lot more. I like the white because you can tell when it is soiled and if there are any spots of blood like when a female is in heat.

Hi Coco,

My little one is only pad trained. I have had great success with it. I had the disposable pads on the floor in his pen but what I bought was this pad holder and it comes in 2 pieces. I only used 1/2 of the pad holder and had to cut the pads in half to attach to 1/2 of the pad holder. I hope I'm explaining this correctly. In his pen I have his bed, food dishes, toys and this pad holder. He mainly used the pad holder to go potty on. Now when he is in his pen which isn't often he won't even potty in there. He waits until I take him out of his pen and then goes potty on the pad in the family room. Go figure. It takes a lot of patience, consistency and time for them to be trained. He is still very young but he will get it. I still praise mine every time I see him using his pad and he still comes looking for the pets and kisses when I praise him. Below is a picture of the pad holder I am talking about. I hope this helps.
http://d1rgby1m7uuvjr.cloudfront.net...7127802$SS172$

This is what I have Amazon (Rascal Dog Litter Box). I started putting the puppy pad under the grated part because she would only pee on the pad but somany times and then would start peeing next to the pad holder. I thought maybe she just didn’t like getting her paws wet. But that didn’t work either. Idk if she’s counting or what but even with her not having the touch the wet pad she'll still only use it a certain amount of times. She'll get on it sniff it and thenhop off and pee right next to it. It was an expensive pad holder so I had hopedit would have worked better. I think I'm going to give reusable pads a try.*sigh*

Just jumping in here with a question to those out there who use both Puppy Pads and have the dog go outside to take care of business. Since I will be doing the 'puppy' thing this fall :) . Do you focus on mastering one (in or out) at a time or both? I would like to have the pup learn both.

That's a nice one! I have reusable pads too but I haven't switched to those yet. I have lots of disposable pads left. I figure when I run out of those I can switch over. Remy used to pee outside of the pad in the beginning or he would pee on the pad and then the next time pee right by it. It just takes time for them to be consistent. Also, your little one is still young. He will get it eventually. Just when he uses it praises him big time. I clap, and say good boy multiple times. He gets so excited because he knows I'm happy with him. He is not much of a treat dog, so I found me acting like a fool works for him. lol ;)

I wish I could be of more help, but im still working on trying to get her to use the pads. Congrats on your soon to be pup!

She use to not be much of a treat dog herself until I found her some treats she really loves. Now when I pick up the bag she barks and whines at me because I'm not opening the bag fast enough for her liking lol

Thank you so much! These are way better priced than the ones in the stores.

I wish mine liked treats. He is so picky but he goes crazy for carrots. I use those for his treats now. I figure whatever works for me and him. :) What treats does yours like?

She goes crazy for nature's varietys intstinct raw boost. She really likes nylabone nutrident (i normally give her one after we do her daily grooming routine) and simply nourish freeze dried beef liver.

Sheldon still has an occasional accident, but has been doing fine training on both pads and outside at the same time. He was on pads at the breeders, so I use washable ones here, but he kind of just naturally goes outside when I take him out. He is eleven weeks old today.

Thanks for the info. I will have to try some and see if he likes it. Such a picky boy!

Thanks Bobby. I am not getting him until October but I am trying to get ready. I picked up some washable pads. I would prefer him to go out but when my last guy got old I'd wished that he would go on the Pads which he didn't really catch on to. So I'd like this option.